The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1899-01-20
FROM MANILA! H BAY,
John Cushing Writes Entertainingly
of His Pacific Voyage.
UNDER DEwEY's GUNS.

Sighting Volcano, A Novel Way Of Washing, |
Spanish Wrecks Line the Harbor.
Thirty Days ON the Water.
MANILA HARBoR. 7. L.
December Z, 1898.
DEAR Folks AT HOME:
Today our long journey came to an
end. and will write you asletter this
evening SO as to get it off at the earliest
opportunity. The mail leaves here
every three days, but often lays over in
Hong Kong ten days, but never any
longer, SO l think mail must go every
two weeks. We made our trip in "a
days, 80 on the water. The ship is now
lying at anchor, it will probably be four
days before we can land. There are no
docks here and we will have to go
ashore in ferries, but there are no bar
racks prepared for us and we will have
to wait. There are seven or eight
transports lying in the harbor unload
ng. Seven of them have the troops all
on board yet.
We were glad to hear the news that
the affairs were settled up with Spain,
and that the U s. was to hold the is
lands. But we may see some scrapping
yet. Aguinaldo has sent word that if
the Americans do not evacuate the
islands by December Is he will put
them off. Well guess we will stay. as
long as Spain has coded the sovereignty
and We have paid So0,O0O,OOO for the i'm
provements here. They say the only
trouble with Aguinaldo is that he did
not get any money out of the deal.
Three or four fellows from regiments
here came on board to see friends.
They were full of talk about things
here, but we will only be too glad to get
OH shore and have room to turn around.
These quarters are small enough. and
SO hot that we can't sleep in them. We
all sleep on deck or in the steerage
ways on the floor. We only had three
or four stormy days altogether, and the
China Sea, which they say is apt to be
so rough. wascas smooth sailing as any
we had.
The natives came out with fruit in
their canoes to sell, but the officers soon
drove them away, as fruit is the worst
thing we could eat here. It was the
cause of nearly all the dysentery which
so affected the other regiments. ate
an orange. The peels are very thin,
and the sections will all fall apart.
There is very little taste to the oranges
as they are sweet and pithy. The ban
anas were small and green and did not
look fit to eat.
We can't see much of Manila from
here. 1t is about two miles to shore.
We can see the white tops of the build
ings and the capitol. On the other
side of the bay is Cavite, and near it is
the American fleet. We could see sew
eral of the sunken Spanish ships in the
harbor as we came in this morning.
The sun is hotter than the dickens
and will blister fellow in a little
while, but in the shade it is quite cool.
| guess we won't need much clothing
though. We have gone barefoot all the
time on the boat. and wore only our
hats, shirts and brown pants. We took
a bath nearly every day when it was
not stormy. The shower baths were
fixed so that we could take bath
whenever we wanted to. The boys
would all strip off and line up and have
a great time under the water.
They have a novel way of washing on
the boat. All that is necessary is 30
feet of rope. You tie your clothes on
one end, and then thrown that end
|soverboard, and tie the other end of the
rope to the taffrail. In twenty minutes
or an hour your clothes will be clean if
they are not all worn out. Several of
the boys who washed their shirts wore
the sleeves clear off by leaving them in
to long.
We were practically Off the earth for
five weeks. and of course conldn't get
any news during that time. think we
have some letters on the two trans
ports which left after us and got in last
night. There was three weeks from
Honolulu here that we never saw land
Except small coral island and vol
cano. This was the northernmost of
the Ladroue islands. There was no
land, only the volcano. 1t must have
been one half or three quarters of a
mile wide and about half as high, The
smoke was pouring out of the top, but
we couldn't see any fire. We passed
within five or six miles. 1t looked quite
strange to see this smokestack rising
out of the water.
Well I stopped writing, hearing that
the mail had been brought aboard. /
got three letters. One from you, Aunt
Helen, one from Mollie and one from a
friend in Boone. also got a package
of five handkerchiefs from Mollie and
four Denison REVIEWS. Well it took
me long time to go through so much