The Newtown bee., 1900-06-22
TEN PAGES.
Litchfield County.
WASHINGTON.

It nhS Deeu ben uhys BlnC6 | WEutS AaSt, l and as I am on guard to-day, have plen' ty of time Co write. The day after I wrote last, Capt French went to Bogo, 8 town about 30 miles up the coast, with 50 men. The rest of us, who staid be- hind, had our hands full. went on out post the same morning on hill with no shelter from the sun, and It was the hot test time l ever struck. AS soon as we were relieved from outpost, we heard volley firing in the mountains south of us; so I took a squad of men, and went to Catmori, town south of us. It was stop. We had 8 hospital steward with us and we played him out marching. He had often said that he could march as fast as anyone, so we tried him, and found him wanting. When we reached Catmori, we heard no more firing, and could get nothing out of the natives, so returned to camp. In the afternoon the boat came in from B2go, with eight of our men who had been overcome by the
 heat, and had to be sent back by boat.
 The next day the rest of the detachment
 under Capt French returned, and they
 looked pretty tired. Monday morning
 another detachment went out under Lieut.
 Campbell. We left camp at 4.30 8. m.,
 and marched to Catmori and then struck
 into the hills. The sun was terrible, and
 before we had gone mile we had 15 men fall out. One mountain we had to go
 over, was so narrow on the top that
 step either to the right or left would
 have tumbled us down about 300 feet. At
 one place In the trail we had to climb
 over lot of loose rocks, and they would
 roll out from under our feet, and go
 down the hill flying. One big rock
 struck hut oD the side hill and went right through it. Several natives came
 running out, and started to howl. They
 were more scared than hurt, though, but
 they will have to build new hut. We
 kept on until about noon, when we stop ped in 8 Tavine for dinner. About 30
 p. m. we started out again, and marched
 all the afternoon until in the evening,
 without drop of water. We marched
 up one mountain and down another, and
 over some of the toughest trails I ever
 saw. Some of the men had some pretty close calls from falling over cl'ffs. Oae
 of the men nearly fell over cliff about 400 feet high, and the only thing that
 saved him was his gun, which wedged
 in the rocks, and he had sense enough to
 hold on to it. It finally became so dark
 that at times we had to get down on our
 knees to find the trail. 1 was on the ad-
 vance guard all day, and had my hands
 full. We finally ran across native, and
 made him guide us to water. He started
 out and led us down a ravine, and a
 wilder place l WAS never in. We finally
 crRwled down into hole and found wa.
 ter running out of the ground. It was country. We all filled our canteens, and
 then followed the brook down, and final 1 ly came to a cleared place just large enough to camp in. We got very little sleep, as there were several large snakes
 seen running around, and tbe woods
 were filled with monkeys and parrots.
 The next morning we started out at 5 o'clock, and followed the brook down. A short distance from where we started the brook disappeared, and came to the l surface about three miles below. We kept to the brook, and finally came out camp. We marched in on the coast, reaching camp about dinner time. I got letter from one of the boys who is work ing in the Custom House at Iloilo, and he sent me few revenue stamps which enclose for WilIie's collection. Also two China passes. We have been expect ing boat in for several days from Cebu, and 1t will probably bring us mail. | hope so, as we haven't had any mail | since March 23.
 Camp Sogod, Cebu, P. l., April g, 1900. |
 Sunday morning, and as I have noth- | ing to do to-day, thought I would write. ! Last Sunday was Easter Sunday, and the | natives had big celebra tion in Catmori, l the town below us. A party of us went | down to zee them. There was an immense | crowd there; people from the neighbor. ing towns, and from the mountains. We saw several insurgent officers in the | crowd, but left them alone, as we had | orders not to interfere with them, on &C., count of it's being universal holiday. Along the main street the natives had built 12 booths, and In each booth was 8 picture. They represented 12 scenes of l Christ, from the time he was tried, until he died on the cross. The week before Easter, every day, the street was crowd ed with natives, praying before these booths. We went into the church, and had to stand up,as they had no seats, ,and the natives were all on their knees. It reminded me of the time when we went to church in Porto Rico, carrying our guns. It wouldn't be safe to go half & mile from camp without our guns. And there were enough insurgents in the crowd to have made it interesting for us if we hadn't been armed. Last week we were visited by swarm of grasshoppers. The air was black with them. They set- led In the trees about 100 yards in the ear of the camp, and every minute we ,ould hear the limbs breaking under their weight. For two or three miles the air vas black with them. Several of us went ID to get bearer view of them, and be- ore we knew 1t we were right into them. They were so thick that we couldn't see
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