410 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[May 27, 1905. 
A Fiesta in Moro Land. 
When we had been at Camp Vicars, in Moroland, for 
about eight months, things had settled down into pretty 
fair shape. The road through the jungle from Mala- 
bang, on the coast to our camp had been completed; 
we were getting at least two wagon-train loads of sup- 
plies and things a week; the dry (?) season had at last 
set in, and, take it all in all, we were comfortable enough 
to be a trifle bored, and to pine for other amusements 
than tennis and polo, and getting shot up by our 
friends, the enemy, at night. The latter amusement, 
if it may be called such, had come to be so much a 
matter of course with us that most of the time the 
sound of the firing didn't even wake us up, and when we 
did wake, it was only to turn over, and go to sleep 
again, for the Moros never did any damage, and the 
only excitement to be had out of the matter was in 
wondering if, by any chance, an outpost had managed 
to get one of the attacking party. 
After the battle of Bayang, of which I have spoken 
in a previous article, we were left severely alone for a 
couple of months. Not a shot was fired into camp, nor 
a single act of hostility committeed against us. Then 
one stormy night, when it was so dark you couldn't have 
seen your hand before your face, the Moros crept up 
on an outpost, killed two of its members and wounded 
the other two seriously, after which it was rare that a 
night passed without the camp being "shot up". 
They never succeeded in surprising another outpost, 
however, for after the first attack, when the outposts 
were placed, just before sun set, they were instructed 
to remain in their positions until after dark, and then to 
move about from place to place during the riight, keeping 
of course within a few yards of their original position. 
In this way the enemy were prevented from locating 
them, and it often happened that a party of Moros 
would stick, their heads up out of the tall grass at the 
very spot where the outpost had been originally placed, 
only to be promptly netted by the members of the 
said outpost, who were sitting a little distant away wait- 
ing for them to appear. 
In order to relieve this monotony and furnish us 
with some excitement, Pershing, our commanding of- 
ficer, decided to have a fiesta and invite all the Moros 
of the surrounding countrv to come in and have dinner, 
if not with, at least on us. Now, Pershing is a man 
who when once he sets out to do a thing usually carries 
it through to a successful termination, no matter how 
impossible it may have seemed at the first glance, nor 
how m^any obstacles arise. And surely when you con- 
sider the proposition of throwing open a camp in the 
very heart of a hostile country, and inviting the natives, 
not one in ten of whom were friendly to us, to come in 
and make themselves at home, especially when you 
knew that not one of them would come unless allowed 
to- wear his arms, it did seem a. crazy sort of a thing 
to do. But Pershing knew his people, and though many 
of the others thought it risky and foolhardy, I, for my 
pa.'-t, felt sure it would be all right so long as he said 
it would be. 
Pershing was the adopted father or brother of two- 
thirds of the leading men in the district for oi;e thing, 
and as nearly all of them had met him both socially 
and officially for another, they were thoroughly familiar 
with his method of doing business, and I didn't be- 
lieve they would be apt to take advantage of the oc- 
casion to make a hostile demonstration, for they knew 
that any act of that nature would be followed by punish- 
ment swift and sure, and of a character not pleasant 
to contemplate. 
It seems to me it might be a good plan to pause 
right here and say a word of explanation about 
Pershing. I have mentioned him a number of times 
in previous articles, and I know a word as to who, 
and what he was, and his method of handling the 
Moros, will not come amiss. 
Not long ago I read a magazine article in which the 
writer said that one of the most striking features of 
. the history of our country is, that at every crisis which 
has confronted her there has appeared a man, who, 
while previously unknown, or at least nearly so, seemed 
nevertheless to have been specially fitted by training, 
taste and temperament to step in and handle the situa- 
tion. The author v/ent on to cite the cases of Wash- 
ington, Lincoln, Grant and others as examples of what 
he meant, and his remarks certainly apply, in a lesser 
degree possibly, to Pershing, for I do not believe there 
. could have been found a man in the whole United 
States army to handle, so difficult and delicate a situa- 
tion with the tact, diplomacy and patience he dis- 
played in dealing with the Moros in the Lake Lanao 
country of Mindanao. 
