Arizona republican., 1900-11-07
Interesting Story of a Voyage
 10 Manila.
Walter K. Porter Sees Volcano and Helps Raise the Flag on Wake Island His Comment on the Fil- ipinos.

the responsible position of quarter master on a big vessel plying between San Francisco and Manila, has wrl.- ten a long letter to Pho5nix relatives descriptive of his first voyage. The letter is rather in the nature of diary of events and practically covers the month of September. He is paTticu- larly proud of having been a member of the party that placed the second flag of the United States over Wake island. Eliminating personal matters from the lstter, ao reads as follows:
 When you take your trip across the Pacific and your boat touches at Hono- lulu, l won't say to you not to le1va the boat, but honestly this is the las, place I ever want to see again. I had anticipated a pleasant trip in seeing the town, natives and places l had heard so much about, but was disap- pointed in it all. IL may have been be- cause I was homesick, for that I was. and had been ever since l embarked. l had a very pleasant luncheon with Governor and Mrs. Dole and Dr. Grif- fiths, one of the surgeons en route with lre to Manila. They are both very in teresting and entertaining people.
 ''Thsre are a few interesting places to go ptOplc NHlO CdlG lOT SuCH but as I am not one of that kind failed to get enthused- The old palace where Queen Lii reigned, black and fat, is a pretty place. Governor Dole don't use 1t. They have a government build ing that is occupied by him. The hotel is firsg class and took my meals there during our short stay. have pictures of the principal places that you will aninU 10nlrincr Q when I Qat hnrnn one trip know that you would enjoy is a drive about five miles from the town to what is called the Pole The road runs up a little valley, a steady rise, which ends abruptly, and you find yourself looking over a precipice about two thousand feet high straight up and down, and on beyond you see the ocean on the other side of the island. l should judge that it looks very much like our Grand Canyon of the Colorado, though probably not so grand. We stayed part of two days and I was glad when we sailed, though we had been eight days at sea.
 What I did enjoy was our stop at Wake island. It Is small Island about a thousand miles from any other land and was taken for the United States by Commodore Taussig of the U. s. s. Bennington, January 12, 1898. who put up flag at the time. No other party has ever been on the island since that time until we landed our party, September 16, 1900. We took the ladies on the island who were, presume, the only women ever there The fiagpole was still there, but the flag has long since whipped itself out. One of the boys was fortunate enough to find one of the stars, caught in a bush, the only remnant of the first flag raised there for Ghe United States.
 "I got some nice coral specimens which I prize highly and will divide with you when I get home.
 We expect to sight Assumption is land tonight or in the morning. It is one of the Ladrones and has an active volcano. It is the only thing that ex- cites my interest and I do hope to see it in action.
 'I don't believe any one ever crossed the Pacific and had such perfect wealth CT as we have had; so far it has been simply perfect However, we will be in the heart of the Ladrone islands the 21st and that is the home of the ty- phoon and nothing we get there will be surprise. It is awful hot and trop- ical showers that remind one of sud- denly opening flood gate and then closing it just as quick, come without the asking and at night when sleep ing on deck, and I am suddenly awak- ened and grab my bed to find dry quar- ters, I think of Arizona.
 Later: We sighted the volcano Fri day at 1:30 p. m.; at 5:30 We had got within a mile-as near as we dared to go The mountain constitutes the island. It looks to be perfectly round and rises a perfect cone right from the waters edge, nearly all the way around. On the west side is a small cape which is forest of cocoanut and banana trees. The sides of the noun tain are covered with grass or some thing a very rich green, and wild flow CTS, which we could see very plain with glasses. At intervals there are what look to be washes or ravines, running from the eop to bottom and these are filled with lava and black cinders. which make queer looking stripes in odd contrast to the green sides of the mountain. With our usual luck, it was coludy and so dark that we could not get a picture, a great disappointment to all of us.
 ''The crater was slightly active. send
  could only see occasionally on account of the heavy clouds. It would have been a great treat to have landed, but the rough shores prevented. The last record of any one being on the island was TAO. Agrigen is ninety miles south and is a very rich tropical island inhabited and abounding in game and fruit. We all wanted much to go there but not being on a pleasure trip did not think it wise to make any more stops.
 'It is hard to write wh n there is nothing to write. When you go to bed at night on land you see a new coun- try in the morning, but al sea it looks just like you were in the same place and looking at the same faces in none of whom you have any great interest. Every day grows very monotonous, especially to a railroad man. This time next Sunday I will write from