The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1902-06-12
SKETCHES ABOUND MANILA.

and the tanks Of the wall outside
thus protecting it against attack at the
gates. There is not a single yard Of tht
face of the wall that is not swept by CUR
and rife from some other portion. There
are seven gates through the massive
granite inclosure. One opens upon the
river on the north, two give access to the
passed on the west, one leads out to tbs
Luneta and Gale Real on the south, and
three lead to the Bridge of Spain on thu
east, two of them being used by the tram
way, one in entering and one in depart
ing. The gates most used by traffic are
the upper gate in the east and the single
one of the south, and these are defended
by outer systems of walls, in which there
is another gate, the moat lying between
the two walls and crossed by medieval
wbridge originally designed to be
raised and lowered by a windlass contri
vance in the interior gate, entrance to
which is barred at pleasure by extremely
heavy wooden doors with iron bands.
Beyond this outer wall, and running
clear around from the bay to the river,
is low wall as a first line of defense. II
is faced with earth covered with grass
making an unexcelled earthwork, over
whose defenders cannon and troops on the
two rear walls might fire in safety. 1t
is easy to be seen that such defenses
could not be captured by infantry attack
and that it was nothing but the big guns
Of the navy which compelled the surren.
der of Manila.
Mounted upon this wall there were
about POO cannon, nearly all of them
splendid bronze guns of the period of our
Revolutionary War. One has but to
turn to the engravings of those days to
see our forefathers battling with this an
Gent artillery. Each gun was engraved
with the royal arms Of Spain and bore the
date of its manufacture, and nothing is
more expressive of the unprOgressiveness
Of that country than the fact that guns
bearing date 1865 were of the same ma
terial and almost identical pattern of guns
dated 1855. Each gun had been christened
of them, in accordance with Spanish GUS
tom, in nomenclature of all kinds, being
given the name of some saint.
Spain has ever been shining example
Of the church militant. The majority of
these guns were about six-inch caliber, but
there were smaller ones. They were dis
tributed at intervals around the entire
wall, but were more numerous near the
corners and especially at the corner abutt-
ing on the river and fronting on the bay,
where was located Fort Santiago.
Apparently no expectation of using
these guns had been entertained by the
Spaniards for many years, and they were
doubtless left there more to impress the
natives than with any thought of service.
So far as l ever learned there was no
ammunition for them. There were on the
wall a few modern breachloading field
pieces of caliber of about three inches,
and these, with the rifle fire, would have
been rolled upon for repelling any attack,
and they would have been amply sufficient
against anything except heavy ordnance.
AS defense against attack at sea, pro-
vision was made in the outer earthworks.
Near the south end of the wall. and be
tween it and the bay, WAS a heavy earth
fort, or series of them. At one place
was located a splendid Krupp gun of %
centimeters, or about 10 inches caliber,
another being mounted in an earthwork q
thousand yards further south and at the
lower end Of the Luneta. Other batter
les were composed of huge steel guns of
the pattern developed at the close of our
civil war, and such as we now see
abandoned and condemned in our own
forts. These were fitted with breach
loading attachments. There was also n
battery Of the century old bronze cannon
which had been converted into breach
leaders and had their barrels rified. max
ing them a weapon not to be despised at
moderate range. These and not the
guns on the main WALL were the real de-
lenses against attack from the bay. They
renamed silent during the bombardment
Of Fort Malate, and well for them and
the city behind them was it that they did
so.
THE OLD CITY.
Within the walled city at least half the
space Is occupied by official buildings,
military barracks and churches and con-
vents, the remainder being business build
ings used for both stores and residences,
with few purely residence houses. The
chief structure is the Ayuntamiento, or
city hall, at once occupied by the Ameri-
cans az headquarters, facing the little
plaza Of Carlos IX. Then there are the
Treasury, the Mint, the military barracks,