The Story of the Philippines and Our New Possessions,
by
Murat Halstead
Part 1 out of 10
Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Distributed Proofreaders Team.
The Story of the Philippines and Our New Possessions,
Including The Ladrones, Hawaii, Cuba and Porto Rico.
The Story of the Philippines.
Natural Riches, Industrial Resources, Statistics of Productions,
Commerce and Population; The Laws, Habits, Customs, Scenery and
Conditions of the Cuba of the East Indies and the Thousand Islands
of the Archipelagoes of India and Hawaii, With Episodes of Their
Early History
The Eldorado of the Orient
Personal Character Sketches of and Interviews with Admiral Dewey,
General Merritt, General Aguinaldo and the Archbishop of Manila.
History and Romance, Tragedies and Traditions of our Pacific
Possessions.
Events of the War in the West with Spain, and the Conquest of Cuba
and Porto Rico.
By Murat Halstead,
_War Correspondent in America and Europe, Historian of the Philippine
Expedition_.
Splendidly and Picturesquely Illustrated with Half-Tone Engravings from
Photographs, Etchings from Special Drawings, and the Military Maps of
the Philippines, Prepared by the War Department of the United States.
_Our Possessions Publishing Co._
1898
The engravings in this volume were made from original photographs,
and are specially protected by copyright; and notice is hereby given,
that any person or persons guilty of reproducing or infringing upon
the copyright in any way will be dealt with according to law.
Inscribed
To the Soldiers and Sailors
of
The Army and Navy of the United States,
With Admiration for Their Achievements
In the War With Spain;
Gratitude for the Glory They Have Gained for the American Nation,
And Congratulations That All the People of All the
Country Rejoice in the Cloudless Splendor of Their Fame
That is the Common and Everlasting
Inheritance of Americans.
Author's Preface.
The purpose of the writer of the pages herewith presented has
been to offer, in popular form, the truth touching the Philippine
Islands. I made the journey from New York to Manila, to have the
benefit of personal observations in preparing a history for the
people. Detention at Honolulu shortened my stay in Manila, but
there was much in studies at the former place that was a help at the
latter. The original programme was for me to accompany General Merritt,
Commander-in-Chief of the Philippine Expedition, but illness prevented
its full realization, and when I arrived in Manila Bay the city had
already been "occupied and possessed" by the American army; and the
declaration of peace between the United States and Spain was made,
the terms fully agreed upon with the exception of the settlement of
the affairs of the Philippines. While thus prevented from witnessing
stirring military movements other than those attending the transfer
of our troops across the Pacific Ocean, an event in itself of
the profoundest significance, the reference of the determination
of the fate of the Philippine Islands to the Paris Conference,
and thereby to the public opinion of our country, in extraordinary
measure increased the general sensibility as to the situation of the
southern Oriental seas affecting ourselves, and enhanced the value
of the testimony taken on the spot of observers of experience, with
the training of journalism in distinguishing the relative pertinence
and potency of facts noted. Work for more than forty years, in the
discussion from day to day of current history, has qualified me for
the efficient exercise of my faculties in the labor undertaken. It
has been my undertaking to state that which appeared to me, so that
the reader may find pictures of the scenes that tell the Story that
concerns the country, that the public may with enlightenment solve
the naval, military, political, commercial and religious problems we
are called upon by the peremptory pressure of the conditions local,
and international, to solve immediately. This we have to do, facing the
highest obligations of citizenship in the great American Republic, and
conscious of the incomparably influential character of the principles
that shall prevail through the far-reaching sweep of the policies that
will be evolved. I have had such advantages in the assurance of the
authenticity of the information set forth in the chapters following,
that I may be permitted to name those it was my good fortune to consult
with instructive results; and in making the acknowledgments due. I
may be privileged to support the claim of diligence and success in
the investigations made, and that I am warranted in the issue of this
Story of the Philippines by the assiduous improvement of an uncommon
opportunity to fit myself to serve the country.
Indebtedness for kind consideration in this work is gratefully
acknowledged to Major-General Merritt, commanding the Philippine
Expedition; Major-General Otis, who succeeds to the duties of
military and civil administration in the conquered capital of the
islands; Admiral George Dewey, who improved, with statesmanship,
his unparalleled victory in the first week of the war with Spain,
and raised the immense questions before us; General F.V. Greene,
the historian of the Russo-Turkish war, called by the President to
Washington, and for whose contributions to the public intelligence
he receives the hearty approval and confidence of the people; Major
Bell, the vigilant and efficient head of the Bureau of Information
at the headquarters of the American occupation in the Philippines;
General Aguinaldo, the leader of the insurgents of his race in Luzon,
and His Grace the Archbishop of Manila, who gave me a message for the
United States, expressing his appreciation of the excellence of the
behavior of the American army in the enforcement of order, giving peace
of mind to the residents in the distracted city of all persuasions
and conditions, and of the service that was done civilization in the
prevention, by our arms, of threatened barbarities that had caused
sore apprehension; and, I may add, the Commissioner of the Organized
People of the Philippines, dispatched to Washington accompanying
General Greene; and of the citizens of Manila of high character,
and conductors of business enterprises with plants in the community
whose destiny is in the hands of strangers.
These gentlemen I may not name, for there are uncertainties that
demand of them and command me to respect the prudence of their
inconspicuity. This volume seems to me to be justified, and I have no
further claim to offer that it is meritorious than that it is faithful
to facts and true to the country in advocacy of the continued expansion
of the Republic, whose field is the world.
Steamship China, Pacific Ocean, September 20, 1898.
The Origin of this Story of the Philippines.
The letter following is the full expression by the author of this
volume of his purposes and principles in making the journey to the
East Indies.
_Going to the Philippines_.
Washington City, D.C., July 18.
With the authorization of the Military Authorities, I shall go to
the Philippine Islands with General Merritt, the Military Governor,
and propose to make the American people better acquainted with that
remarkable and most important and interesting country. The presence
of an American army in the Philippines is an event that will change
broad and mighty currents in the world's history. It has far more
significance than anything transpiring in the process of the conquest
of the West India possessions of Spain, for the only question there,
ever since the Continental colonies of the Spanish crown won their
independence, has been the extent of the sacrifices the Spaniards, in
their haughty and vindictive pride, would make in fighting for a lost
Empire and an impossible cause with an irresistible adversary. That
the time was approaching when, with the irretrievable steps of the
growth of a living Nation of free people, we would reach the point
where it should be our duty to accept the responsibility of the
dominant American power, and accomplish manifest Destiny by adding
Cuba and Porto Rico to our dominion, has for half a century been the
familiar understanding of American citizens. Spain, by her abhorrent
system, personified in Weyler, and illustrated in the murderous
blowing up of the Maine with a mine, has forced this duty upon us;
and though we made war unprepared, the good work is going on, and the
finish of the fight will be the relegation of Spain, whose colonial
governments have been, without exception, disgraceful and disastrous
to herself, and curses to the colonists, to her own peninsula. This
will be for her own good, as well as the redemption of mankind from
her unwholesome foreign influences, typified as they are in the
beautiful city of Havana, which has become the center of political
plagues and pestilential fevers, whose contagion has at frequent
intervals reached our own shores.
In the Philippine Islands the situation is for us absolutely novel. It
cannot be said to be out of the scope of reasonable American expansion
and is in the right line of enlarging the area of enlightenment and
stimulating the progress of civilization. The unexpected has happened,
but it is not illogical. It must have been written long ago on the
scroll of the boundless blue and the stars. The incident of war was
the "rush" order of the President of the United States to Admiral
Dewey to destroy the Spanish fleet at Manila, for the protection
of our commerce. The deed was done with a flash of lightning, and
lo! we hold the golden key of a splendid Asiatic archipelago of
a thousand beautiful and richly endowed islands in our grip. This
is the most brilliant and startling achievement in the annals of
navies. Never before had the sweep of sea power, ordered through
the wires that make the world's continents, oceans and islands one
huge whispering gallery, such striking exemplification. There was
glory and fame in it, and immeasurable material for the making of
history. We may paraphrase Dr. Johnson's celebrated advertisement
of the widow's brewery by saying: Admiral Dewey's victory was not
merely the capture of a harbor commanding a great city, one of the
superb places of the earth, and the security of a base of operations
to wait for reinforcements commensurate with the resources of the
United States of America--the victorious hero fixed his iron hand
upon a wonderful opportunity it was the privilege of our Government
to secure at large, according to the rights of a victorious Nation
for the people thereof--a chance for the youth of America, like that
of the youth of Great Britain, to realize upon the magnificence of
India; and this is as Dr. Johnson said of the vats and barrels of
the Thrale estate--"the potentiality of wealth beyond the dreams of
avarice." It is a new departure, but not a matter for the panic or
apprehension of conservatism, that the Stars and Stripes float as the
symbol of sovereignty over a group of islands in the waters of Asia,
that are equal to all the West Indies. If we are strangers there now we
shall not be so long. We have a front on the Pacific Ocean, of three
great States--Washington, equal to England; Oregon, whose grandeur
rolls in the sound of her famous name, and incomparable California,
whose title will be the synonym of golden good times forever. The
Philippines are southwest from our western front doors. They have
been the islands of our sunsets in the winter. Now they look to us
for the rosy dawn out of which will come the clear brightness of the
white light of mornings and the fullness of the ripening noons, all
the year around. With our bulk of the North American continent bulging
into both the great oceans, it was foreordained since the beginning
when God created the earth, that we, the possessors of this imperial
American zone, should be a great Asiatic Power. We have it now in
evidence, written in islands among the most gorgeous of those that
shine in the Southern seas--islands that are east from the Atlantic
and west from the Pacific shores of the One Great Republic--that
we may personify hereafter, sitting at the head of the table when
the empires of the earth consult themselves as to the courses of
empire. Our Course of Empire is both east and west.
The contact of American and Asiatic civilization in the Philippines,
with the American army there, superseding the Spaniards, will be
memorable as one of the matters of chief moment in the closing days
of the nineteenth century, and remembered to date from for a thousand
years. It is my purpose to write of this current history while it
is a fresh, sparkling stream, and attempt something more than the
recitation of the news of the day, as it is condensed and restrained
in telegrams; to give it according to the extent of my ability and the
advantages of my opportunity, the local coloring, the characteristic
scenery; the pen pictures of the people and their pursuits; sketches
of the men who are doers of deeds that make history; studies of the
ways and means of the islanders; essays to indicate the features of
the picturesque of the strange mixture of races; the revolutionary
evolutions of politics; the forces that pertain to the mingling of
the religions of the Occident and the Orient, in a chemistry untried
through the recorded ages. It is a tremendous canvas upon which I am
to labor, and I know full well how inadequate the production must be,
and beg that this index may not be remembered against me. It is meant
in all modesty, and I promise only that there will be put into the
task the expertness of experience and the endeavor of industry.
_Murat Halstead._
Contents.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
THE ORIGIN OF THIS STORY OF THE PHILIPPINES
CHAPTER I.
ADMIRAL DEWEY ON HIS FLAGSHIP.
A Stormy Day on Manila Bay--Call on Admiral Dewey--The Man in
White--He Sticks to His Ship--How He Surprised the Spaniards--Every
Man Did His Duty on May-Day--How Dewey Looks and Talks--What He Said
About War With Germany in Five Minutes--Feeds His Men on "Delicious"
Fresh Meat from Australia--Photography Unjust to Him
CHAPTER II.
LIFE IN MANILA.
