Underway again on the 20th, she headed for the familiar region of the southwest coast of Luzon to resume her watch on local banca traffic and to serve as a communication link for Army posts with the "outside world."

Villalobos seized three more bancas for operating without licenses and one for having insurgent papers on board, establishing a link between the last boat owner and forces then fighting the new American occupiers.

Leaving the collier at Shantou, Villalobos and Elcano proceeded to Pagoda Anchorage and thence to Shanghai to inaugurate the United States Navy's Yangtze River Patrol.

After a brief visit to this key Chinese seaport city, Villalobos pushed up the Yangtze on 27 March to Jiangyin to investigate conditions there and to check on the welfare of the American citizens.

She spent the next five days awaiting a favorable rise in the river level to permit passage to Yichang before she got underway on the 15th for Chenglin, Yuezhou, and Shashi.

After arriving at Yichang on 19 April, the ship headed back downriver and returned to Hankou on 5 May to investigate the possibility of making passage to Changsha for needed supplies.

However, the river level had fallen rapidly and Villalobos could proceed no further, so sent a whaleboat upstream for Nanchang to reconnoiter in accordance with orders from Rear Admiral Robley D. Evans, Commander in Chief, Asiatic Fleet, who had wired the gunboat to investigate local conditions there.

When word reached Admiral Evans, he responded that a French gunboat had earlier made the same trip and had followed the same procedures, and it had gone without a protest from the local Chinese authorities.

The admiral continued: "It is my desire that, so far as practicable, similar visits be paid to all Americans having property or other lawful interests in China, that I may be kept fully informed regarding all things concerning their welfare."

Referring to the governor's contention that the gunboats should stay away since the inhabitants of the district were "bad men," Evans responded that this was all the more reason for more frequent visits.

Evans authorized Villalobos' commanding officer to inform any Chinese officials who might raise similar objections that the Fleet's gunboats "are always amply provided for dealing with 'bad men.'"

While communications between widely separated places often took weeks or even months and the matter passed to Washington and the State and Navy Departments, American gunboats continued to patrol Poyang Lake.

2), Samar, Quiros, and Villalobos all remained at Shanghai— maintained at 75 percent complement and occupying their time with usual and routine ship's maintenance work—until China entered the war on the side of the Allied and Associated Powers on 16 August 1917.

The first flag officer commanding the Yangtze Patrol, Rear Admiral William Bullard, felt that the venerable Villalobos and her near-sisters were "hopeless cases" in terms of upkeep, firepower, and living conditions; but they, nevertheless, remained on duty.

For the next five years, Villalobos continued her usual river activities, with occasional periods of upkeep at the Chinese-owned Kiangnan Dock and Engineering Works.

On 27 August 1926, the ship steamed upstream for Changsha, passing Chinese warships at Ganzhou, warlord troops along the banks, and the occasional corpse floating with the tide.

Proceeding downriver, Villalobos arrived at Hankou on 2 March 1927, joining Isabel—flagship of Commander, Yangtzee Patrol, Rear Admiral H. H. Hough; Truxtun; and Pope.

On the 25, Lieutenant Commander Earl A. Mclntyre ordered his crew to place more steel boiler-plate around vital control and gun positions on board Villalobos in expectation of action.

Relieved by Palos on 27 May, Villalobos departed Hankou and the middle-river area and sailed for Shanghai with the orders to return fire if attacked.