Show MAJOR YOUNG ON MANILA captain richard young now major young of battery A utah volunteers stationed at manila has written an interesting te letter to his wife the letter was written under date of july and and is as follows since last writing to you a few more things have davd happened the battery except fourteen men left behind to load stores was loaded on the queerest looking craft you can imagine called a casco large long and capable of holding a vast quantity of stores and men the two companies of the eighteenth were placed on another and off we started in tow of a tug tor for the shore about four miles south of manila and distant four miles from the ship the tug had tp stop a quarter of a mile froth from the shore and the natives pushed the boat along with rods up to a point about twenty or forty feet fro from the tock shore then the men either took off or turned up their clothes and waded ashore then came the task of carrying large quantities of tents boxes etc to the shore and afterwards from the shore to the camping ground the map herewith will cover the several points of interest I 1 have visited fortunately we landed early in the day and so got out tents tent in good shape long before dark soon after we were settled captain grant arrived with half of his battery I 1 asked such of odthe the boys as an were willing to go down and help captan grants men up with his baggage etc and nearly to a man the whole batery went today the favor has been r returned umed and captain grants battery went t down dowd and lumped us up with or guns now we have our camp in about the same shape as at camp merritt I 1 left lieutenant webb and fourteen men to remove our property that we were compelled to leave on the steamer this evening they came over with our guns and add a whole lot more property everything in fact that we are to take with us three men however are to remain at cavite to care tor for the guard stores there yesterday morang general greene sent for captain grant and myself and told us he desired us to go up on the 1 insurgent lines and reconnoiter that suited us both we started out yesterday evening and went to a point near the shore of the bay where the insurgents have two big but old fash boned guns mounted on their entrenchments the whole country is full of trees and small clear spaces which are fields of rice the natives make a small bank around a small patch of ground and let the water cover the field so it is absolutely sol impossible to travel outside of the two or three very poor roads that run to this section it Is extremely hard to seen anything on ac account aunt of the trees that spring up nearly close enough to obscure a distant vision well we went to the guns and found a large number of insurgents in their trenches armed to the teeth mostly with mauser rifles which denev had captured from the spanish and furnished them you know a trench is ft long ditch and embankment these theme natives put a thatch root roof over it and some have bamboo beds or grass or whatever they may be on the bottom where there is water there was a church about abort paces in front of the insurgent lines which we desired to sneak into A genete SP spanish tor for lieuten tant went with ua u an and cautioned us to b very quiet we sneaked in all right and got up into hito one of the upper stories ories qt where w with 10 our glasses we got a good view of the spanish fort near the bench we could see spaniards moving around inside of their works there was considerable firing going on around us but no nd bullets struck near us at the time the church however is a complete wreck it is absolutely riddled with shot and shell and has thousands of holes in it the trees are shot down all around we saw what we came atter and then returned down to the beach from our position on the beach we were in full view of the spanish fort but they showed no disposition to shoot shoat this morning we went out on a caa camarata a little two wheeled cart with itai one of the native ponies harnessed to it the driver sets in front and the passengers in the covered part behind we went up one road to pasal casai a distance from our camp of about two and a halt half miles here we found more insurgents sur gents they had the same kind vt trenches as before there were numbers of them playing cards etc and scooting snoot ing once onea in a while the spaniards returning the with mae bilty we sneaked up through some cane brake behind a house until we reached the house itself which like all 11 native houses to is built up on alila the floor beh being ig about live five feet above the ground under the edges of the house the insurgents had thrown up earthworms earthworks earth works behind which they were hiding and from which they kept up quite a lively fusi fusillade lade at the spanish lines not more than yards awe away a spanish blockhouse securing special attention they say that the enemy has houses every few hundred yards aloof aloes their lines these sze ore tall houses built apparently of heavy timbers s the one in quee question tion bao baa a cannon that shoots about a three thre loca el athell 11 and also a mortar while we were ua or the house tam alk ing to the natives by the way vye I 1 SM A becoming quite familiar with spanish the bullets were striking the house quite close to us and one ot of them came between the floor and the top of the bank within two or three feet of our heads beads striking a support and knocking off a chip which fell on captain grants gant s head we thought we had found a good glood place for a cannon cannion or two and when the little scrap comes off we want wan t to get in our work on mr spanish blockhouse we crept back to ito the insurgent lines the bullets in the meantime striking around us in a rather uncomfortable aible wanner manner we went back to casai and from there out to see pedro de damte Maoai te we could only go a short distance on I 1 account of the mud I 1 never saw such on an In infernal ferval road in my life I 1 had bad on rubber boots and was frequently in water to their tops it was waa oppressively warm and the walk a long one treading in the same direction was a young man dressed in spotless white they all dress with scrupulous cleanliness though they do not wear much clashing clod hing also a woman aged about 30 and her son and they kept along with us the entire distance the women all carry loads on an their heads and as a result stand