Character of the Filipinos--Drivers Lashing Laboring Men in
the Streets--What Americans Get in Their Native Air--The Logic
of Destiny--Manila as She Fell Into Our Hands--The Beds in the
Tropics--A Spanish Hotel--Profane Yells for Ice--Sad Scenes in the
Dining Room--Major-General Calls for "Francisco"--A Broken-Hearted
Pantry Woman
CHAPTER III.
FROM LONG ISLAND TO LUZON.
Across the Continent--An American Governor-General Steams Through
the Golden Gate--He is a Minute-Man--Honolulu as a Health Resort--The
Lonesome Pacific--The Skies of Asia--Dreaming Under the Stars of the
Scorpion--The Southern Cross
CHAPTER IV.
INTERVIEW WITH GENERAL AGUINALDO.
The Insurgent Leader's Surroundings and Personal Appearance--His
Reserves and Ways of Talking--The Fierce Animosity of the Filipinos
Toward Spanish Priests--A Probability of Many Martyrs in the Isle
of Luzon
CHAPTER V.
THE PHILIPPINE MISSION.
Correspondence with Aguinaldo About It--Notes by Senor Felipe
Agoncillo--Relations Between Admiral Dewey and Senor Aguinaldo--Terms
of Peace Made by Spanish Governor-General with Insurgents, December,
1897--Law Suit Between Aguinaldo and Arlacho--Aguinaldo's Proclamation
of May 21, 1898
CHAPTER VI.
THE PROCLAMATIONS OF GENERAL AGUINALDO.
June 16th, 1898, Establishing Dictatorial Government--June 20th, 1898,
Instructions for Elections--June 23d, 1898, Establishing Revolutionary
Government--June 23d, 1898, Message to Foreign Powers--June 27th,
1898, Instructions Concerning Details--July 23d, 1898, Letter from
Senor Aguinaldo to General Anderson--August 1st, 1898, Resolution
of Revolutionary Chiefs Asking Recognition--August 6th, 1898, Message
to Foreign Powers Asking Recognition
CHAPTER VII.
INTERVIEW WITH ARCHBISHOP OF MANILA.
Insurgents' Deadly Hostility to Spanish Priests--The Position of
the Archbishop as He Defined It--His Expression of Gratitude to the
American Army--His Characterization of the Insurgents--A Work of
Philippine Art--The Sincerity of the Archbishop's Good Words
CHAPTER VIII.
WHY WE HOLD THE PHILIPPINES.
The Responsibility of Admiral Dewey--We Owe It to Ourselves to Hold
the Philippines--Prosperity Assured by Our Permanent Possession--The
Aguinaldo Question--Character Study of the Insurgent Leader--How
Affairs Would Adjust Themselves for Us--Congress Must Be Trusted to
Represent the People and Firmly Establish International Policy
CHAPTER IX.
THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS AS THEY ARE.
Area and Population--Climate--Mineral Wealth--Agriculture--Commerce
and Transportation--Revenue and Expenses--Spanish Troops--Spanish
Navy--Spanish Civil Administration--Insurgent Troops--Insurgent Civil
Administration--United States Troops--United States Navy--United
States Civil Administration--The Future of the Islands
CHAPTER X.
OFFICIAL HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF MANILA.
The Pith of the Official Reports of the Capture of Manila, by
Major-General Wesley Merritt, Commanding the Philippine Expedition;
General Frank V. Greene, General Arthur McArthur, and General
Thomas Anderson, with the Articles of Capitulation, Showing How
8,000 Americans Carried an Intrenched City with a Garrison of 13,000
Spaniards, and Kept Out 14,000 Insurgents--The Difficulties of American
Generals with Philippine Troops
CHAPTER XI.
THE ADMINISTRATION OF GENERAL MERRITT.
The Official Gazette Issued at Manila--Orders and Proclamation of
Major-General Wesley Merritt, Who, as Commander of the Philippine
Expedition, Became, Under the Circumstances of the Capture of Manila,
the Governor of That City
CHAPTER XII.
THE AMERICAN ARMY IN MANILA.
Why the Boys Had a Spell of Homesickness--Disadvantages of the
Tropics--Admiral Dewey and His Happy Men--How Our Soldiers Passed
the Time on the Ships--General Merritt's Headquarters--What Is Public
Property--The Manila Water Supply--England Our Friend--Major-General
Otis, General Meritt's Successor
CHAPTER XIII.
THE WHITE UNIFORMS OF OUR HEROES IN THE TROPICS.
The Mother Hubbard Street Fashion in Honolulu, and That of Riding
Astride--Spoiling Summer Clothes in Manila Mud--The White Raiment
of High Officers--Drawing the Line on Nightshirts--Ashamed of Big
Toes--Dewey and Merritt as Figures of Show--The Boys in White
CHAPTER XIV.
A MARTYR TO THE LIBERTY OF SPEECH.
Dr. Jose Rizal, the Most Distinguished Literary Man of the Philippines,
Writer of History, Poetry, Political Pamphlets, and Novels, Shot on the
Luneta of Manila--A Likeness of the Martyr--The Scene of His Execution,
from a Photograph--His Wife Married the Day Before His Death--Poem
Giving His Farewell Thoughts, Written in His Last Hours--The Works
That Cost Him His Life--The Vision of Friar Rodriguez
CHAPTER XV.
EVENTS OF THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR.
No Mystery About the Cause of the War--The Expected and the Inevitable
Has Happened--The Tragedy of the Maine--Vigilant Wisdom of President
McKinley--Dewey's Prompt Triumph--The Battles at Manila and Santiago
Compared--General Shafter Tells of the Battle of Santiago--Report of
Wainwright Board on Movements of Sampson's Fleet in the Destruction of
Cervera's Squadron--Stars and Stripes Raised Over Porto Rico--American
and Spanish Fleets at Manila Compared--Text of Peace Protocol
CHAPTER XVI.
THE PEACE JUBILEE.
The Lessons of War in the Joy Over Peace in the Celebrations
at Chicago and Philadelphia--Orations by Archbishop Ireland
and Judge Emory Speer--The President's Few Words of Thrilling
Significance--The Parade of the Loyal League, and the Clover Club
Banquet at Philadelphia--Address by the President--The Hero Hobson
Makes a Speech--Fighting Bob Evans' Startling Battle Picture--The
Destruction of Cervera's Fleet--The Proclamation of Thanksgiving
CHAPTER XVII.
EARLY HISTORY OF THE PHILIPPINES.
The Abolishment of the 31st of December, 1844, in Manila--The Mystery
of the Meridian 180 Degrees West--What Is East and West?--Gaining and
Losing Days--The Tribes of Native Filipinos--They Had an Alphabet and
Songs of Their Own--The Massacre of Magellan--His Fate Like That of
Captain Cook--Stories of Long-Ago Wars--An Account by a Devoted Spanish
Writer of the Beneficent Rule of Spain in the Philippines--Aguinaldo
a Man Not of a Nation, But of a Tribe--Typhoons and Earthquakes--The
Degeneracy of the Government of the Philippines After It Was Taken
from Mexico--"New Spain"--The Perquisites of Captain-Generals--The
Splendor of Manila a Century Ago
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES.
Important Facts About the Lesser Islands of the Philippine
Archipelago--Location, Size and Population--Capitals and
Principal Cities--Rivers and Harbors--Surface and Soil--People
and Products--Leading Industries--Their Commerce and Business
Affairs--The Monsoons and Typhoons--The Terrors of the Tempests and
How to Avoid Them
CHAPTER XIX.
SPECIFICATIONS OF GRIEVANCES OF THE FILIPINOS.
An Official Copy of the Manifesto of the Junta Showing the Bad Faith
of Spain in the Making and Evasion of a Treaty--The Declaration
of the Renewal of the War of Rebellion--Complaints Against the
Priests Defined--The Most Important Document the Filipinos Have
Issued--Official Reports of Cases of Persecution of Men and Women in
Manila by the Spanish Authorities--Memoranda of the Proceedings in
Several Cases in the Court of Inquiry of the United States Officers
CHAPTER XX.
HAWAII AS ANNEXED.
The Star Spangled Banner Up Again in Hawaii, and to Stay--Dimensions
of the Islands--What the Missionaries Have Done--Religious Belief
by Nationality--Trade Statistics--Latest Census--Sugar Plantation
Laborers--Coinage of Silver--Schools--Coffee Growing
CHAPTER XXI.
EARLY HISTORY OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.
Captain James Cook's Great Discoveries and His Martyrdom--Character
and Traditions of the Hawaiian Islands--Charges Against the Famous
Navigator and Effort to Array the Christian World Against Him--The
True Story of His Life and Death--How Charges Against Cook Came
to Be Made--Testimony of Vancouver, King and Dixon, and Last
Words of Cook's Journal--Light Turned on History That Has Become
Obscure--Savagery of the Natives--Their Written Language Took
Up Their High Colored Traditions and Preserved Phantoms--Scenes in
Aboriginal Theatricals--Problem of Government in an Archipelago Where
Race Questions Are Predominant--Now Americans Should Remember Captain
Cook as an Illustrious Pioneer
CHAPTER XXII.
THE START FOR THE LAND OF CORN STALKS.
Spain Clings to the Ghost of Her Colonies--The Scene of War Interest
Shifts from Manila--The Typhoon Season--General Merritt on the Way
to Paris--German Target Practice by Permission of Dewey--Poultney
Bigalow with Canoe, Typewriter and Kodak--Hongkong as a Bigger and
Brighter Gibraltar
CHAPTER XXIII.
KODAK SNAPPED AT JAPAN.
Glimpses of China and Japan on the Way Home from the
Philippines--Hongkong a Greater Gibraltar--Coaling the China--Gangs
of Women Coaling the China--How the Japanese Make Gardens of the
Mountains--Transition from the Tropics to the Northern Seas--A
Breeze from Siberia--A Thousand Miles Nothing on the Pacific--Talk
of Swimming Ashore
CHAPTER XXIV.
OUR PICTURE GALLERY.
Annotations and Illustrations--Portraits of Heroes of the War in the
Army and Navy, and of the Highest Public Responsibilities--Admirals
and Generals, the President and Cabinet--Photographs of Scenes
and Incidents--The Characteristics of the Filipinos--Their Homes,
Dresses and Peculiarities in Sun Pictures--The Picturesque People of
Our New Possessions
CHAPTER XXV.
CUBA AND PORTO RICO.
Conditions In and Around Havana--Fortifications and Water Supply of the
Capital City--Other Sections of the Pearl of the Antilles--Porto Rico,
Our New Possession, Described--Size and Population--Natural Resources
and Products--Climatic Conditions--Towns and Cities--Railroad and
Other Improvements--Future Possibilities
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE LADRONES.
The Island of Guam a Coaling Station of the United States--Discovery,
Size and Products of the Islands
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE OFFICIAL TITLE TO OUR NEW POSSESSIONS IN THE INDIES.
Full Text of the Treaty of Peace with Spain Handed the President of
the United States as a Christmas Gift for the People, at the White
House, 1898--The Gathered Fruit of a Glorious and Wonderful Victory
CHAPTER XXVIII.
BATTLES WITH THE FILIPINOS BEFORE MANILA.
The Aguinaldo War Upon the Americans--The Course of Events
in the Philippines Since the Fall of Manila--Origin of the
Filipino War--Aguinaldo's Insolent and Aggressive Acts, Including
Treachery--His Agent's Vanity and Duplicity in Washington--Insurgents
Under Aguinaldo Attack American Forces--Battle of Manila,
February 4 and 5--Heroism of American Troops in Repelling the
Insurgents--Aguinaldo's Proclamations--Agoncillo's Flight to
Canada--The Ratification of the Treaty of Peace with Spain by the
American Senate Followed the Fighting--The Gallantry and Efficiency
of the American Volunteers--Another Glorious Chapter of Our War History
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE AGUINALDO WAR OF SKIRMISHES.
