rating houses with human skulls
no longer prevailed; it had fallen into disfavour with the more
enlightened "Natives" of the country and, in fact, they seriously
objected to such practices. Consequently, as a representative of
the American government, he must keep abreast of the times in this
regard. The chief listened very gravely and with never a word to the
little disquisition, while it was hard to tell from his expression
if his silence meant only savage taciturnity, or if he were really
deeply moved.

On a subsequent visit to the Bogobos, however, the officer was
greatly surprised to see what weight his words had carried and to
note the effect of the Star Spangled Banner upon a savage mountain
people. Soldiers were drilling under the green trees; modern sanitation
had been adopted; sweeping, heretofore unknown, was a custom of the
village; the highly objectionable skulls had been removed from the
executive mansion; while every evening the chief and his standing
army failed not to face the splendid Stars and Stripes as they were
reverently lowered from a bamboo flagstaff, where during the day
they floated over a village redeemed by them from seemingly hopeless
savagery.

On our first visit to Zamboanga we remained a day only, for by evening
our shore end was laid and the office established, so that at daybreak
the next morning we sailed for Tukuran, Mindanao, thus deferring our
intercourse with Zamboanga, though not terminating it. After laying a
hundred-knot stretch of cable between there and Point Flecha, we began
to take soundings, and for four days sailed back and forth between
Tukuran and the Point, seeking water not too deep for cable laying,
though in places the sea swallowed up our sounding wire for twelve
hundred fathoms. Think of it--a mile and a quarter! And once the iron
marker came up on a sun-baked deck icy-cold from its abysmal plunge.

But at last a suitable course was chosen, and on the afternoon of
February 16th we anchored off Tukuran. A prettier bit of country it
would be hard to find. Hills on every side--forest hills--as far as
the eye could reach, while a road, looking from the ship like a narrow
white ribbon, trailed from the shore straight up the green hills to a
stone wall, behind which was stationed a company of American soldiers.

The next morning early most of us went ashore, despite the winding
ribbon of a road which from the ship looked even more formidable
than it really was. As