f tragedy is the record of this region, and
amongst its numerous heroes was a Captain Hendryx. In 1902, whilst
out with a detachment of constabulary, he was attacked, defeated, and
reported killed. He was seen to drop and roll into a gully. But four
days later there wandered back to the camp a man half dead with hunger
and covered with festering wounds, some so infected that, but for the
application of tobacco, gangrene would have set in. It was Captain
Hendryx. Delirious for a while, he finally recovered and resumed his
duties. A couple of years afterwards he was shipwrecked going round
the coast on the _Masbate_. For days he and the ship-master alone
battled with the stormy waves, a howling wind ahead, and a murderous
rabble on the coast waiting for their blood. On the verge of death
they reached a desolate spot whence the poor captain saved his body
from destruction, but with prostrate nerves, rendering him quite unfit
for further service. And the carnage in the Samar jungles, which has
caused many a sorrow in the homeland, continues to the present day
with unabated ferocity. By nature a lovely island, picturesque in
the extreme, there is a gloom in its loveliness. The friendly native
has fled for his life; the patches of lowland once planted with sweet
potatoes or rows of hemp-trees, are merging into jungle for want of
the tiller's hand. The voice of an unseen man gives one a shudder,
lest it be that of a fanatic lurking in the _cogon_ grass to seek his
fellow's blood. Near the coast, half-burnt bamboos show where villages
once stood; bleached human bones mark the sites of human conflict,
whilst decay and mournful silence impress one with the desolation of
this fertile land. The narrow navigable channel separating Samar from
Leyte Island is one of the most delightful bits of tropical scenery.

The Constabulary Service Reports for 1903 and 1904 show that in
the former period there were 357 engagements between brigand bands
and the constabulary (exclusive of the army operations), and in the
latter period 235 similar engagements. More than 5,000 expeditions
were undertaken against the outlaws in each year; 1,185 outlaws
were killed in 1903, and 431 in 1904, 2,722 were wounded or captured
in 1903, and 1,503 in 1904; 3,446 arms of all sorts were seized in
1903, and 994 in 1904. The constabulary losses in killed, wounded,
died of wounds and disease, and deserted were 223 in 1904. In Cavite
Province alone, with a populatio