XXIV. An Outline of the War of Independence, Period 1899-1901…

XXIV. An Outline of the War of Independence, Period 1899-1901

"I speak not of forcible annexation because that is not to be thought of, and under our code of morality that would be criminal aggression."--President McKinley's Message to Congress; December, 1897.

"The Philippines are ours as much as Louisiana by purchase, or Texas or Alaska."--President McKinley's Speech to the 10th Pennsylvania Regiment; August 28, 1899.

Ignorance of the world's ways, beyond the Philippine shores, was the cause of the Aguinaldo party's first disappointment. A score of pamphlets has been published to show how thoroughly the Filipinos believed America's mission to these Islands to be solely prompted by a compassionate desire to aid them in their struggle for immediate sovereign independence. Laudatory and congratulatory speeches, uttered in British colonies, in the presence of American officials, and hope-inspiring expressions which fell from their lips before Aguinaldo's return to Cavite from exile, strengthened that conviction. Sympathetic avowals and grandiloquent phrases, such as "for the sake of humanity," and "the cause of civilization," which were so freely bandied about at the time by unauthorized Americans, drew Aguinaldo into the error of believing that some sort of bond really existed between the United States and the Philippine Revolutionary Party. In truth, there was no agreement between America and the Filipinos. There was no American plenipotentiary empowered to make any political compact with the Islanders. At that date there was neither a Philippine policy nor any fixed programme regarding the future disposal of the Islands, and whatever naval, military, or other officers might have said to Aguinaldo was said on their own private responsibility, and could in no way affect the action of the American Government. Without any training in or natural bent for diplomacy, Aguinaldo had not the faintest idea of what foreign "protection" signified. He thought that after the capture of Manila the Americans would sail away and leave the Filipinos to themselves, and only reappear if any other Power interfered with their native government.

Admiral Dewey had a double task to perform. He had to destroy the Spanish fleet, and to co-operate in the taking of Manila. In the destruction of the fleet the attitude of the natives was of little concern to him. In the taking of the capital it was important to know what part the natives would play. It was certain they would not be placid spectators of the struggle, wherever Aguinaldo might be. If they must enter into it, it was desirable to have them led by one who could control them and repress excesses. It would have been better for the Americans if, pending the issue with the Spaniards, no third party had existed; but, as it did exist, both contending nations were anxious for its goodwill or its control. Therefore Admiral Dewey's recognition of Aguinaldo as a factor in the hostilities was nothing more nor less than a legitimate stratagem to facilitate his operations against the Spaniards. Dewey simply neutralized a possible adverse force by admissible military artifice, and Aguinaldo was too ingenuous to see that he was being outwitted. The fighting section of the Filipinos was intensely irritated at not having been allowed to enter and sack the capital. They had looked forward to it as the crowning act of victory. The general mass of the christianized Islanders hoped that Philippine independence would immediately follow the capitulation of Manila, although, in the capital itself, natives of position and property evinced little enthusiasm for the insurgents' triumph, whilst some inwardly doubted it. In September a native lawyer, Felipe Agoncillo, was sent to Washington to lay the Filipinos' case before the President in the hope of gaining his personal support of their claims (vide p. 472). The first fear was that the Colony might revert to Spain, but that idea was soon dispelled by the news of the stipulations of the Treaty of Paris. Simultaneously Aguinaldo's revolutionary army was being pushed farther and farther away from the capital, and it was evident, from the mood of his fighting-men, that if the Americans remained in possession of the Colony, hostilities, sooner or later, must break out. The Americans officially ignored the Aguinaldo party as a factor in public affairs, but they were not unaware of the warlike preparations being made. Secret anti-American meetings were held at places called clubs, where it was agreed to attack simultaneously the Americans inside and outside the capital. General Pio del Pilar slept in the city every night, ready to give the rocket-signal for revolt. Natives between 18 and 40 years of age were being recruited for military service, according to a Malolos Government decree dated September 21, 1898. In every smithy and factory bowie-knives were being forged with all speed, and 10,000 men were already armed with them. General E. S. Otis was willing to confer with Aguinaldo, and six sessions were held, the last taking place on January 29, six days before the outbreak. Nothing resulted from these conferences, the Americans alleging that Aguinaldo would make no definite statement of his people's aims, whilst the Filipinos declare that their intentions were so well understood by the American general that he would listen to nothing short of unconditional submission.

The following manifesto, dated January 5, signed by Emilio Aguinaldo, clearly shows the attitude of the Revolutionary Party at this period:--

To My Brethren the Filipinos, and to All the Respected Consuls and Other Foreigners:--

General Otis styles himself Military Governor of these Islands, and I protest one and a thousand times and with all the energy of my soul against such authority. I proclaim solemnly that I have not recognized either in Singapore or in Hong-Kong or in the Philippines, by word or in writing, the sovereignty of America over this beloved soil. On the contrary, I say that I returned to these Islands on an American warship on the 19th of May last for the express purpose of making war on the Spaniards to regain our liberty and independence. I stated this in my proclamation of the 24th of May last, and I published it in my Manifesto addressed to the Philippine people on the 12th of June. Lastly, all this was confirmed by the American General Merritt himself, predecessor of General Otis, in his Manifesto to the Philippine people some days before he demanded the surrender of Manila from the Spanish General Jaudenes. In that Manifesto it is distinctly stated that the naval and field forces of the United States had come to give us our liberty, by subverting the bad Spanish Government. And I hereby protest against this unexpected act of the United States claiming sovereignty over these Islands. My relations with the American authorities prove undeniably that the United States did not bring me over here from Hong-Kong to make war on the Spaniards for their benefit, but for the purpose of our own liberty and independence. . . .

Emilio Aguinaldo.

Aguinaldo having been successively Dictator and President of the Revolutionary Government (vide p. 448), now assumed the new title of President of the Philippine Republic, the Articles of Constitution of which (drawn up by his Prime Minister Apolinario Mabini) were dated January 21, 1899, and promulgated by him on the following day. In due course the news came that the date of voting in the Senate for or against the retention of the Islands was fixed. The Americans already in the Colony were practically unanimous in their desire for its retention, and every effort was made by them to that end. The question of the treaty ratification was warmly discussed in Washington. A week before the vote was taken it was doubtful whether the necessary two-thirds majority could be obtained. It was a remarkable coincidence that just when the Republican Party was straining every nerve to secure the two or three wavering votes, the first shots were exchanged between a native and an American outpost in the suburbs of the capital. Each side accuses the other of having precipitated hostilities. However that may be, this event took place precisely at a date when the news of it in Washington served to secure the votes of the hesitating senators in favour of retention. [208] The provocative demeanour of the insurgents at the outposts was such that a rupture was inevitable sooner or later, and if a Senate vote of abandonment had come simultaneously with insurrection, the situation would have been extremely complicated; it would have been difficult for the Oriental not to have believed that the invader was nervously beating a retreat. The Nebraska Regiment was at Santa Mesa, guarding its front. Americans were frequently insulted, called cowards, and openly menaced by the insurgents. In the evening of Saturday, February 4, 1899, an insurgent officer came with a detail of men and attempted to force his way past the sentinel on the San Juan bridge. About nine o'clock a large body of rebels advanced on the South Dakota Regiment's outposts, and to avoid the necessity of firing, for obvious reasons, the picquets fell back. For several nights a certain insurgent lieutenant had tried to pass the Nebraska lines. At length he approached a sentinel, who called "halt" three times without response, and then shot the lieutenant dead. Several insurgents then fired and retreated; rockets were at once sent up by the Filipinos, and firing started all along the line, from Caloocan to Santa Mesa. By ten o'clock the Filipinos concentrated at Caloocan, Santa Mesa, and Gagalanging, whence they opened a simultaneous, but ineffectual, fusillade, supplemented by two siege guns at Balichalic and a skirmishing attack from Pandacan and Paco. Desperate fighting continued throughout the night; the Filipinos, driven back from every post with heavy loss, rallied the next morning at Paco, where they occupied the parish church, to which many non-combatant refugees had fled. The American warships, co-operating with their batteries, poured a terrific fire on the church, and kept up a continuous attack on the insurgent position at Caloocan, where General Aguinaldo was in command. At daylight the Americans made a general advance towards Paco and Santa Ana. At the former place the Filipinos resisted desperately; the church, sheltering refugees and insurgents, was completely demolished; [209] the Filipinos' loss amounted to about 4,000 killed and wounded, whilst the Americans lost about 175 killed and wounded. It is estimated that the approximate number of troops engaged in this encounter was 13,000 Americans and 20,000 Filipinos. The insurgents at Santa Ana, the survivors of the Paco defeat, and the force which had to abandon the Santolan water-works, where they left behind them a howitzer, all concentrated at Caloocan. The insurgent and American lines formed a semicircle some 15 miles in extent, making it impossible to give a comprehensive description of the numerous small engagements.

Immediately the news of the rupture reached Washington the Philippine Envoy, Felipe Agoncillo, fled to Montreal, Canada, in a great hurry, leaving his luggage behind. No one was troubling him, and there was not the least need for such a precipitate flight from a country where civilized international usages obtain. On February 5 an engagement took place at Gagalanging, where the natives collected in the hundreds of bungalows around that village awaiting the advance of the Oregon Regiment. Amongst the spectators was the German Prince Ludwig von Loewenstein. The Americans continued advancing and firing, when suddenly the prince ran across an open space and took shelter in a hut which he must have known would be attacked by the Oregons. The order was given to fire into the native dwellings giving cover to the insurgents, and the prince's dead body was subsequently found perforated by a bullet. In his pocket he carried a pass issued by Aguinaldo conceding to the bearer permission to go anywhere within the insurgent lines, and stating that he was a sympathizer with their cause. It was noticed that the prince several times deliberately threw himself into danger. No one could ascertain exactly in what capacity he found himself near the fighting-line. Less than two years previously he had married the daughter of an English earl, and the popular belief was that, for private reasons, he intentionally courted death.

The rebels were repulsed at every point with great loss. Lines of smoke from the burning villages marked the direction taken by the Americans advancing under the leadership of Generals Otis, Wheaton, Hale, and Hall. An immense amount of impedimenta in the shape of pontoons, telegraph posts and wires, ammunition, and provisions followed the infantry in perfect order. On the line taken by the troops many native householders hoisted white flags to indicate their peaceful intentions. Ambulances were frequently seen coming in with the wounded Americans and Filipinos, and among them was brought the chief of an Igorrote tribe with a broken thigh. His tribe, who had been persuaded by Aguinaldo to bring their bows and arrows to co-operate with him, were placed in the front and suffered great slaughter. In hospital the Igorrote chief spoke with much bitterness of how he had been deceived, and vowed vengeance against the Tagalogs. The next day at Caloocan the rebels made a determined stand, but were driven out of the place by 10-inch shells fired from the Monadnock over the American lines. General Hall occupied Santolan and the pumping-station there and repelled the repeated attacks made on his column. General McArthur with a flying column cleared the surrounding district of the enemy, but owing to the roughness of the country he was unable to pursue them. Aguinaldo was therefore able to escape north with his army, reinforced by native troops who had been trained in Spanish service. There was also a concentration of about 2,500 natives from the southern Luzon provinces. The insurgents had cut trenches at almost every mile along the route north. In the several skirmishes which took place on March 25 the Americans lost one captain and 25 men killed and eight officers and 142 men wounded. The next day there was some hard fighting around Polo and Novaliches, where the insurgents held out for six hours against General McArthur's three brigades of cavalry and artillery. After the defeat at Paco, Aguinaldo moved on to the town of Malabon, which was shelled; the enemy therefore immediately evacuated that place in great confusion, after setting fire to the buildings. Over 1,000 men, women, and children hastened across the low, swampy lands carrying their household goods and their fighting-cocks; it was indeed a curious spectacle. General Wheaton's brigade captured Malinta, and the insurgents fled panic-stricken after having suffered severely. The American loss was small in numbers, but Colonel Egbert, of the 22nd Infantry, was mortally wounded whilst leading a charge. As he lay on the litter in the midst of the fight General Wheaton cheered him with the words, "Nobly done, Egbert!" to which the dying colonel replied, "Good-bye, General; I'm done; I'm too old," and at once expired.

In March the natives tried to burn down one of the busiest Manila suburbs. At 8 o'clock one evening they set fire to the Chinese quarters in Santa Cruz, and the breeze rapidly wafted the flames. The conflagration lasted four hours. The English Fire-Brigade turned out to quench it. Hundreds of Chinese laden with chattels hurried to and fro about the streets; natives rushed hither and thither frantically trying to keep the fire going whilst the whites were endeavouring to extinguish it; and with the confusion of European and Oriental tongues the place was a perfect pandemonium. General Hughes was at the head of the police, but the surging mob pressed forward and cut the hose five times. With fixed bayonets the troops partially succeeded in holding back the swelling crowd. The electric wires got out of working order, and the city was lighted only by the glare of the flaming buildings. Bullets were flying in all directions about Tondo and Binondo. The intense excitement was intentionally sustained by batches of natives who rushed hither and thither with hideous yells to inspire a feeling of terror. Many families, fearing that the insurgents had broken through the American lines and entered the city en masse, frantically fled from the hotels and houses. Incessant bugle-calls from the natives added to the commotion, and thousands of Chinese crowded into the Chinese Consulate. Finally the rioters were driven back, and a cordon of troops assured the safety of the capital. Sharp engagements simultaneously took place at the Chinese cemetery and at San Pedro Macati. Bands of insurgents were arrested in Tondo. A group of 60 was captured escorting two cartloads of arms and ammunition to a house. Business was almost entirely suspended, and a general order was issued by the Military Governor commanding all civilians to remain in their houses after 7 p.m. This hour was gradually extended to 8 o'clock, then 9 o'clock, and finally to midnight, as circumstances permitted. An edict was posted up fixing the penalties for incendiarism. During two days smoke hovered around the neighbourhood, and the appearance of Manila from the bay was that of a smouldering city.

In the fighting up country, one of the greatest difficulties for the Americans was that the insurgents would not concentrate and have a decisive contest. They would fire a few volleys from cover and retreat to other cover, repeating these harassing, but inconclusive, tactics over many miles of ground. On their march the Americans had to fight a hidden foe who slipped from trench to trench, or found safety in the woods. Sometimes a trenchful of the enemy would fire a volley and half of them disappear through gullies leading to other cover. The next point of importance to be reached was Malalos, and on the way some thirty villages had to be passed. Besides the volleys delivered by hidden insurgents all along the line, a hard-fought battle took place on March 28 under the personal direction of General Aguinaldo, who concentrated about 5,000 men near Marilao. Aguinaldo directed the movements without appearing on the field; indeed it is doubtful whether, during this war, he ever led his troops into action. General McArthur's division had halted at Meycauayan the previous night, and in the morning advanced north in conjunction with General Hale's brigade, which took the right, whilst General Otis led his troops to the left of the railroad, General Wheaton's brigade being held in reserve. After a three-mile march these forces fell in with the enemy, who opened fire from trenches and thickets; but General Otis's troops charged them gallantly and drove them back across the river. There the insurgents rallied, relying upon the splendid trenches which they had dug. The battle raged for three hours, the combatants being finally within fifty yards of each other. Eventually the American artillery came into play, when the advanced works of the insurgent defences were literally pulverized and the general rout of the enemy began. They retreated to their second stronghold of bamboo thickets, pursued by the 1st South Dakota Infantry, which made a brilliant charge in the open, under a galling fire, with a loss of three lieutenants and seven men killed on the field and about a score wounded. The insurgents, however, were completely defeated and scattered, leaving 85 dead counted in the trenches and thickets, and a hundred prisoners in the hands of the Americans. Before abandoning Marilao the insurgents burnt the town to the ground and continued their hurried flight to Malolos. They had plenty of time to rally, for the Americans found great difficulty in bringing their artillery across the river at Guiguinto. It had to be drawn over the railway bridge by hand whilst the mules swam across to the northern bank, all being, at the same time, under a desultory fire from the enemy. The resistance of the Filipinos to the passage of the river at Guiguinto was so stubborn that the Americans lost about 70 killed and wounded. At 6 a.m. the Americans started the advance towards Malolos in the same order taken for the march to Marilao, General Hale's brigade taking the right and General Otis's the left of the railroad. Several skirmishes took place on the way and General Wheaton brought his reserves forward into the general advance. At Bocaue the river presented the same difficulties for artillery transport as were experienced at Guiguinto, except that the enemy was nowhere to be seen. Bigaa was reached and not an armed native was in sight, all having apparently concentrated in the insurgent capital, Malolos. The American casualties that day, due solely to the morning skirmishes, amounted to four killed and thirty wounded.

It is apparent, from the official despatches, that at this time the American generals seriously believed the Aguinaldo party would acknowledge its defeat and make peace if Malolos, the revolutionary seat of government, fell. All that was going on in Manila was well known to the insurgents in the field, as the news was brought to them daily by runners who were able to enter the city during daylight without interference. On March 30 General McArthur's division resumed the advance and brought up the baggage trains, after having repaired the several bridges damaged by the enemy. The environs of Malolos were reconnoitred up to within a mile of the town, and the dead bodies of insurgent soldiers were seen scattered here and there. Groups of hundreds of non-combatants were hurrying off from the beleaguered insurgent capital. General Otis's brigade pushed forward without any encounter with the enemy, but General Hale's column, which continued to take the right side of the railway, was fired upon from the woods, the total casualties that day being five killed and 43 wounded. At 7 a.m. (March 31) the Americans opened the combined attack on Malolos. General McArthur directed the operations from the railway embankment, and half an hour's artillery fire dislodged the enemy from their cover. The columns advanced cautiously towards the town in anticipation of a fierce resistance and, it was hoped, a fight to the finish. General Otis marched on direct: General Hale executed a flanking movement to the east; General Wheaton's brigades were held in reserve, and a halt of half an hour was made preparatory to the final assault. The scouts then returned and reported that the insurgents had abandoned their capital! It was a disappointment to the Americans who had looked forward to inflicting a decisive and crushing defeat on the enemy. The first troops to enter the town were the 20th Kansas Regiment, under Colonel Funston. The natives, in the wildest confusion, scampered off, after firing a few parting shots at the approaching forces, and the Americans, with a total loss of 15 killed and wounded, were in undisputed possession of the insurgent capital. Aguinaldo had prudently evacuated it two days before with his main army, going in the direction of Calumpit. Only one battalion had been left behind to burn the town on the approach of the Americans. Aguinaldo's headquarters, the parish church, and a few hundred yards of railway were already destroyed when the Americans occupied the place, still partly in flames. Some few hundreds of Chinese were the only inhabitants remaining in Malolos. The value of the food-stuffs captured in this place was estimated at P1,500,000. Simultaneously, General Hall's brigade operated five to seven miles north of Manila and drove the insurgents out of Mariquina, San Mateo, and the environs of the Montalban River with a loss of 20 men wounded and Lieutenant Gregg killed. It was now evident that Aguinaldo had no intention to come to close quarters and bring matters to a crisis by pitched battles. His policy was apparently to harry the Americans by keeping them constantly on the move against guerilla parties, in the hope that a long and wearisome campaign would end in the Americans abandoning the Islands in disgust, leaving the Filipinos to their own desired independence. Aguinaldo had moved on to Calumpit with his main army with the intention of establishing his Government there. On the American side, active preparations were made to dislodge him. Small gunboats were fitted out for operating on the Rio Grande de Pampanga, and an armoured train was prepared for use farther north. From Paranaque, on the bay shore south of Manila, the insurgents fired on the monitor Monadnock, but a few shots from this vessel silenced the shore battery. In several places, within 10 to 15 miles of the capital, armed groups of insurgents concentrated, but Aguinaldo moved on towards Baliuag, in the province of Bulacan, so as to be within easy reach of the hill district of Angat in case of defeat.

