condescended meanwhile to communicate with us, we were
soon under way for Zamboanga, Mindanao.

The next day was a perfect one for sailing, and eventful, in that
while turning over cable the long objurgated fault in the tanks came
to light, proving to be the result of carelessness on the part of the
manufacturer, a carelessness which had caused much agony of mind to the
Signal Corps, and many groans and imprecations from all concerned. But
at last the fault was cut out, and a nice healthy splice substituted
by the reparative surgery which has been so often mentioned.

It seemed such a small thing, the fault, only a little break in the
armour wire, and yet it had induced the most severe nerve paralysis in
that sentient thread of copper in the cable's centre. "Words and words
of men" could not "flicker and flutter and beat" until the wound had
been healed, which was promptly done, accompanied by vigorous language
concerning the aforesaid careless manufacturer.

Chapter VII

ZAMBOANGA

Zamboanga! The very name brings back our first daylight glimpse of
Mindanao's principal town--an adorable water-colour sketch, what with
the soft, deep blue of sky and sea, the tropical freshness of green
foliage, amidst which nestled picturesque white houses with overhanging
balconies, the red and blue sails on the sunlit water, and to the right
of the picture an old Spanish fort, gray and stern and forbidding.

This old fort, aside from its undoubted pictorial charm, is
historically interesting, in that it is a relic of the seventeenth
century and of those first Spanish governors, martially ambitious, who
stirred up wars with the Moros for their own personal aggrandizement,
wars which have been protracted through two bloody centuries.

Indeed, the history of Spain's occupation of the islands is but a
repetition of wars with the Mohammedans, religious wars, perhaps,
at the very first, for the sixteenth century Spaniard was no less
fanatical in his religion than is the Moro of to-day; and later,
wars for the presumable abolishment of slavery, though we are told by
Foreman that "Whilst Spaniards in Philippine waters were straining
every nerve to extirpate slavery, their countrymen were diligently
pursuing a profitable trade in it between the west coast of Africa
and Cuba."

Zamboanga seems so peaceful at present that it is hard to believe
it was ever otherwise. All around the town stretch fine lands, much
better cultivate