The Filipino Swarms, After Being Repulsed with Slaughter, Continue
Their Scattering Efforts to Be Assassins--They Plan a General
Massacre and the Burning of Manila--Defeated in Barbarous Schemes,
They Tell False Tales and Have Two Objects, One to Deceive the People
of the Philippines, the other to Influence Intervention--The Peril of
Fire--Six Thousand Regulars Sent to General Otis--Americans Capture
Iloilo, and Many Natives Want Peace--The People of the Isla of Negros
Ask that They May Go with Us--Dewey Wants Battleships and Gunboats,
Gets Them, and Is Made an Admiral--Arrival of Peace Commissioners,
with Their School Books, Just Ahead of the Regulars with Magazine
Rifles--The Germans at Manila Salute Admiral Dewey at Last
ILLUSTRATIONS.
1. Frontispiece ... Major-General Merritt, First Governor-General of
the Philippines.
2. The President and His Cabinet
3. President McKinley
4. Secretary of State Hay
5. Secretary of the Treasury Gage
6. Secretary of War Alger
7. Secretary of the Navy Long
8. Attorney General Griggs
9. Postmaster General Smith
10. Secretary of the Interior Bliss
11. Secretary of Agriculture Wilson
12. Admiral Dewey, the Hero of Manila
13. Map of the Philippine Islands
14. Photograph and Autograph of Aguinaldo, as Presented by Him to Mr.
Halstead, the Author
15. Archbishop of Manila. His Photograph and Autograph Presented to
Mr. Halstead, the Author
16. Ex-Consul General Fitzhugh Lee, Now Major-General Commanding
17. Captain Sigsbee, Commander of the Ill-fated Maine
18. Brigadier-General F.V. Greene
19. Government Building in Pampanga
20. Church at Cavite
21. Masacue--Town in Cavite
22. Natives Taking Refreshments
23. Official Map of the Isle of Luzon, Prepared by War Department
24. Official Map by the War Department of the Seat of War in the
Philippines
25. Murat Halstead, the Author, at Manila
26. Cathedral of Manila After Earthquake
27. Spanish Re-inforcements Crossing Bridge Over Pasig River
28. Oriental Hotel, Manila
29. The Sultan of Jolo in Mindanao
30. A Beheaded Spaniard--Sign of the Order of Katipunan
31. San Juan del Monte, Where Revolution Started
32. Brigadier-General E.S. Otis
33. Brigadier-General Thomas M. Anderson
34. Military Heroes of Santiago and Porto Rico
35. Major-General Miles
36. Major-General Shafter
37. Major-General Wheeler
38. Major-General Brooke
39. Brigadier-General Wood
40. Colonel Roosevelt
41. Naval Heroes of Santiago
42. Admiral Sampson
43. Admiral Schley
44. Captain Chadwick, of the New York
45. Captain Cooke, of the Brooklyn
46. Captain Clarke, of the Oregon
47. Captain Evans, of the Iowa
48. Captain Higginson, of the Massachusetts
49. Captain Philip, of the Texas
50. Commander Wainwright, of the Gloucester
51. Lieutenant R.P. Hobson
52. General Greene's Headquarters at Manila
53. Manila and Its Outskirts, Showing Malate
54. Principal Gate to the City
55. Loading Buffaloes with Produce in Luzon
56. Filipina Preparing for a Siesta
57. Philippine Author-Martyr, His Wife and His Execution
58. Dr. Rizal
59. Dr. Rizal's Execution
60. Dr. Rizal's Wife
61. The Seat of War in Cavite
62. Attack on Manila, Showing Position of Our Ships and Troops
63. Fortifications of Manila
64. United States Peace Commissioners
65. Senator Frye
66. Senator Gray
67. Ex-Secretary of State Day
68. Senator Davis
69. Whitelaw Reid
70. Flowers of the Philippines
71. Interior of the Fortifications of Manila
72. Fort Santiago at Manila, Where the American Flag Was Raised
73. Dining Room in General Merritt's Palace at Manila
74. An Execution Entertainment on the Luneta
75. Victims Reported Dead After the Execution
76. Aguinaldo and His Compatriots
77. Senor Aguinaldo
78. Senor Montsusgro
79. Senor Natividah
80. Senor Ninisgra
81. Senor Rins
82. Senor Belavinino
83. Senor Covinbing
84. Senor Mascordo
85. Senor Arbacho
86. Senor Pilar
87. Senor Viola
88. Senor Francisco
89. Senor Llansoo
90. Savage Native Hunters
91. Girl's Costume to Show One Shoulder
92. Public Buildings in Manila
93. Fort Weyler, Built by General Weyler When Governor of the
Philippines
94. The Destruction of Cervera's Spanish Squadron at Santiago
95. The Luneta--Favorite Outing Grounds of Manila, and a Place for
Executing Insurgents
96. Admiral Dewey's Fleet That Won the Battle of Manila Bay
97. The Flagship Olympia
98. The Baltimore
99. The Concord
100. The Raleigh
101. The Boston
102. The Petrel
103. The Monument of Magellinos in the Walled City
104. A Railroad Station North of Manila--Spaniards Airing Themselves
105. The Battle of Manila Bay--In the Heat of the Raging Fight
106. A Suburb of Manila, Showing a Buffalo Market Cart
107. The Cathedral at Manila
108. An Insurgent Outlook Near Manila
109. Display in Manila Photograph Gallery, Insurgent Leaders
110. Group of Filipinos Who Want Independence
111. The Principal Gate to the Walled City
112. A Public Square in Manila
113. A Bit of Scenery in Mindanao, Showing Tropical Vegetation
114. Parade of Spanish Troops on One of Their Three Annual Expeditions
to the Southern Islands
115. After an Execution--Prostrate Forms are Men Shot
116. Spaniards Ready to Execute Insurgent Prisoners
117. A Group of the Unconquerable Mohammedans
118. A Native House
119. Riding Buffaloes Through Groves of Date Palms
120. Natives Fishing from a Canal Boat
121. Great Bridge at Manila
122. Southern Islanders--Showing Cocoanut Palms and the Monkey Tree
123. A Review of Spanish Filipino Volunteers
124. A Spanish Festival in Manila
125. Spanish Troops Repelling an Insurgent Attack on a Convent
126. Business Corner in Manila
127. A Native in Regimentals
128. A Country Pair
129. Peasant Costumes
130. Woodman in Working Garb
131. Map of Hawaii
132. Official Map of the Hawaiian Islands
133. Map of Cuba
134. Map of Porto Rico
135. Outline Map of the Philippine Islands
136. A Spanish Dude--An Officer at Manila
137. The Harbor at Manila
138. General E.S. Otis and Staff on Porch of Malacanan Palace, Manila
139. Malacanan Palace and Pasig River, Manila
140. General Otis and Staff, Dining Room, Malacanan Palace, Manila
141. Views in Manila, Philippine Islands
142. View from My Office Window in Palace, Sept. 8, 1898
143. Fountain, Manila, August, 1898
144. Door of Hospital De San Juan Di Dios, Intramuros, Manila,
Aug. 29, 1898
145. Sentry Box in Old Manila Wall, August, 1898
146. Dungeons in Old Manila Wall, Sept. 7, 1898
147. Door of Jesuit Church, Manila, Sept. 3, 1898
148. Court Yard of Palace, Manila, Sept, 3, 1898
149. View of Tower of Iglisia De Sta Grum, Manila, Sept. 9, 1898
150. Corner of Old Manila Wall, August, 1898
151. Interior in Palace, Manila, Sept. 4, 1898
152. View of Church of August 30, Manila
153. General Hughes' Temporary Office in Palace
154. Puerto De Gabel, Old Manila Wall, Aug. 29, 1898
155. Views in Manila, Philippine Islands
156. Wash Lady in the River, Manila
157. Soldiers Washing Their Persons and Clothes, Manila
158. Man Rowing Small Boat, Manila
159. Ferry in Canal, Manila
160. Group of Native Women on Canal Bank, Manila
161. Government Launch, Manila
162. View of Canal in New Manila
163. View From My Ferry Crossing River Looking Toward New Town, Manila
164. View of Intramuros From the Water, Manila
165. Women Washing, Manila
166. Barge in Canal, New Town, Half Barge, Half House Boat, Manila
167. Canal Scene in Neuva, Manila
168. Stern of Lighter in Canal, Manila
169. Views in Manila, Philippine Islands
170. Native Woman, with Fruit and Child
171. Native Woman
173. Fruit Woman on Main Bridge
173. Small Boy, With Pup
174. Native Woman on Canal Bank
175. Buffalo, Wagon and Two Coolies
176. Beggar on Main Bridge
177. Views in Honolulu and Manila
178. Leaving Honolulu, Aboard U.S.S. Peru for Manila
179. A Soldier on Deck of Oakland Ferry
180. Three College Men, Corporal Morrow in Center
181. U.S.S. Philadelphia Entering Honolulu Harbor
182. In Camp at Manila
183. Leaving Honolulu, U.S.S. Peru, for Manila
184. U.S.S. Philadelphia, Honolulu Harbor
185. Bridge Over River Naig, Cavite, Connecting Santa Cruz Road with
Town of Naig
186. Highway in the Philippines
187. Native House in Suburb of Calamba, Philippines
188. Front and Back View of Native Woven Shirt
189. Malay Women of Jolo Pounding Rice
190. Ancient Cannon Taken from Insurgents
191. Arsenal Grounds in Cavite, Chapel in Front of Commandant's House
192. Bridge Crossing the River at Tambobeng, Manila Province
193. Cane Bridge Over Arm of Bay at Ilo-Ilo, Philippines
194. Sergeant Dan Hewitt, Hero of Caloocan
195. View on Pagsanjan River in the Province of La Laguna
196. Royal Street in Ilo-Ilo, Island of Panay, Philippines
197. Native Dwelling in the Suburbs of Manila
198. The Insurgent Leaders in the Philippines
199. Isabelo Artacho
200. Baldomero Aguinaldo
201. Severino de las Alas
202. Antonio Montenegro
203. Vito Belarmino
204. Pedro Paterno
205. Emilio Aguinaldo
206. Church of San Augustin, Manila
207. Schooner Anchored in Ilo-Ilo Harbor, Philippines
208. Major-General Thomas M. Anderson and Staff, in Command of 1st
Division, 8th Army Corps, at Manila
209. Major-General Thomas M. Anderson, Commander of 1st Division,
8th Army Corps, at Manila
CHAPTER I
Admiral Dewey on His Flagship.
A Stormy Day on Manila Bay--Call on Admiral Dewey--The Man in White--He
Sticks to His Ship--How He Surprised Spaniards--Every Man Did His
Duty on May-Day--How Dewey Looks and Talks--What He Said About War
with Germany in Five Minutes--Feeds His Men on "Delicious" Fresh Meat
from Australia--Photography Unjust to Him.