A few days after the capture of Malolos, General Otis issued a proclamation to the Filipinos, in the hope that by drawing off public sympathy from the insurgent cause it would dwindle away. The terms of this document were as follows, viz.:--

(1) The supremacy of the United States must and will be enforced throughout every part of the Archipelago. Those who resist can accomplish nothing except their own ruin.

(2) The most ample liberty of self-government will be granted which is reconcilable with the maintenance of a wise, just, stable, effective, and economical administration, and compatible with the sovereign and international rights and obligations of the United States.

(3) The civil rights of the Filipinos will be guaranteed and protected, religious freedom will be assured, and all will have equal standing before the law.

(4) Honour, justice, and friendship forbid the exploitation of the people of the Islands. The purpose of the American Government is the welfare and advancement of the Filipino people.

(5) The American Government guarantees an honest and effective civil service, in which, to the fullest extent practicable, natives shall be employed.

(6) The collection and application of taxes and revenues will be put on a sound and honest economical basis. Public funds will be raised justly and collected honestly, and will be applied only in defraying the proper expenses of the establishment and maintenance of the Philippine Government, and such general improvements as public interests demand. Local funds collected for local purposes shall not be diverted to other ends. With such a prudent and honest fiscal administration it is believed that the needs of the Government will, in a short time, become compatible with a considerable reduction of taxation.

(7) The pure, speedy, and effective administration of justice, whereby the evils of delay, corruption, and exploitation will be effectually eradicated.

(8) The construction of roads, railways, and other means of communication and transportation, and other public works of manifest advantage to the people will be promoted.

(9) Domestic and foreign trade, commerce, agriculture, and other industrial pursuits, and the general development of the country and interest of the inhabitants will be the constant objects of the solicitude and fostering care of the Government.

(10) Effective provision will be made for the establishment of elementary schools, in which the children of the people shall be educated, and appropriate facilities will also be provided for their higher education.

(11) Reforms in all departments of the Government, all branches of the public service, and all corporations closely touching the common life of the people must be undertaken without delay, and effected conformably with right and justice in such a way as to satisfy the well-founded demands and the highest sentiments and aspirations of the Philippine people.

The above proclamation, no doubt, embodies the programme of what the American Government desired to carry out at the time of its publication.

The Americans resumed the aggressive against the insurgents, and an expedition of 1,509 men and two mountain-guns was fitted out under the command of General Lawton to proceed up the Pasig River into the Lake of Bay in order to capture Santa Cruz at the eastern extremity. The expedition presented a curious sight; it comprised 15 native barges or "cascoes" towed by seven tugs. Some of the craft ran aground at Napindan, the entrance to the lake, and delayed the little flotilla until daylight. The barges ahead had to wait for the vessels lagging behind. Then a mist came over the shore, and there was another halt. A couple of miles off an insurgent steamer was sighted, but it passed on. Finally Santa Cruz was reached; 200 sharpshooters were landed under cover of the launch guns, and fighting continued all the afternoon until nightfall. Early in the morning the town was attacked, the church situated in the centre was captured, and the American loss was only six men wounded; the insurgents were driven far away, leaving 68 dead on the field, and a large number of wounded, whilst hundreds were taken prisoners.

On April 12, at the request of the Spanish General Rios, [210] the gunboat Yorktown was despatched to Baler, on the east coast of Luzon, to endeavour to rescue a party of 80 Spanish soldiers, three officers, and two priests who were holding out against 400 insurgents. These natives, who were all armed with Maueser rifles, laid in ambush, and surprised the landing-party under Lieutenant Gilmore. The whole party was captured by the insurgents, who were afterwards ordered to release them all. General Aguinaldo was always as humanely disposed as the circumstances of war would permit, and, at the request of the commissioners for the liberation of the Spanish prisoners, he gave this little band of 83 heroes and two priests their liberty under a decree so characteristic of Philippine imitative genius in its pompous allusion to the Spanish glorious past that it is well worth recording. [211]

General Lawton asserted that 100,000 men would be required to conquer the Philippines, but they were never sent, because there was always an influential group of optimists who expected an early collapse of the insurgent movement. General Otis sent frequent cablegrams to Washington expressing his belief that the war would soon come to an end. However, in April, 1899, 14,000 regular troops were despatched to the Islands to reinforce the Volunteer regiments. It was a wise measure taken not too soon, for it was clear that a certain amount of discontent had manifested itself among the Volunteers. Moreover, the whole management of the Philippine problem was much hampered by an anti-annexation movement in America which did not fail to have its influence on the Volunteers, many of whom were anxious to return home if they could. Senator Hoar and his partisans persistently opposed the retention of the Islands, claiming that it was contrary to the spirit of the American Constitution to impose a government upon a people against its will. American sentiment was indeed becoming more and more opposed to expansion of territorial possession beyond the continent, in view of the unsatisfactory operations in the Philippines--a feeling which was, however, greatly counterbalanced by a recognition of the political necessity of finishing an unpleasant task already begun, for the sake of national dignity.

About this time the Philippine envoy, Felipe Agoncillo, was in Paris as president of a junta of his compatriots. Some of the members were of opinion that they ought to negotiate for peace directly with the American Secretary of State, but Agoncillo so tenaciously opposed anything short of sovereign Philippine independence that some of the members withdrew and returned to the Islands. A year later I found Agoncillo of exactly the same intransigent persuasion.

At the end of April the Americans suffered a severe reverse at Guingua (Bulacan), where Major Bell, with 40 cavalrymen, came across a strong outpost from which the enemy fired, killing one and wounding five men. With great difficulty the dead and wounded were carried back under fire, and it was found that the enemy occupied a big trench encircling three sides of a paddy-field bordering on a wood. As the Americans retreated, the insurgents crept up, aided by a mist, to within short range and fired another volley. Major Bell sent for reinforcements, and a battalion of infantry was soon on the scene, but their advance was checked by the continuous firing from the trenches. Artillery was on the way, but the insurgents were not disposed to charge the Americans, who lay for two hours under cover of a rice-field embankment in a broiling hot sun. One man died of sunstroke. Finally a second battalion of infantry arrived under the command of Colonel Stotsenberg, who was very popular with his men. He was received with cheers, and immediately ordered a charge against the enemy in the trenches; but whilst leading the attack he was shot in the breast, and died immediately. Within short range of the trenches Lieutenant Sisson fell, shot through the heart. By this time the artillery had arrived, and shelled the trenches. The insurgents, however, held their position well for a time, until the infantry was close up to them, when, following their usual tactics, they ran off to another trench a mile or so away. The total American losses that day were two officers and four privates killed, and three officers and 40 men wounded.

Spanish prisoners released by the Filipinos declared that the insurgents had 50,000 rifles and 200 pieces of artillery captured from the Spaniards, ample ammunition manufactured at two large factories up country, and occasional fresh supplies of war-material shipped from China by Chinese, European, and American merchants. The preparations made to dislodge Aguinaldo and his main army, entrenched and sheltered by fortifications at Calumpit, were now completed, and General McArthur's division steadily advanced. The flower of the insurgent army was there, well armed and supplied with artillery and shrapnel shell. Commanded by General Antonio Luna, they were evidently prepared to make at Calumpit the bold stand which was expected of them at Malolos. The transport difficulties were very great, and as General McArthur approached, every foot of ground was disputed by the enemy. Bridges had been broken down, and the guns had to be hauled through jungle and woods under a scorching sun. Many buffaloes succumbed to the fatigue, and hundreds of Chinamen were employed to do their work. The Bagbag River was reached, but it had to be crossed, and the passage cost the Americans six men killed and 28 wounded. The Bagbag River was well fortified, and the Americans had to attack its defenders from an open space. There were trenches at every approach; enormous pieces of rock had been dislodged and hauled down towards the breastworks of the trenches to form cover. The armoured train, pushed along the railway by Chinamen, then came into action, and its quick-firing guns opened the assault on the enemy's position. Six-pounders were also brought into play; the insurgents were gradually receding; artillery was wheeled up to the river bank and a regular bombardment of the bridge ensued. The trenches were shelled, and the insurgents were firing their guns in the direction of the armoured train, but they failed to get the range. Meantime, a company of the Kansas Regiment made a bold charge across a paddy-field and found shelter in a ditch, whence they kept up a constant fire to divert the enemy's attention whilst Colonel Eunston, the commander of the regiment, with a lieutenant and four men, crept along the girders of the bridge. The enemy, however, got the range and bullets were flying all around them, so they slid down the bridge-supports, dropped into the river, and swam to the opposite shore. Scrambling up the bank, revolvers in hand, they reached the trenches just as the insurgents were hurriedly evacuating them. Indeed, the Filipinos' defence of their trenches was extremely feeble during the whole battle. On the other hand, for the first time, the insurgents ventured out into the open against the Americans. General Antonio Luna, the Commander-in-Chief, could be seen galloping furiously along the lines exhorting his men to hold their ground, and he succeeded in deploying them into an extended line of battle to receive the enemy's onslaught. The insurgents kept up a desultory fire whilst the troops forded the river, and then they were pursued and driven off to the outskirts of the town. The flames rising from several buildings appeared to indicate an intention on the part of the insurgents to abandon their stronghold. Simultaneously, Generals Hale and Wheaton were coming forward with their columns, each having had some hard fighting on the way. The junction of forces was effected; a fierce fire was poured into the trenches; General Hale and his men made a dash across a stream, up to their waists in water; the Utah men followed with their batteries, cheering and dragging their field-pieces with desperate energy to the opposite bank; the enemy gave way, and the armoured train crossed the bridge. The total American loss that day did not exceed nine in killed and wounded, whilst the insurgent losses were at least 70. During the night the engineers repaired the Bagbag bridge for the rest of the troops to pass, and fighting was resumed at six o'clock in the morning. The deserted trenches were occupied by the Americans to pick off any insurgents who might venture out into the open. A general assault by the combined columns was then made on the town, which was captured, whilst the bulk of the insurgents fled in great confusion towards the hills. The few who lingered in the trenches in the northern suburbs of the town were shelled out of them by the American artillery placed near the church, and the survivors decamped, hotly pursued for some distance by cavalry. So great was the slaughter that the insurgents' total losses are unknown. The trenches were choked with dead bodies, and piles of them were found in many places. When nightfall came and the Americans were resting in Calumpit after their two days' hard fighting, the whole district was illuminated for miles around by the flames from the burning villages and groups of huts, whilst the snapping of the burning bamboos echoed through the stillness like volleys of rifle-shots.

Aguinaldo and his Government had hastened north towards Tarlac, and on April 28 he instructed General Antonio Luna to discuss terms of peace. Ostensibly with this object the general sent Colonel Manuel Argueelles with his aide-de-camp and an orderly to the American camp at Apalit (Pampanga). These men were seen coming down the railway-track carrying a white flag. An officer was sent out to meet them, and after handing their credentials to him they were forthwith conducted to General Wheaton's headquarters. General Wheaton sent them on to General McArthur, the chief commander of the Northern Division, and General McArthur commissioned Major Mallory to escort them to General Otis in Manila. They explained that they were empowered to ask for an armistice for a few days as it was proposed to summon their Congress for May 1 to discuss the question of peace or war. General Otis replied that he did not recognize the Philippine Republic, and that there would be no cessation of hostilities until his only terms were complied with, namely, unconditional surrender. The negotiations were resumed the next day, and Argueelles seemed personally inclined to meet the American view of the situation; but as his powers were limited to asking for an armistice, he and his companions returned to the insurgent camp with General Otis's negative answer. On his return to the camp Colonel Argueelles was accused of being an "Americanista" in favour of surrender, for which offence a court-martial passed sentence upon him of expulsion from the insurgent army and 12 years' imprisonment. Whatever Argueelles' personal conviction may have been matters little, but in the light of subsequent events and considering the impetuous, intransigent character of General Antonio Luna, it is probable that Argueelles was really only sent as a spy.

On May 5 General McArthur's division advanced to Pampanga Province, and Santo Tomas and San Fernando were taken without loss. A portion of the latter place had been burnt by the retreating insurgents, and the townspeople fled leaving their household goods behind them. Generals Hale and Lawton were following up, and on the way Baliuag (Bulacan) was occupied and immense stores of foodstuffs were seized from the insurgents and private owners. The booty consisted of about 150,000 bushels of rice and over 250 tons of sugar. In other places on the way large deposits of food fell into American hands. The men of the Nebraska Regiment considered they had had sufficient hard work for the present in long marching, continual fighting, and outpost duty. They therefore petitioned General McArthur to relieve them temporarily from duty to recuperate their strength. There was no doubting their bravery, of which they had given ample proof; they had simply reached the limit of physical endurance. The hospitals were already full of soldiers suffering as much from sunstroke as from wounds received in battle. Consequently some of the regular regiments who had been doing guard duty in the capital were despatched to the front. In the following July the Nebraska Volunteer Regiment was one of those sent back to the United States.

On May 19 another party of insurgent officers presented themselves to the military authorities alleging that they had fuller powers than Argueelles possessed and were prepared to make peace proposals. Everything was discussed over again; but as General Otis's unalterable demand for unconditional surrender was already well known, one can only conclude that the insurgent commissioners were also spies sent to gauge the power and feeling of the Americans, for they promised to return within three weeks and then disappeared indefinitely.

On May 22 more peace commissioners were sent by Aguinaldo. They were received by the Schurman Commission of Inquest, who communicated to them a scheme of government which they had had under consideration in agreement with President McKinley. The proposed plan embodied the appointment of a Gov.-General, who would nominate a Cabinet to act with him. The President of the United States was to appoint the judges. The Cabinet members and the judges might be all Americans, or all Filipinos, or both. Moreover, there was to be an Advisory Council elected by popular vote. This liberal scheme was, however, abandoned, as its proposal seemed to have no effect in bringing the war to an end, and the negotiations terminated with the Commissioners and the insurgent delegates lunching together on board the U.S. battleship Oregon, whilst the blood of both parties continued to flow on the battlefield.

General Lawton's brigade was still operating in the Provinces of Bulacan and north of Manila (now called Rizal). The fighting was so severe and the exposure to sun so disastrous that about the beginning of June he had to send back to Manila 500 wounded and heat-stricken men. It was found impossible to follow up the ever-retreating insurgents, who again escaped still farther north. Along the Manila Bay shore detachments of insurgents passed from time to time, driving women and children before them, so that the Americans would not care to fire on them. Some, however, were picked off from the warships when the insurgents omitted their precautionary measure. It was impossible to "round up" the enemy and bring him into a combat to the finish. His movements were so alert that he would fight, vanish in a trice, conceal his arms and uniform, and mingle with the Americans with an air of perfect innocence. With wonderful dexterity he would change from soldier to civilian, lounging one day in the market-place and the next day fall into the insurgent ranks. These tactics, which led to nothing whatever in a purely military sense, were evidently adopted in the vain hope of wearying the Americans into an abandonment of their enterprise.

In the middle of June General Lawton's brigade operated to the south of Manila and in the Cavite province, where the natives gave battle at the Zapote River, famous for a great Spanish defeat during the rebellion. The insurgents were under cover the whole time, and their assembled thousands could hardly be seen by the attacking columns. They were also in great force and strongly entrenched near Las Pinas and at Bacoor. [212] From the former place they worked one large and two small guns with much effect, firing canister loaded with nails. One canister shattered the legs of a private. American infantry, skirmishing along the beach, came across a posse of insurgents who at once retreated, pursued by the Americans until the latter found themselves surrounded on three sides by hidden sharpshooters, who poured in a raking fire upon them. The skirmishers withdrew, but were rallied by General Lawton and other officers, who themselves picked off some of the enemy with rifle-shots. Encouraged by this example, the skirmishers, with one cry, suddenly rushed towards the insurgents, scattering them in all directions, and safely reached the main body of the brigade with their wounded comrades.

The only bridge across the Zapote River was strongly defended by the insurgents, who had trenches forming two sides of an angle. By noon their battery was silenced, and the Americans then attempted to ford the river, whilst others went knee-deep in mire across the paddy-mud flats. Then a deep stream was the only boundary between the contending parties. The Filipinos were hardly visible, being under shelter of thickets, whilst the Americans were wading through mud under a broiling sun for over two hours to reach them, keeping up a constant fusillade. The whole time there was an incessant din from a thousand rifles and the roar of cannon from the gunboats which bombarded the enemy's position near Las Pinas and Bacoor. The strain on the Americans was tremendous when the insurgents made a flanking movement and fired upon them as they were floundering in the mud. The 14th Infantry eventually swam across the Zapote River, and under cover of artillery charged the insurgents, who retreated into the woods. The Filipinos displayed a rare intelligence in the construction of their defences near the Zapote River and its neighbourhood, and but for the employment of artillery their dislodgement therefrom would have been extremely difficult. After the battle was over General Lawton declared that it was the toughest contest they had yet undertaken in this war.

At Perez Dasmarinas, in the east of Cavite Province, a battalion of infantry narrowly escaped annihilation. News had been brought to the American camp that the insurgents had evacuated that town, and that the native mayor was disposed to make a formal surrender of it to the Americans. The battalion forthwith went there to take possession, but before reaching the place the enemy closed in on all sides, and a heavy fire was mutually sustained for four hours. The Americans had only just saved themselves from destruction by a desperate bayonet-charge when they were rescued by General Wheaton, who arrived with reinforcements.

