n arose
from the ridiculous popular notion that whereas Spaniards in Spain
are all cavaliers, they too, as Spaniards of the first water, ought to
regard work as a degradation. Hence they are a remarkably indolent and
effete community, and on landing from a ship there is seldom a porter
to be seen to carry one's luggage. Their speech is a dialect called
_Chabucano_--a mixture of very corrupt Spanish and native tongues.

The environment of Zamboanga is very beautiful, with islands to the
south and mountain scenery on the land sides. The climate is healthy,
and with the frequent delightful breezes wafted across the Celebes
Sea is not at all oppressive for a tropical region, and is cooler
than Manila, which is 425 miles north.

The people of _Samar Island_ for a long time tenaciously opposed
the American occupation, under several leaders, notably Vicente
Lucban and his right-hand man, Guevara; but neither here, nor in
_Marinduque Island_ can it be said that native civil government was
established. In the latter Island the insurgent chief was the titular
Colonel Abad, who overran the villages with about 150 followers
armed with rifles. In 1901 Abad surrendered, and hostilities, with
real political aim, definitely ended in these Islands thirteen months
after the capture of Aguinaldo in Luzon. Although in Samar Island the
war was, as elsewhere, a succession of petty encounters, there were
incidents in its prosecution which attracted much public attention
from time to time. At the town of Balangiga, on September 28, 1901,
the local headman and the native parish priest conspired with about
450 armed natives to attack the American camp. The garrison stationed
there was Company "C," 9th Infantry. The headman had represented to
the Americans that he was busy with an important capture of about 90
brigands, and on this pretext some 45 cut-throats were brought into
the town and lodged in the church. Three officers of the garrison were
quartered in the parish-house, and whilst the rank-and-file were at
breakfast in a bamboo building, some distance away from their quarters
where they had left their weapons, another 45 supposed brigands were
led through the town to the church, but naturally the soldiers took
little notice of this expected event. The town is surrounded on one
side by the open valley and on three sides by almost perpendicular
mountains, with defiles between them leading to the interior of the
Island. As soon as the l