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Friday, May 5th, 1899

Manila, Luzon Island – Entry made in parlor of No. 2 Calle Santa Elena, Tondo

I rush around more down on these Philippines than I did in the temperate zone. How my strength holds out is a mystery to me. Can only account for it on the line of Providential strength vouchsafed me. To my God be the glory.

News in today says the troops have moved further north than Apalit. Fighting has been resumed on the north line.

Read a chapter in Numbers, 2 psalms and prayed. The Holy Ghost blessed me with a manifestation of His love last night. God is indeed very good to me.

Cooked breakfast & washed dishes. Bro. Clayton Scott rode up to No. 2 while I was cooking. I gave him a bundle of 50 assorted San Francisco War Crys for distribution in corral & among the patients. Before he rode away (was out pressing carabao carts & drivers into service) he tied the War Crys to his saddle. Together we waited on the Lord in prayer.

Wrote & copied a letter on the Lord in prayer.

Brothers D. G. Hines and Dave Freeman Co. E. 1st Montana Vol. Inf. called. They are recovering from heat prostration. Towards noon after prayer together, Hines & I took street car to the vicinity of the Imperial Photograph Gallery, leaving Freeman to rest at No. 2 as it is a cool & pleasant house. Before going I prepared 3 cups of lemonade for us three.

The Imperial photo gallery, had neither my films or pictures of No. 2 finished.

Returned home, purchased an apple pie, 30 cts. from the Utah battery bakery. Mrs. Owens gave me some farina; with lemonade added & prepared lunch for Freeman & myself from the same. Rested till about 2.45p.m. then struck out again, leaving Freeman asleep in the parlor. Took street car to Intramuros (walled city) where the sentry of 12th U.S. Infantry passed me without trouble into the arsenal. Inside I hunted up Sergeant Leon Chic (ordinance) who I discovered just outside the sally port in the wall, on the bank of the Pasig, where he was receiving a casco load of shells & other ammunition for artillery. He promised me day before yesterday that if I called today he would take me into the notorious Black Hole in Santiago Citadel. Leaving the casco he immediately went to the office, secured the proper keys and led the way. Arriving at the powder magazine the sentry stationed there, challenged us for a pass, but excused himself when he learned that Sergeant Chic is in charge of all these magazines & their contents. Entering a small wooden shed, the Sergeant descended a few stone steps into a tunnel arched with solid masonry, unlocked a door then at the bottom on a line with the ground (the entrance is had from above) unlocked another, heavy wood, with small orifices about 3 inches square for air. This door opened into an arched chamber about 12 feet x 15 feet with no ventilator for air or light save what was admitted thro’ the door. The chamber was dry save when rain water flowed down the steps. Chic pointed out some new masonry near the floor on the farther right hand corner from the entrance, which closed the entrance into another chamber. As near as I remember Chic’s explanation, 160 Filipinos were crowded into these small chamber; they were not drowned, but smothered to death when the door was closed. But the one chamber shown me by Sergt. Chic does not record but a small part of the mysteries of this bastion, as in it & the rear bastion facing the cross moat, are a number of black holes sealed up with masonry. Entrances are low.

The Black Hole is used for powder magazine, likewise the large four-square building with the flagpole at each gable. The back bastion with its chambers of death, if stories of Spanish cruelty are true, is entered from about thro’ a well-like spectators, which like the others are sealed. Serg’t Chic thinks they are likely to remain sealed. The hatred engendered by centuries of Spanish misrule is liable to enrage the Filipinos & cause trouble if the secrets of Santiago castle are revealed to the world.

Serg’t Chic skewed me thro’ the powder magazine above where quantities of death dealing missiles are being stacked up at the present time by Chinese coolies. The Sergeant’s enlistment expires in about 15 or 20 days. He will then return to the U.S. Bidding him adieu. I made my way to the “Corral” in old Manila. Here wagons, mules, pack train accoutrements & a lot of very hard looking men dressed in civilian costume interested me. Met Brother Alvin Merritt, packer (a member of San Francisco No. 2 corps) who took me up stairs to the dormitories or big dens. Very filthy indeed are these quarters & quite different from the quarters of troops. The men belong to the transportation department of Government service & necessarily are on the road much of their time. I saw Bro. Clayton Scott’s cap with a Salvation Army band around it hanging above one bed. God bless Scott.

Merritt & I talked of various matters not by any mean leaving out Salvation subjects & finished by both of us kneeling down at his bedside & praying. Requested Bro. Merritt who is now on the night shift to help me with a service next Sunday p.m. at the 2d Reserve Hospital. Promised to try.

From old Manila returned to No. 2 Calle Sta. Elena & cooked supper ate thereof & washed dishes.

Spoke to soldiers personally about salvation.

Gave a Filipino girl Senorita Romano Francia $1 Mex to purchase cloth for a woman’s jacket, she is making for me.