Three months of warfare had wrought dissension in the insurgent camp. Organization was Aguinaldo's peculiar talent, without the exercise of which the movement would have failed at the outset. But the value of this gift was not fully appreciated by his people. A certain section of the fighting masses had far greater admiration for Antonio Luna's visible prowess than for the unseen astuteness of Aguinaldo's manoeuvres. It was characteristic of the Filipinos to split into factions, but the encouragement given to General Antonio Luna's aspiration to supersede his supreme chief was unfortunate, for Aguinaldo was not the man to tolerate a rival. He had rid himself of Andres Bonifacio (vide p. 371) in 1896, and now another disturber of that unity which is strength had to be disposed of. The point of dispute between these two men was of public knowledge. It has already been shown how fully cognizant Antonio Luna was of the proposals made to the Americans for an armistice, for the express purpose of taking the vote of the Revolutionary Congress, for peace or war, on May 1. Aguinaldo was no longer a military dictator, but President of the so-called Philippine Republic (vide p. 486), by whose will he was disposed loyally to abide. Antonio Luna's elastic conscience urged him to duplicity; he pretended to submit to the will of the majority, expressed through the Congress, with the reserved intention of carrying on the war at all hazards, as military dictator, if the vote were for peace. Congress met, and during the debate on the momentous question--peace or war--the hitherto compact group of intransigents weakened. No agreement could be arrived at in the first session. There was, however, a strong tendency to accept American sovereignty. Luna feared that Aguinaldo's acceptance of the vote of the majority (if a division were taken) might deprive him of the opportunity of rising to supreme eminence. Luna's violence at this time was intolerable, up to the point of smacking deputy F.B. in the face. His attempted coercion of the will of others brought about his own downfall. His impetuosity called forth the expression, "He is a fanatic who will lead us to a precipice." In his imagination, all who did not conform to his dominant will were conspirators against him. Hence, at Cavite (Aguinaldo's native province), he disarmed all the troops of that locality, and substituted Ilocanos of his own province, whilst he vented his ferocity in numerous executions of Tagalogs. Had he lived he would probably have created a tribal feud between Ilocanos and Tagalogs.

On June 3, 1899, accompanied by his aide-de-camp, Captain Roman, and an escort, Luna entered the official residence of President Aguinaldo at Cabanatuan (Nueva Ecija). The guard, composed of a company of Cavite men from Canit (Aguinaldo's native town), under the command of Captain Pedro Janolino, saluted him on his entry. As Luna and Roman ascended the staircase to seek Aguinaldo a revolver-shot was heard. Luna rushed down the stairs in a furious rage and insulted Captain Janolino in the presence of his troops. This was too much for Janolino, who drew a dagger and thrust it violently into Luna's head. In the scuffle Luna was knocked down and shot several times. He was able to reach the roadway, and, after shouting "Cowards!" fell down dead. In the meantime, whilst Captain Roman was running towards a house he was shot dead by a bullet in his breast. The Insurgent Government passed a vote of regret at the occurrence, and the two officers were buried with military honours. As subsequent events proved, Aguinaldo had no personal wish to give up the struggle, or to influence a peace vote, but to execute the will of the people, as expressed through the revolutionary congressmen.

The situation was becoming so serious for the Americans that a call for 25,000 more volunteers was earnestly discussed at Washington. It was thought that the levy should be made at once, believing that General Otis really required them, but that he was reluctant to admit an under-estimate of the enemy's strength. The insurgents, finding they were not followed up (the rainy season was commencing), were beginning to take the offensive with greater boldness, attacking the Americans in the rear. The War Department, however, hesitated to make the levy owing to the friction which existed between the volunteers and the regulars, but the case was so urgent that at the end of June it was decided to raise the total forces in the Philippines to 40,000 men.

On June 12, the anniversary of the proclamation at Cavite of Philippine Independence, Aguinaldo, from his northern retreat, issued a Manifiesto to his countrymen reminding them of the importance of that event. This document, abundant in grandiloquent phrases, is too lengthy for full citation here, but the following paragraph in it is interesting as a recognition that, after all, there was a bright side to Spanish dominion:--

Filipinas! Beloved daughter of the ardent sun of the tropics, commended by Providence to the care of noble Spain, be thou not ungrateful; acknowledge her, salute her who warmed thee with the breath of her own culture and civility. Thou hast longed for independence, and thine emancipation from Spain has come; but preserve in thine heart the remembrance of the more than three centuries which thou hast lived with her usages, her language, and her customs. It is true she sought to crush thine aspiration for independence, just as a loving mother resists the lifelong separation from the daughter of her bosom; it only proved the excess of affection, the love Spain feels for thee. But thou, Filipinas, flower of the ocean, delicate flower of the East, still weak, scarce eight months weaned from thy mother's breast, hast dared to brave a great and powerful nation such as is the United States, with thy little army barely disciplined and shaped. Ah, beloved brethren, all this is true; and still we say we will be slaves to none, nor let ourselves be duped by gentle words.

Certainly Aguinaldo could not have been the author of the above composition published in his name.

By the middle of July the censorship of Press cablegrams from Manila had become so rigid that the public in America and Europe could get very little reliable telegraphic news of what was going on in the Islands. The American newspaper correspondents therefore signed a "round robin" setting forth their complaints to General Otis, who took little heed of it. It was well known that the hospitals were crowded with American soldiers, a great many of whom were suffering solely from their persistence in habits contracted at home which were incompatible with good health in a tropical climate. Many volunteers, wearied of the war, were urging to be sent back to the States, and there was a marked lack of cordiality between the volunteer and the regular regiments. In the field the former might well compare with the smartest and the bravest men who ever carried arms; off active service there was a difference between them and the disciplined regulars perceptible to any civilian. The natives particularly resented the volunteers' habit of entering their dwellings and tampering, in a free and easy manner, with their goods and the modesty of their women. They were specially disgusted with the coloured regiments, whose conduct was such that the authorities saw the desirability of shipping them all back to the United States as soon as other troops were available to replace them, for their lawlessness was bringing discredit on the nation.

In July an expedition was sent up the Laguna de Bay, and the towns on the south shore were successively captured as far as Calamba, which was occupied on the 26th of the month. Early in the same month the inter-island merchant steamer Saturnus, on its regular voyage to the north-west coast of Luzon ports, put in at San Fernando de la Union to discharge cargo for that place, which was held by the insurgents. The vessel was flying the American flag. Part of the cargo had been discharged and preparations were being made to receive freight on board, when the insurgents seized the vessel, carried off the thousands of pesos and other property on board, poured petroleum on the woodwork, and hauled down the American flag. The American gunboat Pampanga, patrolling this coast, seeing there was something irregular, hove to and endeavoured to get a tow-line over the Saturnus, but was beaten off by the insurgents' fire from shore. The insurgents then brought field-pieces into action and shelled the Saturnus, setting her on fire. The vessel became a wreck and sank near the beach. Subsequently a gunboat was sent to San Fernando de la Union to shell the town.

When the wet season had fully set in, operations of importance were necessarily suspended. Skirmishes and small encounters occurred in many places where the contending parties chanced to meet, but no further remarkable military event happened in this year of 1899 until the north-east monsoon brought a cessation of the deluging rains.

Notwithstanding General Otis's oft-repeated intimation of "unconditional surrender" as the sole terms of peace, in October General Aguinaldo sent General Alejandrino from his new seat of government in Tarlac to General Otis with fresh proposals, but the letter was returned unopened. At that time Aguinaldo's army was estimated at 12,000 men. The insurgents had taken many American prisoners, some of whom were released a few days afterwards, and, in October, Aguinaldo issued a decree voluntarily granting liberty to all Americans held captive by his people. This resolution, proclaimed as an act of grace, was really owing to the scarcity of food, and for the same reason Aguinaldo simultaneously disbanded a portion of his army.

In the month of December General Lawton led his brigade to the district of Montalban and San Mateo, a few miles north of Manila, to attack the insurgents. The agreed plan was to make a flanking movement against the enemy on the San Mateo River and a frontal attack immediately the enemy was engaged. The frontal attack was being personally directed by the general, who stood on the high bank of the river. Captain Breckinridge, the general's aide-de-camp, had just been hit in the groin, and General Lawton went to speak to him before he was carried away on a litter. Whilst so engaged, the general threw up his hands and fell without uttering a word. He had been shot through the heart, and died instantly. His body was carried to Manila for public burial, and the insurgents were as jubilant as the Americans were grieved over this sad occurrence. The date was fixed for the interment with military pomp, and immense crowds came out to witness the imposing procession. Some Filipinos, expecting the cortege would pass through a certain street, deposited a bomb in the house of an old woman, unknown to her, but fortunately for her and all concerned, it was not on the route taken. In memory of the late lamented general the present five-peso bank notes bear his vignette.

In 1900 the war of independence began to wane. In January, General Joseph Wheeler left Manila to assume command of the late General Lawton's brigade, and overran the Laguna de Bay south shore towns. Vinan was taken on January 1, but as no garrison was left there, the insurgents re-entered the town when the Americans passed on. The armed natives were, in reality, playing a game of hide-and-seek, with no tangible result to themselves further than feeding at the expense of the townspeople. Aguinaldo was still roaming about central Luzon, but, one by one, his generals either surrendered or were captured. Among these was General Rizal, captured in January. In this month a plot to blow up the foreign consuls was opportunely frustrated. The Chinese General Paua, Aguinaldo's brother-in-law, surrendered in March and found shopkeeping in Binondo a less risky business than generalship. In the same month the Manila-Dagupan Railway was handed over to the company's management, after having been used for war purposes. General Montenegro surrendered in April, and a fortnight afterwards Don Pedro A. Paterno, late President of the Insurgent Congress, was captured at Antomoc (Beuguet district); Generals Garcia and Dumangtay were captured; five officers and two companies of insurgents surrendered in May; and in the same month one Gabriel Cayaban, of Pangasinan Province, was sentenced to five years' hard labour and a fine of 2,000 pesos for conspiring with guerillas to raise riot. It cannot be said that the insurgents in the field had advanced one step towards the attainment of their object. Manila was simultaneously full of conspirators cogitating over murderous plots against the Americans, and a band of them was arrested in the month of May. The insurgent movement was so far disorganized that it was deemed opportune to entrust natives with police duties, and in June a Philippine cavalry corps was created. Captain Lara, of the native police, took Generals Pio del Pilar and Salvador Estrella prisoners, but was himself assassinated on August 4. General Maximino Hizon [213] was captured at Mexico (Pampanga), and on June 21 the Military Governor published an amnesty proclamation, granting pardon and liberty to all who should declare their allegiance to the United States within ninety days. All who had surrendered and some who were captured took the required oath, and others were coming in. Pio del Pilar was among those who accepted the amnesty a week after its promulgation, but he was again arrested, September 6, for conspiracy. The Amnesty Proclamation was met by a counter-proclamation issued by Aguinaldo, dated August 3, 1900, in which he urged a continuance of the war, and offered rewards for arms. He promised to liberate all prisoners of war who might fall into insurgent hands, on surrender of their arms and ammunition. He would give them money to return to their lines and for petty expenses en route. He would pay 80 pesos for every American rifle brought in by a prisoner, and 20 pesos for any rifle voluntarily brought to a Philippine officer, but the deserter would not be allowed to enter the insurgent ranks.

On June 28 there was an attempted rising in Manila, and Don Pedro A. Paterno was placed under closer guard. In July the insurgents were active in the neighbourhood of Vigan (Ilocos). About 40 volunteer infantry and 60 cavalry went out from Narvican to attack them, and came across a strongly-entrenched position held by about 300 riflemen and 1,000 men armed with bowie-knives. A sharp fight ensued, but the Americans, overwhelmed by the mass, had to retreat to Narvican. The insurgents lost about a hundred men, whilst the American loss was one lieutenant and four men killed, nine wounded and four missing. About the same time, the insurgents driven back from the Laguna de Bay shore occupied Taal (Batangas), where, under the leadership of Miguel Malvar, a small battle was fought in the streets on July 12 and the town was burnt; a troop of cavalry was added to the police force this month, and there was no lack of Filipinos willing to co-operate with Americans for a salary. The backbone of insurgency having been broken, the dollar proved to be a mightier factor than the sword in the process of pacification. Compared with former times, the ex-insurgents found in the lucrative employments offered to them by the Americans a veritable El Dorado, for never before had they seen such a flow of cash. The country had been ravaged; the immense stores collected by the revolutionists had been seized; non-combatant partisans of the insurgent cause were wearied of paying heavy taxes for so little result; treasure was hidden; fields lay fallow, and for want of food Aguinaldo had had partially to disband his army. He told me himself that on one occasion they were so hard pressed for food that they had to live for three days on whatever they could find in the mountains. There were but two courses open to the majority of the ex-soldiers--brigandage or service under their new masters. Some chose the former, with results which will be hereafter referred to; others, more disposed towards civil life, were allured by the abundance of silver pesos, which made a final conquest where shot and shell had failed. Still, there were thousands incognizant of the olive-branch extended to them, and military operations had to be continued even within a day's journey from the capital. A request had to be made for more cavalry to be sent to the Islands, and the proportion of this branch of the service to infantry was gradually increased, for "rounding up" insurgents who refused to give battle was exhausting work for white foot-soldiers in the tropics. In the course of four months nearly all the infantry in the small towns was replaced by cavalry. In this same month (July) American cavalry successfully secured the Laguna de Bay south shore towns which the insurgents had re-taken on the departure of the infantry sent there in January. Many well-to-do proprietors in these towns (some known to me for 20 years), especially in Vinan, complained to me of what they considered an injustice inflicted on them. The American troops came and drove out the insurgents, or caused them to decamp on their approach; but, as they left no garrisons, the insurgents re-entered and the townspeople had to feed them under duress. Then, when the American forces returned six months afterwards, to the great relief of the inhabitants, and left garrisons, many of these townspeople, on a charge of having given succour to the insurgents, were imprisoned with the only consolation that, after all, a couple of months' incarceration by the Americans was preferable to the death which awaited them at the hands of the insurgents if they had refused them food. The same thing occurred in other islands, notably in Samar and in Cebu, where the people were persecuted for giving aid to the armed natives on whose mercy their lives depended. This measure was an unfortunate mistake, because it alienated the good feeling of those who simply desired peace with the ruling power, whether it were American or native. There were thousands of persons--as there would be anywhere in the world--quite incapable of taking up arms in defence of an absent party which gave them no protection, yet naturally anxious to save their lives by payment if need be. [214]

On July 19 a proclamation was issued forbidding the possession of firearms without licence. On August 7 the curfew ordinance was extended to 11 p.m., and again, in the following month, to midnight. In September there was another serious outbreak up the Laguna de Bay, where two or three hundred insurgents, led by a French half-caste, General Cailles, [215] attacked Los Banos, and about the same time the insurgents north of Manila cut the railroad between Malolos and Guiguinto. Cailles was driven out of Los Banos, but hundreds more insurgents joined him, and a furious battle was fought at Siniloan, on September 17, between 800 insurgents and a company of the 15th Infantry, who drove the enemy into the mountains.

In November Aguinaldo, who was camping in the province of Nueva Ecija, issued another of his numerous exhortations, in consequence of which there was renewed activity amongst the roaming bands of adventurers all over the provinces north of the capital. The insurgent chief advocated an aggressive war, and in the same month it was decided to send more American troops to Manila.

Many of the riff-raff had been inadvertently enrolled in the native police force, and received heavy sentences for theft, blackmail, and violent abuse of their functions. Indeed it took nearly a couple of years to weed out the disreputable members of this body. The total army forces in the Islands amounted to about 70,000 men, and at the end of 1900 it was decided to send back the volunteer corps to America early in the following year, for, at this period, General Aguinaldo had become a wanderer with a following which could no longer be called an army, and an early collapse of the revolutionary party in the field was an anticipated event.

From September 1, 1900, the legislative power of the military government was transferred to a civil government, Governor W. H. Taft being the President of the Philippine Commission, whilst Maj.-General McArthur continued in his capacity of Commander-in-Chief to carry on the war against the insurgents, which culminated in the capture of General Emilio Aguinaldo on March 23, 1901. This important event accelerated the close of the War of Independence. On January 14 General Emilio Aguinaldo had his headquarters at Palanan (Isabela), on the bank of a river which empties itself into Palanan Bay, situated about six miles distant from the town, on the east coast of Luzon. Being in want of reinforcements, he sent a member of his staff with messages to that effect to several of his subordinate generals. The fellow turned traitor, and carried the despatches to an American lieutenant, who sent him on to Colonel Frederick Funston at San Isidro (Nueva Ecija). The despatches disclosed the fact that General Emilio Aguinaldo requested his cousin, General Baldomero Aguinaldo, to send him, as soon as possible, 400 armed men. With General McArthur's approval, Colonel Funston proceeded to carry out a plan which he had conceived for the capture of General Emilio Aguinaldo. An expedition was made up of four Tagalog deserters from Aguinaldo's army, 78 Macabebe scouts (vide p. 446, footnote), and four American officers, besides Colonel Funston himself. Twenty of the scouts were dressed in insurgent uniforms, and the remaining natives in common working-clothes. Ten of them carried Spanish rifles, ten others had Krag-Joergensen rifles, which they were to feign to have captured from American troops, and the five Americans were disguised as private soldiers. The party was then carried round the north and east coasts of Luzon, and put ashore in the neighbourhood of Baler by the gunboat Vicksburg, which approached the coast without lights, and then waited off Palanan Bay. The expedition was nominally commanded by an insurgent deserter, Hilario Placido, [216] whilst three other deserters posed as officers, the Americans playing the role of prisoners captured by the party. Before setting out for Casiguran, some 20 miles away, a messenger was sent on to the native headman of that town to tell him that reinforcements for Aguinaldo were on their way, and would require food and lodging, which were forthwith furnished by the headman to these 87 individuals. Some months previously some papers had been captured bearing the signature and seal of the insurgent general Lacuna, and this enabled the party to send on a letter in advance to Emilio Aguinaldo, ostensibly in the name of Lacuna, announcing the arrival of the reinforcements furnished in response to his request of January 14. This letter was accompanied by another one from the pseudo-chief of the expedition, stating that on the way they had captured five American soldiers and ten Krag rifles. A request was also made for food, which he explained had run short. Emilio Aguinaldo, therefore, sent Negritos to meet them on the way with a supply of rice. In the morning of March 23 they were near Palanan. The Macabebe scouts were sent in advance of the soi-disant five American prisoners, and when they entered the town Aguinaldo's bodyguard of 50 men was drawn up in parade to receive them. The native pseudo-officers marched into the camp, and were welcomed by Aguinaldo; but they shortly afterwards took temporary leave of him, and coming outside ordered their Macabebe troops to form up. Just at the moment the five supposed prisoners were conducted towards the camp the Macabebes poured three murderous volleys into Aguinaldo's troops, two of whom were killed and 18 wounded. On the other side only one Macabebe was slightly wounded. The Americans witnessed the effect of the first volley, and, together with the natives posing as officers, rushed into Aguinaldo's headquarters. Aguinaldo, Colonel Villa, and one civilian were taken prisoners, whilst other insurgent officers jumped from the window into the river and escaped. The expedition, after resting a day and a half at the camp, escorted their prisoners to Palanan Bay, where they were all taken on board the gunboat Vicksburg, which reached Manila on March 27.

The closing scene in Emilio Aguinaldo's military career was a remarkable performance of consummate skill, but unworthy of record in the annals of military glory.

The War of Independence, which lasted until the next year, was a triumph of science over personal valour about equally balanced. It was a necessary sacrifice of the few for the good of the many. No permanent peace could have been ever hoped for so long as the Islanders entertained the belief that they could any day eject the invaders by force.

