on the seventeenth day of may the thirteenth regiment and two battalions of the 23d regiment went on board the spanish transport, "leon," and sailed for the island of jolo.
i was a member of one of the battalions of the 23d. we boarded the "leon" under a spanish crew and sailed under the spanish flag. the "leon" was a large vessel of rapid speed, and made the run from manila to the island of jolo in a little more than forty-eight hours, a distance of 800 miles south of manila. land was in sight almost the entire voyage. we passed through straits and seas, by iloilo on the island of panay, cebu, negros island, through the sea of jolo to zamboanga on the island of mindanao, and to jolo. the group of islands forming the sulu archipelago is the southern islands of the philippines. the "leon" sailed into the jolo bay in the evening on the nineteenth of may. a large force of spanish soldiers was stationed in the town performing garrison duty. our force was to relieve them, and they were to return to spain on the transport "leon." on the twentieth of may we went ashore. the spanish soldiers seemed to be very glad to be relieved and return to spain.
the garrison was short of rations, and the[pg 69] soldiers were living very hard when we relieved them. these spanish soldiers were the last who left the philippines for spain.
we were landed in small boats, which could not carry very many men. the boats were rowed by chinese. all supplies have to be carried in by these small boats. it is a very slow and tedious piece of work to land the contents of a large ship, and requires several days to do the work.
captain pratt was in command, and company e was ordered out to the block house, which stands about one thousand yards back of jolo, and towards the mountains. a guard detail was made out, and the spanish soldiers were relieved. i relieved the first spanish of his post at jolo. when i approached him he began to speak in spanish and tried to make me understand what, i supposed, were his orders he was turning over to me. i could not understand him, and told him to go. of course i had enough orders without his, if that was what he was trying to explain to me.
the spanish went to work with a rush getting everything ready to leave. they had been there for a long time. i learned that the commanding officer, who was an old man, had been there twenty-eight years. in the evening at two o'clock the spanish flag on the block house was hauled down by the spanish soldiers and the americans unfurled to the breeze the stars and stripes. the spanish seemed to be very much grieved, the officers wept; the americans were jubilant. everything passed into our hands, and the various responsibilities of the place with all its [pg 70]dangers also passed to us. the natives, who belong to the mono tribe, are treacherous. we knew nothing about them and their intentions. guards were put on duty at once, six being around the block house so that a morro could not get in if the attempt were made to enter it, and thus made it a place of security to our troops. the morros a few years ago massacred more than one hundred spanish soldiers in the block house astora. it was a cruel and treacherous piece of cunning of savage barbarians. the morros had been warring against the authority of spain, and causing the spanish troops much trouble. at last apparently tired of rebelling, the morros agreed to make peace with the spanish. according to an ancient custom of the morros, when making peace with an enemy they would give pearls or some other gift to their enemy. the captain of that morro company was going to make peace, according to this custom, and taking some fine pearls and a body guard of one hundred of his men he entered the enclosure where the spanish soldiers were lined up in two columns with unloaded arms to receive them. the morro captain and his body guard marched between these lines, and as the guard neared the spanish captain the morro advanced with his pearls, and getting near the spaniard instead of giving him the pearls he quickly drew his sword and dealt the spanish captain a death blow. the morros, who understood the prearranged treachery, opened fire on the spaniards, who were helpless with unloaded guns, and the entire garrison of more than one hundred men was massacred except one man,[pg 71] who, in the noise and consternation, succeeded in crawling into a sewer pipe, and through it into a big stream of water, and escaped without injury. the morros gave the spanish a great deal of trouble, probably as much as any other tribe of the philippines. the morros have a bad record. i believe that i had rather fight the other tribes than the morros; they are more treacherous than other tribes. they go armed all the time with the bolo, a large knife carried in a wooden scabbard. from the oldest man down to little boys, they all carry the bolo or a big knife. i have seen old men, so feeble they could scarcely walk, carrying a fine bolo. they will not part with them day or night, but keep them as their only friend, refusing to let any one take them from their hands to merely look at them. these arms are very fine, and range in cost from five to fifty dollars. they are manufactured of the very finest steel, the handle of many of them is made of silver and finely engraved. the edge is kept very sharp. the blow of this dangerous weapon is generally enough to kill a man. i was informed that a morro never struck his enemy but two blows with his bolo, one on each side; if that did not disable him the morro would run for his life.