Steaming across Manila Bay from Cavite to the city on an energetic
ferry-boat, scanning the wrecks of the Spanish fleet still visible
where the fated ships went down, one of them bearing on a strip of
canvas the legible words "Remember the 'Maine,'" the talk being of
Dewey's great May-day, we were passing the famous flag-ship of the
squadron that was ordered to destroy another squadron, and did it,
incidentally gathering in hand the keys of an empire in the Indies
for America, because the American victor was an extraordinary man,
who saw the immensity of the opportunity and improved it to the utmost,
some one said: "There is the Admiral now, on the quarter-deck under the
awning--the man in white, sitting alone!" The American Consul at Manila
was aboard the ferry-boat, and said to the captain he would like to
speak to the Admiral. The course was changed a point, and then a pause,
when the Consul called, "Admiral!" And the man in white stepped to
the rail and responded pleasantly to the greeting--the Consul saying:
"Shall we not see you ashore now?"
"No," said the man in white, in a clear voice; "I shall not go ashore
unless I have to."
Some one said: "This would be a good chance to go. Come with us."
The man in white shook his head, and the ferryman ordered full speed,
the passengers all looking steadily at the white figure until it
became a speck, and the fresh arrivals were shown the objects of
the greatest interest, until the wrecks of the Oriental fleet of the
Spaniards were no longer visible, and there was only the white walls
to see of Cavite's arsenal and the houses of the navy-yard, and the
more stately structures of Manila loomed behind the lighthouse at
the mouth of the Pasig, when the eyes of the curious were drawn to
the mossback fort that decorates as an antiquity the most conspicuous
angle of the walls of "the walled city."
There was a shade of significance in the few words of the Admiral
that he would not go ashore until he must. He has from the first been
persistent in staying at Manila. There has been nothing that could
induce him to abandon in person the prize won May 1st. His order
from the President was to destroy the Spanish fleet. It was given
on the first day of the legal existence of the war, counting the day
gained, in crossing the Pacific Ocean from the United States to the
Philippines, when the 180th degree of longitude west from Greenwich
is reached and reckoned. It was thus the President held back when the
war was on; and the next day after Dewey got the order at Hongkong
he was on the way. The Spaniards at Manila could not have been more
astonished at Dewey's way of doing, if they had all been struck by
lightning under a clear sky. They had no occasion to be "surprised,"
having the cable in daily communication with Madrid, and, more than
that, a Manila paper of the last day of April contained an item of
real news--the biggest news item ever published in that town! It
was from a point on the western coast of the island of Luzon, and
the substance of it that four vessels that seemed to be men-of-war,
had been sighted going south, and supposed to be the American fleet.
What did the Spaniards suppose the American fleet they knew well
had left Hongkong was going south for? If Admiral Dewey had been a
commonplace man he would have paused and held a council of war nigh the
huge rock Corregidor at the mouth of Manila Bay. There is a channel
on either side of that island, and both were reputed to be guarded
by torpedoes. The Spaniards had an enormous stock of munitions of
war--modern German guns enough to have riddled the fleet of American
cruisers--and why did they not have torpedoes? They had the Mauser
rifle, which has wonderful range, and ten millions of smokeless powder
cartridges. Marksmen could sweep the decks of a ship with Mausers at
the distance of a mile, and with the smokeless cartridges it would have
been mere conjecture where the sharpshooters were located. There are
rows of armor-piercing steel projectiles from Germany still standing
around rusting in the Spanish batteries, and they never did any more
than they are doing. It is said--and there is every probability of
the truth of the story--that some of these bolts would not fit any
gun the Spaniards had mounted. The Admiral paid no attention to the
big rock and the alleged torpedoes, but steamed up the bay near the
city where the Spaniards were sleeping. He was hunting the fleet he
was ordered to remove, and found it very early in the morning. Still
the thunder of his guns seems to thrill and electrify the air over the
bay, and shake the city; and the echoes to ring around the world, there
is no question--not so much because the Americans won a naval victory
without a parallel, as that Dewey improved the occasion, showing that
he put brains into his business. They say--that is, some people seem to
want to say it and so do--that Dewey is a strange sort of man; as was
said of Wolfe and Nelson, who died when they won immortality. Dewey
lives and is covered with glory. It has been held that there were
not enough Americans hurt in the Manila fight to make the victory
truly great. But the same objection applies to the destruction of
Cervera's fleet when he ran away from Santiago. General Jackson's
battle at New Orleans showed a marvelously small loss to Americans;
but it was a good deal of a victory, and held good, though won after
peace with England had been agreed upon. The capture of Manila is
valid, too. Spain surrendered before the town did. If Dewey had been an
every-day kind of man, he would have left Manila when he had fulfilled
the letter of his orders, as he had no means of destroying the Spanish
army, and did not want to desolate a city, even if the Spaniards held
it. He remained and called for more ships and men, and got them.
"How is it?" "Why is it?" "How can it be?" are the questions Admiral
Dewey asks when told that the American people, without exception,
rejoice to celebrate him--that if one of the men known to have been
with him May 1st should be found out in any American theater he would
be taken on the stage by an irresistible call and a muscular committee
of enthusiasts, and the play could not go on without "a few words"
and the "Star Spangled Banner," "Hail Columbia," "Yankee Doodle,"
"Dixey" and "My Country, 'tis of Thee"; that the hallelujah note
would be struck; that cars are chalked "for Deweyville"; that the
board fences have his name written, or painted, or whittled on them;
that there are Dewey cigars; that blacksmith-shops have the name
Dewey scratched on them, also barn doors; and that if there are two
dwelling-houses and a stable at a cross-roads it is Deweyville,
or Deweyburg or Deweytown; that there is a flood of boy babies
named Dewey, that the girls sing of him, and the ladies all admire
him and the widows love him, and the school children adore him. The
Admiral says: "I hear such things, and altogether they amaze me--the
newspapers, the telegrams, the letters become almost unreal, for I
do not comprehend what they say of my first day's work here. There
was not a man in the fleet who did not do his duty."
The Admiral is told that he need not think to stay away until the
people who have him on their minds and in their hearts are tired of
their enthusiasm; that he cannot go home undiscovered and without
demonstrations that will shake the earth and rend the skies; that
the boys will drag the horses from his carriage, and parade the
streets with him as a prisoner, and have it out with him, giving
him a good time, until it will be a hard time, and he might as well
submit to manifest destiny! His country wanted another hero, and he
was at the right place at the right time, and did the right thing
in the right way; and the fact answers all questions accounting for
everything. Still he has a notion of staying away until the storm is
over and he can get along without being a spectacle. Why, even the
ladies of Washington are wild about him. If he should appear at the
White House to call on the President, the scene would be like that
when Grant first met Abraham Lincoln.
One rough day on the bay I took passage in a small steam-launch
to visit the Olympia, where the Admiral's flag floated, to call on
him. There was plenty of steam, and it was pleasant to get out a good
way behind the breakwater, for the waves beyond were white with anger,
and the boat, when departing from partial shelter, had proceeded
but two or three hundred yards when it made a supreme effort in two
motions--the first, to roll over; the second, to stand on its head. I
was glad both struggles were unsuccessful, and pleased with the order:
"Slow her up." The disadvantages of too much harbor were evident. The
slow-ups were several, and well timed, and then came the rise and
fall of the frisky launch beside the warship, the throwing of a
rope, the pull with a hook, the stand off with an oar, the bounding
boat clearing from four to ten feet at a jump; the clutch, the quick
step, the deft avoidance of a crushed foot or sprained ankle, with a
possible broken leg in sight, the triumphant ascent, the safe landing,
the sudden sense that Desdemona was right in loving a man for the
dangers he had passed, the thought that there should be harbors less
fluctuating, a lively appreciation of the achievements of pilots in
boarding Atlantic liners. The broad decks of the Olympia, built by
the builders of the matchless Oregon, had a comforting solidity under
my feet. The Admiral was believed to be having a nap; but he was wide
awake, and invited the visitor to take a big chair, which, after having
accompanied the launch in the dance with the whitecaps, was peculiarly
luxurious. The Admiral didn't mind me, and had a moment's surprise
about an observer of long ago strolling so far from home and going
forth in a high sea to make a call. I confessed to being an ancient
Wanderer, but not an Ancient Mariner, and expressed disapprobation
of the deplorable roughness of the California Albatross, a brute of
a bird--a feathered ruffian that ought to be shot.
The Admiral would be picked out by close attention as the origin of
some millions of pictures; but he is unlike as well as like them. Even
the best photographs do not do justice to his fine eyes, large, dark
and luminous, or to the solid mass of his head with iron-brown hair
tinged with gray. He is a larger man than the portraits indicate;
and his figure, while that of a strong man in good health and form and
well nourished, is not stout and, though full, is firm; and his step
has elasticity in it. His clean-shaven cheek and chin are massive, and
drawn on fine lines full of character--no fatty obscuration, no decline
of power; a stern but sunny and cloudless face--a good one for a place
in history; no show of indulgence, no wrinkles; not the pallor of
marble, rather the glint of bronze--the unabated force good for other
chapters of history. It would be extremely interesting to report the
talk of the Admiral; but there were two things about him that reminded
me of James G. Blaine, something of the vivid personality of the loved
and lost leader; something in his eye and his manner, more in the
startling candor with which he spoke of things it would be premature
to give the world, and, above all, the absence of all alarm about
being reported--the unconscious consciousness that one must know this
was private and no caution needed. A verbatim report of the Admiral
would, however, harm no one, signify high-toned candor and a certain
breezy simplicity in the treatment of momentous matters. Evidently
here was a man not posing, a hero because his character was heroic, a
genuine personage--not artificial, proclamatory, a picker of phrases,
but a doer of deeds that explain themselves; a man with imagination,
not fantastic but realistic, who must have had a vision during the
night after the May-day battle of what might be the great hereafter;
beholding under the southern constellations the gigantic shadow of
America, crowned with stars, with the archipelagoes of Asia under
her feet and broad and mighty destinies at command.
It was the next day that he anchored precisely where his famous ship
was swinging when I sat beside him; and his words to the representative
of three centuries of Spanish misrule had in them an uncontemplated
flash from the flint and steel of fixed purpose and imperial
force. "Fire another gun at my ships and I will destroy your city."
We can hardly realize in America how flagrant Europeanism has been in
the Manila Bay; how the big German guns bought by Spain looked from
their embrasures; how a powerful German fleet persisted in asserting
antagonism to Americanism, and tested in many ways the American
Admiral's knowledge of his rights and his country's policy until
Admiral Dewey told, not the German Admiral, as has been reported,
but his flag lieutenant, "Can it be possible that your nation means
war with mine? If so, we can begin it in five minutes." The limit
had been reached, and the line was drawn; and Dewey's words will go
down in our records with those of Charles Francis Adams to Lord John
Russell about the ironclads built in England for the Confederacy:
"My Lord, I need not point out to your lordship that this is war."
Perhaps the German Admiral had exceeded the instructions of his
Imperial Government, and the peremptory words of the American Admiral
caused a better understanding, making for peace rather than for war.
