ten days and had two engagements; we had a very hard time on
this excursion. Water was hauled two miles and a half on a two-wheeled
vehicle, in old vessels holding four or five gallons. By the time we
could get to the kitchens about half of it would be spilled.

Buffaloes were used like oxen in this country. They were much larger,
however, of a dark brown color and very easily frightened. When one
started to run away no man could hold it. I have seen them run as fast
as a good horse. Their horns were of immense size and flat, considerably
extended. They generally did not turn aside for smaller objects when
running away. On one occasion I saw one run against a stone building,
knocking himself down. He arose and ran on as fast as before. Those that
run at large will get in the water where it will cover them and stand
with their noses out for half a day.

The fourth day out at San Pedro Macati we had a bush skirmish and some
hard fighting for about two hours.

This was my first fighting and I have to confess to being a little
frightened this time, but kept my nerve on all other occasions. We ran
them back from the trenches and out of sight. They were not to be seen
even by the aid of field glasses any more that day. We could not
estimate the number of killed, as they left none on the field.

The first sergeant of my company was slightly wounded in the chest by a
spent ball, from which he recovered in a few days. I was near him and
heard the bullet strike him; it almost felled him. This was the first
soldier I saw wounded.

The way the bullets were coming I thought every one of us would be
killed, but no one was shot except the one just mentioned. Out-posts
were always stationed two hundred yards or more from camp every night,
or in front of our trenches, to prevent a night attack. If the enemy
started through our picket lines they were fired on by the pickets, who
would then rapidly fall back to our lines of trenches. This out-post
duty is very important and very dangerous, especially when the sneaking
Filipinos were in the community.

Many nights the Americans would be aroused from their slumbers by the
enemy's attacks and efforts to surprise them, and we would lie in our
trenches and fire on them till they left. The enemy would be stationed
on an opposite hill and they would sometimes get very close to our
out-posts, who could see them moving about and talking and hear them
walking in the leaves and underbrush. Ou