a steel armor is worn by a few of them, to furnish protection to their bodies. but most of the tribe would rather risk their life than wear anything, even clothing. only a piece of cloth is worn around the waist and loins. in this piece of cloth is carried a box containing a stuff to chew called beadle nut. only the married men are allowed to use this, as they have a law [pg 72]prohibiting its use by the single men. it is a soft green nut growing on a tree which looks very much like a hickory tree. a piece of the nut is placed on a leaf, which is always carried in the chewing box, and some salve is also placed on the leaf, then the piece of nut and the salve is rolled up in the leaf, and the chew is ready for use. the married men can be very easily distinguished from the unmarried ones simply by the use of this, which makes the chewer's mouth as red as red paint and the teeth black. the teeth of the single men are very white, but just as soon as one marries he begins chewing beadle nuts, making his mouth red and teeth black in a few days. their marriage customs are not exactly like ours in america. a morro can marry a woman, or buy one for a price ranging from fifty dollars up to one hundred and twenty-five dollars. after marrying a woman or buying one, if she doesn't suit her husband he doesn't have to wait for a court to set aside the marriage, but can simply let her go and proceed to get another in the same manner.
the men are prohibited from having a plurality of wives at one time, but are allowed to have just as many as they desire, simply getting rid of one and then getting another.
the women wear big legged trousers, which only reach down to the knees. sometimes women are seen with more clothes on, but they look as if they were torn almost off. the clothing of both men and women is worn out before they ever change. a few who lived in the towns wore more clothing than those in the country. the[pg 73] men wore pants which seemed to cling to the skin, they were so tight. those in town were no cleaner than outsiders. they get so filthy and slick that an american can smell one as far almost as he can see. the more clothes a morro wears the filthier he is. those wearing no clothing, except the girdle around the loins, are the less filthy. nothing is worn on the head and feet.
leprosy is a common malady, as well as numerous other diseases of the skin. all of which doubtless arises from the filthy habits of the people. doby itch is very common. it is a very bad skin disease, and hard to cure when it gets a firm hold, and will have fatal results in a few years in that warm climate. one doctor said that it would require three or four years' careful treatment to cure an acute case of doby itch in another climate.
almost every day i saw a bad case of it. the legs will become swollen, and large knots and tumors cover them until walking is extremely painful. it is easy to contract doby itch. about two weeks after i reached manila the first time, i discovered a small sore spot on my leg, which looked like ringworm. i was informed that it was doby itch, and that i should have it doctored before it spread. i began to treat it, and it itched seemingly to the bone, and began to scatter. i would wake at night scratching and clawing the itching spot, and lie awake for two and three hours. i had to trim my finger nails closely to keep from ruining my leg scratching it. it continued this way for several days before i checked it. many[pg 74] of our soldiers had a similar experience, some of them much worse than mine. i guarded against it afterward, using all the precaution i could to avoid it. a friend of mine who enlisted when i did, caught a severe case of the doby itch which kept him in an almost helpless condition for eight months. he was finally discharged for disability, a wreck for life, without anything but a small pension of about eight dollars per month.
to the morros again. there is a class whose religious teaching is that when one of them kills seven white men he will go to a better country when he dies. he thus makes sure of his entrance to what is heaven in their religious belief.
the americans soon learned to distinguish one of this class, and watched them very closely. one of them will not wait for much of a chance to kill a white man, but will make his chance to do his deadly work. i have seen a great many of them, and know that they attempted to kill our men on duty as out-posts. they would not have any guns and would go to the walls of the fort and try to scale them to get to the americans and kill them with bolos. without trying to kill them the soldiers would shoot towards them to drive them away. when one of their number dies the grave is dug one day and early the following morning the funeral begins. every one carries something to eat, a big bottle full of beno (a native beverage) and a bottle of whiskey. four men carry the corpse on two small poles, all the others fall in behind in column of twos and then they proceed to the graveyard, drinking[pg 75] their beverage and enjoying themselves. the crowd stays at the graveyard all day, and drink and carouse until they are well filled with liquor, and all get drunk. this is the program every time one of them is buried. it is a big picnic for them.
once a year regularly they prepare some of the best rations they have and carry them to the graves and leave them there through the night, believing that these are enjoyed by the dead. i learned that this was an ancient custom of theirs, having been learned probably from the chinese.
the morros seem not to care for anything, not even for life. a large number, probably two-thirds, never had any home. they did not know where they would go, and seemed not to care.