Next to the Americans the English have taken a pride in Admiral Dewey,
and they are in the Asiatic atmosphere our fast friends. They do
not desire that we should give up the Philippines. On the contrary,
they want us to keep the islands, and the more we become interested
in those waters and along their shores, the better. They know that
the world has practically grown smaller and, therefore, the British
Empire more compact; and they find Russia their foe. They see that with
the Pacific Coast our base of operations looking westward, we have
first the Hawaiian Islands for producers and a coal station, naval
arsenal, dockyards for the renovation and repair and replenishment
of our fleets; and they see that we have reserved for ourselves
one of the Ladrones, so that we will have an independent route to
the Philippines. The Japanese have cultivated much feeling against
our possession of Hawaii, the animus being that they wanted it for
themselves; and likewise they are disturbed by our Pacific movement,
anticipating the improvement of the most western of the Alutian
Islands, an admirable station overlooking the North Pacific; all
comprehending with Hawaii, the Alutian Island found most available,
the Ladrone that we shall reserve and the Philippines, we shall have
a Pacific quadrilateral; and this is not according to the present
pleasure and the ambition for the coming days, of Japan. England
would have approved our holding all the islands belonging to the
Spanish, including the Canaries, and Majorca and Minorca and their
neighboring isles in the Mediterranean, and take a pride in us. She
has been of untold and inestimable service to us in the course of the
Spanish War, and her ways have been good for us at Manila, while the
Germans have been frankly against us, the Russians grimly reserved,
and the French disposed to be fretful because they have invested in
Spanish bonds upon which was raised the money to carry on the miserable
false pretense of war with the Cubans. One day while I was on the fine
transport Peru, in the harbor of Manila, the American Admiral's ship
saluted an English ship-of-war coming in that had saluted his flag,
and also displayed American colors in recognition that the harbor of
Manila was an American port. That was the significance of the flashes
and thundering of the Admiral's guns and the white cloud that gathered
about his ship that has done enough for celebrity through centuries.
Admiral Dewey created the situation in the Philippines that the
President wisely chose by way of the Paris Conference to receive the
deliberate judgment of the Senate and people of the United States. Dewy
has been unceasingly deeply concerned about it. His naval victory
was but the beginning. He might have sailed away from Manila May 2d,
having fulfilled his orders; but he had the high and keen American
spirit in him, and clung. He needed a base of operations, a place upon
which to rest and obtain supplies. He had not the marines to spare
to garrison a fort save at Cavite, twelve miles from Manila; and he
needed chickens, eggs, fresh meat and vegetables; and it was important
that the Spanish Army should be occupied on shore. Hence, Aguinaldo,
who was in Singapore, and the concentration of insurgents that had
themselves to be restrained to make war on civilized lines. One of
the points of the most considerable interest touching the Filipinos is
that the smashing defeat of the fleet of Spain in Manila Bay heartened
them. They have become strong for themselves. The superiority of
the Americans over the Spaniards as fighting men is known throughout
the islands Spain oppressed; and the bonds of the tyrants have been
broken. It should not be out of mind that the first transports with
our troops did not reach Manila for six weeks, and that the army was
not in shape to take the offensive until after General Merritt's
arrival, late in July. All this time the American Admiral had to
hold on with the naval arm; and it was the obvious game of Spain,
if she meant to fight and could not cope with the Americans in the
West Indies, to send all her available ships and overwhelm us in
the East Indies. At the same time the German, French, Russian and
Japanese men-of-war represented the interest of the live nations of
the earth in the Philippines. As fast as possible Admiral Dewey was
re-enforced; but it was not until the two monitors, the Monterey and
Monadnock, arrived, the latter after the arrival of General Merritt,
that the Admiral felt that he was safely master of the harbor. He
had no heavily armored ships to assail the shore batteries within
their range, and might be crippled by the fire of the great Krupp
guns. It was vital that the health of the crews of his ships should
be maintained, and the fact that the men are and have been all summer
well and happy is not accidental. Admiral Dewey took the point of
danger, if there was one, into his personal keeping, by anchoring the
Olympia on the Manila side of the bay, while others were further out
and near Cavite; and throughout the fleet there was constant activity
and the utmost vigilance. There was incessant solicitude about what
the desperate Spaniards might contrive in the nature of aggressive
enterprise. It seemed incredible to Americans that nothing should
be attempted. How would a Spanish fleet have fared for three months
of war with us in an American harbor? There would have been a new
feature of destructiveness tried on the foe at least once a week.
The Spaniards ashore seemed to be drowsy; but the Americans were
wide awake, ready for anything, and could not be surprised; so
that we may commend as wisdom the Spanish discretion that let them
alone. The ship that was the nearest neighbor of Admiral Dewey for
months of his long vigil flew the flag of Belgium. She is a large,
rusty-looking vessel, without a sign of contraband of war, or of
a chance of important usefulness about her; but she performed a
valuable function. I asked half a dozen times what her occupation
was before any one gave a satisfactory answer. Admiral Dewey told
the story in few words. She was a cold-storage ship, with beef and
mutton from Australia, compartments fixed for about forty degrees
below zero. Each day the meat for the American fleet's consumption was
taken out. There was a lot of it on the deck of the Olympia thawing
when I was a visitor; and the beef was "delicious." I am at pains
to give Dewey's word. While the Spaniards ashore were eating tough,
lean buffalo--the beasts of burden in the streets, the Americans
afloat rejoiced in "delicious" beef and mutton from Australia. It
was explained that the use of cold-storage meat depended upon giving
it time to thaw, for if it should be cooked in an icy state it would
be black and unpalatable, losing wholly its flavor and greatly its
nourishing quality. Australia is not many thousand miles from the
Philippines--and one must count miles by the thousands out there. The
Belgians have a smart Consul at Manila who is a friend of mankind.
One of the incidents in the battle of Manila--all are fresh in
the public memory--is that Admiral Dewey did not make use of the
conning-tower--a steel, bomb proof, for the security of the officer
in command of the ship--the Captain, of course, and the commander of
the fleet, if he will.
This retreat did not prove, in the battle of Yalu and the combats
between the Chileans and Peruvians, a place of safety; but as a rule
there is a considerable percentage of protection in its use. Admiral
Dewey preferred to remain on the bridge--and there were four fragments
of Spanish shells that passed close to him, striking within a radius
of fifteen feet. The Admiral, when told there had been some remark
because he had not occupied the conning-house in the action, walked
with me to the tower, the entrance to which is so guarded that it
resembles a small cavern of steel--with a heavy cap or lid, under
which is a circular slit, through which observations are supposed to
be made. "Try it," the Admiral said, "and you find it is hard to get
a satisfactory view." He added, when I had attempted to look over
the surroundings: "We will go to the bridge;" and standing on it he
annotated the situation, saying: "Here you have the whole bay before
you, and can see everything." I remarked: "The newspaper men are
very proud of the correspondent of the Herald who was with you on the
bridge;" and the Admiral said: "Yes; Stickney was right here with us."
There were many reasons for the officer commanding the American
fleet that day to watch closely the developments. The Spaniards had,
for their own purposes, even falsified the official charts of the
bay. Where our vessels maneuvered and the flagship drew twenty-two
feet of water and had nine feet under the keel, the chart called for
fifteen feet only!
It is not a secret that the President wanted Admiral Dewey, if
it was not in his opinion inconsistent with his sense of duty,
to go to Washington. Naturally the President would have a profound
respect for the Admiral's opinion as to the perplexing problem of the
Philippines. The Admiral did not think he should leave his post. He
could cover the points of chief interest in writing, and preferred
very much to do so, and stay right where he was "until this thing is
settled." The opinion of the Admiral as to what the United States
should do with, or must do about, the political relations of the
Philippines with ourselves and others, have not been given formal
expression; but it is safe to say they are not in conflict with his
feeling that the American fleet at Manila should be augmented with
gunboats, cruisers and two or three battle-ships. It was, in the
opinion of the illustrious Admiral, when the Peace Commission met in
Paris, the time and place to make a demonstration of the sea power
of the United States.
The personal appearance of Admiral Dewey is not presented with
attractive accuracy in the very familiar portrait of him that has
been wonderfully multiplied and replenished. The expression of the
Admiral is not truly given in the prints and photos. The photographer
is responsible for a faulty selection. The impression prevails that the
hero is "a little fellow." There is much said to the effect that he
is jaunty and has excess of amiability in his smile. He weighs about
180 pounds, and is of erect bearing, standing not less than five feet
ten inches and a quarter. His hair is not as white as the pictures
say. The artist who touched up the negative must have thought gray
hair so becoming that he anticipated the feast of coming years. The
figure of the Admiral is strong, well carried, firm, and his bearing
that of gravity and determination, but no pose for the sake of show,
no pomp and circumstance, just the Academy training showing in his
attitude--the abiding, unconscious grace that is imparted in the
schools of Annapolis and West Point--now rivaled by other schools in
"setting up." The Admiral is of solidity and dignity, of good stature
and proportions; has nothing of affectation in manners or insincerity
in speech; is a hearty, stirring, serious man, whose intensity is
softened by steady purposes and calm forces, and moderated by the
play of a sense of humor, that is not drollery or levity, but has a
pleasing greeting for a clever word, and yields return with a flash
in it and an edge on it.
CHAPTER II
Life in Manila.
Character of the Filipinos--Drivers Lashing Laboring Men in
the Streets--What Americans Get in Their Native Air--The Logic
of Destiny--Manila as She Fell into Our Hands--The Beds in the
Tropics--A Spanish Hotel--Profane Yells for Ice--Sad Scenes in the
Dining Room--Major-General Calls for "Francisco"--A Broken-Hearted
Pantry Woman.
The same marvelous riches that distinguish Cuba are the inheritance
of Luzon. The native people are more promising in the long run than
if they were in larger percentage of the blood of Spain, for they
have something of that indomitable industry that must finally work
out an immense redemption for the eastern and southern Asiatics. When,
I wonder, did the American people get the impression so extensive and
obstinate that the Japanese and Chinese were idlers? We may add as
having a place in this category the Hindoos, who toil forever, and,
under British government, have increased by scores of millions. The
southern Asiatics are, however, less emancipated from various
indurated superstitions than those of the East; and the Polynesians,
spread over the southern seas, are a softer people than those of the
continent. However, idleness is not the leading feature of life of the
Filipinos, and when they are mixed, especially crossed with Chinese,
they are indefatigable. On the Philippine Islands there is far less
servility than on the other side of the sea of China, and the people
are the more respectable and hopeful for the flavor of manliness that
compensates for a moderate but visible admixture of savagery. We of
North America may be proud of it that the atmosphere of our continent,
when it was wild, was a stimulant of freedom and independence. The red
Indians of our forests were, with all their faults, never made for
slaves. The natives of the West Indies, the fierce Caribs excepted,
were enslaved by the Spaniards, and perished under the lash. Our
continental tribes--the Seminoles and the Comanches, the Sioux and
Mohawks, the Black Feet and the Miamis--from the St. Lawrence to
Red River and the oceans, fought all comers--Spaniards, French and
English--only the French having the talent of polite persuasion and
the gift of kindness that won the mighty hunters, but never subjugated
them. We may well encourage the idea that the quality of air of the
wilderness has entered the soil. When, in Manila, I have seen the men
bearing burdens on the streets spring out of the way of those riding
in carriages, and lashed by drivers with a viciousness that no dumb
animal should suffer, I have felt my blood warm to think that the men
of common hard labor in my country would resent a blow as quickly as
the man on horseback--that even the poor black--emancipated the other
day from the subjugation of slavery by a masterful and potential race,
stands up in conscious manhood, and that the teachings of the day are
that consistently with the progress of the country--as one respects
himself, he must be respected--and that the air and the earth have the
inspiration and the stimulus of freedom. The Chinese and Japanese are
famous as servants--so constant, handy, obedient, docile, so fitted to
minister to luxury, to wait upon those favored by fortune and spurred
to execute the schemes for elevation and dominance, and find employment
in the enterprise that comprehends human advancement. It must be
admitted that the Filipinos are not admirable in menial service. Many
of them are untamed, and now, that the Americans have given object
lessons of smiting the Spaniards, the people of the islands that
Magellinos, the Portuguese, found for Spain, must be allowed a measure
of self-government, or they will assert a broader freedom, and do it
with sanguinary methods. As Americans have heretofore found personal
liberty consistent with public order--that Republicanism was more
stable than imperialism in peaceable administration, and not less
formidable in war, it seems to be Divinely appointed that our paths
of Empire may, with advantage to ourselves, and the world at large,
be made more comprehensive than our fathers blazed them out. But
one need not hesitate to go forward in this cause, for we have only
gone farther than the fathers dreamed, because, among their labors of
beneficence, was that of building wiser than they knew, and there is
no more reason now why we should stop when we strike the salt water
of the seas, and consent to it that where we find the white line of
surf that borders a continent we shall say to the imperial popular
Republic, thus far and no farther shalt thou go, and here shall thy
proud march be stayed--than there was that George Washington, as the
representative of the English-speaking people, should have assumed that
England and Virginia had no business beyond the Allegheny Mountains,
and, above all, no right to territory on the west of the Allegheny
and Kanawha, and north of the Ohio river, a territory then remote,
inhabited by barbarians and wanted by the French, who claimed the
whole continent, except the strip along the Atlantic possessed by the
English colonies. Washington was a believer in the acquisition of the
Ohio country. He was a man who had faith in land--in ever more land. It
is the same policy to go west now that it was then. Washington crossed
the Allegheny and held the ground. Jefferson crossed the Mississippi,
and sent Louis and Clark to the Pacific; and crossing the great western
ocean now is but the logic of going beyond the great western rivers,
prairies and mountains then. We walk in the ways of the fathers when
we go conquering and to conquer along the Eastward shores of Asia.
