Admiral Dewey sailed his fleet into Manila harbor in May 1898. By August the "liberation" of the Philippines was complete. Almost immediately friction, and then hostilities, broke out between the American forces and Philippine rebel leader Emilio Aguinaldo. For the next three years there was fighting between the U.S. Army and Aguinaldo's troops. With the capture of Aguinaldo on March 23, 1901, the "Philippine Insurrection" was effectively terminated. This song describes the difficulties the U.S. Army encountered in building a strategic road on the island of Mindanao.

IN MINDANAO

We said goodbye to the brown babaye in Naic and Santa Cruz
And for Mindanao we took our vow in a glass of foaming booze
We're camped in the sand of a foreign land
By the mighty Agus River
With the brush at your toes and the "skeeters" at your nose
And a kris, perhaps, in your liver.

We've the dhobee-itch and the hamstring hitch,
The jimjams and the fever;
The ping-pong wrist and the bolo fist,
And a bumpus on the liver.
We're going up to Lake Lanao,
To the town they call Marahui;
When the road is built and the Moros "kilt,"
There'll none of us be sorry.

We're blasting stumps and grading bumps;
Our hands and backs are sore, oh!
We work all day just dreaming of our pay,
And damn the husky Moros!
When you're pulled from bed with a great big head,
And a weakness o'er you stealing;
The sick report is a fine resort
To cure that tired feeling.

source: American History Songbook, by Jerry Silverman (Mel Bay Publishing)

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OK, so what's the tune? -- "The Girl I Left Behind Me"? I should know this, but it's too late to think.