Omaha daily bee., 1902-04-20
Carpenters Letter
CONTINUED from Sixth Page.)

the sharp DambOos on each side and with
from fifty to sixty feet OF tangled bamboo
above my head. 1t was like going through
an avenue or cave cut out of the forest.
The time we came through 1t yesterday was
at high noon, and hat the noon Of the
tropics, but the vegetation was so thick
1t was almost dark.
The roof OF the path was so low that I
had to hug my horse to keep from being
torn of him. AS we logged along | now
and then took out my note book and tried
to make n description, only to find a big
rope OF bamboo catching me by the neck
or my hat JerRed from my head by a down.
hanging branch.
cannot describe the vegetation. Tangle
is the only word for It. Above and on each
side Of us we're great ropes Of green so tied
and twisted together that you could not
possibly crawl through them without an az
or a bolo. Through this tangle, rising up
ward for a distance Of 100 feet without a
branch, were silver-trunked trees OF the
finest hard wood, some Of them almost 200
feet high. Now we would pass fern trees
with branches fifteen feet long and with
leaves as delicate in their texture as the
finest lace. There we're orchids every
where and strange plants, the names Of
which I do not know. It was a perfect
jungle Of vegetation, the only path being
the little narrow alley cut out above the
stream along which we Travelled.
Natural Wonders of Lu1on.
The scenery was wonderfully beautiful.
Our trail led us in and out Of the jungle
from one amphitheater Of rocks to another.
Now we would be between walls Of cliffs
hundreds OF feet high and not farther apart
than the sides OF an average roadway and
now we would come out Of these into an
open space covered with this tall grass
surrounded by walls OF earth and rocks.
Some OF the amphitheaters contained ten
acres OF ground. They were free from
trees and so fortified by the rocks that If
teen insurrectos might have held the
passes to them against an army. The Fill
iplnos had no idea that our men would ven-
ture into these mountains and they were
so terrified that they fed after making but
a feeble resistance.
It makes one uneasy to travel through a
country like this. for you can never tell
when an enemy may be hidden in a clump
OF bamboos. Murders are so frequent that
you can never know when your turn is com
ing. Last week l was in a country filled
with brigands. II was the land of our
friends, the Macabebes, and there were
ladrones upon every side playing upon these
natives and our troops. l rode up the Rio
Grande river in a little dugout not moro
than fifteen feet long and two feet in width.
II was so narrow that | had to sit straight
to prevent overturning the boat. I had two
Macabebe guards and Lieutenant Chadwick
with me. We rode for seven miles up the
river so close to the shore that we could
almost touch the bamboos which hung out
over the streams. Lieutenant Chadwick
warned me that II there was firing I should
~ A. H
and we moved without lights for fear we
might attract the fire of insurrectos.
We reached Chlumpit and I did not think
Of danger until 2 o'clock that night. l was
sleeping in a bamboo shack in a banana
plantation about two miles from our regu-
lar troops, with Lieutenants Chadwick and
Gclger, guarded only by a small company
Of MaCabebes. About midnight we were
awakened by a sound Of firing. The officers
sprang from their beds and Chadwick said:
"Those guns are Remingtons! The camp
must be attacked by lnsurrectos!"
Yes" said Lieutenant Geiger, they are
right across the river and they will be here
in a moment"
As he said this there was another volley,
and then a third. Geiger lit a match to
find his shoes and Chadwick damned him
and knocked 1t out, saying he would draw
tue IRE 10 buI SudNh' 1 CIdNltu dIuunu III
the dark to find my shoes and clothes, for
| was in my pajamas and a fair mark for
bOlos.
At this moment a soldier came to the
door and said that he had heard terrible
screams down the river and that he thought
the guards must be attacked by bolo men.
We dressed rapidly and took our reyolvers
and started out, There was no further fir
ing, however. and after a walk through the
bananas in the immediate vicinity OF the
hut we went back to bed. The next day we
discovered that a band OF ladrones had as
saulted and massacred some peasants
across the river not 800 yards from where
we were and from where they could easily
have shot us while We slept. They must
have been near the banks OF the river when
we came up In the boat, and in the dusk
could easily have shot at us and gotten
away. 1t is such things that make one IN |
easy. FRANK G. CARPENTER. |