One of the expanding and teeming questions before the world now,
and the authority and ability to determine it, is in the hands of
the Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the United States, is whether
Manila shall become an American city, with all the broad and sweeping
significance attaching thereto. Manila was not dressed for company
when I saw her, for she had just emerged from a siege in which
the people had suffered much inconvenience and privation. The water
supply was cut off, and the streets were not cleaned. The hotels were
disorganized and the restaurants in confusion. The trees that once cast
a grateful shade along the boulevards, that extended into the country,
rudely denuded of their boughs, had the appearance of the skeletons
of strange monsters. The insurgent army was still in the neighborhood
in a state of uneasiness, feeling wronged, deprived, as they were,
of an opportunity to get even with the Spaniards, by picking out
and slaying some of the more virulent offenders. There was an immense
monastery, where hundreds of priests were said to be sheltered, and the
insurgents desired to take them into their own hands and make examples
of them. The Spaniards about the streets were becoming complacent. They
had heard of peace, on the basis of Spain giving up every thing,
but the Philippines, and there were expectations that the troops
withdrawn from Cuba might be sent from Havana to Manila, and then,
as soon as the Americans were gone, the islanders could be brought to
submission by vastly superior forces. There were more rations issued to
Spanish than to American soldiers, until the division of the Philippine
Expedition with Major-General Otis arrived, but the Americans were
exclusively responsible for the preservation of the peace between the
implacable belligerents, and the sanitary work required could not at
once be accomplished, but presently it was visible that something was
done every day in the right direction. There was much gambling with
dice, whose rattling could be heard far and near on the sidewalks,
but this flagrant form of vice was summarily suppressed, we may say
with strict truth, at the point of the bayonet. The most representative
concentration of the ingredients of chaos was at the Hotel Oriental,
that overlooked a small park with a dry fountain and a branch of the
river flowing under a stone bridge, with a pretty stiff current,
presently to become a crowded canal. It is of three lofty stories
and an attic, a great deal of the space occupied with halls, high,
wide and long. The front entrance is broad, and a tiled floor runs
straight through the house. Two stairways, one on either side, lead to
the second story, the first steps of stone. In the distance beyond,
a court could be seen, a passable conservatory--but bottles on a
table with a counter in front declared that this was a barroom, as
it was. The next thing further was a place where washing was done,
then came empty rooms that might be shops; after this a narrow and
untidy street, and then a livery stable--a sort of monopolistic cab
stand, where a few ponies and carriages were to be found--but no one
understood or did anything as long as possible, except to say that
all the rigs were engaged now and always. However, a little violent
English language, mixed with Spanish, would arouse emotion and excite
commotion eventuating in a pony in harness, and a gig or carriage,
and a desperate driver, expert with a villainous whip used without
occasion or remorse.
The cool place was at the front door, on the sidewalk, seated on a
hard chair, for there was always a breeze. The Spanish guests knew
where the wind blew, and gathered there discussing many questions
that must have deeply interested them. But they had something to eat,
no authority or ability to affect any sort of change, and unfailing
tobacco, the burning of which was an occupation. The ground floor of
the hotel, except the barroom, the washroom, the hall, the conservatory
and the hollow square, had been devoted to shop keeping, but the shop
keepers were gone, perhaps for days and perhaps forever! Stone is
not used to any great extent in house interiors, except within a few
feet of the surface of the earth. Of course, there is no elevator in
a Spanish hotel. That which is wanted is room for the circulation of
air. Above the first flight of stairs the steps have a deep dark red
tinge, and are square and long, so that each extends solidly across
the liberal space allotted to the stairway. The blocks might be some
stone of delightful color, but they are hewn logs, solid and smooth,
of a superb mahogany or some tree of harder wood and deeper luxuriance
of coloring. The bedrooms are immensely high, and in every way ample,
looking on great spaces devoted to wooing the air from the park and the
river. The windows are enormous. Not satisfied with the giant sliding
doors that open on the street, revealing windows--unencumbered with
sash or glass, there are sliding doors under the window sills, that
roll back right and left and offer the chance to introduce a current
of air directly on the lower limbs. One of the lessons of the tropics
is the value of the outer air, and architecture that gives it a chance
in the house. It is a precious education. The artificial light within
must be produced by candles, and each stupendous apartment is furnished
with one tallowy and otherwise neglected candle stick, and you can
get, with exertion, a candle four inches long. There is a wardrobe,
a wash stand, with pitcher and basin, and a commode, fans, chairs,
and round white marble table, all the pieces placed in solitude, so
as to convey the notion of lonesomeness. The great feature is the
bed. The bedstead is about the usual thing, save that there is no
provision for a possible or impossible spring mattress, or anything
of that nature. The bed space is covered with bamboo, platted. It is
hard as iron, and I can testify of considerable strength, for I rested
my two hundred pounds, and rising a few pounds, on this surface, with
no protection for it or myself for several nights, and there were no
fractures. There is spread on this surface a Manila mat, which is a
shade tougher and less tractable than our old style oilcloth. Upon
this is spread a single sheet, that is tucked in around the edges
of the mat, and there are no bed clothes, absolutely none. There
is a mosquito bar with only a few holes in it, but it is suspended
and cannot under any circumstances be used as a blanket. There is a
pillow, hard and round, and easy as a log for your cheek to rest upon,
and it is beautifully covered with red silk. There is a small roll,
say a foot long and four inches in diameter, softer than the pillow,
to a slight extent, and covered with finer and redder silk, that is
meant for the neck alone. The comparatively big red log is to extend
across the bed for the elevation it gives the head, and the little and
redder log, softer so that you may indent it with your thumb, saves the
neck from being broken on this relic of the Spanish inquisition. But
there is a comforter--not such a blessed caressing domestic comforter
as the Yankees have, light as a feather, but responsive to a tender
touch. This Philippine comforter is another red roll that must be a
quilt firmly rolled and swathed in more red silk; and it is to prop
yourself withal when the contact with the sheet and the mat on the
bamboo floor of the bedstead, a combination iniquitous as the naked
floor--becomes wearisome. It rests the legs to pull on your back, and
tuck under your knees. In the total absence of bed covering, beyond
a thin night shirt, the three red rolls are not to be despised. The
object of the bed is to keep cool, and if you do find the exertion
of getting onto--not into--the bed produces a perspiration, and the
mosquito bar threatens suffocation, reliance may be had that if you
can compose yourself on top of the sheet (which feels like a hard wood
floor, when the rug gives way on the icy surface and you fall) and
if you use the three rolls of hard substance, covered with red silk,
discreetly and considerately, in finding a position, and if you permit
the windows--no glass--fifteen feet by twelve, broadcast, as it were,
to catch the breath of the river and the park; if you can contrive
with infinite quiet, patience and pains to go to sleep for a few
hours, you will be cool enough; and when awakened shivering there is
no blanket near, and if you must have cover, why get under the sheet,
next the Manila mat, and there you are! Then put your troublesome and
probably aching legs over the bigger red roll, and take your repose! Of
course, when in the tropics you cannot expect to bury yourself in
bedclothing, or to sleep in fur bags like an arctic explorer. The
hall in front of your door is twelve feet wide and eighty long, lined
with decorative chairs and sofas, and in the center of the hotel is
a spacious dining room. The Spaniard doesn't want breakfast. He wants
coffee and fruit--maybe a small banana--something sweet, and a crumb
of bread. The necessity of the hour is a few cigarettes. His refined
system does not require food until later. At 12 o'clock he lunches,
and eats an abundance of hot stuff--fish, flesh and fowl--fiery
stews and other condolences for the stomach. This gives strength to
consider the wrongs of Spain and the way, when restored to Madrid,
the imbeciles, who allowed the United States to capture the last
sad fragments of the colonies, sacred to Spanish honor, shall be
crushed by the patriots who were out of the country when it was
ruined. It will take a long time for the Spaniards to settle among
factions the accounts of vengeance. One of the deeper troubles of the
Spaniards is that they take upon themselves the administration of the
prerogatives of him who said "Vengeance is mine." The American end of
the dining room contains several young men who speak pigeon Spanish,
and Captains Strong and Coudert are rapidly becoming experts, having
studied the language in school, and also on the long voyage out. There
are also a group of resident Englishmen and a pilgrim from Norway,
but at several tables are Americans who know no Spanish and are mad
at the Spaniards on that provocation among other things.
There is, however, a connecting link and last resort in the person
of a young man--a cross between a Jap and Filipino. He is slender
and pale, but not tall. His hair is roached, so that it stands up
in confusion, and he is wearied all the time about the deplorable
"help."' It is believed he knows better than is done--always a source
of unhappiness. His name is Francisco; his reputation is widespread. He
is the man who "speaks English"--and is the only one--and it is not
doubted that he knows at least a hundred words of our noble tongue. He
says, "What do you want?" "Good morning, gentlemen"; "What can I do for
you?" "Do you want dinner?" "No, there is no ice till 6 o'clock." He
puts the Americans in mind of better days. Behind this linguist is
a little woman, whose age might be twenty or sixty, for her face is
so unutterably sad and immovable in expression that there is not a
line in it that tells you anything but that there is to this little
woman a bitterly sad, mean, beastly world. She must be grieving over
mankind. It is her duty to see that no spoon is lost, and not an orange
or banana wasted, and her mournful eyes are fixed with the intensity
of despair upon the incompetent waiters, who, when hard pressed by wild
shouts from American officers, frantic for lack of proper nourishment,
fall into a panic and dance and squeal at each other; and then the
woman of fixed sorrow, her left shoulder thin and copper-colored,
thrust from her low-necked dress, her right shoulder protected, is in
the midst of the pack, with a gliding bound and the ferocity of a cat,
the sadness of her face taking on a tinge of long-suffering rage. She
whirls the fools here and there as they are wanted. Having disentangled
the snarl, she returns to the door from which her eyes command both
the pantry and the dining-room to renew her solemn round of mournful
vigilance. The Americans are outside her jurisdiction. She has no more
idea what they are than Christopher Columbus, when he was discovering
America, knew where he was going. When Francisco does not know what
the language (English) hurled at him means he has a far-away look,
and may be listening to the angels sing, for he is plaintive and
inexpressive. He looks so sorry that Americans cannot speak their
own language as he speaks English! But there are phrases delivered by
Americans that he understands, such as, "Blankety, blank, blank--you
all come here." Francisco does not go there, but with humble step
elsewhere, affecting to find a pressing case for his intervention,
but when he can no longer avoid your eye catching him he smiles a
sweet but most superior smile, such as becomes one who speaks English
and is the responsible man about the house.
