USA
Chapter 45

Copyright© 2016 by Old Man with a Pen

I suppose the American problem with the Philippine Islands was still going on in 1931/32. The violence of the turn of the century colored politics and there were those who remembered.

Lies on both sides put the onus of "Might makes Right" on which ever side happened to be in charge at the moment. There is no doubt that both sides were wrong and both sides were right.

It was an occupied country ... and the United States was doing its level best to effect land reform and separation of the Roman Catholic Church from its position of power, while a great many Catholics were fighting to retain the Church.

One thing for sure ... we were the wrong color, the wrong religion and wealthy ... that in itself a severe wrong.

It seemed that every river and creek had a different warlord ... all struggling to subdue his neighbor. Open combat with US troops hadn't ceased ... but it was descending into isolated acts causing great hardship on the civilians.

Both the guerrillas and the US Army retaliated against rumored atrocities ... and the innocent suffered. Supposedly, the fighting stopped sometime between 1901 and 1916 ... supposedly ... it hadn't.

The Moro ... a muslim sect made our passage up the western side of Mindanao very dangerous. Our weapons were used and used and used again. After we were finally away and rounding the tip, the Dyaks raiding in from the Spratly and Paracel Islands also added to our misery.

Remember when James McDouggle mentioned proa with a hundred men? Yeah. He wasn't joking ... if anything he was understating the situation.

The Dyaks were pirates before Christ was born. They were still pirates today.

These proa weren't hollowed out log canoes with a simple outrigger. No ... these were built hulls made with stitched together planks maybe fifty or sixty feet long. They generally carried a few ancient muzzleloader cannon. The Hotchkiss had at least a mile range on them.

To have a proa festooned with hundreds of human skulls come screaming out of a rain squall with a hundred painted up pirates onboard and every one of them armed with spears or machetes or rifles has to be seen to understand why we just started shooting. Terrifying.

The first time ... Wendy thought ... mercy ... but ... Seven and the Powers discombobulated ... Gods! that's disgusting ... and they took over the guns and slaughtered them. To ... the ... last ... man. Machine-gunned them in the water ... the sharks ... oh yes ... the sharks ate well. Not one pirate made it back to base.

"Did you have to..." Wendy started.

Seven looked daggers at her, "Shut up, Wendy. You have no idea!"

"But..."

"Killing them was a mercy, Wendy." Seven looked relieved. "They would be hung ... and not quickly. Run 'em up and strangle slowly. We didn't play with them ... cat and mouse ... that's what they would have done to you ... make you watch..." She turned to the girls. "They would have raped you until you lost your mind and then trailed you over the side and laughed as the sharks made you scream."

After we watered in Zamboanga and rounded the Zamboanga Peninsula was when the Moro pirates tried us ... in between it was Dyaks. No matter our tricks there was always the tip of a proa sail on the horizon. We were under constant surveillance sailing up the west coast of Mindanao, across to Negroes and past Panay ... all the way to Corregidor.

Corregidor was impressive. Shot through with caves, barracks and huge cannon it was as impregnable as Gibraltar. Past that was Manila. As cities go ... Manila was huge. This was the city of the yearly Manila Galleon of fame and impossible fortune. From Manila we sailed to Formosa and Kelang, Taipei's port. Here we rested with the American ambassador before the next leg ... Japan.

 
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