A Woman's Journey through the Philippines

A Woman’s Journey through the Philippines is by Florence Kimball Russel and is set on a cable ship that linked together the strange lands seen en route. The contents name places such as Dumaguete, Misamis, Iligan, Cebu, Zamboanga, Sulu and Bongao. The text describes the wonderful starlit heavens of the tropics, where every star sent a trail of light to the still water, seeming to fasten the sky to the sea with long silver skewers.

The ship’s master, burdened with visions of coral reefs on a chartless coast, failed to appreciate the æsthetic beauty of sailing unknown seas in limitless darkness. Everyone on board watched with interest the heavy machinery as it slowly and steadily pulled the sea end of the cable out of the water; it was hooked at half after eight, and not until an hour later was it landed. Guinayangan had a wooden belfry to one side of its church, the bells therein being made of metal arms captured from the Moros many years before.