There never was one who did more on a capital of one hundred words. His
labors have been lightened slightly, for the Americans have picked up a
few Spanish words, such as, "Ha mucher, mucher--don't you know? Hielo,
hielo!" Hielo is ice, and after the "mucher" is duly digested the
average waiter comes, by and by, with a lump as big as a hen's egg
and is amazed by the shouts continuing "hielo, hielo!" pronounced
much like another and wicked word.
"Oh, blanketination mucher mucher hielo!" The Filipinos cannot
contemplate lightly the consumption of slabs of ice. The last words
I heard in the dining-room of the Hotel Oriental were from a soldier
with two stars on each shoulder: "Francisco, oh, Francisco," and the
little woman with left shoulder exposed turned her despairing face
to the wall, her sorrow too deep for words or for weeping.
CHAPTER III
From Long Island To Luzon.
Across the Continent--An American Governor-General Steams Through
the Golden Gate--He Is a Minute-Man--Honolulu as a Health Resort--The
Lonesome Pacific--The Skies of Asia--Dreaming Under the Stars of the
Scorpion--The Southern Cross.
Spain, crowded between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, was the
world's "West" for many centuries, indeed until Columbus found a
further West, but he did not go far enough to find the East Indies. The
United States is now at work in both the East and West Indies.
Our Manila expeditions steamed into the sunsets, the boys pointing
out to each other the southern cross. The first stage of a journey,
to go half round the world on a visit to our new possession, was by
the annex boat from Brooklyn, and a rush on the Pennsylvania train,
that glimmers with gold and has exhausted art on wheels, to Washington,
to get the political latitude and longitude by observation of the two
domes, that of the Capitol, and the library, and the tremendous needle
of snow that is the monument to Washington, and last, but not least,
the superb old White House.
The next step was across the mountains on the Baltimore and Ohio,
the short cut between the East and the West, traversed so often by
George Washington to get good land for the extension of our national
foundations. The space between Cincinnati and Chicago is cleared on the
"Big Four" with a bound through the shadow of the earth, between two
rare days in June, and the next midnight, the roaring train flew high
over the Missouri River at Omaha, and by daylight far on the way to
Ogden. The country was rich in corn and grass, and when one beholds the
fat cattle, lamentations for the lost buffalo cease. It is a delight
to see young orchards and farmhouses, and cribs and sheds fortified
against tornadoes by groves, laid out with irritating precision to
confront the whirling storms from west and south. The broad bad lands
in which the tempests are raised devour the heart of the continent.
I made note of the 888-mile post beyond Omaha, but the 1,000-mile
telegraph pole and tree glided away while I was catching the lights
and shadows on a fearfully tumbled landscape. The alkali has poisoned
enormous tracts, and the tufts of sagebrush have a huge and sinister
monotony. Looking out early in the morning there was in our track
a "gaunt grey wolf" with sharp ears, unabashed by the roar of the
train. His species find occasional scraps along the track and do
not fear the trains. Then I saw something glisten in the herbage,
and it was a rattlesnake, if it were not a whisky bottle.
The gigantic lumps of tawny earth, with castellated crags of stone,
ghostly ruins one would say of cities that perished thousands of years
before the bricks were made for Babylon. Profound beds for vanished
torrents yawned into a scrap of green valley, and the glitter of a
thread of water. A town blossomed from a coal mine, and there was
an array of driven wells with force pumps to quench the thirst of
seething and raging locomotives. A turn in the line and a beautiful
cloud formation like billows of white roses, massive, delicately
outlined fantastic spires like marble mountains, carved--ah! the
cloud comes out clear as if it were a wall of pearl, and there are
the everlasting mighty hills with their brows of exquisite snow!
These are lofty reservoirs from which the long days glowing with
sunshine send down streams of water at whose touch the deserts
bloom. The eye is refreshed as we make a closer acquaintance of
the mountains. Where water flows and trees "wag their high tops"
there is hope of homes. There are canyons that cause one to smile
at remembrances of what were considered the dizzy gorges of the
Alleghenies. There is a glow as of molten lead in one corner of a misty
valley far away. It is Salt Lake, the Dead Sea of America. Beyond
this at an immense elevation is a lake with the tinge of the indigo
sky of the tropics. If one could stir a portion of the Caribbean Sea
into Lake Geneva, the correct tint could be obtained. Thirty miles
of snow sheds announce progress in the journey to the Pacific. There
is still heat and dust, but beside the road are villages; and there
are even fountains.
Each stream is a treasure, and its banks are rich with
verdure. There are sleek cows on bright grass. The mountains
are no longer forbidding. They take on robes of loveliness. The
valleys broaden and on the easy slopes there are orchards where the
oranges glisten. There are clusters of grapes. We have come upon that
magic land, California. There is golden music in the name. This is a
conquest. The war in which it was won was not one of philanthropy. We
gathered an empire.
General Merritt never minded the weather, whether the wind blew or
not, and instead of holding his ship for several hours after the
appointed time, wanted to know five minutes after 10 o'clock whether
the time for starting was not 10 o'clock and by whom the boat was
detained. At ten minutes after 10 the gangplank was swung free, with
a desperate man on it who scrambled on with the help of long legs and
a short rope. As the ship swung from the dock and got a move on there
were thousands of men and women exalted with emotion, and there were
crowded steamers and tugs toppling with swarming enthusiasts resounding
with brass bands and fluttering with streaming flags. The ladies were
especially frantic. Spurts of white smoke jetted from forts and there
were ringing salutes. Steam whistles pitched a tune beyond the fixed
stars. The national airs with thrilling trumpet tones pierced the
din, and a multitude of voices joined with the bands giving words and
tone to the magnetic storm. How many miles the Newport was pursued I
cannot conjecture. There were tall ladies standing on the high decks
of tugs that were half buried in the foam of the bay, but as long
as they could hold a "Star Spangled Banner" in one hand, and a few
handkerchiefs in another, their skirts streaming in grace and defiance
before the rising gale, they sang hosannas, and there were attitudes
both of triumph and despair as the fair followers, dashed with spray,
gave up the chase, passionately kissing their hands god-speed and
good-by. This was going to the Indies through the Golden Gate!
A breakage of dishes, that sounded as though the ship were going
to pieces, belied the prophesy that beyond the bar there was to
be no moaning; and the Pacific would not be pacified. However,
the reputation of the ocean was good enough to go to sleep on,
but the berths squirmed in sympathy with the twisting and plunging
ship. It was not a "sound of revelry by night," to which the wakeful
listened through the dismal hours, and in the morning there was a
high sea--grand rollers crowned with frothy lace, long black slopes
rising and smiting like waves of liquid iron.
The Pacific was an average North Atlantic, and it was explained by the
tale that the peaceful part of this ocean is away down South where the
earth is most rotund, and the trade winds blow on so serenely that they
lull the navigators into dreams of peace that induce a state of making
haste slowly and a willingness to forget and be forgotten, whether--
Of those who husbanded the golden grain
Or those who flung it to the winds like rain,
The gulls are not our snowy birds of the Atlantic. We are lonesome
out here, and the Albatross sweeps beside us, hooded like a cobra,
an evil creature trying to hoodoo us, with owlish eyes set in a frame
like ghastly spectacle glasses.
General Merritt's blue eyes shone like diamonds through the stormy
experiences while the young staff officers curled up as the scientists
did on the floor, and smiled a sort of sickly smile! The highest
compliment that can be paid them is that the group of officers
and gentlemen surrounding the commander of the expedition to the
Philippines, express his own character.
It was funny to find that the private soldiers were better served
with food than the General and his staff. There was reform, so as
to even up the matter of rations, but the General was not anxious
and solicitous for better food. His idea of the correct supper after
a hard day's service is a goodly sized sliced onion with salt, meat
broiled on two sticks, hard tack, a tin cup of coffee, for luxuries a
baked potato, a pipe of tobacco, a nip of whisky, a roll in a blanket
and a sleep until the next day's duties are announced by the bugle.
As the gentlemen of the staff got their sea legs, and flavored
the narration of their experiences with humor, I found myself in a
cloudy state and mentioned a small matter to the brigadier surgeon,
who whipped out a thermometer and took my temperature, and that man of
science gave me no peace night or day, and drove me from the ship into
Paradise--that is to say I was ordered to stay at Honolulu. Through
a window of the Queen's hospital I saw lumps of tawny gold that were
pomegranates shaking in the breeze, another tree glowed with dates,
and a broad, vividly green hedge was rich with scarlet colors. I was
duly examined by physicians, who were thorough as German specialists. I
had, in the course of a few hours, a nap, a dish of broth, a glass
of milk, a glass of ice water and an egg nog. That broth flowed like
balm to the right spot. It was chicken broth. When I guzzled the egg
nog I would have bet ten to one on beating that fever in a week, and
the next morning about 4:30, when there was competitive crowing by a
hundred roosters, I was glad of the concert, for it gave assurance of
a supply of chickens to keep up the broth and the eggs that disguised
the whiskey.
Two days later I gave up the egg nog because it was too good for
me. I knew I did not deserve anything so nice, and suspected it was a
beneficence associated with a cloud on my brow. I had the approval of
the hospital physician as to egg nog, and he cut off a lot of dainties
sent by the Honolulu ladies, who must have imagined that I was one
of the heroes of the war. Their mission is to make heroes happy. I
was detained under the royal palms, and other palms that were planted
by the missionaries, four weeks, and got away on the ship Peru with
Major-General Otis, and when we had gone on for a fortnight, as far
as from the Baltic to Lake Erie, we saw some rocks that once were
Spanish property.
As we left Honolulu the air was already a-glitter with Star Spangled
Banners. There are three great points to be remembered as to the
annexation of Hawaii:
1. There is not to be a continuance of the slavery of Asiatics in
the new possession.
2. "Manhood suffrage" is not to be extended to Asiatics, often actually
as under strictly conventional constitutional construction.
3. The archipelago is to be a United States territory, but not a
State of the United States. Ex-President Harrison says in his most
interesting book: "This Country of Ours," which should be one of our
national school books:
"Out of the habit of dealing with the public domain has come the common
thought that all territory that we acquire must, when sufficiently
populous, be erected into States. But why may we not take account
of the quality of the people as well as of their numbers, if future
acquisitions should make it proper to do so? A territorial form
of government is not so inadequate that it might not serve for an
indefinite time."
It is to be remarked of the Hawaiian Islands that they did not possess
the original riches of timber that distinguished the West Indies,
especially Cuba, where Columbus found four varieties of oranges. One
of the features of Hawaiian forestry is the Royal Palm, but it was
not indigenous to the islands. The oldest of the stately royalists
is not of forty years' growth, and yet they add surprising grace to
many scenes, and each year will increase their height and enhance
their beauty.
