The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-05-26
MINDANAO'S LAKE REGION.

Interesting Things in the Interior of
 One of the Largest Philippine Is- lands
 Colonel Edwin A. Goodwin who is de-
 tailed in St. Louis as commandant of l the Worlds Fair Jefferson Guards. re- lated story of the Philippines yester-
 day which has,not before found it's way
 into print and which, for romantic in
 terest rivals the tales of Haggard. Yet f Colonel Goodwin relates only what has l come under his own observation. He
 gives an account of two sunken gun boats in the interior of the big island of Mindanao, where the surroundings are
 so nearly inaccessible that their equal
 is scarcely to be found throughout the length and breadth of the Philippines. The men-of-war were made in China, taken in small sections to the far southern islands in the China sea; car-
 ried to the interior through almost im- penetrable jungles, mountain passes and ravines, and put together for the
 patrol of the lake region, which is na
 mean rival of the chain known as the
 Great Lakes between the United States
 and Canada. Here, when the Span-
 iards were defeated, they were sunk, to
 save them from the hands of the Mo-
 ros.
 "The time will come" said Colonel
 Goodwin, by way of a beginning, when
 the interest of the people of the United
 States will be awakened to that strange
 land known as the island of Mindanao.
 It is of immense magnitude second
 only to Luzon, and possibly as large as that island. Haggard has never imag- ined more wildly picturesque land than this. The ships that touch at it's coast towns find evidence that there Is something like a continent beyond the mountains that come down nearly to the waters edge, but little is known of the fact that, many miles in the interi- or, there is a Mohammedan stronghold where no less than eight hundred and fifty thousand Moros dwell in what is called the lake region. Scores of the native towns are built about the lakes, so that If a map of that region should be drawn it would have the appearance of centipede-the names of the towns supplying the legs.
 The Spaniards, after many years control of the coast, moved little by lit- tie into the midst of this wilderness, building forts at intervals, and remain ing in these strongholds for a few years before pushing further into the interior. The way led through such 1ungles as only the tropics afford. Gloomy moun- tains, responding in an eternal shade | cast by the blackwood forests, were among the obstacles. large river. which runs from the interior to the sea, | might have been regarded as a means of getting nearer the interior, but this | stream, at one point, has a fall of thousand feet, and at other places is | stormy and impossible Yet, in the | course of a century, the goal had been | reached by the most daring of the 1 Spanish forces, and q monument to | their bravery and persistence remains to-day in the form of forts, which have passed into the possession of the Mo- ros. The recent storming of one of these forts by American forces has awakened wonder in some quarters as to the ability of the Mohammedans to build so formidably. As a matter of fact, they would never have gained pos session of these positions but for the fact that when the Spaniards surren- iered to the Americans there were none of the latter forces that could be spared to go to the far-off wilds of and the Spaniards left the ,orts as an inheritance to their enemies )f old.
 "Some years before the fall of the Spanish power in the Philippines the dea of bringing two men-ofwar to the 'egion of the lakes was hit upon by the Spanish commander. The natives were wonderfully strong in numbers in this egion, and nothing but strategic meth- ,ds could enable the Spaniards to hold heir own. It was believed that gun ,oats on the lake, with which the sur towns could be bombarded, { when the natives went on the warpath, { would prove stronger check than the whole of the Spanish army centered in