The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-03-13
STORY OF MARINES
HOW WALTERS MEN SUFFERED
ON SAMAR MARCH.
BAD CONDUCT OF NATIVES,
TWO OF THEM TRIED TO KILL A
LIEUTENANT.

Yet Mai. Waller and Lieut.. Day Are
TO He COurtmartiaIed for Punish
ing These PeOPIe-Lieut. shoe
Makers narrowing Report of the
Hardships and sufferinEs of the
Pnrty--CraScd with Hunger and
Too Weak TO Lift Rifle the Ma
jOrity Were Found Eighteen
Were Unable 10 Move.
Washington, March 12.-The Eastern
mail has brought the report of Maj.
Waller upon the famous expedition
conducted by him across the island of
Samar, resulting in the loss of a num-
Der of the marines and hardships and
suffering ON the part of the others be-
yond anything known before in the
Philippine campaign. Maj. Walters
reports are formal and do not go into
the details of the movements of the
marines, but the news of the affair is
contained in a report from Lieut.. W. r.
Shoemaker U. S. N. who condcted the
relief expedition that succored the ma
rines. After detailing the arrival into
the American lines of Capt. Porter and
Lieut.. Williams, with a portion of the
men, the report says:
Capt. Porter and Lieut. A. S. Will
liams, in conversation, gave me sub
stantially the following account of their
wanderings:
Ion Jan. /, being then on half ra
tions with very little food left, Mai
Waller decided to split the party-he
At 4
pushing on for Bassey, and Capt. Por-
ter following his trail as rapidly
as possible with the main body.
On the second native
came back from Waller with a note
stating that he, Waller, had given up
the idea of getting through and would
return, and directing Porter to make
directly for the river and build RATS
for the entire party. This Porter tried
to do but failed to find wood that would
float 1t was raining hard at this time
and the river was about ten feet above
it's normal level and running with vio-
lence. AS Maj. Waller did not appear,
Porter sent Capt. Bearss to him to
ascertain his plans, then return and
report. Bearss failed to return, but he
reached Waller and went on with kim.
ION the third l think, Porter pushed
ahead to get assistance with eight Of
the strongest men, leaving Williams to
follow with the crippled and lame as
far as the boat, secreted on the way up,
to be used in an emergency like the
present Porter reached the boat, but
found she had been damaged and was
unfit for use. So he started on n Is
mile hike for Lanang, reaching there
with three men on the afternoon Of the
18th. Five men had given out, but,
living on two dogs that strayed their
way. they finally reached the post.
The relief expedition, under Lieut..
Williams, First Infantry, on account
of the hight of the river, was unable
to get away until the morning of the
18th. Williams deserves the highest
praise for his Is mile fight against the
current and up the rapids, hauling his
boats along by hand a good part of
the way. 1t was not until the morn
ing of the 18th that he reached the
starving marines in their last stopping
place near the river. Their condition
at the time was terrible. For days no
man among them had strength to car
ry rife. Nine of them had either
gone crazy or had fallen by the trail
half-dead from starvation and expos
ure. 1t had rained steadily for eigh-
teen days. Lieut.. A. S. Williams had
made every effort to get them along,
but had to abandon them. He could
reach the boat by the river, the proba-
BILE point of arrival of the relief expe-
dition. He got there on the night of
the 10Th instant, his party having been
without food except roots, the pulp
of plants, and a very few sweet pota-
toes, for fifteen days.
Conduct of the Natives.
ITO further complicate matters, the
native bearers, about thirty in number,
became sulky, practically refusing as
sistance to the white men. They would
build shacks as a protection from the
continual downpour for themselves
only; and knowing the edible roots and
plants, were more skilful in obtaining
food. A time came when no white
man could carry rifle, and those not
lost were in the hands of the natives;
under the altered condition, it required
considerable diplomacy on the part of
Lieut.. Williams to handle them at all.
Just before reaching the river, two
bearers tried to kill Williams, stab
bling him about the chest with a bolo.
He tried to shoot, but ha9 not suffi-
cieRt strength to pull the trigger. Then,
they tried to kill him with his own pis-
toll, but did not know how to work
the weapon. Williams was rescued by
a few of his men who tottered up, arm
ed with sticks, and the natives took to
the bush. No F'ilipinoS were seen in
the region. there being no food. The
relief party saw some natives coming
from the direction of Herman, so it is
probable that the insurgents about
there got wind of the desperate con-
dition of the marines and were hurry
ing up to take advantage of it. Relief
came Just in time.
Their Horrible Condition.
ut took practically all of Jan. IS to
get the sufferers, thirty-one in num-
Der, including two officers-eighteen in
stretchers unable to move-across the
river and out through the surf to the
vessel. The job was finished at 6:3e
p. m, and at Z O'clock we started for
Tacloban direct, as an army surgeon
said at Lanang, that an hour saved in
transit might mean an arm or a leg
to some. We reached Tacloban at
a. m. and the worst cases were at once
transferred to the hospital The others,
including eight or ten natives, not in
cluded in the above total of 81, trans
ported to Basey, seeing Maj. Waller.
His party appears, from the state
ments of the officers, to have been re-
duced to nearly the same extremity as
the other. They had practically given
10 hope when the opportune capture
Of a small boy, the only native seen,
resulted in their getting through TO