MANILA UNDER THE AMERICANS. 
317 
American 
field! gun. 
possibly inflicted by the English under General Draper in 1762. On the 
west face is a hole through the masonry parapet made probably by a 6" or 
8 ,; shell which burst just after penetrating and partially destroyed the 
roof of a building inside judging by the effect produced. In three other 
places are marks of shell from small Q.F/s; these appear to be the 
only recent hits from seawards. On the south face two shell had 
penetrated the parapet, these had probably been fired from fixed guns 
on land, judging by the direction the shell had taken. On the south¬ 
east corner of this fort the Spanish had had two siege guns on over¬ 
bank carriages; the Americans had replaced these by two field guns 
of their own. As some of the Insurgents look-out places in trees, 
about 300 yards off, could see into the fort, these guns were covered 
with tarpaulins and I could only get a partial glimpse at one of them. 
It was a short gun about 3^" calibre, shell 16 lbs., 
charge 14J ounces, and smokeless powder. The 
gun had the same breech block as our 12-pr. B.L., 
interrupted screw, de Bange obturator, the only difference being that 
the carrier ring swung out to the left instead of the right. I was 
shown two shell, a shrapnel and a common; the shrapnel was of steel 
and had a time fuze screwed in, the fuze was very like our time and 
percussion, short both in shape and size, but the system of setting 
length was more like that employed with the old wooden time fuze, 
small holes were arranged and numbered spirally round the body of 
the fuze and length set by a hole being punched at the required place 
by means of a fuze key which worked rather on the principle of a 
leather punch. The common shell was of steel also, sharp pointed 
and had a base fuze. I was informed the base fuze worked most 
unsatisfactorily. Both shells had Vavaseur driving bands, the band was 
plain, neither bevelled nor canelured. A friction tube with a com¬ 
plicated spiral spring was used to fire the gun. I could detect no vent¬ 
sealing arrangement. As the gun was so much covered over and the 
officer showed some reluctance about exposing it, I was unable to 
discover any method of checking recoil and did not care to appear too 
inquisitive. The elevating gear was worked on the lazy tongs 
principle, it seemed rapid in movement and the gear itself was con¬ 
cealed in a trail box; there seemed to be practically no back lash 
(perhaps the gun had not fired many rounds); on the whole it seemed 
to be a good arrangement. In size the wheels seemed much the same 
as ours with about a five foot track. 
On Tuesday, 31st, I visited the American outpost line from Tondo 
to Sta Mesa ; here about a mile out to sea was the Baltimore anchored 
to support the flank. Running inland from the sea, the American 
outpost line runs along the southern end of a lagoon crossing the 
canal by a bridge and then circles round eastward. All the roads 
running in and out of Manila are patrolled for a quarter of a mile or 
so to keep touch with the Filipino outposts, whose outpost line 
skirts the edge of the wooded country. A mile or so out on the Malolos 
Road is a large Insurgent camp where there were said to be some 
10,000 men encamped. The Americans had two guns and strong 
21a 
