. He lived in his fort with his army. My last practice march
was made for the purpose of viewing the sultan's position, and to know
something about his forces if we had to fight them. It was about ten
o'clock on the morning of the 13th of May, 1900, when our commanding
officer in great haste issued orders to get ready at once. We all
thought we were going to fight that time. We were formed into a
battalion as hastily as possible, under the commander's orders, who was
present on his charger, and directing everything. We were soon moving
out to no one seemed to know where, except our commander. No dinner was
taken with us this time, only guns and as much ammunition as we could
carry. We marched about five miles before halting for rest. It was very
hot, and several soldiers fell out overcome by the heat. Some doubtless
fell out to avoid a battle, as they thought. Two men just before me,
whom I knew were great cowards, and who feared that we were going into a
battle, decided that they could not face an enemy. I heard them talking
about falling out ten or fifteen minutes. Their minds were made up to
fall out and avoid fighting; one said that he would fall out if the
other would stop to take care of him. This suited them exactly, and out
they went, and were left behind. Our march was continued until we
crossed the top of the mountain, and from the other side we could see
the sultan's fort and trenches below us. It was then about three
o'clock. We rested and looked at the sultan's fort, and looked over his
position carefully. This was the object of the commander in marching us
out there. He was expecting to have to fight the sultan, and decided
that we should see his location and know as much as possible the
conditions we would have to meet in fighting his forces. Returning we
arrived in Jolo in the night.

Our commander expected the sultan to attack our position, and wished to
know just what to expect of us, and how quickly we could get into
position to defend the fort. To ascertain this, and also to keep us in
practice, a call to arms was given every month, when every man would
get out and string around to the port holes in a very few minutes. Every
soldier went as if he expected to have to fight. There were five
companies of the Twenty-Third Regiment in Jolo while I was on duty
there. Besides these one company was stationed in the Astoria block
house, one company at Seassa and one at Buanga. These companies did not
have as