The American citizens naturally rejoiced over the bare fact, briefly cabled without ghastly details, that the Philippine generalissimo had fallen prisoner, because it portended the peace which all desired. In deference to public opinion, the President promoted Colonel Funston of the volunteers to the rank of Brig.-General in the regular army.

Emilio Aguinaldo was first taken before General McArthur and then escorted to prison in Calle de Anda, in the walled city. On April 1, 1901, he took the oath of allegiance in the following form, viz.:--

I, Emilio Aguinaldo, hereby renounce all allegiance to any and all so-called revolutionary governments in the Philippine Islands and recognize and accept the supreme authority of the United States of America therein; I do solemnly swear that I will bear true faith and allegiance to that Government; that I will at all times conduct myself as a faithful and law-abiding citizen of the said Islands, and will not, either directly or indirectly, hold correspondence with or give intelligence to an enemy of the United States, nor will I abet, harbour or protect such enemy; that I impose upon myself these voluntary obligations without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion, so help me God.

After signing this declaration he was a free man. For a while he resided at Malacanan, on the north bank of the Pasig River, where one night a pirogue full of assassins came to seek the life of the man who had failed. But his lucky star followed him, and he removed to Paco and again to Ermita (suburbs of Manila) and finally to his native town of Cauit (Cavite), where I was his guest. He was living there in modest retirement with his mother and his two good-looking young nieces, who served us at table. The house is large and comparatively imposing as a provincial residence, being formed of two good substantial houses connected by a bridge-passage. The whole is enclosed by a low brick wall, topped by iron railings painted flaming red. In front there is a garden and a spacious compound at the back. In the large drawing-room there is a ceiling fresco representing a Filipina descending a flight of steps from a column to which the chains, now severed, held her captive. On the steps lies the Spanish flag with a broken staff, and in her hand she holds on high the Philippine flag of freedom.

In conversation with him he stated that he and his companions returned to the Islands in May, 1898, with many assurances that America was simply going to aid them to gain their independence. He added that when he landed at Cavite he had no arms, and the Americans allowed him to take them from the Spanish arsenal. Then they turned him out, and he moved his headquarters to Bacoor, where his troops numbered between 30,000 and 35,000 men. He said he could easily have taken Manila then, but that he was begged not to do so as the Americans were waiting for more troops and they wished to make the victory a joint one. He confessed he had bought experience very dearly. But he profited by that experience when, at Cavite, the Belgian Consul and Prince Loewenstein came four times to make proposals to him in favour of Germany. The first time, he said, he received them and demanded their credentials as authorized agents for Germany, but, as they could not produce any, he declined to have any further intercourse with them. Referring to the first period of the rebellion, Aguinaldo admitted that the prospect of ejecting the Spaniards from the Islands was very doubtful.

Immediately Aguinaldo had fallen captive, all kinds of extravagant and erroneous versions were current as to how it had happened. Thousands insisted that he must have voluntarily surrendered, for how could he have been caught when he had the anting-anting? (vide p. 237). As the ball of conjecture went on rolling, some added to this that his voluntary surrender must have been for a money consideration, and there were still others who furnished a further inducement--his fear of revenge from the late Antonio Luna's party!

Although Aguinaldo gave no proof of being a brilliant warrior, as an organizer he had no rival capable of keeping 30,000 or more Filipinos united by sentiment for any one purpose. He trusted no comrade implicitly, and for a long time his officers had to leave their side-arms in an antechamber before entering his apartment. He had, moreover, the adroitness to extirpate that rivalry which alone destroys all united effort. But the world makes no allowance for the general who fails. To-day he is left entirely alone, pitied by some, shunned by a few, and almost forgotten by the large majority. He is indeed worthy of respect for his humanity in the conduct of the war, and of some pity in his present peculiar position. Many of his late subordinates now occupy good and high-salaried posts. Members of the Government of which he was President have espoused American doctrine and enjoy high social positions and fat emoluments. Aguinaldo's scholarship is too meagre for an elevated position, and his dignity and self-respect too great for an inferior one.

XXV. The Philippine Republic in the Central and Southern Islands

So interwoven were the circumstances of General Aguinaldo's Government in Luzon Island with the events of the period between the naval battle of Cavite and the ratification of the Treaty of Paris, that they form an integral and inseparable whole in historical continuity. In the other Islands, however, which followed the revolutionary movement, with more or less adherence to the supreme leadership of Aguinaldo, the local incidents severally constitute little histories in themselves, each such island having practically set up its own government with only the barest thread of administrative intercommunication.

The smaller islands, adjacent to Luzon, cannot be justly included in this category, because their local rule, which naturally succeeded the withdrawal of Spanish administration, was nothing more than a divided domination of self-constituted chiefs whose freebooting exploits, in one instance, had to be suppressed at the sacrifice of bloodshed, and, in another, to succumb to the apathy of the people.

In Yloilo, on December 23, 1898, General Diego de los Rios, in the presence of his staff, the naval commanders and the foreign consuls, formally surrendered the town to the native mayor, prior to his evacuation of Panay Island on the following day. On December 27 an American military force (finally about 3,000 strong) arrived in the roadstead in transports under the command of General Miller in co-operation with two American warships, afterwards supplemented by two others. The Spanish troops having departed, the Filipinos who had assumed control of public affairs made their formal entry into Yloilo to the strains of music and the waving of banners and constituted a government whose effective jurisdiction does not appear to have extended beyond the town and a day's march therefrom. On January 17 an election was held, Raymundo Melliza, [217] an excellent man, being chosen president for the term of two years. Business was resumed; sugar was being brought from Negros Island, and ships were laden with produce. During the civil administration, which lasted for seven weeks, the absorbing topic was the demand made by General Miller for the surrender of the town. General Miller's force had been despatched to Yloilo waters, after the signing of the Treaty of Paris, simply to make a demonstration in view of possible anarchy resulting from the Spanish evacuation. The ratification of that Treaty by a two-thirds Senate majority was not an accomplished fact until February 6 following. There was no certainty that the Senate would confirm the acquisition of the Islands, and in the interval it was not politic to pass from a formal demand for the surrender of Yloilo to open hostilities for its possession. These matters of political exigency were undoubtedly beyond the comprehension of the Ylongos. They attributed to fear the fact that a large fighting-force remained inactive within sight of the town, whereas General Miller was merely awaiting instructions from the capital which the Manila authorities, in turn, were delaying, pending the decision in Washington. Intervening circumstances, however, precipitated military action. On the night of February 4 hostilities had broken out between Aguinaldo's troops and the American forces. Insurgent emissaries had brought Aguinaldo's messages to the Ylongos to hold the town against the invaders, and on February 7 General Miller received orders from Maj.-General Otis to take Yloilo by force if necessary. General Miller thereupon renewed his demand for the surrender of the place, coupled this time with a declaration that he would bombard it if his demand were refused. Later on he notified the consular body that the bombardment would commence on the 12th of the month. During the seven weeks of native government, petty thefts were frequent; an armed insurgent would enter a store and carry off the article selected by him without paying for it; but there was no riotous open violence committed against the townspeople or foreign traders. The squabbles between the armed natives and their leaders, however, were several times on the point of producing bloodshed.

According to ex-insurgent General Pablo Araneta, the insurgent army, at the time, in Panay Island was as follows, viz. [218]:--

Under the leadership of Stationed at Tagalogs Visayos

Fulion Yloilo 250 150 Ananias Diocno Yloilo 400 -- Pablo Araneta Yloilo 250 -- Martin Delgado Yloilo -- 150 Pablo Araneta Molo -- 100 Silvestre Silvio Antique 150 -- Detachment of Diocno's forces Capiz 200 --

Total all armed with guns 1,250 400

The commander-in-chief of the whole army of 1,650 men was Martin Delgado. The Tagalog contingent was under the leadership of Ananias Diocno, a native of Taal, whose severity in his Capiz and Yloilo campaigns has left a lasting remembrance. The headquarters of the Visayos was in the parish-house (convento), whilst the Tagalogs were located in the Fine Arts Institute. Their stipulated remuneration was 4 pesos a month and food, but as they had received only 1 peso per month on account, and moreover claimed a rise in pay to 5 pesos, the Visayos, on February 3, assembled on the central plaza of the town and menaced their general officers, who were quartered together in a corner house over a barber's shop. They yelled out to their leaders that if they did not give them their pay they would kill them all, sack the town, and then burn it. Thereupon the generals hastened round the town to procure funds, and appeased the Visayos with a distribution of 1,800 pesos. The Tagalogs then broke out in much the same way, and were likewise restrained by a payment on account of arrears due. But thenceforth the insurgent troops became quite uncontrollable and insolent to their officers. The fact that white officers should have solicited their permission to come ashore unarmed could only be interpreted by the Oriental, soldier or civilian, in a way highly detrimental to the white man's prestige. The Americans' good and honest intentions were only equalled by their nescience of the Malay character. The officers came ashore; the townsfolk marvelled, and the fighting-men, convinced of their own invincibility, disdainfully left them unmolested. After the insurgent generals had doled out their pay, the men went round to the shops and braggingly avowed that it was lucky for the shopkeepers that they had got money, otherwise they would have looted their goods. The Chinese shut up their shops from the beginning of the troubles, leaving only a hole in the closed door to do a little business, as they were in constant fear for the safety of their lives and their stocks. A great many families packed up their belongings and went over to Negros Island in small schooners. The little passenger-steamers plying between Yloilo and Negros were running as usual, crowded to the brim, and flying the Philippine flag without interruption from the Americans. Amongst the better classes opinions on the situation were much divided. The best Philippine and Spanish families expressed their astonishment that the Americans made no attempt to take the town immediately after the Spanish evacuation. There were foreign merchants anxious to delay the American investment because, meanwhile, they were doing a brisk trade, and there were others longing to see the town in the hands of any civilized and responsible Power. Delegates from one party or the other, including the native civil government, went off in boats almost daily to parley with General Miller in the roadstead, each with a different line of real or sophistic argument. The best native families, the foreigners of all classes--those who desired a speedy entry of the Americans and those who sought to delay it--were agreed as to the needlessness and the mistaken policy of announcing a bombardment. Yloilo is a straggling, open town. The well-to-do people asked, "Why bombard?" There were no fortifications or anything to destroy but their house property. Plans were voluntarily offered showing how and at which points a midnight landing of 400 or 500 troops could be secretly effected for a sunrise surprise which would have cleared the town in an hour of every armed insurgent. The officers ashore declared they were ready; and as to the men, they were simply longing for the fray, but the word of command rested with General Miller.

In the evening of February 10 the native civil government held an extraordinary session in the Town Hall to discuss the course to be adopted in view of the announced bombardment. The public, Filipinos and foreigners, were invited to this meeting to take part in the debate if they wished, Raymundo Melliza, Victorino Mapa, Martin Delgado, and Pablo Araneta, being amongst those who were present. It was proposed to burn the town. Melliza vehemently protested against such a barbarous act, and asked why they should destroy their own property? What could they gain by pillage and flames? [219] But a certain V---- and his party clamoured for the destruction of the place, and being supported by an influential lawyer (native of another province) and by one of the insurgent generals, Melliza exclaimed, "If you insist on plunder and devastation, I shall retire altogether," whereupon a tremendous hubbub ensued, in the midst of which Melliza withdrew and went over to Guimaras Island. But there were touches of humour in the speeches, especially when a fire-eating demagogue gravely proposed to surround an American warship with canoes and seize her; and again when Quintin Salas declared that the Americans would have to pass over his corpse before the town surrendered! Incendiaries and thieves were in overwhelming majority at the meeting; naturally (to the common people in these Islands) an invitation to despoil, lay waste and slay, bolstered up by apparent authority, found a ready response, especially among the Tagalog mercenaries who had no local attachment here. The instigators of this barbarity sought no share of the spoils; they had no property interests in Yloilo, but they were jealous of those who had. The animosity of Jaro and Molo against Yloilo had existed for years, the formers' townspeople being envious of the prosperous development of Yloilo (once a mere fishing-village), which obscured the significance of the episcopal city of Jaro and detracted from the social importance of the rich Chinese half-caste residential town of Molo. [220] Chiefly from these towns came the advocates of anarchy, whose hearts swelled with fiendish delight at the prospect of witnessing the utter ruin and humiliation of their rivals in municipal prestige. Yloilo, from that moment, was abandoned to the armed rabble, who raided the small shops for petroleum to throw on to the woodwork of the houses prior to the coming onslaught. The bombardment having been announced for the 12th, they reckoned on a full day for burning and sacking the town. But early in the morning of the 11th the steam-launch Pitt, whilst reconnoitring the harbour, was fired upon; the launch replied and withdrew. Natives were observed to be busy digging a trench and hastening to and from the cotta at the harbour entrance; there was every indication of their warlike intentions. Therefore suddenly, at 9 o'clock that morning, without further notification, the Americans opened fire. The natives in the cotta fled along the quayway towards the centre of the town under a shower of bullets hurled from the quick-firing guns. The attack on Yloilo was hardly a bombardment proper; shells were intentionally thrown over the houses as a warning and burst in suburban open spaces, but comparatively few buildings were damaged by the missiles. In the meantime, from early morn, the native soldiery, followed by a riff-raff mob, rushed hither and thither, throwing firebrands on to the petroleum-washed houses, looting stores, and cutting down whomsoever checked them in their wild career. The Chinese barricaded themselves, but the flames devoured their well-stocked bazaars; panic-stricken townsfolk ran helter-skelter, escaping from the yelling bands of bloodthirsty looters. Europeans, revolver in hand, guarded their properties against the murderous rabble; an acquaintance of mine was hastening to the bank to deposit P3,000 when he was met by the leader S----, who demanded his money or his life; one foreign business house was defended by 15 armed Europeans, whilst others threw out handfuls of pesos to stay the work of the petroleur. The German Vice-Consul, an old friend of mine, went mad at the sight of his total loss; a Swiss merchant, my friend for over 20 years, had his fine corner premises burnt down to the stone walls, and is now in comparative poverty. Even Spanish half-castes were menaced and contemptuously called Cachilas [221]; and the women escaped for their lives on board the schooners in the harbour. Half the town was blazing, and the despairing cries of some, the yells of exultant joy of others, mingled with the booming of the invaders' cannon.

Two British warships lying in the roadstead sent boats ashore to receive British subjects, and landed a party of marines, who made gallant efforts to save foreign property. A few British subjects were, however, unable to get away from the town on account of the premature attack of the Americans, which took place on the 11th instead of February 12, as previously announced.

The American assault on the town, which lasted until 1 o'clock in the afternoon, was immediately followed up by the landing of about 1,000 volunteers, and General Miller found that the prognostications of the townspeople were perfectly just, for the insurgents fled in all directions. There was not a fighting-man left in the town. Some of them continued their hurried flight as far as Santa Barbara and Janiuay. It was evident that a sudden night-landing, without a word about bombardment, would have been just as effective, and would have prevented much misery and loss of life and property. Indeed, the arrival of the American volunteers under these distressing circumstances produced a fresh commotion in Yloilo. Without any warrant private premises were entered, and property saved from the natives' grasp vanished before the eyes of the owners. Finally order was restored through the energetic intervention of American officials, who stationed sentinels here and there to protect what still remained of the townspeople's goods. In due course indemnity claims were forwarded to the military authorities, who rejected them all.

The insurgents still lingered outside the town on the road to Jaro, and General Miller marched his troops, in battle array, against them. A couple of miles out of the town, in the neighbourhood of La Paz, the entrenched enemy was routed after a slight skirmish. The booming of cannon was heard in Yloilo for some hours as the American troops continued their march to Jaro, only molested by a few occasional shots from the enemy in ambush. The rebel chief Fulion and another, Quintin Salas, held out for a short while, gradually beating a retreat before the advancing column. The Tagalogs, once under the command of the semi-civilized Diocno, disappeared in all directions, and finally escaped from the province in small parties in canoes or as best they could. The handful of braves who still thought fit to resist decided to make a stand at Santa Barbara, but on the arrival of the American troops they dispersed like chaff before the wind. General Miller then relinquished the pursuit and returned to Yloilo to await reinforcements for a campaign through the Island. In the meantime military government was established in Yloilo, the town was policed, trade resumed its normal aspect, the insurgents in the Island gradually increased, but the Philippine Republic in Panay was no more. It was clear to all the most sober-minded and best-educated Ylongos that Aguinaldo's government was a failure in Panay at least. The hope of agreement on any policy was remote from its very initiation. Visayos of position, with property and interests at stake, were convinced that absolute independence without any control or protection from some established Power was premature and doomed to disaster. Visayan jealousy of Tagalog predominance had also its influence, but the ruling factor was the Tagalog troops' dictatorial air and brutal conduct, which destroyed the theory of fraternal unity. Self-government at this stage would have certainly led to civil war.

Reinforcements arrived from Manila and the Americans entered upon the pacification of the Island, which needed two years for its accomplishment. The full record of the Panay campaign would be a monotonous recital of scores of petty encounters of analogous character. Pablo Araneta, in co-operation with a Spanish deserter named Mariano Perez, met the Americans several times, and gave better proof of his generalship in retreat than in advance. He operated only in the province of Yloilo, and at Sambang, near Pavia, his party was severely defeated and the "general" fled. Quintin Salas, over whose dead body, he himself declared, the Americans would have to pass before Yloilo surrendered, appeared and disappeared, from time to time, around Dumangas. There was an encounter at Potian with Jolandoni which ended badly for his party. The native priests not only sympathized with the insurgents, but took an active part in their operations. Father Santiago Pamplona, afterwards ecclesiastical-governor of the Visayas (Aglipayan), held a command under Martin Delgado. Father Agustin Pina, the parish priest of Molo and the active adviser in the operations around Pavia--Jaro district, was caught by the Americans and died of "water-cure." [222] The firebrand Pascual Macbanua was killed at Pototan; and finally came the most decisive engagement at Monte Singit, between Janiuay and Lambunao. The insurgent generalissimo, Martin Delgado, took the field in person; but after a bold stand, with a slight loss on the American side, the insurgents were completely routed and their leader fled. Pablo Araneta, tired of generalship without glory, surrendered to the Americans on December 31, 1899. The war still continued for another year, Martin Delgado being one of the last to declare his defeat. Early in December, 1900, overtures for peace were made to General Miller, the delegates on the insurgent side being Pablo Araneta, Jovito Yusay, and Father Silvestre Apura, whilst Captain Noble represented the Americans. Martin Delgado and his co-leaders soon surrendered. There was no question of conditions but that of convincing the natives of the futility of further resistance and the benefits to them of peace under American rule. With this end in view, delegates went in commission to the several districts. Pablo Araneta, Father Silvestre Apura, Father Praxedes Magalon and Nicolas Roses visited the district of Concepcion (East Panay) in January 1901 and obtained the submission of the people there. Peace was at length agreed upon; but the Filipinos were not disposed silently to draw the veil over the past without glamour and pomp, even in the hour of defeat. Therefore, on February 2, 1901, in agreement between the parties, the remnant of the little Panay army made a formal surrender, marching under triumphal arches into the episcopal city of Jaro to stack their arms, between lines of American troops drawn up on either side of their passage, to the strains of peaceful melody, whilst the banners of the Stars and Stripes floated victoriously in the sultry air. Jaro was crowded with visitors to witness this interesting ceremonial. The booths did a bustling trade; the whole city was en fete, and the vanquished heroes, far from evincing humiliation, mingled with the mob and seemed as merry as though the occasion were the marriage-feast of the headman's daughter.

