Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1901-10-30
The United States Gov
ernment Report shows
ROYAL Baking Powder to
De stronger, purer and
better than any other.

different from any 1 have seen else
where except in lighthouses. There
is al abundance of tropical fruits of
many curious kinds. None are very
good except the mangoes, bananas,
pineapples and oranges. Mangoes
are yellow and are somewhat like
pawpaws, but are as delicious as
peaches. They grow on large trees,
which have dense foliage of dark
green leaves, and make the most
beautiful of shade trees, but the
natives usually have bananas grow
ing thick about their houses for
shade. The most wonderful and
altogether useful plant is the bamboo.
1t is almost exactly like bushy
cane. but grows as high as sixty feet
and is as much as six inches in
diameter at the bottom. The natives
use it for their houses, fences, tables,
beds, baskets, hats, pitchers, cups,
traps, bows and arrows, sleds, boats,
agricultural implements and nearly
everything else. I have heard very
agreeable music by Filipino band
in which the fife, alto and bass horns,
and every other instrument except
the drum, were made entirely of
bamboo. The young buds make
very good food and can be boiled in
a green joint while using some dry
joints for fuel. A house made of it
and thatched with palm leaves is
very strong and is so light that it
does the natives no harm if shaken
down by an earthquake or blown
down by a typhoon.
These islands are very mountain
GUS and contain eleven active volca-
noes ; consequently earthquakes are
frequent. During the winter not a
drop of rain falls for months; but
during the wet season the rain pours
down every day for months, and
severe typhoons occur. The most
serious objection TO the country is
the malarial and tropical fevers, in
addition to the smallpox, buri-buri,
adobe itch, dysentery and plague.
| have taken every possible precau-
tlon to preserve my health by bath
ing daily with the strongest carbolic
soap, drinking only boiled water,
always breathing through my nose,
taking quinine and avoiding insect
bites and unhealthy localities vet l
have spent nearly month in an army
hospital with fever which at one
time was 30 high it was necessary to
reduce it by putting me in ice water
every few hours for several days.
There is one very fatal form of fever
which is local and those localities
are carefully Stunned by the natives.
Let me tell you what we are doing
here. The area of these islands is not
known to within several thousand
square miles and the maps of the
coasts are unreliable. With the best
OF Instruments and by making the
most careful astronomical observa-
tlons it is possible to determine the
position of any point on the earth's
surface to within about twenty feet
on the ground. Our parties are
fixing such points at intervals along
the coasts and these points are to be
used as the basis for future surveys.
We are also making maps of the
best harbors and publishing them
here for the use Of vessels.
l am trying now to get transporta-
tion home by way of the Suez Canal
to New York and if l do will write
you letter describing that trip.
Your affectionate nephew,
Williams Welch.