Mexico Missouri message., 1901-07-18
RETURNED SOLDIER.
The Situation In the Philip
pine Islands.

! nlpni ulrecI lFOlll INC HilipplhV
Islands. He was a corporal i'll the
famous 10th regiment, which saw
hard service in Luzon, and which
subjugated the island of Mindanao.
In speaking of his experience and
the present conditions i'll the is
lands, he said to the Globe Demo-
crat correspondent:
My regiment consisted of 1872
men when it left Sanfrancisco, and
only 9O7 remained to be mustered
out. We were in scores of engage
ments and skirmishes, and the fact
that any of us escaped was due to
the poor Workmanship of the Fill
ipinos. They had us badly out
numbered and were too nervy to
know when they were beaten, but
the Americans had such contempt
for their craftsmanship that they
would expose themselves to their
fire without the least fear of being
hit. 1t was no uncommon thing
for fifty American soldiers to at
tack ten times that number of the
enemy and put them to flight. As
general thing the Filipinos were
poorly armed. Many of them had
Mauser rifles captured or bought
from the Spaniards, but more OF
them were armed with guns of an
cient make, while whole companies
of them depended upon bows and
arrows, spears and bolos. When
we first took the field we thought
they We're plentifully supplied with
artillery. We could see cannon
mounted upon their defenses and
peeping over their earthworks, but
soon discovered that they were
dummies made of bamboo. They
could not be discharged of course,
but they We're relied upon to make
us afraid to charge the defcnses.
THE same tactics were used i'll
all their numerous night attacks
upon our quarters. Their ritiemen
would rush in from the south and
west, while the bOlOmen would
come from the other two sides
Their plan seemed to be to keep
our men facing the rifle attack
while the bolomen crept up behind
: to use their murderous weapons
The bolo is longer than Il corn
knife, both edges made zigzag
2 like a bread knife, with the edges
as sharp as razor. We dreaded
them more than the bullets, and
never allowed them to get to clost
e quarters with them. Any number
5 of soldiers who had gone outside
' the camp limits, however, were
overpOwered and literally cut to
: pieces with these long knives.
MY regiment was part of the
command under General Bates
which was sent to subjugate the
island of Mindanao. We effected
a landing in February, after she'll
!. ing the leading port, and marched
twenty miles into the interior
where We established a camp. The
very first night we were called out
to repulse a sharp attack. Two
natives were killed while attempt.
ing to climb upon porch on
which our officers were sleeping
On one of them was found n letter
to his sweetheart telling her Of the
intended attack and predicting
that he would lose his life. He
was discovered Just in time to save
an officer from his keen knife. To
kill an officer was the height of
their ambition. and they would
take any risk in the attempt
"Mindanao is GOO miles south of
Manila. Next to LuzOn, it is the
largest island in the group. 1t is
one of the richest spots on earth,
producing ebony, mahogany and
many other valuable timbers. Its
valleys yield immense crops of
rice and tobacco and hemp, and its
streams are full of fine fish. The
natives are far below those of Lu-
zon in intelligence and are quite
barbaric in many of their customs.
They live almost exclusively on
rice and fish. The fish goes direct
from the river to the stomach, the
native simply biting its head off
and devouring it raw. For some
unaccountable reason sufficient
troops We're not sent to subjugate
the interior of the island, the
Americans combining themselves to