funeral begins. Every
one carries something to eat, a big bottle full of beno (a native
beverage) and a bottle of whiskey. Four men carry the corpse on two
small poles, all the others fall in behind in column of twos and then
they proceed to the graveyard, drinking their beverage and enjoying
themselves. The crowd stays at the graveyard all day, and drink and
carouse until they are well filled with liquor, and all get drunk. This
is the program every time one of them is buried. It is a big picnic for
them.

Once a year regularly they prepare some of the best rations they have
and carry them to the graves and leave them there through the night,
believing that these are enjoyed by the dead. I learned that this was an
ancient custom of theirs, having been learned probably from the Chinese.

The Morros seem not to care for anything, not even for life. A large
number, probably two-thirds, never had any home. They did not know where
they would go, and seemed not to care.

Some of the islands had two or more tribes of negroes, who would have a
governor to each tribe and make laws for themselves. If natives of one
tribe crossed the line into the territory of another and stole fruits,
cocoanuts, of anything else, and the injured tribe could catch the thief
or thieves, their heads were cut off and their bodies left on the spot.
This is according to their laws. Beheading for theft, and leaving the
bodies where they were beheaded. I have seen five or six in this
condition two or three times.

One tribe would sometimes array itself against another for battle and
fight till great numbers of them were killed. Our troops stopped several
such battles by going out where they commenced to fight. As soon as we
would arrive they would stop fighting, and there seemed to be an end of
the trouble between them. They appeared to be in great fear of our
guns. They have a few old rusty guns, which are only used to fight
enemies of other countries; never using them to fight each other with.
When General Bates made a treaty of peace with the Sultan of Jolo, the
sultan was received by General Bates the first Sunday in May, 1900; we
were drawn up in line and presented arms to his excellency. The sultan
was to maintain peace on the island of Jolo, for which he was to receive
500 dollars Mexican coin every month. We presented arms to him, and were
forced to treat him with great honors. I can assure the reader that for
myself it would have been more