r.

On New Year's morning the presidente and secretario of Misamis,
accompanied by their respective families and a young Moro slave,
the property of the secretario, came aboard the _Burnside_ to return
our call. It was the first time any of them had ever seen a modern
steamship, and loud and voluble were their exclamations of wonder
at what we have come to regard as the every-day conveniences of
civilization. After seeing the electric light, electric fans, and the
shower baths turned on and off several times, the presidente craved
permission to essay these miracles himself, and, to his own great
surprise, accomplished supernatural results. The old wife watched him
tremblingly. Surely, these were works of the Evil One, and, as such,
to be left to heretics. But still the man persisted in his madness,
and with a turn of his wrist brought light out of darkness or water
and wind from the very walls.

Finally he turned around, and with a humourous twinkle in his
eye, that belied the gravity of the rest of his face, he said:
"The _Americanos_ are a great people--a wonderful people--and how
unlike the Filipinos! When a Filipino wants sunshine or rain or wind,
he must wait until the good Lord gives it to him. When an _Americano_
wants sunshine or rain or wind, he turns it on!"

The whole party was intensely interested in the big telescope which
drew Misamis within a stone's throw of the ship, and they could not
in the least understand how we cooked in the steam galley without any
fuel, while the ice-machine and cold storage rooms were quite beyond
their comprehension, none of them ever having seen ice before. Of
course, on seeing the strange substance, it must be tasted as
well, so iced drinks were served on the quarter-deck, these being
received with much preliminary trepidation and ultimate gustatory
gratification. As for the small Moro slave, I only hope he did not
die from his excessive libations, for he drank unnumbered glasses of
lemonade, making most violent faces the while, and rubbing his small
round stomach continually, as if the unaccustomed cold had penetrated
to his very vitals.

On going ashore, each of the three children carried back a box of
American candy, the order of our guests' departure being somewhat
delayed by Senora Presidente's intense fear of going down the
gangway. As I have said before, she was a fat old lady, and the way
was steep; but finally, after much persuasion, she slipped her bare
feet o