, and
faithfulness." General Baldwin, under whom he served, had this to
say of him, "I have been in many fights, through the Civil War, but
Captain Pershing is the coolest man under fire I ever saw."

At the close of the Cuban War he was made Commissioner of Insular
Affairs with headquarters in Washington. Here he remained but a short
time when again he heard his country's call and was sent to the far
distant Philippine Islands.

The task assigned him was by no means easy. On Mindanao, one of the
larger islands in the group, lived the Moros. So cruel and fierce were
they that during all the years Spain held the Islands she had never
attempted to civilize them. To Pershing was given the task of going
back into the mountains and capturing these Moros. To him was assigned
the most stubborn problem the Islands presented.

The best description of this Moro campaign is written by Rowland
Thompson who says: "Up in the hills of western Mindanao some thirty
miles from the sea, lies Lake Linao, and around it live one hundred
thousand fierce, proud, uncivilized Mohammedans, a set of murderous
farmers who loved a fight so well that they were willing at any time
to die for the joy of combat, whose simple creed makes the killing of
Christians a virtue.

"Pershing warned the hot-head of them all, the Sultan, if there were
any further trouble he would destroy their stronghold. The Sultan in
his fortress, with walls of earth and living bamboo forty feet thick,
laughed at the warning. In two days his fortress was in ruins. So
skillful was Pershing's attack that he captured the stronghold with
the loss of but two men."

In a similar manner he later took stronghold after stronghold until
finally all the Moros were conquered. Having subdued the Moros he was
then made Governor of the Island, holding the office until he was
sent to help settle the bandit difficulty on the Mexican border.

In his journey from the Philippine Islands to the Mexican border,
General Pershing was called upon to fight the hardest battle of his
entire life. Leaving his wife and four children at the Presidio Hotel
in San Francisco, he went to El Paso, Texas, to rent a house. While in
El Paso he was shocked to get a telegram stating that the Presidio had
burned and that his wife and three daughters had perished in the
flames. Surely this was enough to crush an ordinary man, but again he
showed the superior qualities of his manhood by bearing up bravely,
and con