But to complete the picture of peace some finishing-strokes were yet needful. Antique Province was still in arms, and a native commission composed of Pablo Araneta, Father Silvestre Apura, Father Praxedes Magalon, Victorino Mapa, Cornelio Melliza, and Martin Delgado proceeded there, and succeeded in concluding peace for the Americans at the end of February, 1901.

The Visayan chief who defied the American invader was no stout patriot who leaves his plough to fight for cherished liberty, and cheerfully returns to it when the struggle ends. The leaders of the little Panay army and their civilian colleagues had to be compensated for their acceptance of American rule. Aguinaldo was captured during the month following the Peace of Panay; the war was coming to an end, and Governor W. H. Taft made his provincial tour to inaugurate civil government in the pacified Islands. Martin T. Delgado, the very man who had inflicted such calamities upon the Yloilo people, was appointed, on April 11, to be their first provincial Civil Governor at a salary of $3,000 gold per annum, and held that office until March, 1904. Jovito Yusay was given the provincial government secretaryship with a yearly stipend of $1,800 gold; Pablo Araneta was rewarded with the post of President of the Board of Health at an annual salary of $1,500 gold, and Victorino Mapa was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court with an annual emolument of $7,000 gold. In March, 1904, Raymundo Melliza, ex-president of the native civil government, already referred to as the advocate of social order, succeeded Delgado in the civil government of the Yloilo province by popular vote.

Yloilo, formerly the second port of the Philippines, is situated on the right bank of the creek. From the creek point to the square are sheds used for sugar-storing, with, here and there, a commercial or government office between. The most modern thoroughfares are traced with regularity, and there are many good houses. In the square is the church, which at a distance might be mistaken for a sugar-store, the ruins of the Town Hall, the convent, and a few small, fairly well-built houses of stone and wood, whilst all one side was once covered by a fine new block of buildings of brick, stone and wood, with iron roofs.

The Calle Real or High Street is a winding road, which leads through the town into the country. The houses are indescribable--they are of all styles. Without any pretence at architectural adornment, some are high, others low; some stand back with several feet of pavement before them, others come forward and oblige one to walk in the road. Here and there is a gap, then a row of dingy hovels. This is the retail trading-quarter and the centre for the Chinese. Going from the square the creek runs along at the back of the right-hand-side houses; turning off by the left-hand-side thoroughfares, which cannot be called streets, there is a number of roughly-built houses and a few good ones dispersed in all directions, with vacant, neglected plots between. At the extreme end of the Calle Real is the Government House, built of wood and stone, of good style and in a fair condition, with quite the appearance of an official residence. Before it is a semicircular garden, and in front of this there is a round fenced-in plot, in the middle of which stands a flag-staff. Just past the Government House there is a bridge crossing the Jaro River, which empties itself into the creek of Yloilo, and this creek is connected with that of Otong. [223]

Yloilo lies low, and is always hot. Quite one-third of the shipping and wholesale business quarter stands on land reclaimed from the swamp by filling up with earth and rubble. The opposite side of the creek, facing the shipping-quarter, is a low marshy waste, occasionally converted into a swamp at certain tides. The creek forms the harbour of Yloilo, which is just as Nature made it, except that there is a roughly-constructed quayway on the left-hand shore on entering. Only vessels of light draft can enter; large vessels anchor in the roadstead, which is the channel between Yloilo harbour and Guimaras Island.

The general aspect of Yloilo and its environs is most depressing. In Spanish times no public conveyances were to be seen plying for hire in the streets, and there is still no public place of amusement. The Municipality was first established by Royal Order dated June 7, 1889.

Evidences of the havoc of 1899 are still visible at every turn in Yloilo in the shape of old stone walls, charred remains, battered houses, vacant spaces, etc. On the other hand, there are many innovations since American administration superseded the native civil government. The plaza, till then a dreary open space, is now a pleasant shady promenade; electric lighting, an ice-factory, four hotels, one American, one English, and three Philippine clubs, large public schools, an improved quayway, a commodious Custom-house, a great increase of harbour traffic, a superabundance of lawyers' and pawnbrokers' sign-boards, and public vehicles plying for hire are among the novelties which strike one who knew Yloilo in days gone by. The Press is poorly represented by three daily and one weekly newspapers. Taken as a whole Yloilo still remains one of the most charmless spots in the Archipelago.

The people of Negros Island were in the free enjoyment of local independence since November 6, 1898, the day on which the Spanish Governor, D. Isidro Castro y Cinceros, together with all his official colleagues, capitulated to the revolutionists under the leadership of Aniceto Lacson, Leandro Lacson, Juan Araneta, Nicolas Gales, Simon Lizares, Julio Diaz, and Jose Montilla. Simultaneously with the prosecution of the Panay Island campaign General Miller opened negotiations for the submission of Negros Island to American sovereignty. At that time the government of the Island was being peacefully administered to the satisfaction of the Negros revolutionists, at least, under the constitution proclaimed by them, and presided over by their ex-commander-in-chief, Aniceto Lacson. [224] General Miller therefore commissioned two Filipinos, Esteban de la Rama and Pedro Regalado, [225] to proceed to Negros and negotiate terms of surrender to the Americans. For the moment nothing further was demanded than a recognition of American supremacy, and it was not proposed to subvert their local organization or depose their president. Aniceto Lacson accepted these terms, and General Miller formally appointed him Governor of the Island in March, 1899. It is evident, therefore, that no union existed between the local government of Negros and Aguinaldo's Republic in Luzon. In fact, when the Tagalog fighting-men, who were everywhere defeated in Panay, made their escape to Negros and raised the cry of insurrection against the Americans, Lacson was constrained to appeal to General Miller to send over troops to quell the movement. Thereupon Colonel Smith was deputed to take troops over to Negros to pursue the common enemy, whilst, in perfect accord with the native governor Lacson, he acted as military governor of the Island. The great cordillera which runs through the centre of the Island from north to south forms a sort of natural barrier between the people of Occidental and Oriental Negros. There are trails, but there are no transversal highroads from one coast to the other, and the inhabitants on each side live as separated in their interests, and, to a certain degree, in their habits, as though they were living in different islands. The people on the eastern side have always strongly opposed anything approaching governmental cohesion with the other side. Moreover, for many years past, the south-eastern district of Negros Island has been affected by sporadic apparitions of riotous religious monomaniacs called Santones (vide p. 189). These conditions, therefore, favoured the nefarious work of the cunning Tagalog and Panay refugees, who found plenty of plastic material in the Negros inhabitants for the fruitful dissemination of the wildest and most fantastic notions anent the horrors awaiting them in the new Anglo-Saxon domination. They found no sympathy with the native government of Occidental Negros, which was as much their enemy as the American troops sent to pursue them, but they entertained the hope that by raising riot in Negros they would draw off troops from Panay, and so favour the movement in that Island. Armed groups rose everywhere against the Americans and the established government. In the south-east the notorious Papa Isio appeared as a Santon, preached idolatry, and drew to his standard a large band of ruffians as skilled as himself in villainous devices. Insurgency, in the true sense of the word, did not exist in Negros; opposition to the American domination was merely a pretext to harass, plunder, and extort funds from the planters and property-owners. The disaffected people increased so largely in numbers that Colonel Smith was obliged to call for reinforcements, and the disturbances only came to an end when it was known that the Panay people had formally laid down their arms in February, 1901. Shortly afterwards Governor W. H. Taft visited Negros Island; the quasi-autonomous government of that region was modified in conformity with the general plan of provincial civil governments, and on August 9, 1901, Leandro Locsin (Ylongo by birth) succeeded to the civil governorship, with a salary of $2,500 gold, by popular vote.

Notwithstanding the severities imposed on the Cebuanos during the last eight months of Spanish rule, the Spaniards were able to evacuate Cebu Island without menace or untoward event. For several months the Governor, General Montero, had held in prison, between life and death, a number of Filipinos of the best families, amongst whom was Julio Llorente, who afterwards became President of Cebu and subsequently a magistrate of the Supreme Court of Manila. General Montero made a compact with a young Philippine lawyer, Sergio Osmena (afterwards acting-Governor of Cebu) that in exchange for two Spaniards held as hostages in the interior he would release Llorente. Osmena procured the liberty of the Spaniards, but it was only on the eve of his departure that Montero permitted the prison doors to be opened.

On December 26, 1898, a chartered merchant steamer called at Cebu to transport the retiring Spaniards to Zamboanga, the place of concentration designated by General Rios. The farewell was sadly brief, and almost in silence the Governor handed over the government property to a most worthy and loyal Cebuano, Pablo Mejia, who was my esteemed friend for many years. The Governor even offered Mejia about 40 rifles; but Mejia, a lover of order, wrongly believing that a long period of tranquillity was about to set in, declined to accept them. And without any manifestation of regret on the part of the governed, the last vestige of Spanish authority vanished from the city which, 333 years before, was the capital of the Philippine Islands.

On the day following the departure of the Spaniards the Cebuanos established a provincial government in agreement with the Katipunan party of Luzon, General Aguinaldo's direct representative being Luis Flores, the chief leader of the armed Cebuanos, to whom Pablo Mejia handed over all that he had received from the ex-governor Montero. From its establishment up to the last day of its existence, this government used the seal and stamps of the Philippine Republic, and was constituted as follows, viz.:--

Provincial Council

President and Commander-in-Chief Luis Flores. Vice-President Julio Llorente. Commissioner of Police Gen. Arcadio Maxilom. Treasurer-General Pablo Mejia. Minister of Justice Miguel Logarta. Secretary to the Council Leoncio Alburo.

Military Department

Chief-of-Staff Gen. Juan Climaco. Military Administrator Arsenio Climaco. (Half-caste Chinese and cousins.)

Municipal Council (Junta Popular)

Mayor Julio Llorente. Councillors Several citizens elected by popular vote.

The above constitution was in conformity with a decree of General Aguinaldo dated June 18, 1898, and countersigned by Apolinario Mabini. Local representatives of the provincial government were appointed throughout the Island for the collection of taxes and the maintenance of order, and the system worked fairly smoothly until the arrival of the Americans in Cebu City, February 21, 1899. On that date the American gunboat Petrel and a large steam-launch suddenly appeared in Cebu harbour. The United States Vice-Consul seems to have been the only person who had received prior advice of their intended arrival. The commander of the Petrel sent a message ashore saying that he desired an interview with the government representatives and that he demanded the surrender of the city, and gave 14 hours to the people to consider his demands; but, as a matter of fact, the negotiations lasted about 24 hours, during which time a council of Filipinos was hurriedly called to decide upon the course the provincial government should adopt. Very divergent and extreme views were expressed; Pablo Mejia, supported by Julio Llorente and Father Julia, advocated an acceptance of the inevitable under protest, whilst General Gabino Sepulveda declared that he would spill his last drop of blood before the Americans should take possession of the city. But, in the end, Sepulveda reserved his blood for a better occasion, and eventually accepted employment under the Americans as prosecuting attorney in Bojol Island. Pablo Mejia's advice was acted upon, and in the name of the Cebuanos, Luis Flores, the President of the Council, signed a protest [226] which was handed to the commander of the Petrel by Pablo Mejia and Julio Llorente in the presence of the United States Vice-Consul. The commander of the Petrel forthwith landed 40 marines, who marched to the Cotta de San Pedro (the fortress) and hoisted the American flag there in the presence of armed Filipinos who looked on in silence. The marines then returned to their vessel, which remained inactive anchored off the cotta, pending the arrival of reinforcements which were sent to Cebu under the command of Colonel Hamer. The provincial government was permitted to continue its functions and use its official seal, and during five months there was no manifest anti-American movement. During this period the American commander of the troops adopted tactics similar to those employed by General E. S. Otis in Manila against Aguinaldo prior to the outbreak in February, 1899. Little by little the Americans required the armed Filipinos to retire farther and farther away from the capital. This practical isolation disgusted the several chiefs, who therefore agreed to open the campaign against the invaders. Every act of the provincial councillors was closely watched and discussed by the Cebuanos, amongst whom an intransigent faction secretly charged Mejia and Llorente with being lukewarm in their protection of Philippine interests and unduly favourable to American dominion. Their death was decreed, and Mejia was assassinated as he was passing to his house from that of a neighbour a few yards off. Luis Flores had already resigned public office, and Llorente was, at this time, his successor in the presidency of the Council. Fortunately for him, whilst the murderers were plotting against his life he was called to Manila by General E. S. Otis, two weeks after Mejia's death, to become a magistrate in the Supreme Court. Segundo Singson (afterwards chief judge of the Court of First Instance) then assumed the presidency of the provincial council.

On July 24, 1899, Juan Climaco and Arcadio Maxilom, chafing at the diminution of their influence in public affairs, suddenly disappeared into the interior and met at Pardo, where the military revolutionary centre was established. Aguinaldo's emissary, Pantaleon E. del Rosario, Melquiades Lasala, a Cebuano of Bogo (known as Dading), Andres Jayme, Lorega, and an Ilocano named Mateo Luga who had served in the Spanish army, led contingents under the supreme command of the insurgent General Arcadio Maxilom. In the interior they established a fairly well-organized military government. The Island was divided into districts; there was little interference with personal liberty; taxes for the maintenance of the struggle were collected in the form of contribution according to the means of the donor; agriculture was not altogether abandoned, and for over two years the insurgents held out against American rule. The brain of the movement was centred in Juan Climaco, whilst Mateo Luga exhibited the best fighting qualities. In the meantime American troops were drafted to the coast towns of Tuburan, Bogo, Carmen, etc. There were several severe engagements with slaughter on both sides, notably at Monte Sudlon and Compostela. Five white men joined the insurgent leader Luga, one being an English mercenary trooper, two sailors, and two soldiers; the last two were given up at the close of hostilities; one of them was pardoned, and the other was executed in the cotta for rape committed at Mandaue.

The co-existence of an American military administration in Cebu City conducting a war throughout the Island, and a Philippine provincial government with nominal administrative powers over the same region, but in strong sympathy with the insurgent cause, was no longer compatible. Moreover, outside the city the provincial government was unable to enforce its decrees amongst the people, who recognized solely the martial-law of the insurgents to whom they had to pay taxes. The Americans therefore abolished the provincial council, which was not grieved at its dissolution, because it was already accused by the people of being pro-American. Philippine views of the situation were expressed in a newspaper, El Nuevo Dia, founded by a lawyer, Rafael Palma, and edited conjointly by Jayme Veyra (afterwards a candidate for the Leyte Island governorship) and an intelligent young lawyer, Sergio Osmena, already mentioned at p. 521. This organ, the type and style of which favourably compared with any journal ever produced in these Islands, passed through many vicissitudes; it was alternately suppressed and revived, whilst its editors were threatened with imprisonment in the cotta and deportation to Guam. Meanwhile the Americans made strenuous efforts to secure the co-operation of the Filipinos in municipal administration, but the people refused to vote. Leading citizens, cited to appear before the American authorities, persistently declined to take any part in a dual regime. The electors were then ordered, under penalties, to attend the polling, but out of the hundreds who responded to the call only about 60 could be coerced into voting. Finally a packed municipal council was formed, but one of its members, a man hitherto highly respected by all, was assassinated, and his colleagues went in fear of their lives.

The war in Panay Island having terminated on February 2, 1901, by the general surrender at Jaro (vide p. 518), General Hughes went to Samar Island, where he failed to restore peace, and thence he proceeded to Cebu in the month of August at the head of 2,000 troops. A vigorous policy of devastation was adopted. Towns, villages and crops were laid waste; Pardo, the insurgent military centre, was totally destroyed; peaceful natives who had compulsorily paid tribute to the insurgents at whose mercy they were obliged to live, were treated as enemies; their homes and means of livelihood were demolished, and little distinction was made between the warrior and the victim of the war. Desolation stared the people in the face, and within a few weeks the native provincial governor proposed that terms of peace should be discussed. The insurgent chief Lorega surrendered on October 22; Mateo Luga and Arcadio Maxilom submitted five days afterwards and at the end of the month a general cessation of hostilities followed. A neutral zone was agreed upon, extending from Mandaue to Sogod, and there the three peace commissioners on behalf of the Americans, namely Miguel Logarta, Pedro Rodriguez, and Arsenio Climaco met the insurgent chiefs Juan Climaco and Arcadio Maxilom. As a result, peace was signed, and the document includes the following significant words, viz.: "putting the Philippine people in a condition to prove their aptitude for self-government as the basis of a future independent life." The signatories of this document on the part of the Filipinos were Pantaleon E. del Rosario, Melquiades Lasala and Andres Jayme. After the peace, Mateo Luga and P. E. del Rosario accepted employment under the Americans, the former as Inspector of Constabulary and the latter as Sheriff of Cebu. A few months later, the Americans, acting on information received, proceeded to Tuburan on the government launch Philadelphia, arrested Arcadio Maxilom and his two brothers, and seized the arms which they had secreted on their property. On the launch, one of the Maxiloms unsuccessfully attempted to murder the Americans and was immediately executed, whilst Arcadio and his other brother jumped overboard; but Arcadio being unable to swim, was picked up, brought to trial at Cebu, and acquitted. Thus ended the career of General Arcadio Maxilom, whom in 1904 I found living in retirement, almost a hermit's life, broken in spirit and body and worried by numerous lawsuits pending against him.

On April 17,1901, Governor W. H. Taft went to Cebu accompanied by a Filipino, H. Pardo de Tavera, whose views were diametrically opposed to those of the Cebuano majority. Governor Taft established civil government there, although the law of habeas corpus had to be suspended because the war was still raging throughout the Island outside the capital. The provincial government as established by Governor Taft comprises a provincial board composed of three members, namely the Philippine Provincial Governor, the American Supervisor, and the American Treasurer: hence the Americans are in permanent majority and practically rule the Island. The executive of this body is the provincial governor and his staff. The first provincial governor appointed by Governor Taft was Julio Llorente, who resigned the magistracy in Manila and returned to Cebu to take up his new office until the elections took place in January, 1902, when, by popular vote, Juan Climaco, the ex-insurgent chief, became provincial governor, and on the expiration of his term in January, 1904, he was re-elected for another two years.

