d than any we had seen on the trip, with here and there
beautiful groves, now of cocoanut-palms, now of mangoes, interspersed
by well ploughed paddy fields and acres of corn or sugar-cane. The
town natives were extremely friendly and when passing always saluted
us deferentially, while in the country the children, and sometimes the
grown people as well, yelled cheerily after our carriage, "Hellojohn,
hellojohn," evidently under the impression that Hello, John, was one
word, and a salutation of great respect as well as a sociable greeting.

No one wore arms around Zamboanga, in fact it was forbidden so to
do; and the smiling, well-disposed natives testified highly to the
efficiency of the American officer in command, the sight of whose jolly
face brought ecstatic yells of recognition from the very babies, bare
and dirty, tumbling around in the streets, greetings which the colonel
always answered in kind, his eyes twinkling with amusement the while.

Most of our success with these southern Moros may be traced to
religious tolerance, and the fact that we interfere with them only
in their disturbance of non-Mohammedan neighbours. Slave raids are
a thing of the past, and leading dattos have been notified that any
piratical or fanatical incursions into American territory will be
punished swiftly and surely.

It has also behooved us to respect their race prejudice, to be
considerate of their religious idiosyncrasies, and to dispense
justice untempered with mercy, the latter virtue being considered a
weakness in the eyes of our Mohammedan brothers, and as such to be
taken advantage of. The border troubles in India, the mutiny of '57,
the Turkish atrocities in '95, the Pathan rising under Mad Mullah in
'97, the French-Algerian difficulties, and the ever present reminder
of Spain's three hundred years of struggle for supremacy in the
Philippines, all serve as mile-posts on the road to good government.

Although thus far we have made no little progress in the right
direction, the path has not been strewn with roses, for Mohammedan
customs, prohibitions, and theories of living are so strange to a
North American intellect that mistakes are liable to occur at any
moment. For example, it is a deadly insult for a man to even touch a
Mohammedan woman not belonging to his harem, or to pay her the most
conventional or trivial compliment. Then, too, as everyone knows,
their dietetic observances are of the greatest import, and a good
Moh