Of course, the Moro question way off there in the 
Philippines was neither a very great, nor a very vital 
one to the average citizen of this glorious republic of 
ours, probably not one in a hundred of whom could 
have told where to look for the island of Mindanao on 
the map. But it was a vital and important question to 
the fathers and mothers, sweethearts and wives, of the 
three or four thousand American soldiers who formed 
the garrison of that island, a goodly portion of whom 
would, most likely, never have seen "God's country" 
again had the wrong man been given the problem to 
solve. 
' It was also a vital and important question to some 
forty or fifty thousand Moros, who, up to that time, 
had never been conquered, and who, to a man, were 
willing to die in defense of their liberties and homes. 
Of course, it would have been easy enough to start 
out an expidition and exterminate them, but that would 
have meant a long, and very nasty little war, which it 
was not the policy of the Government at Washington 
to bring about at that time, in the face of a presidential 
election, nor would it have been a just or humane way 
out of the difficulty. So nothing remained but to win 
the Moros over to us by diplomacy. 
Pershing had always been fond of studying and fra- 
ternizing with the natives among whom he found him- 
self, be they who they might. As a second lieutenant 
of_ cavalry stationed at Fort Custer, Montana, some 
twenty years ago, he had been adopted by a chief of 
the Crow Indians as his son, and received by that tribe 
as a member. In 1899 he was sent to the Philippines, 
where, after being shifted about from place to place, 
he finally found himself at Zamboanga, the capital and 
metropolis of Mindanao, as Adjutant-General of the 
Department of Mindanao and Jolo. 
True to his old habits he promptly became interested 
in the Moros of that section, and later, when the ever- 
MOROS WATCHING THE GAMES. 
changing kaleidoscope of military service sent him to 
command the troops at the little town of Illigan, on the 
northern coast of the island, he found that his fame 
had preceded him, and there was hardly a Sultan or 
Datto of importance within two or three days' journey 
of that place, but hurried to pay his respects to the new 
commandante. 
After awhile even, some of the leading men of the 
lake country, which lies two days' journey back of 
Illigan, who did riot make the trip to the coast more 
than once a year, heard of him, and came down to 
Illigan, especially to visit him, and it was not long 
before Pershing found himself on friendly terms with 
many Moros who, up to that time, had been regarded 
as irreconcilably hostile to all white men. 
By exercising the greatest judgment, firmness and 
tact, by never promising them more than he could and, 
was willing to perform, by listening to their grievances 
with patience, treating them and their manners and 
customs with courtesy and respect, and by making them 
understand that we were in their country, not to despoil 
their homes and make slaves of them, nor to interfere 
with their laws or religion, but rather to help and en- 
courage them, he won their confidence and regard, and 
was finally able to induce a very wealthy and influential 
Datto, named Ahmi Manibeling, who lived at Marahui, 
on the northern end of the lake, to invite him to come 
there and make him a visit. 
This invitation was only extended by Manibeling after 
a long and stormy consultation with the other leaders 
of the lake district, and permission was finally granted 
Pershing to enter that sacred country, only on con- 
dition that he came unaccompanied by any other white 
man and should go no further than his friend's house. 
Overjoyed by the success of his plans in securing the 
invitation, Pershing went ofif with Amhi Manibeling and 
spent a week visiting the Moros on the lake in the 
vicinity of Marahui, and met all the most powerful and 
influential men of the district, laying the foundation of 
a friendship with them, which has lasted up to the 
present time; and to-day, his name is one to conjure 
with throughout all that region and is known arid fe- 
spected wherever a Moro "shack" stands on the island 
of Mindanao. 
After Camp Vicars was established, Pershing, because 
of his intimate knowledge of, and friendly relations with 
the Moros, was relieved from command at Illigan and 
sent to take charge of Moro affairs at that place under 
the command of Colonel Frank D. Baldwin, of the 
27th Infantry; and here it is that fate stepped in. In 
less than a month after Pershing reported to Colonel 
Baldwin for duty, the latter was made a brigadier gen- 
eral, in recognition of the services he had performed 
in opening up the country, and John J. Pershing, a 
junior and up to then a practically unknown captain of 
cavalry, being the senior officer present, found himself 
in command of the most important, and one of the 
largest military posts in the Philippine Islands, with 
the task of solving the hardest problem confronting 
the Government, on his hands. 
