y way of the Baler river--as
the town of Baler where the Spanish garrison was located is some two
miles up the river from where it empties into the Pacific ocean, and
the American troops were too greatly outnumbered by the Filipinos to
make a land expedition safe,--she suggested to them the advisability
of fortifying the river at specific intervals along either bank and
of taking the precaution to cover the fortifications with freshly-cut
brush so that the Americans could not locate them for the purpose of
bombarding them in case they saw fit to load some of the smaller cannon
on cascoes and make their way up the river for an attack in that way.

The Filipinos took her suggestions, and the entrenchments and places
for the sentries were quickly, yet very wisely, arranged. It was
during the dry season and the river was very low at the time. This
made it possible to dig ditches on the sand bars which extended far
out into the stream; and by throwing into the river the loose sand
taken therefrom, to conceal these entrenchments by strewing over them
some fresh-cut limbs and old under brush which had the appearance of
having drifted to their lodgment.

The Yorktown arrived off the mouth of the Baler river, April 11, as
scheduled. Ensign Stanley went ashore, under a flag of truce, where,
to his surprise, he was cordially received by the Filipino officers;
but their exceptionally good behavior and the twinkle of their eyes
told only too plainly to the ensign that something was wrong. He
therefore returned to the Yorktown without having accomplished anything
in particular.

The next morning, at four o'clock, Lieutenant Gilmore and sixteen
brave associates left the Yorktown in a row boat, and entered the
mouth of the river. Ensign Stanley and Quartermaster Lysac were put
ashore to reconnoiter. In a few minutes daylight broke forth and
those left in the boat were discovered by the Filipino sentry who
was walking his beat along the shore. He gave the alarm. Lieutenant
Gilmore and his party could easily have pulled out to sea and gotten
away, but humanity forbade it. What would become of the two scouts
who went ashore? Their comrades in the boat could not desert them,
so they rowed up the river into the very jaws of impending danger.

Presently out of a concealed trench hundreds of armed Filipinos
opened a deadly fire on Gilmore and his comrades, at only fifty yards
distance. The water at this point was shallow. The boat got stu