some of the islands had two or more tribes of negroes, who would have a governor to each tribe and make laws for themselves. if natives of one tribe crossed the line into the territory of another and stole fruits, cocoanuts, of anything else, and the injured tribe could catch the thief or thieves, their heads were cut off and their bodies left on the spot. this is according to their laws. beheading for theft, and leaving the bodies where they were beheaded. i have seen five or six in this condition two or three times.
one tribe would sometimes array itself against another for battle and fight till great numbers of them were killed. our troops stopped several such battles by going out where they commenced to fight. as soon as we would arrive they would stop fighting, and there seemed to be an end of the trouble between them. they appeared to be[pg 76] in great fear of our guns. they have a few old rusty guns, which are only used to fight enemies of other countries; never using them to fight each other with. when general bates made a treaty of peace with the sultan of jolo, the sultan was received by general bates the first sunday in may, 1900; we were drawn up in line and presented arms to his excellency. the sultan was to maintain peace on the island of jolo, for which he was to receive 500 dollars mexican coin every month. we presented arms to him, and were forced to treat him with great honors. i can assure the reader that for myself it would have been more pleasant to have gone out to meet him on the battlefield, and when i speak thus i feel safe to make the assertion that many more were of the same disposition.
after these formalities were over i had opportunity of examining the guns of the sultan's body guard, also the ammunition. the guns were so rusty that i would have considered it safer to be shot at by one of them than to shoot the gun. the barrels were almost closed with rust.
a lot of the bullets were wrapped with cloth, and stuck in the shells. some of the bullets were loose, and some were driven in very tight. all of the shells had the appearance of being in use a long time, and that they had been fired as many times as they would stand.
a man was taking his life in his hands to go out into the country alone. many people have been killed in this way. there is a tribe that would cut[pg 77] off a man's head for amusement, or to see how it looks.
guards were kept on duty all the time, and no american was permitted to go outside of the wall without having a pass. this was kept up for a long time after we went to jolo, and was then restricted to one thousand yards from the fort, and no less than four men together. the morros gave us very little trouble, doubtless the result of extreme caution. they never had an opportunity of making any demonstration, so it is uncertain what they would have attempted had the opportunity been given them. they are too treacherous to be trusted about anything whatever.
they have very little knowledge of firearms; probably the only guns they ever had, and also those of the sultan's body guard, were old, worn-out guns given or sold to them by the spanish. with our improved rifles i believe that one man could withstand the attack of twenty of them armed with bolos, that is to say, were the american in some fortification, and opened fire on the morros when they came in his range. they, of course, would not fight in this way, their method being one of sneaking treachery. they slip up behind the unsuspecting victim and behead him with their bolo.
i was anxious for them to engage the americans in a fight. i desired to know something more of their methods, but they seemed not to care to fight us. they are a wandering people, seemingly with no definite purpose. as night suits their sneaking better than open day time they do as much traveling, or more, in the night than in the day time. they could be seen on the hills[pg 78] around jolo with torches moving about all night. when we first went to jolo and saw these torches at night we thought they were signals, and close watch was kept on their movements.
they evidently made some preparations for resisting us at first, and stored away such arms as they could obtain, for later i saw twenty-eight new mauser rifles hidden in an abandoned house on the beach. another soldier and i secured a pass and went, at the risk of our lives, beyond the limit of our pass, and on this outing discovered the hidden mausers. we went up the beach about fifteen miles, and went into two towns where there were a great many morros. we watched their movements very closely, and kept at some distance from them, and never bothered anything or any one. they watched us very closely, and acted to us very strangely, but made no effort to get near us. we were a little frightened and thought it safer to get away from them, when we started on our return, the nearest and quickest route that we could. our pistols were no doubt the instrument of keeping them away from us, and at the same time tempted them to kill us to secure them.
some of the soldiers were afterwards killed, and their guns and cartridges taken. it was very dangerous for two or three men to be out in the woods away from any help. in the mountains of jolo and mindanao are wild cannibals, who would kill and eat a white man should he be found in their midst. we were not allowed to go out in the mountains, but the places where we were prohibited from going by orders of the [pg 79]commanders were the places most desirable of all for us to slip out and go to. the dangers to us by going out were only fascinating rather than hindering.
it was my belief while there that the natives were gathering up and storing away arms and ammunition preparatory for resisting the americans when they thought the proper opportunity was offered. the guns i saw hidden in the house on the beach, and many other things, led me to this belief. they claimed to have some big guns posted back in the mountain. whether this was true or not i am unable to say, for we never went to ascertain the correctness of the story. while stationed at jolo a vessel arrived loaded with ammunition for the sultan. it was discovered and taken into custody by the custom house guards.
