ce-paddy fields and cocoanut plantations,
and then forded a river, on the opposite bank of which was the
next guards' post in charge of a lieutenant, who joined us with
eight foot-soldiers. That same night we together captured five of
the wretches, who had just beached a canoe containing part of their
spoils. The prisoners were bound elbows together at their backs and
sent forward under escort. We rode on all night until five o'clock
the next morning, arriving at the convent of Pagbilao just as Father
Jesus was going down to say Mass. I had almost lost my voice through
being ten hours in the rain; but the priest was very attentive to us,
and we went on in a prahu to the village where the crime had been
committed. In another prahu the prisoners were sent in charge of
the soldiers. In the meantime, the Chief Judge and the Government
Doctor of the province had gone on before us. On the way we met a
canoe going to Pagbilao, carrying the corpse of the murdered Swede
for burial. When we arrived at Laguimanoc, we found one native dead
and many natives and Chinese badly wounded.

My friend's house had the front door smashed in--an iron strong-box
had been forced, and a few hundred pesos, with some rare coins, were
stolen. The furniture in the dining-room was wantonly hacked about
with bowie-knives, only to satisfy a savage love for mischief. His
bedroom had been entered, and there the brigands began to make
their harvest; the bundles of wearing-apparel, jewellery, and
other valuables were already tied up, when lo! the Virgin herself
appeared, casting a penetrating glance of disapproval upon the wicked
revelry! Forsaking their plunder, the brigands fled in terror from the
saintly apparition. And when my friend re-entered his home and crossed
the bloodstained floor of the dining-room to go to his bedroom, the
cardboard Virgin, with a trade advertisement on the back, was still
peeping round the door-jamb to which she was nailed, with the words
"Please to shut the door" printed on her spotless bust.

The next day the Captain remained in the village whilst I went on
with the Lieutenant and a few guards in a prahu down the coast,
where we made further captures, and returned in three days. During
our journey in the prahu the wind was so strong that we resolved to
beach our craft on the seashore instead of attempting to get over
the shoal of the San Juan River. We ran her ashore under full sail,
and just at that moment a native rushe