The raids of the Moros on the coast towns were checked by Pershing's
brilliant victory at Bayan. But the tribe though defeated in this battle
were by no means conquered. They were obdurate and their long experience
with the Spaniards made them confident of their ability to hold off the
new invading force.

Six hundred hot-headed Moros were ready to defend their fortress--the
first of forty similar ones,--in the crater of an extinct volcano. The
most hot-headed of all was the leader, the Sultan of Bacolod. Walls of
earth and bamboo, forty feet in thickness, had been added to the
natural defenses. A moat forty feet wide and thirty feet deep surrounded
the position. The defenders believed it was proof against every possible
attack.

With five hundred of his own men and an equal number of selected
Filipino scouts Pershing advanced. The march was difficult and slow, for
in many places the troops were compelled to cut a pathway through dense
jungles and all the way they were exposed to sudden and fierce attacks
by the fanatical Moros. But Pershing relentlessly pushed forward and at
last arrived at the foot of the mountain on which the Moros had
confidently gathered in their supposedly impregnable stronghold,--"proof
against all attacks."

Not a day was lost. Quietly the leader remarked that he would "take the
place if it took ten years to capture it"--a remark that reminds one of
a similar declaration by another American soldier that he would "fight
it out on this line if it takes all summer."

First, his jungle fighters cut a trail entirely around the base of the
mountain, at the same time doing their utmost to protect themselves
against attacks from the Moros who were as skillful in this work as they
were in nearly every phase of fighting in the jungle. The men were
compelled also to protect themselves from attacks from above, for it was
a favorite method of the Moros by unexpected attacks, in rushes of wild
fury, to scatter their enemies when they tried to ascend.

The soldiers speedily formed a complete cordon around the mountain and
the siege promptly began. Pershing knew what the Moros did not know that
he knew,--when they had withdrawn to their stronghold they had done so
in such haste that they neglected or were unable to bring with them
supplies sufficient for a long siege, and not many days would pass
before the necessity of obtaining food would compel them to try to break
the iron ring about them and to sen