straight and have a splendid carriage at last we reached our town it Is 19 near the basig river and is chiefly celebrated for a splendid church which lands on the top of the highest ground in the vicinity A walled cemetery is just in bronit of it the wall being low and entered I 1 through a gate we ascertained that there was a general of division general plo pio del polar pelar there we called on him he was quartered in a very nice house thise these natives are bright intelligent and fairly well educated their houses are small and picturesque spanish style some are mere thatched houses while others are fine houses the general era 1 was in a large house and at the foot pot of the stairs were soldiers and a large number of people who seemed to bava some sort of connection with his big gun ship we were shown up ek a wide ide tiled staircase past the office into a wide halland invited to sit down iti in about ten minutes we were asked to enter eater 1 I being official elal interpreter we were ere presented to del pilar and f found him faint tobe a small man but ascertained bom his bis adjutant a halfbreed half breed spaniard that he Is a man of much vallance valiance he 94 certainly appeared to be a man os of good ability he told us there were troops in manila of whom were SIani spaniards ards the rest being native allies and that they had many cannon about about 60 he offered us cigars and sow some ale made in london dondon don don and captured from the spaniards the adjutant tant kindly consented to take us to the top of the church but the keys were not obtainable and so we could not nol reagh reach the point he volunteered to go with us ts to the insurgent earthworks earthworms earth works about amile a mile distant we went over there through fields to wit mud and water cl closed ased in with little banks here we found another insurgent fort about 60 50 feet square the walls of earth being about teen seven feet high there was a thatched roof and bunks for the men general oreene greene afterwards informed me that it ww was Vaoa vacated ted only two days before by the spanish off down in a little flat below the hill about yards away a spanish work of similar construction st our friends the insurgents ww tobe smart opened a fusillade tusi fusi lade on the spanish which was answered in good note and tor for a few minutes the bullets came tumbling around in splendid fashion hitting the outside of the fort andi the roof quite frequently after it was all over apparently 1 got up to look around with my sold field blaag but bot A aad not been there long when flim came a bullet within eight or ten inches of my head and struck the roof behind me with a vicious snap since then I 1 am looking more cautiously tiou sly aly it must be that mr spaniard was close in somewhere possibly in ib an english cemetery not far distant the natives laughed at me fit to kill themselves I 1 when we returned several of the native soldiers came along with us they were returning from tuni tuna to pasia we found our camarata waiting and rode home fearfully tired wet and hungry I 1 ate a few bananas however as a substitute for a midday meal this is the wettest country I 1 ever saw it has rained now tor for nearly three days without stopping and how it does come down right now out in the camping street are a number of the men of the battery stark naked i taking a rain bath they are using soap and the warm rain is washing them in true shower bath style nelson is as happy as a bug in a rug would not have missed it tor for anything he is perfectly well and has not had I 1 a sick day he seems to be very much liked by his companions yesterday lieutenant gibbs and I 1 visited Paran aque a native village below about two miles we were atter after some parboiled corn with grated cocoa nut not sweetened and I 1 found it excellent but we were all afraid to touch any of these things lieutenant gibbs says I 1 am about 11 shades darker than I 1 was in san francisco i it seems nice to have our guns around us again we have two heavy guns loaned loaded by the admiral they are three inch guns and axe are much lighter than ours this is the worst country to fight in on earth imagine a few narrow roads and the bamboo swamp s and the inundated rice fields I 1 can see no ta distance stance in any direction our camp occupies about the only high and dry ground in the country over by san pedro de macate bacate the view is ex celent indeed open here and there clumps of trees and many churches rearing their picturesque fronts above the trees yesterday was the of july we had neither religious services nor a celebration but about noon the foreign fleet up by manila fired salutes galore in celebration of some national spanish fete oh yes our trip to Paran aque there we called on another general but he was absent near his residence was a I 1 church catholic of course there was 1 no priest present the people have no use for the priests ests it seems and they have all taken refuge in manila the church has a gallery the windows are of stained glass it in IB tour times as long as the catholic church in salt lake and much higher and more elegant their altar is graced with the images of all the apostles the savior too the floors are arc all polished by the kneeling at the time of our visit were numerous groups of girls with white vests praying counting their beads or reading devotional works in the center of the aisle was a casket containing the remains of an woman near the column close at hand were a young woman and a number of little girls all with black vests the decease ds family no doubt As we were about to leave the church an organ pealed forth and a boys choir chanted a catholic hymn the big bell tolled and the remains of the dead one were borne out on the shoulders of four men today captain grant lieutenants gibbs naylor and grow went up on to the lines again looking for a good posit position lon for our guns when the scrap comes oft off this time we were honored with a few mauser bullets and oue one cannon ball the later came jag about a hundred feet away and crashed 1 through the timber into the earth they dont seem to be able to hit anything A Fill pono was showing ashow ts the spanish do it by raising their guns up overhead at arms length and letting her go about right I 1 should say just heard that general merritt has arrived and we may expect some mail t also more soldiers possibly some more artillery |