There is no noteworthy change in the aspect of Cebu since the American occupation. It is a regularly-built city, with hundreds of good houses, many relatively imposing public buildings, monuments, churches, and interesting edifices. It is a cathedral city and bishop's see, full of historical remininscences, and has still a very pleasant appearance, notwithstanding its partial destruction and the many remaining ruins caused by the bombardment by the Spanish warship Don Juan de Austria in April 1838, (vide p. 403). Of special interest are the Cathedral, the Church of Santo Nino, or the "Holy Child of Cebu" (vide p. 183), the Chapels of the Paul Fathers and of the Jesuits, and the Cotta de San Pedro (fortress). Also, just outside the city proper is the Church of San Nicolas. Up to about the year 1876 the Jesuits had a fine church of their own, but the friars, jealous of its having become the most popular place of worship, caused it to be destroyed. Until a few years ago the quarter known as the, Parian was the flourishing centre of the half-caste traders. There was also a busy street of Chinese general shops and native ready-made clothiers in the Lutao district, a thoroughfare which ran along the seashore from the south of the city proper towards San Nicolas; it was completely destroyed by the bombardment of 1898, and many of the shopkeepers have erected new premises in the principal shopping street, called Calle de la Infanta. Again, in 1905, a disastrous fire in the business quarter of the city caused damage to the estimated extent of $500,000 gold.

There is a little colony of foreign merchants in Cebu, which formerly ranked as the third port of the Archipelago, but now stands second in importance to Manila (vide Trade Statistics, Chap. xxxi.). Several vice-consulates are established here, and in Spanish times it was the residence of the military governor of Visayas as well as of the governor of the Island and his staff of officials. In 1886 a Supreme Court was inaugurated in Cebu. This city, which was the capital of the Colony from 1565 to 1571, had a municipality up to the time of Gov.-General Pedro de Arandia (1754-59). It was then abolished because there was only one Spaniard capable of being a city councillor. One alderman who had served--Juan Sebastian de Espina--could neither read nor write, and the mayor himself had been deprived of office for having tried to extort money from a Chinaman by putting his head in the stocks. By Royal Order dated June 7, 1889, and put into force by the Gov.-General's Decree of January 31, 1890, the municipality was re-established. The president was the governor of the Island, supported by an Alcalde and 13 officials. For the government of the Island under the Spanish regime, vide Chap. xiii.

The municipality at present existing is that established by the Taft Commission. The Press, in the days of the Spaniards, was poorly represented by a little news-sheet, styled the Boletin de Cebu. There are now two periodicals of little or no interest.

There are two large cemeteries at Guadalupe and Mabolo. In 1887 a shooting-butts was established at the end of the Guadalupe road, and the annual pony-races take place in January. On the Mabolo road there is a Leper Hospital, and the ruins of a partly well-built jail which was never completed.

Cebu is a port of entry open to foreign trade, with a Custom-house established since the year 1863. The channel for vessels is marked by buoys, and there are two lighthouses at the north and two at the south entrance to the port. The environs are pretty, with Magtan Island (on which Maghallanes was killed) in front and a range of hills in the background. There are excellent roads for riding and driving a few miles out of the city. The climate is very healthy for Europeans; the low ranges of mountains running north to south of the Island are sparsely wooded, some being quite bare of trees, and the atmosphere is comparatively dry. The cactus is very common all over the Island, and miles of it are seen growing in the hedges. About an hour and a half's drive from Cebu City there is the little town of Naga, the environs of which are extremely pretty. From the top of Makdoc Mountain, at the back of the town, there is a splendid view of the Pandan Valley.

The Cebuanos are the most sociable of the Visaya population, whilst the women are the best-looking of all the Filipinas of pure Oriental descent.

Of all places in the Philippines Cebu will please the conchologist. An old native named Legaspi once had a splendid shell collection, which he freely exhibited to foreigners. At one time he had a Gloria Maris, which he sold for $150, and some Russian naval officers are said to have offered him $5,000 for a part of his collection. At certain seasons of the year the Euplectella speciosa, Gray, or Venus baskets, locally known as Regaderas, can be obtained in quantities; they are found in the Cebu waters. The Eup. spec, is the skeleton secretion of an insect of the Porifera division. The basket is a series of graceful fretted spirals. Also fine Pina stuffs can be purchased here.

The population of Cebu City was 9,629 in 1888; 10,972 in 1896; and 18,330 in 1903. The inhabitants of the whole Island numbered 417,543 in 1876; 518,032 in 1888; 595,726 in 1896; and 653,727 in 1903.

In March, 1899, an American armed force was detailed from Cebu City to Bojol Island to demand the surrender of the native provincial government established there since the Spanish evacuation. Interpreters from Cebu were sent ashore, and after hearing their explanation of the Americans demands the native president in council resolved to yield peacefully. A volunteer regiment was then sent ashore, positions were occupied, and all went smoothly on the surface until the Islanders' powers of endurance were exhausted after 22 months of alleged harsh treatment imposed upon them by the troops. In January, 1901, the cry of rebellion was raised by one Pedro Sanson, whose band of Bojolanos, augmented by levies from Leyte, Samar, and Panay Islands numbered about 2,000. Expeditions were sent out against them, and the lukewarm sympathy of the Islanders was turned to general indignation against the Americans by the alleged wanton destruction of a whole town by fire, by order of a captain of volunteers. Practically the whole Island became covertly anti-American. Having finished his campaign in Cebu Island in October, 1901, General Hughes carried his troops over to Bojol Island, where measures of repression were adopted similar to those which had been so effective in reducing the Cebuanos to submission. A large number of small towns and villages within the range of military operations were entirely destroyed. The once pretty little town of Lauang was left a complete ruin, and many landmarks of a former progressive civilization have disappeared for ever. Nevertheless, the insurgents refused to yield until a decree was issued to the effect that if the leaders did not surrender by December 27 the invaders would burn down the town of Tagbilaran. In this town, formerly the seat of the native provincial government, Pedro Sanson and most of his officers had all their property and worldly possessions; and in view of the beggary which awaited them if they held out any longer, they accepted terms of peace from Pantaleon E. del Rosario, who went up to the mountains and acted as negotiator between General Hughes and the insurgent chiefs who finally surrendered. The Filipino, Aniceto Clarin, appointed provincial governor on April 20, 1901, continued in office; Pedro Sanson quietly resumed his occupation of dealer in hemp, etc., and thenceforth peace and poverty reigned in the Island.

In Cottabato (Mindanao Is.), the attempt to establish a local native government ended in tragic failure. In January, 1899, a Spanish gunboat silently entered the port without the customary whistling and firing of salute. It brought a despatch to the Governor from the nominal acting-Gov.-General Rios, who, coming from Yloilo, called at Zamboanga before proceeding to Manila, to receive on board a number of Spanish refugees. One of the crew of the gunboat also brought a private communication from the Jesuit Superior in Zamboanga to the Jesuit missionary Father Suarez. The official despatch notified the Governor that the Treaty of Paris had been signed, and consequently he was to evacuate Cottabato immediately. The private communication told the same tale to the missionary, with an inquiry from the Jesuit Superior as to whether he could continue his mission after the withdrawal of the Spanish Governor, and whether it would be of any advantage to do so. The Governor informed the missionary of his intended departure, and the missionary replied negatively to his superior in Zamboanga. The Governor then called Roman Vilo, his confidential christian native assistant, and told him that he and all who had been loyal to the Spanish Government and faithful in their service could take passage to Zamboanga. Vilo, however, for himself and his family, declined the offer on the ground that all his interests were in and about Cottabato, where he possessed real estate. The Governor then had the Moro-Chinese half-caste Datto Piang called, and in the presence of Vilo the former was appointed chief of the Moro people and the latter governor of the christian population. After making a short speech, exhorting the two chiefs, in benevolent phrases, to live in peace and act mutually for the common good, the Governor, accompanied by the Jesuit missionaries and others who were desirous of leaving the place, went to Zamboanga on the gunboat.

When, after the lapse of some weeks, Datto Piang felt sure that the Spaniards would never be again in authority at Cottabato, he begged Vilo to let him have twenty rifles to defend himself against a rival. The christian governor agreed to this, and week by week Datto Piang's demands grew until, at length, all the rifles in the possession of the Christians passed to the Moros. But there still remained some cannons, and Datto Piang, having represented the necessity of making war on another chief up the Cottabato River, Vilo was persuaded to lend them to him. Piang had them placed in vintas (war-junks) and Vilo, with several friends, went down to the river-side to witness the departure of the supposed armed expedition. Suddenly Piang, his son-in-law Datto Ali and this man's brother, Datto Djimbangan, at the head of a large party of armed Moros, fell upon and slaughtered the Christians. Vilo's head was cut off and the savage Mahometans made a raid on the town, looting all but the shops of the Chinese who were in league, or accord, with their half-countryman Piang. The Christians who were unable to escape were either massacred or carried off as slaves into the interior, with the loot. Datto Djimbangan caused the Christian women to be stripped naked and marched through the streets, whilst he and his companions made their selections for themselves, leaving the remainder for their followers. Amongst the captives were a father and two sons. In October, 1899, the Americans sent a gunboat to Cottabato, and the wife of this captive, mother of his two boys, represented her plight to the commander, who forthwith sent for Piang and ordered him immediately to send a message to the individual holding the captives to release them and hand them over to the messenger, who would conduct them back to Cottabato. Piang, without a moment's hesitation, offered to comply, and sent a vinta up the river with the required order, but at the same time he secretly sent another emissary overland with contrary instructions. The land messenger, as was expected, arrived first, and when the vinta party reached the place of captivity, Piang's people expressed their regret that they could not oblige the party because they had just cut off the captives' heads. In 1904 a member of the victims' family was a teacher in the Jesuits' Catholic School in Zamboanga. Datto Piang, who owes his position and influence over the Moros to the protection of the late great Datto Utto (vide p. 143) is the father-in-law of the terrible Datto Ali whose continual depredations and defiance made Cottabato the centre of that unabated conflict for the Americans described in Chapter xxix.

In the belief that the Zamboanguenos were loyally disposed towards Spain, the Spaniards, after the signing of the Treaty of Paris, chose Zamboanga (Mindanao Is.) as their point of concentration of all the Spanish troops and civil servants in the southern islands. At that time General Jaramillo was Gov.-General of Mindanao Island and commander of the forces in Zamboanga; but on the arrival there, December 27, 1898, of the ex-governor of Cebu, General Montero, with his co-refugees, General Jaramillo transferred his command to him and left for Manila with General Rios, who had come from Yloilo to Zamboanga to receive refugee passengers for the capital. Before his departure Jaramillo had led the Zamboangueno Christians to believe that the war with America was, at every turn, a triumphant success for Spanish arms; fictitious printed telegrams were circulated announcing Spanish victories everywhere, and one of the most extravagant reported that General Weyler had landed on American soil at Key West with an army of 80,000 Spanish troops. The motive of this harmless ruse was to bolster up Spanish prestige and thereby avoid bloodshed. During several months no trading or mail-steamer came, and the Zamboanguenos were practically cut off from the rest of the world. Military preparations were made for the feigned purpose of resisting a possible attack on the place by the Americans, who were described to the people as cannibals and ferocious monsters more terrible than the dreaded Moros. Naturally the real object of the military preparations was the Spaniards' justifiable endeavour to be ready to defend themselves against open rebellion when the true situation should ooze out. Nor was their misrepresentation of the Americans mere spiteful calumny; the Spaniards were in great jeopardy, and they instinctively wished to destroy any feeling of welcome which the natives might have for the new-comers for fear it might operate against themselves at the supreme moment of danger. Indeed, each party--native and Spanish--was seeking to outwit the other; hence, when the Zamboanguenos were promised a supply of arms for the ostensible purpose of resisting invasion, they pretended to co-operate heartily with the Spaniards' defensive measures, with the secret design of dispossessing the Spaniards of their arms in order to use them against them. The Zamboanguenos therefore became so persistent in their demand upon Montero to fulfil his predecessor's promise that at last he had frankly to confess that peace had been signed between Spain and America, whereby the Islands were surrendered to the United States, and that very shortly the Spaniards would evacuate the Archipelago. But the conflicting versions of the situation, published severally by Jaramillo and Montero, sorely puzzled the natives. The Spaniards were still in undisturbed possession of Zamboanga for over four months after Montero's arrival, notwithstanding the fact that the American warship Boston called at the port and left the same day and that an officer came ashore without the least objection or consternation on the part of the Spaniards. The orange-and-red flag still floated over the Fortress del Pilar, and, so far as the Zamboanguenos could ascertain, it looked as if the Spaniards were going to remain. They therefore clamoured more loudly than ever for the distribution of arms, which this time Montero positively refused, for the Spaniards had never for a moment been deceived as to the real intentions of the Zamboanguenos. On the other hand, by this time, their inoffensive delusion of the people had lost its virtue, and natives and Spaniards thenceforth became open enemies. After the visit of the Boston the fighting population, no longer able to conceal their disappointment, threw off the mask, quitted the town, cut off the water-supply which came from the mountains, in collusion with the mutinied crews seized the firearms on board the Spanish gunboats lying in the harbour, and prepared for war against their old masters. The Spaniards immediately compelled the non-combatant townspeople and the Chinese to throw up earthworks for mounting artillery and dig trenches for defence against the rebels. The gunboat Alava co-operated by firing shells into the rebel camp situated just outside the town. The rebels made two unsuccessful assaults, and in the second attack General Montero was mortally wounded by a rifle-shot. On May 23 the S.S. Leon XIII. arrived; the Spaniards silently embarked for Manila with their dying general, who succumbed during the voyage, and Zamboanga, one-fourth of which the defenders had destroyed by fire, was occupied by the rebels. During the siege the Filipinos, true to their instincts, had split up into two rival factions headed by Vicente Alvarez and Isidoro Midel respectively, and in the interval between the first and second assault on the town these party chiefs had fought out their own quarrel, Midel claiming to have been the victor. Nevertheless, the popular favourite was Vicente Alvarez, known as the Tamagun Datto (high chief), who became the chosen president of the Zamboanga revolutionary government established immediately after the Spanish evacuation. Party spirit ran high; life was held in little esteem; a lifeless body found on the highway startled no one; assassination was an occurrence of small moment; cattle-shooting was practised for amusement, and the five-and-a-half months' essay of christian Philippine autonomy was so signalized by jealous self-interest, bitter rivalry, rapacity, and bloodshed as to make one doubt whether the christian Zamboangueno is one whit superior to his Mahometan neighbour in moral character.

The arrival of an American expedition in the waters of Zamboanga on November 15, 1899, produced a sanguinary crisis in these faction feuds. Vicente Alvarez at once took measures to oppose the invaders' landing, whilst his rival, Isidoro Midel, resolved to side with the Americans. Divide et impera. The want of unity amongst the natives themselves was a great help to the Americans' plans. By this time there appeared a third aspirant to local fame in the person of Melanio Sanson, a native marine engineer, until recently in the Spanish service, who pretended to co-operate with Alvarez, styling himself colonel of artillery in charge of the guns abandoned by his former masters. Each of these three individuals sought to rid himself of his two rivals. On the night of November 15 Isidoro Midel ended Melanio Sanson's rivalry for ever, and the Americans took peaceful possession of the town the next day. Subsequently Midel arranged a transfer to the Americans of the artillery which had, during the conflict, been under Sanson's control. Vicente Alvarez immediately fled to Mercedes, and thence to Basilan Island, where, aided by Datto Pedro Cuevas, he organized a brigand band, crossed over to Mindanao Island again, and made a raid on Oriquieta. Chased from place to place by American troops, he was finally captured and sent to Bilibid prison in Manila, but was subsequently pardoned on his taking the oath of allegiance, and sent back to Zamboanga, where he earns his living peacefully. Meanwhile, Isidoro Midel had been further rewarded for his services to the Americans with the office of municipal president, which he held for about 16 months in defiance of public opinion. The feeling which prompted public opposition to Midel's appointment was at least as much anti-American as it was dislike for the nominee. In March, 1901, municipal elections were held, and Mariano Arquiza succeeded, by popular vote, to the presidency, which he held for two years. Some weeks before Arquiza vacated office two American miners were murdered by the natives a few miles up the province. The murderers, when caught, sought to justify their deed by alleging that a municipal councillor named Eduardo Alvarez (no relation to the Vicente Alvarez already mentioned) had persuaded them that the miners were secretly engaged in poisoning the local wells. The whole municipal council was therefore cited to appear before the American Governor, who severely reprimanded Alvarez, whereupon this man withdrew from the audience-chamber, and his fellow-councillors volunteered such information against him that the Governor instantly issued a warrant for his apprehension. But the native police who went to his house to execute the warrant let him escape on horseback to the mountains, where he organized a band of outlaws and lived for about four months by robbery and violence. Under these circumstances the American Governor summarily dismissed Mariano Arquiza from the municipal presidency in the spring of 1903, and, much to the public chagrin, re-appointed Midel to the vacancy. The offer of $1,000 for the capture of Eduardo Alvarez spurred Midel into further activity, and under his direction the bandit was discovered hiding in a canoe in a swamp. On the approach of his pursuers the outlaw threw up his hands in sign of surrender, which was responded to by a volley of gunshots, for it was Alvarez's corpse which was wanted in Zamboanga. Isidoro Midel is an interesting character, apparently about forty-eight years of age. Brought up as a Roman Catholic, he assured me that he was a Protestant, with the strongest sympathy, however, for the Aglipayan movement (vide Chap. xxx.).

Another interesting man, closely associated with recent events in Zamboanga, is the Mahometan Spanish-Moro half-caste Datto Mandi, the Rajahmudah or heir-apparent to the Manguiguin or Sultan of Mindanao (vide p. 131). Born about the year 1860, he and his tribe of Samals lived on friendly terms with the Spaniards, who in 1887 sent him and a number of his people to the Philippine Exhibition held in Madrid in that year. His exploits in aid of the Spaniards in Cebu are recorded at page 406. He speaks Spanish fluently, and can just write his name. He is very affable and hospitable to visitors. The whole family professes the Mahometan religion. He has a beautiful daughter Gafas (which in Moro language signifies "cotton," and in Spanish "spectacles"), who attended the American School. His young son Facundo also goes to the American School, and his other son Pelayo went to the Catholic School in Zamboanga before he was sent to Manila. I was much struck with the intelligence of this handsome boy Pelayo. In the stirring events which immediately followed the Spanish evacuation, Datto Mandi remained neutral, his old antagonism to Alvarez being counterpoised by the conviction that a Zamboanga republic must end in a fiasco. He at once accepted the new situation under American dominion, and is headman of the Samal tribal ward of Magay, a suburb of Zamboanga. He told me in 1904 that he held under his control 9,600 persons, from 1,700 of whom he collected capitation tax for the American authorities. At the instance of the Americans, Datto Mandi issued a proclamation to his tribe, dated April 19, 1900, abolishing their traditional custom of slavery. His position is not at all an easy one, and it needs much tact to maintain an even balance of goodwill between his Samal subordinates and his American superiors. But Datto Mandi had a grievance which rankled in his breast. In the year 1868 the Spanish Government conceded to a christian native family named Fuentebella some 600 acres of land at Buluan, about 40 miles up the Zamboanga coast, which in time they converted into a prosperous plantation well stocked with cattle. During the anarchy which succeeded the Spanish evacuation, a band of about 600 Moros raided the property, murdered seven of the christian residents, and stole all they could possibly carry away from the plantation and well-furnished estate-house. When Datto Mandi heard of it he went there in person and rescued the women held in captivity and brought them to Zamboanga, where they lived in perfect security under his protection until the American advent. Then, in return for his kindness, these women accused the Datto of having been the instigator of the crime, or, at least, a participator in the proceeds thereof, in the hope that, through the Americans, they would be able to exact an indemnity. The Datto was mulcted in the sum of 5,000 pesos, although he declared to me that neither before nor after the crime was he in any way concerned in it; and this was the honest belief of many American officials in Zamboanga.

