our presence spoke insurrection even more plainly.

Through the glass we all took turns in watching retreat, the
little handful of khaki-clad men standing at attention as the stars
and stripes fluttered down the flagstaff. Oroquieta was a lonely
looking place, built entirely of nipa, with the exception of the
inevitable white church and _convento_, so we were not sorry when the
Powers-that-Be decided it was a poor cable landing, and gave orders for
the ship to proceed to Misamis, Mindanao, on the following day. Early
next morning we weighed anchor, and, still taking soundings, arrived
off Misamis about ten o'clock, after a sail which one never could
forget, as the coast of Mindanao is rarely beautiful and much more
tropical than anything we had seen even on the island of Negros.

Chapter III

MISAMIS

Long before reaching Misamis the old gray fort at the entrance of
the town was picked out by some one looking through the telescope,
and many were the theories concerning it. At so great a distance,
and with the hot sunlight shining full upon it, the fort might have
been a strip of white sand; later it was decided to be a _tribunal_
of unusual proportions, and at last when it loomed full upon us in
all the picturesqueness of its gray, moss-grown walls, with weeds
trailing in luxurious profusion from every crevice, we decided that
there lived the American inhabitants of Misamis. Soldiers gathered
under the roof of the nearest watch-tower to observe our entrance
into the harbour, while still others, unmindful of the blazing sun,
perched on the top of the wall and swung their feet over the side,
doubtless making numerous wagers as to the transport's name and its
business in so out of the way a place as Misamis.

Owing to the unreliability of the Spanish charts, the _Burnside_
anchored some distance out of the harbour, and just before tiffin
a boat-load of officers from the garrison came out to the ship,
accompanied by the titular captain of the port, a young chap who
also acted in several other official capacities, a sort of military
"crew, and the captain, too, and the mate of the _Nancy Bell_." After
tiffin the ship sailed into anchorage in the harbour of Misamis,
half-way around the old fort, which seemed to grow more picturesque
with every turn, till finally we could see the village of Misamis,
almost hidden in a bewildering mass of tropical vegetation. Our
numerous theories to the contrary, the old fort w