RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS
exquisite workmanship and design, inlaid, some of them, with gold and silver, and with hilts of hardwood beautifully carved.
Finally the officers' launch put out from the dock and we knew that the Sultan was approaching. As he came alongside the Sumner he received a salute of seventeen guns while we all stood by holding our ears and stiffening our nerves against the deafening shock. We were expecting some one similar in appearance to our friends the dattos, except that we were sure he would be accoutred in three times as much barbaric splendour. Fancy our disappointment then, when there emerged from the low awning of the launch a figure quite commonplace; a very short, very black little man in a heavy uniform of black cloth embroidered in gold braid, not unlike the uniform of a British Consul. He was awkward and homely and he had shiny black teeth; that is how I remember him. He had two attendants who served only to accentuate his own insignificance. The Commission got nothing out of him either. He had none of the polish and gentlemanly manners of the Filipino leaders, and conversation of any kind with him was found to be extremely difficult. Almost the only interesting remark he made was to invite the ladies of our party to call on his many wives, a thing I should have greatly enjoyed, but which was impossible because the Sultan's "palace" was back over the hills, on the other side of the island, a long way from Jolo.
The problem of the government of the territory inhabited by the Moros in a measure adjusted itself. These Mohammedans have always been unruly and independent and were never wholly conquered by the Spaniards, and they absolutely refused, as they have since continued to do, to be placed under Filipino control. So it was decided to detach them from the general organisation and to place them under a semi-military system with an American Army
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