Richmond daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1876-1904, 1900-02-28
PHILIPPINE LETTER.
News From the Richmond Boys
In the Thirty First Regiment
No Fighting Going on
Pen Picture of Life in the
Philippines.
Correspondence of the Richmond Palladium:
Cora BATo, Mindinao, Is, p. L.

correspondence or the kichmond Palladium.
Cora BATo, Mindinao, Is, p. l.
January 20, 1900.
1t may interest the readers of this
paper 10 again hear from the 31st
regiment after so long a time, lot
having written since we were on
Angel Island, Cal. We are about
700 miles south of Manila on the
Island of Mindinao. Our headauar-
tiers are at Zamboanga, the main
town on the island. Companies A,
B, c and half of d are there. The
other half of ID company is at Isabella
and companies F, G and H are at
Gotta Bato. This place is $50 miles
across the bay from Zamboanga and
five miles up the Rio Grande river.
1t is not much of a place. Ia fact
there are no towns of any size on the
island. All of the stores are con-
trolled by Chinese and the boys do
hate them. They will cheat a soldier
out of every cent they can At Fam
boanga the natives run a market of
their own and such a place as it is.
They sell bananas, cocoanuts, roasted
corn, rice. and at their butcher shop,
which was out in the middle of the
street before the Americans cleaned
up the town, they sold m.and fish
which they cut up on dry ana edlrt,
flies and ants all togeare eonsta.paon-
ey used here is Spanish, d,
Chinese and English. A dollar in
their money is only worth 80 cents
American money and only 40 cents
at the postoffice. We can buy TWEEN
ty bananas for five cents American
money. CocOanuts are i cen apiece,
American, and everything accord
ing. At c, a Bato it is about the
same, only cocoanuts are higher ano
other stuff is higher. All of the
cloth and store supplies come from
Singapore, Sydney, China, and a lit
tie from England and America.
have not seen anything from Amer
lea, only just a few trinkets the Chi
nese have.
The Rio Grande river is full O
crocodiles, and the country is full o
mosquitoes and bugs, lizards, cent?
pedes, ants and bats. There is {
large hill just back of the tow
which is full of caves, and the writer
and a few comrades found, it SCENE,
to us, no less than half a million bat.
III thto 1aN tLdb VIC ihNpNSSCbs
There are two classes of native.
here-the Moros, who are warlike
and go armed all the time, and tn,
Filipinos, who are Christians and ar,
peaceful. The Moros have theil
teeth BACKED and the Christian:
have their teeth white. Some Of The
natives are very superStitious and
have seen many gates with a feather
tied up over the gate to keep the
devil out, so they think. Some O
the boys have taken excursions in
land, and the natives very
much frightened at seeing white mer
: among them. We were out about
four miles from camp one Sunday
and the natives seemed very wicked
and wanted to know where our guns
and knives were.
We have a nice place to say, be.
ing in the Spanish barracks. They
would not be thought fit for arf.hady
= 4-.--ss, out nothing is medeC
here but a cover and a floor In of
the ground. There are large WIN
dows in the sides which can bt closed
up in the rainy season. THERE'S one
objection here, and that is water. Al
Zamboaga there is a small creek
that runs through the town frym the
mountains. Hundreds of rtives
live along its banks and bdore il
gets to this town it is very impure.
All the water has to be boied and
then filtered. 1t is much better
though than the water at Gotta
Bato. The river water is used, and
at high tide all the dirt, trash and
t.af,rCa an1la,tr o~l a~. ,,J
down the stream when the water has
to be used. 1t is all filtered here,
but it don't seem like it helps it
much.
The river is very deep here and a
small patrol boat and Chinese mer-
chants boats can run mp here at high
tide. The patrol boat also ran forty
miles farther up the river a few days
ago on a scout.
The 31st regiment is scattered over
the island and no fighting is going
on and o is looked for, so we are
not doing anything but having dress
parades at headquarters and gar
risoning points about the island.
The Richmond boys are scattered
about with their companies all
over the island aud were well when
last seen.
They are very anxious to get pa
pers, although old when we receive
them, We read everything, even to
the advertisements.
The boys in companies |, X, L,
and NJ had a hard trip on the trans,
port Manunese from San Francisco
to Manila, which / suppose all have
heard about.
The rest of the regiment on the
City of Pekin bad a very nice TRIP
only the delay in keeping along with
the Manunese.
Well, l will write some other time
if | find any thing to write about.
All mail can be sent to Zamboanga
or will be received all right if sent to
Manila.
CLAUDE DURBIN.
Co. @, 31st Z. S. V.