DEAR MOTHER: Buenas dias ! (good morning), Como la va ? (how are you). My last note was written just before I received orders to go on a scouting expedition toward the San Juan River three miles in front of the outposts. I took two men and a corporal with only our arms (the men all had one hundred rounds in their belts and I had my revolver) and a canteen. We started about 3 a.m., and after going through rice fields and occasional clearings with breastworks scattered about, by burnt villages and remains of gardens, with occasional wells, we reached a sunken road and then the San Juan River.
I send a newspaper and a priest’s dispensation, taken, while scouting, from a very picturesque Spanish church near the San Juan.