Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1900-12-27
WILL HA1ILTON'S LETTER.
Writes of the Strange Things in Our
rlost Remote Possessions.
Bongao. P. l., Oct. IS, 1900.

AoNN' &'f cNs' - "'NN'
j. W. b. Cole.
Dear friend. Your welcome letter,of
August 3rd was received few days
ago, but have not had time to answer.
l am company librarian now and we
have received lot of new books and
magazines on the last boat, also several
games from the American book com
pany and l have to keep a roster of all
the books and things in the library.
We are still at Bongao but they intend
relieving us about the first of the
month, but do not know where We
will go from here. General Ewell has
made a request to General Macarthur
to have us sent to Manila and General
Hobby has made request to have us
sent to Zamboango on the Mindanav
island. 1t depends on who has the best
pull with Gen. Macarthur where we will
go but more than likely we will go to
Manila as Gen. Macarthur wants us
there himself.
We did not have boat for thirty
seven days but it has brought lots of
commisary supplies,so we are living fat
now. We lived pretty tough the last
thirty days for We run out of every
thing and had to go over to Sahdackin
on the Borneo island and buy provision.
The reason we did not get boat sooner
was that all the transports went direct
to China. We received sixty.:days' ra-
tions this time. The potatoes were all
wrapped in papers the same as oranges
and they were in fine condition. The
boat that brought down the supplies
from Manila struck a storm and had
10 throw part Of its cargo overheard to
keep it from sinking 1t threw over
board an ice plant for Zambongo and
several thousand feet of piping. The
government is going to put in an ice
plant here right away. We are putting
up telephone system now. There is
a fine ice plant at Jolo and we had ice
water all the time when we were there,
rnless they would run tout of ammonia
before boat would get in. The gov
eminent is building up here as fast as
they can and making everything as con-
venient as possible and are going to
establish this as regular army post.
This is q very much out of the way
place but troops have to be kept here to
keep foreign nations of this group.
We are 1875 miles to the southwest from
Jolo, about three degrees from the
equator. We are on the most southern
islands in the Philippine group and We
have plenty of wind. The mosquitoes
were something terrible when we first
came down but now there is hardly
one. The rats are bad though for
sometimes they get into the hunks
with the boys and take bite. They
have never bothered me yet. There
are lots of centipedes over here but
their bite is not dangerous. We have
house Lizards by the wholesale. There
is one in our shack that is so tame that
when we stick our hand out he will
crawl into it--he is as fat as butter
ball and free to go and come as he
pleases. We never think of hurting
one though they will get INTO our can
ned goods if we are not careful.
Butter is cheap over here, costing
only $1.20 q pound gold and comes
from England. Highland brand evapo-
rated cream is 12c pint at the COM
missary which is supposed to be what
it costs the government to lay it down
here.
There is one thing do not think the
government is doing right and that is,
| il we do not draw all our clothing al
lowance we lose it and if we overdraw
they take it out of our pay. A person
can hardly draw it out over here and
wear it out. Until recently if an en-
listed man did not draw all of his
clothing allowance he received the bal
ance in money when he received his
finals. The boys do not like it very
well especially the old soldiers for
when they are in the states they have
their blue uniforms tailor made so they
will have perfect fit, but now they
will have to wear government issue
which they call ROCKIES uniform.
| believe l receive all papers you
send me and l appreciate your kind
ness as papers are scarce over here and
| hope | may return the favar some
day. received five REPUBLICANS and
twelve papers from you on this boat.
There were five sacks of mail for the
company.
We would have liked to go to China
as they kept us in readiness all the
time. Second Lieutenant Kent's wife
joined him on this boat so now we
have a white woman in Bongao. First
Lieutenant Boyden, formerly of this
company, has Transcend TO G company
land First Lieutenant Bonnyeastle takes