i missed being placed on a detail of twenty-five men to serve on a gunboat; i wished to get out on some kind of service and leave the regular and dull service in manila. i missed this detail in all probability by being out in the town when the detail was being made out. i tried to get on when i returned, but failed, the detail having been made out already. this detail from my company saw much more service than those remaining in the company.
their discharges show a record of more than a dozen engagements. they served in this detail five months, and had plenty of hard service. they were only paid once during the five months; a few of them, however, were not paid until discharged, if i was correctly informed. their descriptive list was lost, causing two men to have to serve ten days longer than they enlisted to serve.
much "kicking" was done by men in other parts of the service who were not paid for a year or more, but all to no purpose.
i was on the alert for another detail to be made and to get on. at last i succeeded, on the tenth day of april, in getting on a detail of only ten men to perform guard duty on a dredge boat that was dredging at the mouth of the malabon river. this[pg 60] was twenty miles from manila. the object of the dredging was to make a channel in the shallow water at the river's mouth sufficient to enable gun boats to enter the river, which was deeper after leaving its mouth. this was very slow work, requiring a great deal of time and labor to perform it. this dreging had been going on for a month. we were on duty there for ten days, and, judging by what i saw, it must have required two months' more work to open the desired channel.
from our station numbers of natives could be seen on shore, and passing up and down the river. it seemed that the country was full of filipinos.
we watched them a great deal. their methods of catching fish was very interesting to us. they never used a pole, hook and line as we would. at night great crowds could be seen, each one in a boat, and carrying a big torch. they would be near the beach, going out but a little way from the edge of the water; they would beat and splash in the water, and drive the fish into large traps or nets, just like a hunter driving quail into a net, only the fishermen were more noisy.
after beating the water and banks until it was supposed the fish had gone into the net, or trap, they were left in it until next day, when they were seined out. great quantities were caught in this way.
another method of fishing was to get in a boat with a long gig and move the boat slowly, and when a fish was near enough gig it. the large fine fish were only caught in this way.
our detail returned to manila in the evening of april tenth, and remained there until that portion[pg 61] of the 23d regiment was ordered to the island of jolo, where we started on the seventeenth day of may. i had been in the old walled city of manila a little more than six months; part of my regiment had been there ten months. we had had very hard service there, and the close confinement, almost like imprisonment, made us glad to change, and held out a hope that we would find easier service and more interesting.
the wall of the old city of manila extended entirely around the old city. the sally ports and all the streets were always guarded until no soldier could go outside without exhibiting a pass to the guards signed by the company and commanding officers. all the time that i was stationed there i was never out without the required pass.
guards were stationed on top of the wall, and made it unsafe to try to climb it to get out, although i have seen this done by means of a rope; men would pass out this way and stay out as late as they wished to and return.
this was not safe. even the guards did not discover the attempt, for the wall was not less than thirty feet high, some places even higher, and forty feet wide. stone houses are built in this wall, and used for military stores. on top of the wall on the sea-side were three hundred large cannon when the city was surrendered to the americans. around the old spanish arsenal about two acres were covered with cannon balls, guns, bayonets and rifles, all scattered about in a mass until it was difficult to get over the ground. it required two months of the [pg 62]american's time to pile up and arrange these munitions of war surrendered by the spanish.
after the treaty of peace all these were returned to spain.
a great many spaniards live in manila, and are subjects of spain. they have some very peculiar customs. one that came to my notice is that of the courtship of a spanish youth and his sweetheart.
the young man is not permitted to enter his sweetheart's home, but stands on the outside and makes love to her though the iron bars of a window. i saw a great deal of this before i learned what it all meant.
the spanish seemed to have a very bitter hatred for all americans just after the fall of manila. when we first entered the city the spanish women would throw anything that menaced us in passing the streets, from their windows. they would do anything to harass and endanger the lives of americans that they could think of without exposing themselves too much. starvation was staring them in the face when the city was surrendered. they had been reduced to rice almost wholly for sustenance. the pay of the spanish soldiers was very small. i was informed that it was only six dollars spanish per month, equivalent to only three dollars of united states currency. yet this meagre sum had not been paid for several months.
a spaniard is not a very frank, attractive looking fellow to an american soldier. he has a sneaking countenance, and a disposition out of harmony with that of the american. however,[pg 63] this opinion may be modified somewhat with those able to speak spanish and become better acquainted with them. being unable to speak their language i was barred from this possibility.
luzon and some other large islands are very fertile, and under proper agricultural management would yield millions and blossom as the rose, but as yet they are blighted by the uncivilized natives. a man would be taking his life in his hands to go out into the country and try to engage in anything. as conditions existed when i was there, bands of hostile filipinos were scouring the whole interior, and frequently were bold enough to raid near the american posts, leaving devastation wherever they went. the soil is very fertile, a warm temperature and plenty of water to irrigate with if desired for that purpose.
