The Portland daily press., 1898-09-29
On board u. S. S. Monterey.

boJnbardment of Manila.
On board u. S. S. Monterey.
At sea, IS July, 1885,
1t will be weeks before I can mail this,
but might as well write a little now. if
only to help kill time, for this voyage
seems interminable.
1t was Wednesday, the Goth of June,
that we left Honolulu harbor, at 1.30 p.
m. We steamed away brayely, the Bru.
tus limping along behind, but when a
few miles out. the latter signaled that her
safety valve was out of order. After a
deal OF wigwagging, both ships turned
and went lack towards Honolulu. The
Brutus and ourselves came to anchor
outside the harbor where our only com.
panions were sharks. Here we remained
until Friday evening, when at 7.45 we
finally got away and this time for good.
no shore leave was given. The day we
sailed Consul General Hayward came
aboard. I gave him my letter of intro
duction, and he was most gracious.
The next event of any Importance oc-
CURED on July 4th.
At noon we fired 81 guns out on the
holiday. In the afternoon the ward room
gave punch to which the Captain
was invited as well as the junior and
warrant officers. The chandelier was
prettily draped with flags and ribbons,
and below it, on the table, large punch
bowl. The officers stood around the room
in their white suits and Mr.. Carl1n pro-
posed the toast ''The day we celebrate"
to which we all drank with great solem-
nifty. The Captain then said, 81 suppose
I may as well tell you all that we are
going to Guam in the Ladrone Islands.
There are four forts there. The Charles
ton IS supposed to have stopped there. as
she left Honolulu under sealed orders.
The second expedition will probably stop
there also. We shall reduce the forts If
necessary, coal, and proceed to Manila"
So the cat Is out of the bag. and we are
going to Guam. No newspapers can learn
of the fact from us till after 1T has oc-
Cured, so he was safe in telling us. We
are due there day after tomorrow, and of
what happens I will doubtless have
abundant time to write. have instruct
ed several of the divisions In the use OF
tourniquets, ETC., DR.. Rogers instructing
others. We have had "generall quarters"
by day and by night. The ship is already
Icing slowly stripped for action, and the
men are being constantly drilled in the
manual of arms and in the handling of
the big guns. have just heard the order
given to make white flag, 'the milk
white flag of truce"
We shall still be long way from Manila
even at Guam, 1909 miles, but if we are
fortunate in meeting neither head winds
nor typhoon, we ought to be there ten
days after leaving Guam. The typhoon
is the most likely enemy to he dreaded,
and we are getting out and fitting tarpau-
Inns to all hatchways. For the greater
part of the way SO far, the wind has been
astern or on our quarter, and the motion
of the ship so slight that i do not suppose
a glass of water even has been spilled on
board from that cause alone. Our griev-
ance therefore is not the ships motion.
1t is heat-and sweat. The nights are
something awful. ! bought Chinese
straw sleeping mat at Honolulu, such as
we saw at the opium joints in Chinatown,
San Francisco. This has proved great
comfort as l sleep on this in my pajamas
without other covering. l retire with
a fan every night, and when ] wake up,
as l am sure to do in few hours soaked
with Precipitation, fan myself dry before
going to sleep again The temperature
below vnries from 80 to 100 degrees r.
20 July, Friday. -Weshad night quarters
again last night, the second time it has
happened since leaving Honolulu. sup
pose you know what night quarters are
The gongs ring throughout the ship and
everyone runs to the station assigned him
in battle We shall go to quarters in
earnest tomorrow morning as we shall
be off Guam at daybrsak.
On July 9th we passed the 1S0th
meridian of longitude, just the other side
of the world from London, and passed
from the West into the East. With this
passage we dropped "a day-Sunday-so
that whereas we went to sleep on Satur-
day night, we awoke on Monday morn
ing Ask Dorothy If that was not long
sleep for her papa to have had. On the
18th inst. we saw sail, the second since
leaving San Francisco. 1t was a gbeauti-
full sight, full-rigged ship bound north,
and mailing from New York.