Soon after dinner, we went aboard a small steamer boat and were taken to a small town called Cavete (Cavite). Our two [battalions] were quartered within a magnificient Roman Catholic church, connected with which are strong fortifications of solid masonery, which runs along the shore. These were put up some time in 1600 and must have cost a very large sum of money. Could the old walls speak, I little [doubt] that they would tell tales of cruelty and torture. It was at one time a fine church. The alters were a fine piece of [work]. There were 14 statues, some of them was taken down and broken. Parts of the floor taken up in places. There has been people burried by the alters. We could see the headstones laid in the floor.
Thomas H. Briggs
(? 1886 -- December 29, 1905), Company G, Third Battalion, First Regiment, of the South Dakota Volunteers.
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