The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-12-16
A HONOLULU ANS EXPERIENCES
IN THE PHILIPPINES

the destruction wrought by war here
was not quite so complete as that at
/ Sulat. And right here let me sound
note of warning This is the last
l shall have to say of fire and sword,
and l wish to warn the reader against
charging the American army with all
the destruction by fire. Vicente Lux
pan, the commander of the 'insurrec-
tos" of Samar, did great deal more
burning than was ever done under
orders of General Smith. Borongan
has the wonderful recuperative power
so Characteristic of this island, and is
rapidly coming into proper condition
The school, with attendance avera ging
| nearly five hundred, is housed and fur
nished far worse than any other large
school 1 ever saw. But this is to be
1 remedied soon.
| At nine that night I sailed for the
return to Borongan in a Asacayan" or
deckless sloop, to be tewed by a steam
er to the mouth of the Tubig' harbor
| When the sacayan was cut loose her
| captain played her back and forth
+! across the mouth of the harbor till
morning. At seven I landed and
found the party packed and ready to
start on the return trip, earlier than
l had expected. There being saddles
/ in Tubig I was furnished a horse.
OF this was very glad, as blisters
on my feet We're beginning to tell seri-
ously against my comfort. My horse
gave me an exhibition in bucking, but
it was of such a mild, tropical charac-
i ter that I believe a western cowboy
would have been tempted to shoot the
brute for insulting him.
FILIPINOS CAN WORK.
At one in the afternoon of the third
f, of November, we left Canabid, on the
rising tide, for the ascent of the Ulut
river. From Canabid to Balagan took
/ fifteen hours, during which time the
boatmen did not stop to eat or to rest.
This gave me a new idea of the Fill
I pino as working man. Is it not just
possible that the failure to get him to
! work is ours rather than his? These
] men worked fifteen hours going away
from their homes, and they could not
get back in less than eight. They fur
nished the boats, and they asked to
be paid for this service half a dollar
apiece.
/ Thus far we had little to do with
rapids and cascades, but the men who
now took us in hand had a harder,
though shorter, job. The rapids are
assembled by means of bamboo poles,
used by the boatmen to push on the
bottom of the river and thus by re-
action crowd the boats up over the
rapids. The worst of the cascades and
falls were passed by taking the boats
entirely out of the water and carry
ing them along the banks. In other
cases the boatmen stepped into the
stream, and, taking hold of the boat
with their hands, dragged it up with
out taking it from the water. Between
rapids the boats are propelled by pad
dies. Thirteen hours of this brought
us back to Loquilocan and none too
soon did we arrive. The rain fell in
torrents and the next morning there
was such freshet in the river that it
was impossible, either up or down.
On our way from Loquilocan to Par
anas we encountered a swollen stream
which seemed seriously to obstruct our
way, but it was found to be passable,
though with difficulty. Paranas is
located in the depth of a large shallow
bay, and on starting from that point
on the return to Catbalogan, we kept
close TO the shore to avoid an unfav-
orable wind which was evidently blow
ing a short distance out On turning
the point however, and passing out
of the bay, we were caught in what
proved to be the flag end of typhoon,
and our boat was promptly swamped.
! The Filipino dugout is not nearly so
! seaworthy as the Hawaiian. AS we
We're near the shore and in shallow
water we went ashore without diff
Guilty Although there is no trail out
in that direction, we found the tide so
low that we soon decided to hike" be-
tween tides to Catbalogan, a distance
of four or five miles. This involved
some wading in the sea, even where
the sea was by no means smooth, but
it was found to be entirely practicable
We arrived at half past seven in the
evening of the fifth, having made a
journey of approximately a hundred
and eighty miles in eight days, two
hours and thirty minutes. During this
time I slept in bed regularly three
nights, and two nights under roofs
which kept off all the rain.
While the experiences of these eight
days cannot be summed up and accu-
rately and completely expressed by the
use of the English word luxury, there
is scarcely a day of the eight whose
store of pleasant memories does not
already greatly exceed the unpleasant;
and the expedition as a whole will long
be remembered as a magnificent
. pleasure exertion.' I went heavily
armed, but should not do so again, as
this now seems to me utterly useless
These experiences are given, not or
account of the hardships endured, fol
: these were not unusual or great; no
on account of the pleasures mingled
with them, though these were great
: not with the idea that they were won
: derful, or even remarkable, but jus
t "for instance