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

It was early in the morning of Sunday,
July 10, only 10 days after landing, that
/ started out as n member OF the nEst
marty of Americans to make trip INTO Tue
interior back of Manila and around the
Spanish lines of defense. Ihls was hot
an officially-arranged reconnaissance, but
a niece of private enterprise and adVen-
fure on the part of four of the officers OF
the Oregon regiment, Capt. II. l.. Heath,
Cant, A. F. Prescott, Lieut.. q. Il. Ielfer,
and myself. We had become acquainted
In our visits to Aguinaldo's headquarters
with an intelligent and gentlemanly mem
her of his staff, Capt. Juan Arevaio, VINO
was dentist by profession. He was
Mestizo, as are almost all educated Fiji
pinos, and had learned his profession III
Hong Kong and Yokohama, in American
and English offices, and spoke very fair
English. His family was one OF prom
nence in Manila, but had been compelled to
flee because of participation IN the lnsuE-
rection. His father was then living on an
estate in one of the provinces, but his
mother was living in house belonging to
them in the city of Pasig, where had col
lected q large number of similar refugees
from Spanish wrath. Pasig lies on an ISL
and between the Pasig and San Mateo
Rivers and a croSS-channel connecting
them, and is about 10 miles up the Pasig
from Manila, near the outflow of that
river from Laguna de Bahia, the large
lake of fresh water along whose mountain
Gus southern extremity the insurrectos still
manage TO maintain desultory warfare.
Capt. Arevalo desired to visit his mother
at Pasig, and invited us TO go with him.
Eager TO see something of this strange
country. anxious for adventure, we ac-
cepted, conditional upon receiving permlS-
sion from the Commanding General. Our
ignorance of the topography of the coun-
try and the utter absence of sense of
%l.g TlTTarTa
mind came very near getting US into Sc
rious difficulty before we were through
with this adventure. Arevalo assured us
1t was only little way, and we could
easily get back within "a hours, and upon
this assurance we acted.
Being personally the best acquainted
with Gen. Anderson, with the permission
of Col. Summers, l went to him to secure
permission for the party to undertake this
Journey. Gen. Anderson was DESTROYS Of
learning more of the nature of the country
over which the army might have to oper-
ate in the event it should become neceS-
sary to attack Manila, and gave ready as
sent to my request, with instructions to OBJ
serve the general situation, the topography,
and the practicability of the roads and ad-
jacent country for movement of troops and
stores and artillery, and the operation of
troops against the Spanish lines.
He asked particularly how long we
should be absent, and ! said that we hoped
to be back that same night, but certainly
the next day, our uncertainty in the mat
ter arising from our lack of definite knowl-
edge of the distance and the conditions of
travel.
AN EXCURSION INTO THE COUNTRY.
Thus, just after sunup that bright Sun
day morning, we five stepped into long
banca, as the Filipino shallow dugout ca
noes are called, and two men with paddle
shaped oars speedily rowed US the four
miles across the bay to the mainland shore
between Bakur and Las Pinas. Our boat
grounded on the sand about 20 feet from
dry land, and while l was studying the
problem of getting ashore without wetting
my trowsers or taking off my shoes, one
Of the bOatmen offered Capt. Arevalo his
bare back and shoulder as a perch and
waded easily and safely to land with him.
Other FilipinOs who had gathered on the
bank to watch this party of strange Off
GERS, for we had been sensible enough to
wear our blue uniforms, insufferably hot
and heavy as they were, for fear of posi-
bic complications with the Spaniards,
rushed into the water and offered their
services in an expressive pantomime.
Being small, l did not hesitate, but when
It came to Capt. Heath, with his six-foot-
one of bone and flesh, he looked at the
diminutive Tagal who offered to carry him
with excusable doubt. But Arevalo as
sured him it was all right, and so it proved
the little fellow wading ashore with his
double in size and weight, though not in
looks, without making so much as a STUN
bic.
A few rods from the shore we came to
the road which skirts the bay from Cavite
to Manila at a point where there was a
small collection of houses, little barrie
where our welcoming natives lived. About
half the score of men and boys who as
sembled in the road had fighting ROSTERS
under their arms.
THE NATIONAL SPORT.
Chicken-fghting is the national sport of
the Filipinos, and is their chief gambling
fame. There are millions of chickens in
the islands. Every Filipino shack has its
Cock Of fowls, whose eggs and flesh consti-
trte an important part of the family diet