LUKBAN
delirious. He was rushed to the hospital in Tacloban, with a 105 ° temperature.
In the meantime, Porter dispatched Capt Bearss and Cpl Murphy to Waller, awaiting new orders. When none came by late afternoon, Porter sent out a native who soon returned and reported that he could not find Waller. Porter and Williams now made an estimate of the situation. The last word received from Waller was to build rafts and stand by. Porter concluded that Waller was delaying up ahead because of the sad condition of his troops. Porter’ s own troops were nearly exhausted. His native carriers were becoming increasingly surly, and his supply consisted of a few cans of bacon and one ration of coffee. He decided his column must return to Lanang on foot.
So on the morning of 3 January, Porter, who considered himself stronger and in better physical condition than Lt Williams, took GySgt Quick, six men and six natives and started for Lanang where he would organize a relief party. Williams assumed command of the main column and was to remain where he was, wait for Waller and then follow Porter’ s trail.
After a brutal march, the Lanang river had risen 15 feet in one night which prevented crossing and re-crossing, Porter’ s small party reached the area where the original column had left the boats. Here he was forced to abandon four of his seven Marines, hoping they could subsist on potatoes until his return. He and the rest of his party finally struggled into Lanang on the evening of 11 January, three days after Waller had started out in search of them from Basey.
At Lanang, Porter organized a relief party under Army Lt Williams, but the flood river prevented its departure until 14 January. Two days later the relief party found the four Marines left behind by Porter, got them safely into Lanang by canoe, then pushed on in search of Williams’ column.
Williams, meanwhile, went through the tortures of the damned. With no rations and his men barefooted,“ one day was like the rest. By day we stumbled painfully forward and by night lay in a stupor, tormented by the most vivid dreams of food and comforts. At the first clearing Pvt Baroni, too sick to move, was left, and from that time until five days before we were rescued, ten men were left scattered along the trail, despairing in mind and so nearly dead from starvation and exposure that they could not crawl, and, in most cases, move.”
Native scouts mutiny
In addition to their discomforts, their native couriers, whom they
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