The landing was completed and the detachment organized at 3 p. m.,
having rations, forage, and ammunition complete. There was no tentage,
except the shelter-halves which some of the men had brought with them.
Capt. Henry Marcotte, retired, the correspondent of the Army and Navy
Journal, requested permission to accompany the detachment, which was
granted, and soon all were _en route_ for the front, entrusted with
the task of opening the way for wheeled transportation and of
demonstrating the practicability of the road for army wagons and field
artillery.

For the first mile the road was excellent. It lay through one of the
most fertile parts of the most fertile island in the world. A little
stream trickling along the side of the road furnished plenty of water
for both men and animals. At the end of the mile the detachment found
a steep hill to descend. The Ordnance Department, which designed and
built the carriage for the Gatling guns, had never foreseen the
necessity for a brake, and it was therefore necessary to cut down
bushes from the roadside and fasten the rear wheels by placing a stout
pole between the spokes and over the trail of the piece. This locked
the wheels, and the guns were thus enabled to slide down the steep
hill without danger of a runaway. From this point the road became a
narrow defile. The rank jungle closed in upon the trail, the long
barbed leaves of the Spanish bayonet hung across and lacerated the
legs of the mules until the blood trickled down to the hoofs; the
boughs of the trees hung down over it so that even the men on foot had
to stoop to pass under them, and the tortuous path winding in and out
amid the dense tropical undergrowth made it impossible to see in
places more than twenty-five or thirty yards ahead at a time.

The advance guard, consisting of all the members of one gun crew, had