In January, 1905, Datto Mandi's daughter was married at a little town a few miles from Yligan (north Mindanao). Several American officers were present on the occasion, accompanied by a Spanish half-caste who acted as their interpreter. The assembled guests were having a merry time when suddenly the festivities were interrupted by the intrusion of a juramentado Moro fanatic, who sprang forward with his campilan and at one blow almost severed the interpreter's head from his body. Then he turned his attention to the other natives, mortally wounded two, and cut gashes in several others before he fell dead from the revolver-shots fired by the American officers. After the dead and wounded were carried away and the pools of blood were mopped up, the wedding ceremony was proceeded with and the hymeneal festival was resumed without further untoward incident.

Zamboanga is a clean, pleasant town, and what was left of it after the Spanish evacution is well built, with many substantial houses and public offices, a church administered by the Jesuits, one large and one small jetty, a pretty esplanade facing the sea, and other open spaces. A canal running through the town adds to its picturesqueness. At the eastern extremity is the old fortress, called the Fuerza del Pilar, a fine historical monument reminding one of the Spaniards' many vicissitudes in this region, alluded to in the preceding pages. Many of the natives concerned, or alleged to have been concerned, in the Cavite Rising of 1872 (vide p. 106) were confined in this fortress. They overcame their jailors and obtained possession of the guns and ammunition. The Spaniards were consequently in great straits, for possibly their existence depended on which side the townspeople took. The Zamboanguenos, however, helped the Spaniards against the revolted convicts, who were finally subdued; and as a reward for this proof of loyalty Zamboanga received the title of Muy leal y valiente Villa (very loyal and heroic town). Many years ago a Moro attack was made on Zamboanga, and the Christian natives joined with the Spaniards in repelling it. It would have gone rather badly with them if they had not done so, for a Philippine Christian was just as good fish for the Moro net as a Spaniard. However, their co-operation was gratefully acknowledged by declaring the Zamboanguenos to be Spaniards of the first class.

I have never been able to discern clearly what material advantage this brought them, although I have discussed the question on the spot. The disadvantage of this pompous distinction to the town arose from the ridiculous popular notion that whereas Spaniards in Spain are all cavaliers, they too, as Spaniards of the first water, ought to regard work as a degradation. Hence they are a remarkably indolent and effete community, and on landing from a ship there is seldom a porter to be seen to carry one's luggage. Their speech is a dialect called Chabucano--a mixture of very corrupt Spanish and native tongues.

The environment of Zamboanga is very beautiful, with islands to the south and mountain scenery on the land sides. The climate is healthy, and with the frequent delightful breezes wafted across the Celebes Sea is not at all oppressive for a tropical region, and is cooler than Manila, which is 425 miles north.

The people of Samar Island for a long time tenaciously opposed the American occupation, under several leaders, notably Vicente Lucban and his right-hand man, Guevara; but neither here, nor in Marinduque Island can it be said that native civil government was established. In the latter Island the insurgent chief was the titular Colonel Abad, who overran the villages with about 150 followers armed with rifles. In 1901 Abad surrendered, and hostilities, with real political aim, definitely ended in these Islands thirteen months after the capture of Aguinaldo in Luzon. Although in Samar Island the war was, as elsewhere, a succession of petty encounters, there were incidents in its prosecution which attracted much public attention from time to time. At the town of Balangiga, on September 28, 1901, the local headman and the native parish priest conspired with about 450 armed natives to attack the American camp. The garrison stationed there was Company "C," 9th Infantry. The headman had represented to the Americans that he was busy with an important capture of about 90 brigands, and on this pretext some 45 cut-throats were brought into the town and lodged in the church. Three officers of the garrison were quartered in the parish-house, and whilst the rank-and-file were at breakfast in a bamboo building, some distance away from their quarters where they had left their weapons, another 45 supposed brigands were led through the town to the church, but naturally the soldiers took little notice of this expected event. The town is surrounded on one side by the open valley and on three sides by almost perpendicular mountains, with defiles between them leading to the interior of the Island. As soon as the last batch of supposed brigands was brought in, the church bells were rung as a signal for a mob of natives, armed with bowie-knives, to creep silently through the defiles on two sides. The troopers were just then suddenly alarmed by the noise of a conflict in the parish-house. The 90 so-called brigands having been passed through from the church into this house, fired at the three officers and then killed them with their bowie-knives. Simultaneously the soldiers' quarters were attacked. Whilst the troops made a rush forward to secure their weapons they were intercepted by an armed crowd, through which a small party of Americans finally cut their way and beat off the howling mob, which had already slaughtered many soldiers, set fire to the quarters, and possessed themselves of over 50 rifles and several thousand rounds of ammunition. A large number of hostile natives, including the headman, were killed; 28 Americans effected their escape, but the loss amounted to three officers and about 70 men killed and several more men wounded. General Hughes, in command of the Visayas District, was operating in Cebu Island at the time of this disaster. Public excitement was intense when the news of this serious reverse was published. The general who was sent to Samar to pursue the insurgents, or bandits, is alleged to have issued, in a moment of uncontrollable wrath, an order to "slay all over ten years and make Samar a howling wilderness." Consequently a great cry of public protest was raised, and the general and his executive officer in the affair were cited before a court-martial in April, 1902; but the court having found that the general was justified in the measures he took, both officers were acquitted. Since the capture of Lucban (April 27, 1902), lawless agitation has been persistently rife all over the Island of Samar; but this is the work of brigands (vide p. 551) and has no political signification.

XXVI. The Spanish Prisoners

Extreme interest was naturally taken by all Europeans in the miserable fate of the thousands of Spanish soldiers and civilians who had fallen into the rebels hands up to the capitulation of Manila. [227] Held captive in groups at different places in the Island of Luzon, many of them passed a wretched existence, with bad food, scant clothing, and deprived of every pleasure in life beyond the hope of one day seeing their native land. Many of them died, either from natural causes or the effect of their privations (some of starvation in Tayabas), or as a result of brutal treatment. A minority of them received as good treatment as possible under the circumstances. The fate of the majority depended chiefly upon the temperament of the native commander of the district. There were semi-savage native chiefs, and there were others, like Aguinaldo himself, with humane instincts. Amongst the former, for instance, there was Major Francisco Braganza, who, on February 28, 1900, in Camarines Sur, ordered one hundred and three Spanish soldiers to be tied up to trees and cut and stabbed to death with bowie-knifes and their bodies stripped and left without burial. He was tried by court-martial and sentenced to be hanged, September 26, 1901, and the sentence was carried out at Nueva Caceres (Camarines Sur) on November 15 following. Many prisoners managed to escape, no doubt with the aid or connivance of natives, until Aguinaldo issued a decree, dated Malolos, November 5, 1898, imposing a penalty of twenty years' imprisonment on whomsoever should give such aid. Aguinaldo told me he was personally inclined to liberate these prisoners, or, at least, those civilians accustomed to an easy office life who, if they went free, would have had no inclination whatever to fight, but would have done their best to embark for Spain. The few who might have broken their parole would have been easily caught again "for the last time in their lives," and the women and children were an obstacle to military operations. Indeed, from time to time, Aguinaldo did liberate small groups of civilians, amongst whom were some of my old friends whom I afterwards met in Spain. Aguinaldo's Prime Minister, Apolinario Mabini (vide p. 546), was, however, strongly in favour of retaining the Spaniards as hostages until the Spanish Government should officially recognize the Philippine Republic. It will be clearly seen from the negotiations entered into between the respective parties that this recognition was the condition which the rebels most pertinaciously insisted upon, whilst the Spaniards' offers of millions of dollars were always met by much larger demands, which practically implied a refusal to treat on a money basis. The facts in the negotiations certainly support Aguinaldo's statement to me that the rebels never sought money, but political advantage, by the retention of the prisoners.

The intense excitement in Spain over the prisoners' doom called into existence meetings, liberation societies, frequent discussions in and out of Parliament, and continual protests against the apparent Ministerial lethargy. In reality, the Spanish Government, fearful of a rupture with America, could take no official action in the matter, further than appeal, indirectly, to the generosity of the captors, and remind America of her undertaking under Article 6 of the treaty. In January, 1899, the Colonial Minister cabled to several people in Manila, begging them to use their influence--but they themselves were already in the rebel camp. No form of compensation in money or armament for the captives' liberty could be officially made without involving Spain in a casus belli with America. Recognition of a Philippine Republic would have been in direct opposition to the spirit of the treaty of peace. In September, 1898, the Superiors of the regular clergy in Manila appealed to Rome; the Vatican communicated with President McKinley, and the President sent an inquiry to Maj.-General E. S. Otis concerning the captive friars. General Otis, after investigation, reported that these prisoners were fairly well treated. In the following month, whilst the Treaty of Paris was under discussion, the Spanish Government appealed to the United States Government to aid them in the rescue of the prisoners, and orders to do so were transmitted to General Otis. The Filipinos and the Americans were ostensibly on good terms at that period, and General Otis suggested to Aguinaldo that the friars and civilian Spaniards should be set free. On the subject of this request, Aguinaldo replied to General Otis by letter dated Malolos, November 3, 1898, as follows, viz:--"The Philippine people wish to retain the Spanish civil functionaries in order to obtain the liberty of the Filipinos who are banished and under arrest, and the friars in order to obtain from the Vatican a recognition of the rights of the Philippine secular clergy.... It is not hatred or vengeance which inspires the Filipinos to retain the Spanish civil and religious functionaries, but political expediency, and the tranquillity of the Philippine people demands this measure."

At this date there were hundreds of Philippine prisoners held by the Spanish Government in different places, some of them under worse conditions than the Spanish prisoners. For instance, 218 were deported to the fever-stricken colony of Fernando Po, and only 94 of them came out alive. The treaty of peace was still being discussed, and on its conclusion, Article 6 stipulated a release of "all persons detained or imprisoned for political offences in connection with the insurrections in Cuba and the Philippines," and that the United States would "undertake to obtain the release of all Spanish prisoners in the hands of the insurgents"; but there was no proviso that the release of the Philippine prisoners should depend on that of the Spanish prisoners, and after the treaty was signed, Spain showed no particular haste immediately to carry out her undertaking to return the Philippine prisoners to their islands.

When General Diego de los Rios evacuated the Visayas Islands and brought his Spanish troops to Manila, en route for Spain, January, 1899, he himself remained in Manila as a Spanish Government Agent to obtain the release of the prisoners. For the special purpose, by courtesy of the American authorities, he held a kind of semi-official position; but he did not care to risk his person within the rebel lines. A Spanish merchant, Don Antonio Fuset, president of the Spanish Club, undertook the negotiations, and succeeded in inducing Apolinario Mabini to issue a decree signed by Aguinaldo and himself, dated January 22, 1899, giving liberty to all invalid civilians and soldiers. Simultaneously the Spanish Press in Manila was abusing Aguinaldo and his officers, calling them monkeys and using epithets which brought down their vengeance on the captives themselves.

The outbreak of the War of Independence (February 4, 1899) precluded direct American intervention in favour of the Spanish prisoners. General Rios, whose importance was being overshadowed by Senor Fuset's productive activity, cabled to Madrid that he would attend to the matter himself. But the didactic tone of his letters to Aguinaldo was not conducive to a happy result, and having frankly confessed his failure, the general made an appeal to the consuls and foreign merchants to exercise conjointly their influence. A letter of appeal from them was therefore drawn up and confided for delivery in the insurgent camp to my late friend Baron Du Marais. [228] This chivalrous gentleman, well known as the personification of integrity and honour, had resided many years in the Islands and spoke Tagalog fluently. On reaching the insurgent camp he was imprisoned on the charge of being a spy, but was shortly afterwards released, and on his way back to the capital he was waylaid by the natives, who foully murdered him. Senor Fuset then resumed his labours, and, as a result of his appeal to the generosity of his countrymen, he was able to set out for Boac and Batangas in the little steamer Castellano to carry supplies to the prisoners detained in those localities. On his journey he distributed to them 500 cotton suits, 290 pairs of shoes, 100 pairs of alpargatas (a sort of hempen shoe or sandal made in Spain), 14,375 packets of cigarettes, and P1,287. Several subsequent expeditions carried supplies to the prisoners, the total amount of material aid furnished to them, in goods and money, being estimated at P60,000.

After five months of fruitless effort General Diego de los Rios left Manila for Spain on June 3, 1899, and was succeeded by General Nicolas Jaramillo as the negotiator representing Spain. Moreover, it was desirable to recall General Rios, whose cablegrams commenting on the Americans' military operations were making him a persona non grata in official circles.

With the requisite passes procured from Aguinaldo, two Spanish envoys, Senores Toral and Rio, and the Filipino Enrique Marcaida set out for the insurgent seat of government, which was then at Tarlac. On their arrival there (June 23) Aguinaldo appointed three commissioners to meet them. At the first meeting the Filipinos agreed to liberate all except the friars, because these might raise trouble. At the next meeting they offered liberty to all on the following terms, impossible of acceptance by the Spanish commissioners, viz.:--

(1) Spain is to recognize the Independence of the Philippines and repudiate the cession of the Islands to America.

(2) After the recognition and repudiation stipulated in Clause 1, the Philippine Republic will liberate all the prisoners, without exception, and will pay their expenses back to Spain. If Spain cannot possibly accede to the conditions of Clause 1, the Philippine Republic will accept, in lieu thereof, arms, munitions and provisions, or their money equivalent.

(3) The Spanish Government is to exchange the receipts given for money subscribed to the Philippine loan for the certificates of that loan. [229]

The Filipinos declined to say what sum they would consider an equivalent, as per Clause 2, and invited the Spaniards to make an offer. The Spaniards then proposed P1,000,000.

On June 29, at the third conference, the Filipinos refused to accept less than P6,000,000. This demand stupefied the Spaniards, who said they would return to consult General Jaramillo; but they were reluctant to leave the matter unsettled, and a last conference was held the next day, when the Spaniards raised their offer to P2,000,000. The Filipinos then reduced their demand to P3,000,000, which the Spaniards objected to; but they were successful in obtaining the liberty of the Baler garrison and 22 invalids, with all of whom they returned to Manila (vide Baler garrison, p. 494).

On July 5 a decree was issued from Tarlac, signed by Emilio Aguinaldo and countersigned by his minister, Pedro A. Paterno, to the effect that all invalid prisoners would be at liberty to embark at certain ports designated, if vessels were sent for them flying only the Spanish flag and a white one bearing the Red Cross. Difficulties, however, arose with the American authorities which impeded the execution of this plan. General Jaramillo was preparing to send his commissioners again to Tarlac when he received a cablegram from Madrid telling him to suspend further overtures to the insurgents because international complications were threatened. It appears that America objected to the proposal to pay to the insurgents a large sum of money.

On August 9 General Jaramillo wished to send the Spanish warship General Alava, or a Spanish merchant vessel with the Red Cross flag, to San Fernando de la Union with provisions for the prisoners, but General E. S. Otis objected to the proposed proceeding on the ground that it would compromise the dignity of America. But General Jaramillo still persisted in his project, and after a lapse of three days he again addressed a note on the subject to General E. S. Otis, from whom he received another negative reply. On September 5 General Jaramillo informed General Otis that the prisoners were concentrated in the ports named in the insurgents' decree, and solicited permission to send a vessel flying the Red Cross flag to receive them. Three days afterwards General Otis replied that a recognition of Aguinaldo's pretension to designate certain ports for the Spaniards' embarkation would be not only humiliating but ridiculous. Furthermore, he was expecting reinforcements shortly, with which peace would be assured and all the ports re-opened, and then America would co-operate for the liberty of the prisoners. General Jaramillo replied to this communication by addressing to General Otis a lengthy philosophical epistle on the principles involved in the question, but as General Otis did not care to continue the correspondence, General Jaramillo sought to bring pressure on him by notifying him that the s.s. P. de Satrustegui would be detained 48 hours in order to learn his decision as to whether that vessel could call for the prisoners. As General Otis did not reply within the prescribed period General Jaramillo went to see him personally and ineffectually opened his heart to him in very energetic terms, which General Otis complacently tolerated but persisted in his negative resolution, and the interview ended with the suggestion that General Jaramillo should obtain Aguinaldo's consent for a vessel carrying the American flag to enter the ports and bring away the prisoners.

About this time an incident occurred which, but for the graciousness of General Otis, might have operated very adversely to the interests of those concerned. In September, 1899, a Spanish lady arrived in Manila saying that she was the representative of a Society of Barcelona Ladies formed to negotiate the liberation of the prisoners. She brought with her a petition addressed to Aguinaldo, said to bear about 3,000 signatures. But unfortunately the document contained so many offensive allusions to the Americans that General Jaramillo declined to be associated with it in any way. No obstacle was placed in the way of the lady if she wished to present her petition privately to Aguinaldo; but, apparently out of spite, she had a large number of copies printed and published broadcast in Manila. General Jaramillo felt it his duty to apologize to General Otis and repudiate all connexion with this offensive proceeding, which General Otis very affably excused as an eccentricity not worthy of serious notice.

On September 29 the Spanish commissioners, Toral and Rio, again started for the insurgent capital, Tarlac. The proposal for vessels to enter the ports under the American flag was rejected by Aguinaldo's advisers, Pedro A. Paterno and Felipe Buencamino, and negotiations were resumed on the money indemnity basis. The Aguinaldo party had already had sore experience of the worth of an agreement made with Spanish officials, and during the discussion they raised the question of the validity of their powers and the guarantee for their proposed undertakings. The real difficulty was that America might object to Spain officially making any compact whatsoever which must necessarily involve a recognition of the Philippine Republic; and even as it was, the renewed suggestion of a payment of millions of dollars was a secret negotiation. The Spanish commissioners started by proposing that Aguinaldo should give up 80 per cent. of the prisoners on certain conditions to be agreed upon thereafter, and retain the 20 per cent. as guarantee for the fulfilment of these hypothetical terms; moreover, even the 20 per cent. were to be concentrated at a place to be mutually agreed upon, etc. The artfulness of the commissioners' scheme was too apparent for Paterno and Buencamino to accept it. The commissioners then presented the Insurgent Government with a voluminous philosophical dissertation on the subject, whilst the Filipinos sought brief facts and tangible conditions. The Filipinos then offered to address a note to the Spanish Consul in Manila to the effect that the prisoners who were infirm would be delivered at certain ports as already stated, and that he could send ships for them on certain terms. Still the commissioners lingered in Tarlac, and on October 23 the Filipinos made the following proposals, which were practically an intimation to close the debate.