When Pershing fell heir to the command at Camp 
Vicars the situation there was practically aS follows: 
Here were anywhere from forty to sixty thousand 
Moros, newly come under the influence of the United 
States, who were war-like, proud and unconquered; 
they not only resented our presence in their country, 
but were suspicious of our good intentions toward them, 
and feared us as well. They were hostile, almost to 
a man; were not only willing, but apparently anxious 
to fight us; and there were just two ways o'pen to the 
authorities for handling the situation. One, to use 
force, which meant practically the extermination of the 
whole community, and the other to patiently strive by . 
diplomacy to win their confidence and ultimately their 
friendship, gradually getting them to submit to the laws- 
provided for their government, by persuading them that 
these laws were for their best interests and protection. Of 
course, the Government selected the latter plan, and no- 
wheres could they have found a better man to carry 
it out than Pershing. The Moros are great diplomats, 
but he played their own game with them and beat them 
at it. 
Some fool Datto would get his fur up and send us 
a letter filled with pictures of forts bristling with can- 
non, and usually burned in six places, which with the 
Moros means war to the bitter end, challenging us to 
come over and fight on the pain of having all sorts 
of dreadful things done to us if we didn't. Then 
Pershing would set to work; and the first thing you'd 
know he'd succeed in getting this belligerent person to 
meet him and talk things over. When they met, 
Pershing, who in the meantime had been learning all 
he could about this Datto and his family, would ask 
him how his brother Ahmi "This" was, and be greatly 
surprised to find that he was the son-in-law of Datto 
"That," who was a great friend of Pershing's, and be- 
fore the hostile knew what was happening to him, he 
and Pershing would be shaking hands and adopting each 
other and swearing eternal friendship. Then, perhaps, if it 
was not too far, Pershing would take us all for a visit 
to the hostile's house, where we would sit on the floor 
and chew betel nut (or at least some of us would) and 
talk about how much we had always loved each other 
and how glad we were that the "crool war," as Mr. 
Dooley would call it, was over. Pershing during the visit 
would let fall certain little remarks which would give 
the erstwhile hostile to understand that he, the hostile, 
was the only warrior in the whole lake country we 
really were afraid of, and that while of course he, 
Pershing, believed that we would have been victorious 
had it come to a fight, still it would have been a very 
big battle mdeed, and so on and so forth. Then our 
friend and late enemy would begin to swell up and 
talk big, and we'd all say good-bye and go back to 
camp. 
Two or three days later some friendly Moro would 
come in and inform Pershing that this recently hostile 
Datto was at his, the friendlies, house and wanted to 
come in and visit his brother, or whatever relation it 
was he and Pershing had adopted each other as. 
Pershing, of course, would be very pleased to receive 
him, and an hour or so afterward would be heard the 
sound of a drum, and presently over the hill back of 
camp would appear a procession in single file, small 
boys skillfully mixed in with the men, so as to lend 
the appearance of a great and powerful following, every 
one dressed in his best clothes, spears all trimmed with 
feathers, campilans and krises with handles of gold and 
silver, and headed by the friendly Datto and the one 
coming to pay his respects both, usually, mounted on 
ponies which were also trimmed with feathers and 
bells and things. 
When the procession arrived in front of Pershing's 
tent he would appear and much hand shaking would 
follow. Then the two Dattos would seat themselves 
cross-legged under the tent fly, their followers would 
squat in a semi-circle in front of it, and a lot more 
talk would follow. Like as not Pershing would send 
his orderly for me, and I would hook on my sabre and 
go over and shake hands all around and be adopted 
three or four times. Pershing would then produce half 
a dozen or so small looking glasses, a stock of which 
he kept on hand for the purpose, a couple of bottles 
of toilet water, and send a messenger to the commis- 
sary for a few pounds of rice and a plug of condemned 
chewing tobacco, which all the Moros, especially the 
women, love, and present them to our visitor for him- 
