Manila Sept. 4th 98
Dear Carrie,
I suppose you have received some of my letters before this although I would not be surprised if some of the went astray. This is Sunday and a number of the crew have gone ashore. It is too hot below so I do nearly all my living on the upper deck. Two of the Ohio's firemen went crazy on the trip out and jumped overboard. Two of the Indiana's crewmen were killed the day of sailing from here Aug. 31st and sent ashore for burial. All the transports had burials at sea with the exception of the old Penn. One of our firemen was carried on deck at 2 a.m. one morning overcome by the heat. It took 10 hours hard work to restore him to consciousness and 5 more days to recover. I would not then allow him to go back to the stoke room.
Everything is quiet here but the Insurgents are being watched very closely and the guards have been doubled every where. The insurgents have been digging trenches the last four days just outside of Cavite. Numbers of Spanish officers and privates are on parole walking around the streets and the streets and cafes are filled with Insurgent troops. Applications are made every day by Spaniards to enlist in the American Army.
We leave here some time next week for San Francisco stopping on our way at Honolulu for coal. It will take us over a month to get back. I am sorry we are not going to Nagasaki first for coal as I should like very much to visit that country. I believe we load up at Frisco with supplies and come back here. I hope to get to Japan then.
Nearly all the foreign war ships have left here and most of the US battleships. The Olympia has gone and Admiral Dewee [sic] is using the Baltimore as his flag ship. The Charleston is here and the monitors Monterey [sic] and Monadnoc. The last 2 are daisies. At no time during the trouble was there a battleship here that either one of them could not have blown out of the water.
Write soon.
Address
30 Montgomery St.
San Francisco, Cal.
c/o Empire Trans. Co.
With Love,
Charlie