ed
and what consideration was received for them.
As already stated, both series of bonds rest for security on the
receipts of the Manila custom house.
Spanish Troops.
The Spanish prisoners of war number about 13,000, including about
400 officers. The infantry arms are about 32,000, the greater part
Mauser model 1895, caliber 28, and the others Remingtons, model
1889, caliber 43. The ammunition is about 22,000,000 rounds. The
field artillery consists of about twelve breech-loading steel guns,
caliber 3 5-10 inches, and ten breech-loading mountain guns, caliber
3 2-10 inches. There are six horses (ponies) for each gun, but the
harness is in bad order. Ammunition, about sixty rounds per gun, with
possibly more in the arsenals. There are about 500 cavalry ponies,
larger than the average of native horses, with saddles and equipments
complete. There is also a battalion of engineers. The fortifications of
the walled city are a fine sample of the Vauban type, on which military
engineers expended so much ingenuity 150 years ago, and of which Spain
possessed so many in her Flemish dominions. The first walls of Manila
were built about 1590, but the present fortifications date from a short
time after the capture and occupation of the place by the English,
in 1762-64. They consist of bastions and curtains, deep, wet ditch,
covered way, lunettes, demilunes, hornworks, and all the scientific
accessories of that day. They are in a good state of preservation, and
mount several hundred bronze guns, but they are chiefly of interest to
the antiquarian. On the glacis facing the bay, and also on the open
space just south of the walls, are mounted 9-inch breech loaders,
four in all, made at Hoatoria, Spain, in 1884. They are well mounted,
between high traverses, in which are bomb-proof magazines. These
guns are practically uninjured, and Admiral Dewey has the breech
blocks. While not as powerful as the guns of the present day of the
same caliber, they are capable of effective service. Their location,
however, is very faulty, as they are on the shore of the bay, with all
the churches, public buildings and most valuable property immediately
behind them. On the day after the naval battle Admiral Dewey sent word
to the Governor-General that if these guns fired a shot at any of his
vessels he would immediately reply with his whole squadron. Owing to
their location, this meant a bombardment of the city. This threat was
effective; these gun
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