became a black abomination. The very towels in
our staterooms left grimy, unpremeditated streaks on face and hands.

During this period I do protest that we suffered those torments
usually reserved for the unregenerate, and as the furnace over which
the town is built was several degrees hotter each trip than on the
previous visit, we were thus precluded from going ashore to either
of the badly managed hotels for which the place is infamous.

So dangerous was the country around Cebu in those days that one
afternoon on a little drive to an encampment about four miles from the
town, we were escorted there and back by a guard of armed soldiers on
horseback, some of them heading the cavalcade, the others bringing up
the rear. It was a most unusual day for Cebu, as the slightly overcast
sky made the temperature quite endurable. The country passed on our
drive was unusually fine, with its groves of palms and plantains;
its tall cottonwood-trees by the road-side, the ripe pods on the
bare branches bursting and showing the soft, white fluff within;
its giant mango-trees with bonfires built beneath them, as a quick
method of ripening the fruit for market. Then there were acres of
corn and fields of rice ready for harvesting, proving conclusively,
as some one suggested, that the natives of Cebu could raise something
besides h---, though he had never believed it before.

At our destination we were cordially welcomed by the officers of
the infantry company stationed there, a native band shrilled its
salute, and the big American soldiers stopped their preparations
for an approaching march against the enemy to stare at us long and
undisguisedly. There were several women among us, a rare departure
in those days, one of them being the wife of the young captain who
was to command the detachment going into the field that night. She
had arrived from America but a few days before, bringing with her a
splendid boy nearly three years old, whom up to that time the young
father had never seen. Even after so long a separation the husband
and wife were together but seldom, as she was obliged to live in town
because of insurrectionary troubles, nor did she ever know from day to
day what the next tidings might be from the little camp of San Nicolas.

Before our return to Cebu the officers took us to see the
fortifications made by the Spaniards after Admiral Dewey's victory
in Manila Bay, fortifications they expected to use as a last defence
ag