The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1902-04-24

ingly fine surveyors transit and compass.
/ The existence of this reported to Gen:
Anderson, and the result was that it did
good service in the Engineer Corps a little
later. The Bible l wanted to take with
me, but it was not practicable. What be
came of it l have no idea, for the church
was looted later by the Filpinos, and sun
later by the Americans. though the latter
found very little worth taking away.
OUR TROUBLES BEGIN.
Up to this point we had made fairly
good progress, but now we began 10 eA
perience the delaying qualities of the III
Pine character. Arevalo invited us 10 uih-
ner at the house of friend, assuring us
that he had sent for horses for us to rlde'
since we must leave the road and take
! trail across country in order TO pass
around the Spanish lines. Besides, he san
it was too warm to travel Ill the niiuule
of the day. and it was only Ittle Wa!
| from there to paSlg. a.,
This little way proved to be about -
| miles over Il trail so full of mudholes WIN
no bottom and along the slippery ridge Oh
rice paddles that we never went laster
| than slow walk.
While awaiting dinner we were enter
tanned by solos on n piano by native per
| former of d great deal of skill, VINO, we
| learned was a teacher of music III Mania
before he was compelled to leave the city
| to save his skin when the lnSlrrectloh
broke out. The people who entertained us
| were of the educated class and there was
actually a table set with crockery, some
| thing unknown 10 the common Filipino.
| The fried chicken was good and so were
the eggs, but i'll everything Use the excess
| of garlic was so great that none OF us
| could eat it, though urged most pohteiy
| to do So The all-pervading odor OF gar
| lie was so strong that Capt. PRESCOTT
| whose stomach was more nice than wise,
| af oil A.
planned to our hostess and 10 Capt. Are
| valo that this was because he was not IN
| the habit of eating in the middle of the
day, but that at dinner in the evening he
would eat enough to make up for IT.;
Here he laid up trouble for himself, Tor
| ArevalO remembered the assurance ana
when we reached Arevalo's house that
night he heaped Prescott's plate full
of eatables, saying that he knew he
must be very hungry. Poor Prescott.
| He was ravenous, but the lrrepres-
sibe garlic was in everything ana
he could not touch it. At last
| he had to feign sickness and go away from
the table, doing the best he could to sat
| isfy his stomach a little later with few
| bananas.
1t was o'clock in the afternoon when
the horses arrived, and there proved to be
but three of them. This left two of US
| afoot, in which style we finally set out,
/
| find more animals. We soon reached
! little barrie called Santa Rita, where we
| turned off to the right. and where we saw
our first evidences of fighting. We actual
| ly saw a dead Filipino, but upon inquiry
| we learned that he was not soldier but
had been accidentally killed by bullet
that had been fired high and was wander
| ing aimlessly around the country mile
or two back of the lines, where it found
| him.
During all the fighting between the Fill
| pinos and the Spaniards the next four
weeks i never saw another dead Filipino,
nor did | see any more at all until we be-
gan to make few of them ourselves after
they attacked us in Manila. Dead men
were not at all incident to the method of
| fighting in vogue between the Eillplnos
and Spaniards They were an innovation
of the Americans not at all popular.
| We saw few men apparently wander
ing along the road with guns, each man
his own boss. and We're told that these
men were on their way TO the trenches for
the night that as all the fighting was done
at night, and neither side cared to stir
about in the heat of the day, it did not
make much difference what the men did
between daylight and dark, so long as they
were on hand at night.
/ INSPECTING TRENCHES.
| Our curiosity asserted itself at this
point, and we said we should like to go to
the trenches. With much caution we were
conducted forward several hundred yards
more, and at last came upon an earthwOrk
/ from the rear, in which were two Old-style
bell-mouthed cannon of about four-inch cal
iber, mounted OH wheels. These had been
secured at Cavite and fixed up for field
guns with a great deal Of labor, and hauled
through the mud by gangs of men pulling
upon ropes. To the front about 1.DOO
| Yards NVa ppnlI mako ont the line of
trench occupied by the Spaniafds, termi-
mating on the bay shore in a cement and
stone fort, afterwards to be made famous
under the name of Fort Malate, though its
real name was San Antonio de Abad.
Between this fort and its adjacent in
trenchmeRts and the Filipino earthwOrk in
which we were then standing there had
been going on for n few nights furious
fusillade of small arms, punctured at IN
tervals by the boom of these old guns and
the more frequent crack of some small
breech-lOading field pieces mounted on the
walls of the fort, as well as the rapid
suffering of u Quick-fire gun the Span
ards had mounted in their intrenchments.
No fighting was done in the daytime, ac-
cording to Spanish and Filipino custom,
but the Filipinos, deeply impressed with
the honor of visit from these representa-
tives of the Commanding General of the
Americanos, offered as matter of cOur-
tesy to take shot at the Spanish works
to show us how it was done. This just
suited us. for we wanted to get a line on
the Filipino style of fighting and to see
what the Spaniards would do. With much
difficulty and accompanied by Il great deal
Of chattering, a homemade cartridge was
rammed into the muzzle of one of the can
non, and on top of it was pressed round
, shot.
Then everybody went away back" or
; rather, away off to one side, in order to
keep under shelter of the trench, except
one daring insurrecto, who, with q long
bamboo pole whose end had been lighted
in fire, touched off the weapon, which
gave a loud roar and jumped back about
20 feet. As for the cannon ball, nobody
ever knew where il went. The gun had
not been aimed at anything in particular.
but was simply pointed in the general di-
; rection of the Spanish lines. Whether the
shot went over them or stopped this side
I nobody knew or seemed to care. We
! learned that this was Il fair sample of the
craftsmanship displayed during the night
battles, the guns being fired at random in
the general direction of Manila, the noise
apparently being the chief satisfaction the
, F'ilipnos got out of it.. Having watched
in vain for any effect whatever produced
upon the Spaniards by this sudden bonn
bardment out of seaS0IL ] moved out upon
the road where it WAS not protected by the
intrenchment. The Filipino officer in
command gesticulated wildly and shouted
eXcitedly: