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MANILA UNDER THE AMERICANS. 
- BY 
CAPTAIN C. B. SIMONDS, R.A. 
O N 26th January, 1899,1 left Hong Kong on board H.M.S. Centurion 
on ten days leave for Manila. To be sent to the Ultima Thule 
of the British Empire [Wei Hai Wei hardly yet exists] falls to the lot 
of many officers, but to get a chance of a trip to the Philippines and 
back at such an interesting era in the history of those islands, on 
board the flag-ship and to be comfortably berthed in the Admiral's 
spare cabin, is at least fortunate provided the all-important question of 
leave can be arranged—here again fortune smiled on me as I got back 
on the day on which my leave expired. As regards the officers of 
the Centurion, I knew what to expect. From the Flag-Captain down¬ 
wards I had got to know most of them very well through the medium 
of polo, cricket, racquets, and other games and I never wish to meet 
a nicer lot of fellows; the Commander was an old friend of mine, 
whom I had known when quartered at Bermuda, and it was to his 
kind invitation that I was indebted for a most pleasant ten days leave. 
We left Hong Kong at 9 a.m. on the 26th and had not got far out¬ 
side the Lye-Mun when we found ourselves in a heavy beam sea, the 
North-east Monsoon, which always blows at this time of year, was 
asserting its presence rather severely. The ship went very steadily 
in spite of the fact that we did a four hours full speed trial and a 
twenty hours trial at fifteen-and-a-half knots the second day. By 
5 a.m. on the 28th the wind and sea had gone down considerably and 
on looking out I could just see land as day was breaking on our port 
beam, my first glimpse of tbe Philippines. 
Aprive in At 10*45 a.m., on 28th January, steaming slowly, 
we entered the channel between Corregidor and the 
Man la ay ‘ main land of Luzon. Shortly after 11 a.m. we were 
in Manila Bay heading for Cavite. A straight cut terrace, overgrown 
with grass, showed where the Spanish guns on Corregidor had prob¬ 
ably been—as far as one could judge from the ship it looked like 
a reverse battery which could only fire on ships after they had passed 
through the channel ; there did not appear to have been any other 
fortifications, had there been they must have been skilfully hidden; 
a red-cross flag flying over some buildings on the island showed that 
they were being used as a hospital. We anchored off Cavite about 
1.30 p.m. before which the customary salutes had been exchanged be¬ 
tween the Centurion and Olympia, Admiral Dewey's flag-ship. After 
the Admirals had exchanged calls Admiral Dewey came to take Sir 
Edward Seymour round the wrecks of the Spanish Fleet, and at 
4 o'clock some twenty of us went off in uniform to visit Cavite. 
& VOL, XXVL 
