Chinese collaboration under the American occupation. II

Efforts to secure a water line of communication by Manila Bay and theMalolos estuary were made immediately and continued for more than two weeks. The proper mouth of the estuary was found with considerable difficulty.
A bar had formed in front of it, making the entrance very tortuous. Up this two of our gunboats worked their way, but encountered well-driven piles and other obstructions which the insurgents had placed there and around which mud and sand had collected, making the water too shoal for navigation. Near the mouth of the stream a dredge was used and the gunboats removed a good many of the pile obstructions, but satisfactory results could not be obtained and the work was abandoned.
A considerable detail of soldiers was made to put in sufficient repair for immediate use of the railway from Manila to Malolos, and Chinese labor was hired. The track had been considerably damaged by the insurgents and a number of bridges partially destroyed, but Major Devol, of the Quartermaster'sDepartment, overcame all difficulties, and, with the engines captured at Caloocan, gave Malolos daily railway train service.

Title: The official records of the Oregon volunteers in the Spanishwar and Philippine insurrection,Author: Oregon. Adjutant-General's Office. Page 489