Hawaiians will be saved from extinction by miscegenation. There will
be no harm done these feeble people by the shelter of the flag of the
great republic. The old superstitions prevail among them to an extent
greater than is generally understood. I had the privilege of visiting
an American home, the background of which was a rugged mountain
that looked like a gigantic picture setting forth the features of
a volcanic world. Far up the steep is a cave in which the bones of
many of the old savages were deposited in the days of civil war and
inhuman sacrifices. The entrance was long ago--in the days the Hawaii
people describe as "Before the Missionaries." The hole going to the
holy cavern was closed, but there is still pious watching over the
place of bones, and if there are climbers of the mountain not to be
trusted with the solemn secrets of ancient times, they are stalked
by furtive watchmen of the consecrated bones, and no doubt the ever
alert sentinels would resist violation of the sepulchre in the rocks;
and the natives are careful to scatter their special knowledge that
the spot is haunted by supernatural shapes and powers. The Americans
living in the midst of these mysteries are rather proud of the ghosts
they never see, but have to put up with the haunting guard still
ministering to the gods that dwelt in the shrines where the shadows
of extinct volcanoes fall, long before the masterful missionaries
planted their first steps in the high places.
After twenty-two days' steaming from San Francisco--Queen's Hospital
time not counted--we were directly south of China's Yellow Sea,
and within a few hours of sighting the isle of Luzon.
Only at Honolulu, all the way from San Francisco, was there a sail or a
smoke not of a vessel of the Philippine expedition. All the long days
and nights the eye swept the horizon for companionship, finding only
that of our associates in adventure, and very little of them. Even the
birds seem to shrink from the heart of the watery world spread between
America and Asia; and the monsters of the deep are absent. One day,
about a thousand miles from California, a story spread of a porpoise
at play, but the lonely creature passed astern like a bubble. Bryant
sang of the water fowl that flew from zone to zone, guided in certain
flight on the long way over which our steps are led aright, but the
Pacific zones are too broad for even winged wanderers. The fish that
swarm on our coast do not seem to find home life or sporting places
in this enormous sea. Only the flying fish disturb the silky scene and
flutter with silver wings over the sparkling laces that glisten where
the winds blow gently, and woo the billows to cast aside the terrors
of other climes and match the sky of blue and gold in beauty; but,
unlike the stars, the waves do not differ in glory, and the spread
of their splendor, when they seem to roll over a conquered universe,
appeals to the imagination with the solemn suggestion not that order
rules but that old chaos settles in solemn peace. The days terminate
on this abyss in marvelous glories. The glowing spectacle is not
in the west alone, but the gorgeous conflagration of the palaces we
build in dreams spreads all around the sky. The scene one evening in
the vicinity of the sun departing in Asia to light up the morning
of the everlasting to-morrow touching America with magical riches,
was that of Niagara Falls ten thousand times magnified and turned
to molten gold, that burned with inconceivable luster, while the
south and north and east were illuminated with strange fires and
soft lights, fading and merged at last in the daffodil sky. Then
the west became as a forest of amazing growth, and the ship entered
its dusky recesses like a hunter for game such as the world never
saw--and we looked upon the slow-fading purple islands that are the
northern fringes of the greater one of the Philippines, and studied
the rather faint and obscure Southern Cross and the stately sheen of
the superb constellation of the Scorpion. It is a pity to have to say
that the Cross of the South is a disappointment--has to be explained
and made impressive by a diagram. It is more like a kite than a
cross; has a superfluous star at one corner, and no support at all
of the idea of being like a cross unless it is worked up and picked
into the fancy. The North Star shines on the other side of the ship,
and the Great Dipper dips its pointers after midnight, into the mass
of darkness that is the sea when the sun and moon are gone.
The voyage from Honolulu to the farther Pacific was not so long that we
forgot the American send-off we got in that Yankee city. The national
airs sounded forth gloriously and grand. Flags and hankerchiefs
fluttered from dense masses of spectators, and our colors were radiant
above the roofs. There was, as usual, a mist on the mountains, and
over Pearl Harbor glowed the arch of the most vivid rainbow ever
seen, and Honolulu is almost every day dipped in rainbows. This
was a wonder of splendor. The water changed from a sparkling green
to a darkly luminous blue. From the moment the lofty lines of the
coast--our mountains now--faded, till the birds came out of the west,
the Pacific Ocean justified its name. The magnificent monotony of its
stupendous placidity was not broken except by a few hours of ruffled
rollers that tell of agitations that, if gigantic, are remote.
The two thousand and one hundred miles from California to Honolulu
seemed at first to cover a vast space of the journey from our Pacific
coast to the Philippines, but appeared to diminish in importance
as we proceeded and were taught by the persistent trade winds that
blew our way, as if forever to waft us over the awful ocean whose
perpetual beauty and placidity were to allure us to an amazing abyss,
from which it was but imaginative to presume that we, in the hands of
infinite forces, should ever be of the travelers that return. Similar
fancies beset, as all the boys remember--the crews of the caravels
that carried Columbus and his fortunes. There were the splendors of
tropical skies to beguile us; the sea as serene as the sky to enchant
us! What mighty magic was this that put a spell upon an American army,
seeking beyond the old outlines of our history and dreams, to guide
us on unfamiliar paths? What was this awakening in the soft mornings,
to the thrilling notes of the bugle? The clouds were not as those
we knew in other climes and years. We saw no penciling of smoke on
the edges of the crystal fields touched up with dainty ripples too
exquisite to be waves--that which is a delight for a moment and passes
but to come again, in forms too delicate to stay for a second, save
in those pictures that in the universe fill the mind with memories
that arc like starlight. The glancing tribes of flying fish became
events. We followed the twentieth parallel of longitude north of the
equator, right on, straight as an arrow's flight is the long run of the
ship--her vapor and the bubbles that break from the waters vanishing,
so that we were as trackless when we had passed one breadth after
another of the globe, as the lonesome canoes of the Indians on the
Great Lakes.
CHAPTER IV
Interview with General Aguinaldo.
The Insurgent Leader's Surroundings and Personal Appearance--His
Reserves and Ways of Talking--The Fierce Animosity of the Filipinos
Toward Spanish Priests--A Probability of Many Martyrs in the Isle
of Luzon.
Practically all persons in the more civilized--and that is to say the
easily accessible--portions of the Philippine Islands, with perhaps
the exception of those leading insurgents who would like to enjoy the
opportunities the Spaniards have had for the gratification of greed
and the indulgence of a policy of revenge, would be glad to see the
Americans remain in Manila, and also in as large a territory as they
could command.
Spaniards of intelligence are aware that they have little that is
desirable to anticipate in case the country is restored to them along
with their Mausers and other firearms, great and small, according to
the terms of capitulation. They get their guns whether we go and leave
them or we stay and they go. It is obvious that the insurgents have
become to the Spaniards a source of anxiety attended with terrors. The
fact that they allowed themselves to be besieged in Manila by an
equal number of Filipinos is conclusive that their reign is over, and
they are not passionately in favor of their own restoration. Their
era of cruel and corrupt government is at an end, even if we shall
permit them to make the experiment. Their assumed anxiety to stay,
is false pretense. They will be hurt if they do not go home.
The exasperation of the Filipinos toward the church is a phenomenon,
and they usually state it with uncandid qualifications of the
inadequate definition of the opinions and policy made by General
Aguinaldo. Representations of my representative character as an
American journalist, that gave me an importance I do not claim or
assume to have, caused the appearance at my rooms, in Manila, of
insurgents of high standing and comprehensive information, and of
large fortunes in some cases. I was deeply impressed by their violent
radicalism regarding the priests. At first they made no distinction,
but said flatly the priests were the mischiefmakers, the true tyrants,
and next to the half-breed Filipinos crossed with Chinese--who are
phenomenal accumulators of pecuniary resources--the money-makers,
who profited wrongfully by the earnings of others.
And so "the priests must go," they said, and have no choice except
that of deportation or execution. In few words, if they did not go
away they would be killed. When close and urgent inquiry was made, the
native priests were not included in the application of this rule. The
Spanish priests were particularly singled out for vengeance, and with
them such others as had been "false to the people" and treacherous
in their relations to political affairs.
The number to be exiled or executed was stated at 3,000. The priests
are panicky about this feeling of the natives, as is in evidence in
their solicitude to get away. They at least have no hope of security if
the Spaniards should regain the mastery of the islands. Two hundred and
fifty of them in vain sought to get passage to Hongkong in one boat. I
was informed on authority that was unquestionable that the eviction
or extermination of the Spanish priests was one of the inevitable
results of Filipine independence--the first thing to be done.
It was with three objects in view that I had an interview with General
Aguinaldo: (1) To ascertain exactly as possible his feeling and policy
toward the United States and its assertion of military authority;
(2) to inquire about his position touching the priests, (3) and to
urge him to be at pains to be represented not only at Washington, but
at Paris. As regards the latter point, it was clear that the people
of the Philippines, whatever they might be, ought to be represented
before the Paris conference. No matter what their case was, it should
be personally presented, even if the representatives were witnesses
against rather than for themselves. In the interest of fair play
and the general truth the Philippine population should put in an
appearance at the seat of the government of the United States for the
information of the President, and at the scene of the conference to
testify; and I was sure it would appear in all cases that they were
at least better capable of governing themselves than the Spaniards
to govern them. There could be no form of government quite so bad
as that of the fatal colonial system of Spain, as illustrated in the
Philippines and in the Americas.
General Aguinaldo was neither remote nor inaccessible. His headquarters
were in an Indian village, just across the bay, named Bacoor, and
in less than an hour a swift steam launch carried Major Bell, of the
bureau of information, a gallant and most industrious and energetic
officer, and myself, to water so shallow that we had to call canoes to
land in front of a church that before the days of Dewey was riddled
by the fire of Spanish warships because occupied by insurgents. The
walls and roof showed many perforations. The houses of the village
were of bamboo, and there were many stands along the hot and dusty
street on which fruit was displayed for sale.
The General's house was about as solid a structure as earthquakes
permit, its roof of red tile instead of the usual straw. His rooms
were in the second story, reached by a broad stairway, at the top
of which was a landing of liberal dimensions and an ante-room. The
General was announced at home and engaged in writing a letter to
General Merritt--then his rather regular literary exercise. There
were a dozen insurgent soldiers at the door, and as many more at the
foot and head of the stairs, with several officers, all in military
costume, the privates carrying Spanish Mausers and the officers wearing
swords. We were admitted to an inner room, with a window opening on
the street, and told the General would see us directly. Meanwhile
well-dressed ladies of his family passed through the audience room
from the General's office to the living rooms, giving a pleasant
picture of domesticity.
The door from the study opened and a very slender and short young
man entered with a preoccupied look that quickly became curious. An
attendant said in a low voice, "General Aguinaldo." He was unexpectedly
small--could weigh but little over 100 pounds--dressed in pure white,
and his modesty of bearing would have become a maiden. The first
feeling was a sort of faint compassion that one with such small
physical resources should have to bear the weighty responsibilities
resting upon him. Major Bell had often met him, and introduced
me. The General was gratified that I had called, and waited for the
declaration of my business. He had been informed of my occupation;
the fact that I had recently been in Washington and expected soon
to be there again; was from Ohio, the President's state, a friend of
his, and had written a book on Cuba, a task which gave me, as I had
visited the Island of Cuba during the war, an acquaintance with the
Spanish system of governing colonies.
The interpreter was a man shorter than the General, but not quite so
slight. His hair was intensely black and he wore glasses. He is an
accomplished linguist, speaks English with facility and is acknowledged
by the priests to be the equal of any of them in reading and speaking
Latin. It is to be remarked that while Aguinaldo is not a man of
high education he has as associates in his labors for Philippine
independence a considerable number of scholarly men. It is related
that in a recent discussion between a priest and an insurgent, the
latter stated as a ground of rebellion that the Spaniards did nothing
for the education of the people, and was asked, "Where did you get
your education?" He had been taught by the Jesuits.
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