The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1899-01-19
A LETTER FROM MANILA.
Mr.. Edwin L. Mitchell Gives for Publica-
:tion a Letter Received From His
Brother.

everything Qnlet, ana nau nne "TRIP
across the wide pond of eight thous-
and miles, but there is nothing of in
terest to mention of the trip, except
we buried one man at sea.
The first land we sighted was eigh-
teen days out from Honolulu, which
was volcanic island, and alive. We
passed close by it about four O'Clock
in the morning. 1t was a fine sight
to see the fire blazing out of the era
ter. 1t was one of the most northern
islands of the Ladrone group.
From there, four days more brought
us in the China Sea, and there we
had quite storm which lasted about
twelve hours. The old ship swelled
and tossed on the sea like rubber
ball, and sometimes a heavy sea would
go clear over her deck and anything
that was lose was washed overheard.
We then sighted the island ofLuzon,
the one on which Manila is, and sail
ed down its western coast to the
mouth Of Manila bay where we began
to see the effect of Dewey's fleet, then
steamed up the bay and anchored be
side cruiser SanShley at eight o'clock
on the % day Of November, after
journey of twenty-eight sailing days
from San Francisco, We were held
on the ship three days before we were
allowed to go ashore, on account of
some sickness we had ON board. We
went ashore on Thanksgiving and
had fine dinner with our regiment,
the end Oregon, who were quite glad
to see us. We had to go ashore on
small boats or Fighters" as they call
them here.
You have read of walled cities be
fore this; we'll this is one of them.
There is a wall all around the old part
of the town, where we are now quar-
tered, forty feet thick and twenty-four
feet high, with old fashioned cannon,
little distance apart, on the top.
There is an old Catholic church right
by our quarters that was built in the
sixteenth century. Everything you
see here is OF very ancient style of
architecture. The people, or natives,
are all small in stature, but very few
are over five feet two or three inches
The streets of this city are very mar
row and dirty. By getting up on the
waD G. the city we can see the wrecks
of the Spanish fleet that Dewey sunk.
We have about fifteen thousandSpan
ish prisoners here to guard, beside po-
Icing the city
The weather here is very warm
The thermometer registers seventy de-
grees now. This is called the cold
season, and the hottest weather is
eighty-one degrees, Fahrenheit. We
have green radishes at every meal and
can get Strawberries whenever we
haye the money to buy them. We
get paid off every two months and
our next pay day will be Jan. 5, 80.
Mosquitoes are the worst things here
to contend with. They are more
troublesome than the Spaniards
When our soldiers came into the city
and took the Spanish as prisoners, our
boys took up their quarters and put
the Spaniards in their own prisons
and churches, and up to this time
have learned to be very tame and sub
NIT very easily. They are beginning
to think the Americans are all right.
The natives flock around our quar-
ters so thick sometimes that we have
to drive them away at the point of
the bayonet. They realize that we
are their protectors. They have no
more education than our American
Indians, but they are natural born
musicians. They only need to heara
piece of music once to be able to play
it. They play all kinds of stringed
know nothing except kicks and cuffs
from the Spaniards.
1t rains here nearly every day. 1t
is raining now about as hard as ever
saw it anywhere, and still this is call
ed the dry season. The wet season
begins about the first of March and
lasts until about the first of June, and
the hot season from June to October.
There are only three seasons here.
There are some of the worst look
ing dungeons here that a white man
ever looked at. | was in one of them
yesterday. 1t had been used by the
Spaniards for prisoners. There was
no light at all when the little door
was closed, and there were a lot of
little holes in the stone floor for the
purpose of letting the water in when
the tide would rise and fill dungeon
and drown the prisoner. There are
hundreds of such places here as the
one just described.
The country in and around Manila
is very low, being only about fourteen
inches above high tide. All kinds of
tropical fruits grow here, also tea and
coffee in abundance, in the interior.