coffin. I accordingly hid it in my poncho and strapped it to my
saddle. Then I appointed a hotel-keeper, who spoke a little English,
as my official interpreter, and told the Alcalde that I was now
Military Governor, Mayor, and Chief of Police, and that I wanted the
seals of the town. He gave me a rubber stamp with a coat of arms cut
in it, and I wrote myself three letters, which, to insure their safe
arrival, I addressed to three different places, and stamped them with
the rubber seals. In time all three reached me, and I now have them
as documentary proof of the fact that for twenty minutes I was
Military Governor and Mayor of Coamo.

During that brief administration I detailed Titus and Breckenridge to
wigwag the Sixteenth Pennsylvania that we had taken the town, and
that it was now safe for them to enter. In order to compromise Paget
they used his red silk handkerchief. Root I detailed to conciliate
the inhabitants by drinking with every one of them. He tells me he
carried out my instructions to the letter. I also settled one
assault and battery case, and put the chief offender under arrest.
At least, I told the official interpreter to inform him that he was
under arrest, but as I had no one to guard him he grew tired of being
under arrest and went off to celebrate his emancipation from the rule
of Spain.

My administration came to an end in twenty minutes, when General
Wilson rode into Coamo at the head of his staff and three thousand
men. He wore a white helmet, and he looked the part of the
conquering hero so satisfactorily that I forgot I was Mayor and ran
out into the street to snap a picture of him. He looked greatly
surprised and asked me what I was doing in his town. The tone in
which he spoke caused me to decide that, after all, I would not keep