haze distant mountains loomed spectre-like, or else melted into blue
clouds on the horizon.

After a two hours' run, during which the _Hilda_ wheezed and puffed
like a fat old woman in a tight frock, we reached Tampakan, and
anchored as near the shore as was practicable, blowing our whistle
to attract the attention of the villagers. In a few moments several
_praus_ and _bancas_ were poled out to the ship by a motley array of
half-clad Moros, big, brown, lithe fellows, each with a turban or
fez topping off his black hair, and all armed with a goodly array
of sharp knives. Over the side of the launch they swarmed, talking
excitedly with our interpreter, the chief _vigilante_ of Bongao, and
reminding one strongly of their piratical forebears. Many of these
very men had been pirates in Spanish days, and not one of them but
was a descendant of some marauder of the high seas.

The three hundred yards that we had to be poled to shore from the
_Hilda_ was through water not more than three feet deep, and over a
bed of pink and white coral, which could be plainly seen through the
crystal clearness. At low tide one can walk out over this submarine
beach, but the Moros say that the rocks, seaweed, and coral lose much
of their beauty when not seen through a lens of water. At the time
of our visit it was such high tide that even with the native _praus_
and the little rowboat from the launch, we were unable to make a good
landing, so the men jumped ashore in imminent danger of a wetting,
while we women were carried, one by one, through the surf.

A villainous looking gentleman, whose costume consisted of skin-tight
Moro trousers and an American bath towel, was introduced by our
host as the head man of the town, and he shook hands all around,
quite solemnly and conscientiously, as if it had been a religious
rite imported to Tawi Tawi by these strange white people.

Meanwhile the entire male population of the place gathered about us,
and we found them in very truth a murderous looking lot, armed to
the teeth with _barongs_ and _krises_ and _campilans_, while none
of us had any visible means of self-protection. There were a few
pocket revolvers, however, hidden under the officers' blouses, and
well hidden, the Governor having warned us to take no arms of any
description to Tampakan, for while money would have been no temptation
to these people, they would not have hesitated long to kill one for
a Krag rifle or a Colt revolver.

A