The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1901-09-05

Pasig about n month before the capture
of Manila. On our return we attempted
to cross the bay to the Cayite Peninsula,
where the small army was stationed, and
our boat was one of those cranky little
dugout bancas, which are only prevented
from turning turtle every few minutes by
their bamboo outriggers.
We had two paddlers for boatmen, the
six making a heavy load and sinking the
banca low in the water. When we were
about a mile from shore the sun dropped
out of sight suddenly, as it does in the
tropics, and night was upon us in an in
slant, and with the darkness came one Of
those sudden tropical storms that amount
almost to a typhoon. We were wet to
the skin in an instant, and the intense
darkness made it impossible to see where
we were going, while We were threatened
with being swamped momentarily.
The wind was blowing directly toward
the shore, and the only thing we could
do to save four valuable lives for the Gov
eminent, with lot of more or less valua-
bic information, to say nothing of the
lives of two worthless boatmen, was to
turn and run before the wind directly for
the shore, trusting to luck not to get
tangled up in one of the numerous bamboo
fish-traps that dotted the shallow water
of the bay.
At last the boat grounded upon what
proved to be a sand island, near the shore,
and from this we waded across the inter
vening water, about shoulder deep, to the
main land. Our boatmen got their bear
ings and said we were near the convent
Of Las Pinas, and undertook to guide us
thither. We started in the utter dark
ness, guided by the voice, through
swampy reaches, until we came to one
of these bamboo bridges Of only two poles,
with a little hand rail on the left side.
Upon this we ventured gingerly, follow
ing the guide and clinging to 1.-The hand
rail, until we came to what proved to be
the middle of the structure, when we were
told by the guide to look out, as the rail
for the remainder of the distance was on
the other side. Finally we got across,
and were piloted TO the convent where we
found Filipino garrison of four soldiers
and as many women and children, and
spent the night in shivering hope for an
early dawn, wet to the skin and nothing
to eat.
In the morning at daybreak we started
to return. When we came to the bridge
we discovered that in the darkness we had
crossed what we found almost impossible
to cross in the light Of day. 1t SPAWNED
a deep gully, into which it would have
been extremely unpleasant to fall, and
where the hand rail changed from one
side TO the other was an end of the bridge
so far as the poles started upon were con-
cerned. If we had neglected to shift over
TO the right upon the new poles we should
have walked off the end into the gully.
With the exact situation before our eyes 1t
took us much longer to cross than it had
IN the darkness the night before. Such is
the Filipino bamboo bridge in its usually
crude form. More pretentiOus bridges are
built with hoorings Of woven bamboo
mating, which are safe enough for ne
destrians and even for hOrsemen if the
horse is not too heavy. As for troops.
they must 90 over them in single file and
not bunch up.
Having worked our way across the San
MateO, we assembled the steep bank again
and the column headed directly across the
broad Maraquina Valley. This is the
finest compact body of valley land | saw
in the Philippines. 1t was practically one
great ricefeid, five or six miles long by
about three wide, with the river on one
side and the abruptly rising mountains on
the other, the head running between two
spurs Of the mountains and the foot rest
ing on the Laguna. 1t was near the
shore of the Laguna that the town of Tay-
tny stood, and 4 portion still stands. and
this was then the headquarters of Pic del
Pillar, the insurgent General then in com
mand of the Laguna region. Pillar was one
of the most active of the insurgent lead
ers, and before his military distinction
came to him he had enjoyed the less dis
tlnction Of being a muchacho, or servant
boy, at the Lala Hotel in Manila The
object Of the present campaign was to
capture him and his fortified garrison Mt
that place.
The plan was for our column to cross
the valley and get into the mountains in