d efforts of our first officer, his crew,
and the soldiers of the fort. Meanwhile, we were all idlers on the
_Burnside_, and in consequence enjoyed our visit there to the utmost.

Chapter IX

BONGAO

Despite the fact of its remoteness from civilization, or perhaps
because of it, we found Bongao most attractive. Situated on a dot of
an island belonging to the Tawi Tawi group, it is the southernmost
part of our new possessions to be garrisoned. West of it Borneo
looms up on the horizon, and to the south is Sibutu, for which Spain
was paid a good round sum because certain gentlemen on the Paris
Commission lacked geographic accuracy; while to the east and north
are coral islands belonging to the same group as Bongao. The garrison
is situated on a mountainous spur of land running down steeply to the
water. It is laid out like a park, the soldiers' quarters, hospital,
library, and storehouses being of bamboo and nipa, over which the
men have trained vines and creeping plants, while before each door
bloom beds of bright flowers.

The officers' quarters are built higher up on a wind-swept slope
overlooking the bay, where it curves around the point of the island,
and while these houses are picturesque from the outside, they are
roughly finished within, the "banquet-hall," as they dignified the
mess, being especially _al fresco_. Over the extemporized sideboard,
consisting of some rude shelves, on which were piled a heterogeneous
collection of tinned fruits and vegetables, hung a motto which read
"God Bless our Home. If you don't like it, get out!" On the reverse
side of this somewhat suggestive placard was the pleasing gastronomic
intelligence, "Chicken to-day," chicken forming the staple of diet
at Bongao, as of course fresh meat is to be had only at the rarest
intervals.

For six months at a stretch the monsoon blows across the coral
peninsula in one direction, and then changes and blows six months in
the opposite quarter, so that, as an officer stationed there remarked,
one could take his choice and be blown off to the crocodiles in the
bay or to the sharks in the sea outside. This high wind moderates
the climate perceptibly, however, and notwithstanding the fact that
Bongao is situated within five degrees of the equator, we found it
exceptionally cool, and the officers and men in splendid physical
condition.

There was but one company of infantry stationed at Bongao when we
were there, comprising perhaps f