Manila, P. I., September 3, 1898

The exchange here is $2.05 Spanish for $1 American, so we can double the quantity of our pay at anytime. I have bought a broadbrim pith hat, a white suit and white shoes, all for the sum of five dollars and fifty cents Spanish. I need here in the office rather different clothes from those suitable for regular drill and fatigue work. Wednesday I took the General’s belongings— boxes, bags, etc.—from the Hotel Oriente out to the Governor’s palace at Malacanyan. It took me all the afternoon, as the buffalo-cart the commissary was to send did not show up, and I had finally to hire two cabs and dicker with the heathen for the trip. It was good fun, and I managed to get them to the General about five-thirty o’clock, just as he was needing them. I have had several errands around town to do, but next to no office work. What little I have had to
do has been locating places on the map, transposing Spanish measures into English, and looking up information of one kind and another in Spanish year-books. You can think that I would enjoy
this.