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It was now remembered that the Japanese ship had had steam up constantly for the last few days, ostensibly because they were daily expecting their cargo in lighters, from which they intended to load without delay. It was therefore pretty certain that the Kanga Maru had entered the harbor merely for the purpose of destroying the Monadnock, the only monitor in Manila.
The Kanga Maru had launched her torpedoes, and then tried to escape. The meeting with the Mindoro the Japanese had not reckoned with, for they had counted on getting away during the confusion which the destruction of the Monadnock would naturally cause in Manila.
Suddenly clouds of white steam burst out from all the holes in the ship's sides, from the skylights, and from the remnants of the funnels; the deck in the middle of the steamer rose slowly, and the exploding boilers tossed broken bits of engines and deck apparatus high up into the air. The Kanga Maru listed to port and disappeared in the waves, over which a few straggling American shots swept.
In the mealie fields are francolins in coveys, very like the red-legged partridge in their call, though in plumage nearer to its English brother. There, too, the ubiquitous guinea fowl, the spotted "kanga" that has given us so many blessed changes of diet, utters his strident call from the tops of big thorn trees.
There could be no doubt that these torpedoes came from the Japanese steamer anchored beside the Monadnock, for the Kanga Maru had suddenly slipped her anchor and hurried off as fast as she could.
As a reward for his decisive action in destroying the Kanga Maru, the commander of the Mindoro was ordered to try, with the assistance of three other gunboats, to locate the commander of the cruiser squadron somewhere in the neighborhood of Mindanao, probably to the southwest of that island, in order to notify him of the outbreak of the war and to hand him the order to return to Manila.
It was the captain of the Japanese Kanga Maru, which has been anchored since Tuesday beside the Monadnock, which I have the honor to command." "But, my good Harryman, you have hallucinations," interrupted the colonel. "The Japanese captain gave the latest Hong-Kong papers to the Harbor Bureau, and was quite astonished to hear that our cable did not work "
As a result of these occurrences the few ships in the roads of Manila soon stopped loading and discharging; most of the steamers weighed anchor, and, as soon as they could get up steam, went farther out into the roads, for a rumor had spread that the Kanga Maru had laid mines. The report turned out to be entirely unfounded, but it succeeded in causing a regular panic on some of the ships.
After a two hours' battle with the sand-flies we set off at 7.35 A.M., Forteune, Hotaloya, and Kanga at the head of the musketeers, one of them also carrying an axe; sixteen guns form a strong party for these regions. Our specimen was strung with thin cords made from the fibre of a lliana; I was shown this growth, which looked much like a convolvulus.
"Machua Kanga" = "guinea fowl's eyes," is another popular variety; and the "Moiompio" = "new heart," a large pale blue bead, is a favourite amongst the Wabisa; but by far the most valuable of all is a small white oblong bead, which, when strung, looks like the joints of the cane root, from which it takes its name, "Salani" = cane. 25th January, 1867. Remain and get our maëre ground into flour.
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