the natives use the most crude implements, and have but very little knowledge of farming, and are too indolent to put into practice what little they do know of soils and crops. it seems to make little difference what season they plant in. the climate is always warm, most of the year extremely hot; too hot for an american or white man, to labor in. it is just the climate that suits the negro. chinese and negroes work for fifty and sixty cents per day.
a very fine tobacco is raised, and most of it exported. a cigar factory in manila manufactures a great quantity of cigars.
rice is easily raised, and is the principal food of the natives.
the rough rice is husked in a very crude way;[pg 64] a wooden trough, or dug out, is used to put the rough rice in, and chunks of wood are taken in the hands, and the rice is pounded with these until the husks are all broken off, the rice taken out and separated from the husks.
sugar is an important crop, and is extensively raised. no less than fifteen sugar mills could be counted from the top of the walls of the city of manila.
under improved methods of agriculture that country would be a wonderful one in the production of sugar and rice.
the philippines will, in all probability, become important in the near future in the production of minerals, principally gold. there are some very good veins of gold ore in the mountains of luzon, some of which i saw myself. several pieces of stone on which gold was easily seen, were picked up by the men of my regiment. i saw rocks with both gold and silver in them. the men would not tell just where they had found them. they probably thought that at some time, after their service expired, they would return and work the places found.
i knew one man, an old, experienced miner, who would spend the sundays out in the hills and around the foot of them, where he was not exposed too much to the enemy, prospecting for gold. he was successful in finding good indications of rich minerals. he appeared to make a confidant of me. at one time he showed me a lot of gold and some silver that he had found out on his prospecting tours, but would not tell me where they came from. he told me that[pg 65] when he was discharged he intended to return and work the mines. i knew that the paymaster had considerable money belonging to this old miner, who told me he should invest it in the mines, and in purchasing mining machinery.
i saw and heard enough to cause me to believe that when the natives are civilized, and when men would be safe in the mountains, that the mines in the philippines will attract more people than the klondike ever did. there are advantages in the philippines which are not found in the klondike region, the most important being the climate, not considering the quality of the mines, which i believe to be equal to that of the klondike.
the mountain regions are rich in various minerals.
in the island of mindanao coal has been mined ever since americans have been there.
this country will find out in a few years what is in the philippines. i believe it is a rich country. almost anything can be raised that is desired in the line of field and garden crops; fine timber is plentiful and saw mills are yet unknown. i don't believe there is a saw mill in the island of luzon. all sawed timber is imported that is used at present; not much is used in building as most of the houses are built of stone or bamboo. the frame buildings which we have in america are never seen there. all the native houses and small towns are built of bamboo, and covered with grass. the bamboo grows very large, the joints are two and three feet long, and some of the larger bamboos are as large as a common tree.[pg 66] they are the same thing that people in this country know as canes, the difference being in their size only. houses are built of bamboo without the use of nails. nothing for flooring but the naked earth. split bamboo is worked into the houses fastening the whole together. i have seen the natives build houses, and have no other tool than a large knife. the roof of grass is fastened on with strips of bamboo, and is three to four inches thick. this roof is superior, in point of comfort, in a hot country, to that of anything i ever saw. i have been in the hot sun and in metal roofed buildings, and on going into a grass covered house the difference was noticeable immediately, the grass roofed house being much cooler.
manila is built of stone; the buildings look very old, but are good yet.
one night when the thirteenth minnesota regiment was on police duty, and no one was allowed on the streets after seven o'clock at night, with a fellow soldier i started out to go to a dance outside of the city walls; we knew that if we were caught we would be court martialed. to avoid all the risk possible we went out before seven o'clock, and took chances on getting back to quarters safely. we could not return to our quarters without passing sentinels, that much was certain, but how to pass them safely was the question then most important to us. i had an army pistol, and with that in my hand i directed my friend to play the part of a prisoner and march before me. we proceeded in that way only a short distance when a guard halted us. i explained that i had a prisoner carrying him to[pg 67] headquarters. the guards were to see orders for a pass or whatever orders i might have, but this one allowed me to pass on with my prisoner without showing any orders. we passed in by all the guards and patrols on the streets, and were halted and some questions asked and answered, but none of them asked to see any orders regarding my prisoner, who all the time was just in front of me. i was afraid that every guard and patrol would demand my orders, and then our scheme would fail, and we would be in trouble. i told them it was late and i must hurry in with my prisoner, and so we passed them all and reached our quarters in safety. the men worked a great many schemes to get out and in, but it was for my friend and myself to play the part of prisoner and guard first.
i never tried any more schemes on the guards, but was always in at night; i did not like to risk so much just for a little fun. we were very careful about keeping our little scheme from the officers, but told some of our comrades about it, and enjoyed the joke with them.