1. Recognition of the Philippine Republic as soon as the difficulties with America should be overcome.

2. The payment of seven millions of pesos.

These conditions having been rejected by the commissioners, Aguinaldo's advisers drew up a document stating the reasons why the negotiations had fallen through, with special reference to the insufficiency of the commissioners' powers and the inadmissibility of their attitude in desiring to treat with Aguinaldo individually instead of with his Government, for which reasons the Philippine Republic formally declared its resolution definitely to cease all negotiations with the Spanish commissioners, preferring to deal directly with the Spanish Government. Not satisfied with this formal intimation the commissioners asked that the conditions of the liberation already granted since January to the invalid prisoners should be modified, and that they should be handed over to them--the very persons already declared to be insufficiently authorized. In response to this importunity the requisite passports were immediately sent to the commissioners to enable them to quit the Philippine Republic's seat of government and territory forthwith.

Apart from the moral aspect of the case, and regarded only in the light of a business transaction, it does not appear that the Filipinos were ever offered a solid guarantee for the fulfilment of any of the proposed conditions. But the insuperable difficulty was Spain's inability to comply with the Filipinos' essential condition of recognition of the Philippine Republic.

Finally, in the prosecution of the War of Independence, the American troops drove the insurgents so hard, capturing town after town, that they were constrained to abandon the custody of the Spanish survivors, who flocked in groups to the American posts, and eventually embarked for their native land. On May 20, 1900, the Spanish Commission received a letter from the insurgent General Trias stating that orders had been issued to liberate all the prisoners.

In due course the Spanish warships sunk at the Battle of Cavite were raised by the Americans, and the dead bodies of Spain's defenders on that memorable day were handed over to a Spanish Commission. The same organization also took charge of the bodies recovered from Baler (east coast of Luzon), and after a Requiem mass was said at the Cathedral these mortal remains were conducted with appropriate solemnity on board the s.s. Isla de Panay, which left Manila for Barcelona on February 14, 1904.

XXVII. End of the War of Independence and After

In the month of May, 1901, the prisons were overflowing with captured insurgents, and the military authorities found an ostensible reason for liberating a number of them. A General Order was issued that to "signalize the recent surrender of General Manuel Tinio [230] and other prominent leaders," one thousand prisoners of war would be released on taking the oath of allegiance. The flame of organized insurrection was almost extinguished, but there still remained some dangerous embers. Bands of armed natives wandered through the provinces under the name of insurgents, and on July 31, 1901, one of Aguinaldo's subordinate generals, named Miguel Malvar, a native of Santo Tomas (Batangas) issued a manifesto from the "Slopes of the Maquiling" (Laguna Province), announcing that he had assumed the position of Supreme Chief. Before the war he had little to lose, but fishing in troubled waters and gulling the people with anting-anting and the "signs in the clouds" proved to be a profitable occupation to many. An expedition was sent against him, and he was utterly routed in an engagement which took place near his native town. After Miguel Malvar surrendered (April 16, 1902) and Vicente Lucban was captured in Samar (April 27, 1902), the war (officially termed "insurrection") actually terminated, and was formally declared ended on the publication of President Roosevelt's Peace Proclamation and Amnesty grant, dated July 4, 1902. A sedition law was passed under which every disturber of the public peace would be thenceforth arraigned, and all acts of violence, pillage, etc., would come under the common laws affecting those crimes. In short, insurgency ceased to be a valid plea; if it existed in fact, officially it had become a dead letter. Those who still lingered in the penumbra between belligerence and brigandage were thenceforth treated as common outlaws whose acts bore no political significance whatever. The notorious "General" San Miguel, for a long time the terror of Rizal Province, was given no quarter, but shot on the field at Corral-na-bato in March, 1903. One of the famous bandits, claiming to be an insurgent, was Faustino Guillermo, who made laws, levied tribute, issued army commissions, divided the country up into military departments, and defied the Government until his stratagem to induce the constabulary to desert brought about his own capture in the Bosoboso Mountain (Morong) in June, 1903. A mass of papers seized revealed his pretension to be a patriotic saviour of his people, but it is difficult indeed to follow the reasoning of a man who starts on that line by sacking his own countrymen's villages. Another interesting individual was Artemio Ricarte, formerly a primary schoolmaster. In 1899 he led a column under Aguinaldo, and was subsequently his general specially commissioned to raise revolt inside the capital; but the attempt failed, and many arrests followed. During the war he was captured by the Americans, to whom he refused to take the oath of allegiance and was deported to Guam. In Washington it was decided to release the political prisoners on that island, and Ricarte and Mabini were brought back to Manila. As Ricarte still refused to take the oath, he was banished, and went to Hong-Kong in February, 1903. In the following December he returned to Manila disguised as a seaman, and stole ashore in the crowd of stevedore labourers. Assuming the ludicrous title of the "Viper," he established what he called the "triumvirate" government in the provinces, and declared war on the Americans. His operations in this direction were mostly limited to sending crackbrained letters to the Civil Governor in Manila from his "camp in the sky," but his perturbation of the rural districts had to be suppressed. At length, after a long search, he was taken prisoner at the cockpit in Mariveles in May, 1904. He and his confederates were brought to trial on the two counts of carrying arms without licence and sedition, the revelations of the "triumvirate," which were comical in the extreme, affording much amusement to the reading public. The judgement of the court on Ricarte was six years' imprisonment and a fine of $6,000.

Apolinario Mabini, Ricarte's companion in exile, was one of the most conspicuous figures in the War of Independence. Of poor parentage, he was born at Tanauan (Batangas) in May, 1864, and having finished his studies in Manila he took up the law as a profession, living in obscurity until the Rebellion, during which he became the recognized leader of the Irreconcilables and Prime Minister in the Malolos Government. In the political sphere he was the soul of the insurgent movement, the ruling power behind the presidency of Aguinaldo. It was he who drafted the Constitution of the Philippine Republic, dated January 21, 1899 (vide p. 486). Taken prisoner by the Americans in December, 1899, he was imprisoned on his refusal to subscribe to the oath of allegiance. On August 1, 1900, he was granted leave to appear before the Philippine Commission, presided over by Mr. W. H. Taft. He desired to show that, according to his lights, he was not stubbornly holding out against reason. As Mabini was not permitted to discuss abstract matters, and Mr. Taft reiterated the intention to establish American sovereignty in the Islands, their views were at variance, and Mabini was deported to Guam, but allowed the privilege of taking his son there as his companion in exile. On his return to Manila in February, 1903, he reluctantly took the required oath and was permitted to remain in the capital. Suffering from paralysis for years previous, his mental energy, as a chronic invalid, was amazing. Three months after his return to the metropolis he was seized with cholera, to which he succumbed on May 13, 1903, at the early age of thirty-nine, to the great regret of his countrymen and of his many European admirers.

The Irreconcilables, even at the present day, persist in qualifying as legitimate warfare that condition of provincial perturbation which the Americans and the Federal Party hold to be outlawry and brigandage. Hence the most desperate leaders and their bands of cut-throats are, in the Irreconcilables' phraseology, merely insurgents still protesting against American dominion. As late as February, 1902, an attempt was made to revive the war in Leyte Island. At that date a certain Florentino Penaranda, styling himself the Insurrectionary Political-Military Chief, issued a proclamation in his island addressed "in particular to those who are serving under the Americans." This document, the preamble of which is indited in lofty language, carrying the reader mentally all round North and South America, Abyssinia and Europe, terminates with a concession of pardon to all who repent their delinquency in serving the Americans, and an invitation to Filipinos and foreigners to join his standard. It had little immediate effect, but it may have given an impulse to the brigandage which was subsequently carried on so ferociously under a notorious, wary ruffian named Tumayo. Thousands, too long accustomed to a lawless, emotional existence to settle down to prosaic civil life, went to swell the ranks of brigands, but it would exceed the limits of this work to refer to the over 15,000 expeditions made to suppress them. Brigandage (vide p. 235) has been rife in the Islands for a century and a half, and will probably continue to exist until a network of railways in each large island makes it almost impossible. But brigandage in Spanish times was very mild compared with what it is now. Such a thing as a common highwayman was almost unknown. The brigands of that period--the Tulisanes of the north and the Pulajanes of the south--went in parties who took days to concoct a plan for attacking a country residence, or a homestead, for robbery and murder. The assault was almost invariably made at night, and the marauders lived in the mountains, avoiding the highroads and the well-known tracks. The traveller might then go about the Islands for years without ever seeing a brigand; now that they have increased so enormously since the war, there is not business enough for them in the old way, and they infest the highways and villages. One effect of the revolution has been to diminish greatly the awe with which the native regarded the European before they had crossed swords in regular warfare. Again, since 1898, the fact that here and there a white man made common cause with outlaws has had a detrimental effect on the white man's prestige, and the new caste of bandits which has come into existence is far more audacious than its predecessor. Formerly the outlaws had only bowie-knives and a few fowling-pieces; now they have an ample supply of rifles. Hence, since the American advent, the single traveller and his servant journey at great risk in the so-called civilized provinces, especially if the traveller has Anglo-Saxon features. Parties of three or four, well armed, are fairly safe. Fierce fights with outlaws are of common occurrence; a full record of brigand depredations would fill a volume, and one can only here refer to a few remarkable cases.

Early in 1904 a Spanish planter of many years' standing, named Amechazurra, and his brother-in-law, Joaquin Guaso, were kidnapped and held for ransom. When the sum was carried to the brigands' haunt, Guaso was found with his wrists broken and severely tortured with bowie-knife cuts and lance-thrusts. Having no power to use his hands, his black beard was full of white maggots. In this state he was delivered to his rescuers and died the next day. Since the close of the war up to the present day the provinces of Batangas and Cavite, less than a day's journey from the capital, have not ceased to be in a deplorable condition of lawlessness. The principal leaders, Montalon and Felizardo, [231] were formerly officers under the command of the insurgent General Manuel Trias, who surrendered to the Americans and afterwards accepted office as Civil Governor of the Province of Cavite. In this capacity he made many unsuccessful attempts to capture his former colleagues, but owing to his failure to restore tranquillity to the province he resigned his governorship in 1903. The Montalon and Felizardo bands, well armed, constantly overran the two adjoining provinces to murder the people, pillage their homes, and set fire to the villages. They bore an inveterate hatred towards all who accepted American dominion, and specially detested their former chief Trias, who, since his return from the St. Louis Exhibition, has shown a very pro-American tendency. The history of their crimes covers a period of five years. Felizardo was remarkable for his audacity, his fine horsemanship, and his expert marksmanship. During an attack on Paranaque, mounted on a beautiful pony stolen from the race-track of Pasay, he rode swiftly past a constabulary sentinel, who shot at him and missed him, whilst Felizardo, from his seat in the saddle, shot the sentinel dead. The evening before the day Governor Taft intended to sail for the United States, on his retirement from the governorship, Montalon hanged two constabulary men at a place within sight of Manila. In December, 1904, all this district was so infested with cut-throats that Manuel Trias, although no longer an official, offered to organize and lead a party of 300 volunteers against them. On January 24, 1905, the same bandits, Felizardo and Montalon, at the head of about 300 of their class, including two American negroes, raided Trias's native town of San Francisco de Malabon, murdered an American surgeon and one constabulary private, and seriously wounded three more. They looted the municipal treasury of 2,000 pesos and 25 carbines, and carried off Trias's wife and two children, presumably to hold them for ransom. The chief object of the attack was to murder Trias, their arch-enemy, but he was away from home at the time. On his return he set out in pursuit of the band at the head of the native constabulary. The outlaws had about 160 small firearms, and during the chase several fierce fights took place. Being hunted from place to place incessantly, they eventually released Trias's wife and children so as to facilitate their own escape. Constabulary was insufficient to cope with the marauders, and regular troops had to be sent to these provinces. In February, 1905, a posse of 25 Moro fighting-men was brought up from Siassi (Tapul group) to hunt down the brigands. Launches patrolled the Bay of Manila with constabulary on board to intercept the passage of brigands from one province to another, for lawlessness was, more or less, constantly rife in several of the Luzon provinces and half a dozen other islands for years after the end of the war. From 1902 onwards, half the provinces of Albay, Bulacan, Bataan, Cavite, Ilocos Sur, and the islands of Camaguin, Samar, Leyte, Negros, Cebu, etc., have been infested, at different times, with brigands, or latter-day insurgents, as the different parties choose to call them. The regular troops, the constabulary, and other armed forces combined were unable to exterminate brigandage. The system of "concentration" circuits, which had given such adverse results during the Rebellion (vide p. 392), was revived in the provinces of Batangas and Cavite, obliging the waverers between submission and recalcitration to accept a defined legal or illegal status. Consequently many of the common people went to swell the roving bands of outlaws, whilst those who had a greater love for home, or property at stake, remained within the prescribed limits, in discontented, sullen compliance with the inevitable. The system interrupted the people's usual occupations, retarded agriculture, and produced general dissatisfaction. The Insular Government then had recourse to an extreme measure which practically implied the imposition of compulsory military service on every male American, foreign, or native inhabitant between the ages of eighteen to fifty years, with the exception of certain professions specified in the Philippine Commission Act No. 1309, dated March 22, 1905. Under this law the native mayor of a town can compel any able-bodied American (not exempted under the Act) to give five days a month service in hunting down brigands, under a maximum penalty of P100 fine and three months' imprisonment. And, subject to the same penalty for refusal, any proprietor or tenant (white, coloured, or native) residing in any municipality, or ward, must report, within 24 hours, to the municipal authority, the name, residence, and description of any person (not being a resident) to whom he gave assistance or lodging. In no colony where the value of the white man's prestige is appreciated would such a law have been promulgated.

The proceedings of the constabulary in the disturbed provinces having been publicly impugned in a long series of articles and reports published in the Manila newspaper El Renacimiento, the editors of that public organ were brought to trial on a charge of libel in July, 1905. The substance of the published allegations was that peaceable citizens were molested in their homes and were coerced into performing constabulary and military duties by becoming unwilling brigand-hunters. Among other witnesses who appeared at the trial was Emilio Aguinaldo, who testified that he had been forced to leave his home and present himself to a constabulary officer, who, he affirmed, bullied and insulted him because he refused to leave his daily occupations and risk his life in brigand-hunting. In view of the peculiar position of Aguinaldo as a fallen foe, perhaps it would have been better not to have disturbed him in his peaceful life as a law-abiding citizen, lest the world should misconstrue the intention.

Confined to Pangasinan and La Union provinces, there is an organization known as the "Guards of Honour." Its recruits are very numerous, their chief vocation being cattle-stealing and filching other people's goods without unnecessary violence. It is feared they may extend their operations to other branches of perversity. The society is said to be a continuation of the Guardia de Honor created by the Spaniards and stimulated by the friars in Pangasinan as a check on the rebels during the events of 1896-98. At the American advent they continued to operate independently against the insurgents, whom they harassed very considerably during the flight northwards from Tarlac. It was to escape the vengeance of this party that Aguinaldo's Secretary of State (according to his verbal statement to me) allowed himself to fall prisoner to the Americans.

The Pulajanes of Samar seem to be as much in possession of that Island as the Americans themselves, and its history, from the revolution up to date, is a lugubrious repetition of bloodshed, pillage, and incendiarism. The deeds of the notorious Vicente Lucban were condoned under the Amnesty of 1902, but the marauding organization is maintained and revived by brigands of the first water. Every move of the government troops is known to the pulajanes. The spy, stationed at a pass, after shouting the news of the enemy's approach to the next spy, darts into the jungle, and so on all along the line, in most orderly fashion, until the main column is advised. In July, 1904, they slaughtered half the inhabitants of the little coast village of Taviran, mutilated their corpses, and then set out for the town of Santa Elena, which was burnt to the ground. In December of that year over a thousand pulajanes besieged the town of Taft (formerly Tubig), held by a detachment of native scouts, whilst another party, hidden in the mountains, fell like an avalanche upon a squad of 43 scouts, led by an American lieutenant, on their way to the town of Dolores, and in ten minutes killed the officer and 37 of his men. After this mournful victory the brigands went to reinforce their comrades at Taft, swelling their forces en route, so that the besiegers of Taft amounted to a total of about 2,000 men. About the same time some 400 pulajanes were met by a few hundred so-called native volunteers, who, instead of fighting, joined forces and attacked a scout detachment whilst crossing a river. Twenty of the scouts were cut to pieces and mutilated, whilst thirteen more died of their wounds.

Communication in the Island is extremely difficult; the maintenance of telegraph-lines is impossible through a hostile country, and messages sent by natives are often intercepted, or, as sometimes happens, the messengers, to save their lives, naturally make common cause with the bandits whom they meet on the way. The hemp-growers and coast-trading population, who have no sympathy with the brigands, are indeed obliged, for their own security, to give them passive support. Hundreds in the coast villages who are too poor to give, have to flee into hiding and live like animals in dread of constabulary and pulajanes alike. Between "insurgency" and "brigandage," in this Island, there was never a very wide difference, and when General Allen, the Chief of the Constabulary, took the field in person in December, 1904, he had reason to believe that the notorious ex-insurgent Colonel Guevara was the moving spirit in the lawlessness. Guevara, who had been disappointed at not securing the civil governorship of the Island, was suddenly seized and confined at Catbalogan jail to await his trial. The Samar pulajanes are organized like regular troops, with their generals and officers, but they are deluded by a sort of mystic religious teaching under the guidance of a native pope. In January, 1905, the town of Balangiga (vide p. 536), so sadly famous in the history of Samar on account of the massacre of American troops during the war, became a pulajan recruiting station. A raid upon the place resulted in the capture of twenty chiefs, gorgeously uniformed, with gaudy _anting-anting _amulets on their breasts to protect them from American bullets. At this time the regimental Camp Connell, at Calbayoc, was so depleted of troops that less than a hundred men were left to defend it. Situated on a pretty site, the camp consists of two lines of wooden buildings running along the shore for about a mile. At one extremity is the hospital and at the other the quartermaster's depot. It has no defences whatever, and as I rode along the central avenue of beautiful palms, after meeting the ladies at a ball, I pictured to myself the chapter of horror which a determined attack might one day add to the doleful annals of dark Samar.

Matters became so serious that in March, 1905, the divisional commander, General Corbin, joined General Allen in the operations in this Island. Full of tragedy is the record of this region, and amongst its numerous heroes was a Captain Hendryx. In 1902, whilst out with a detachment of constabulary, he was attacked, defeated, and reported killed. He was seen to drop and roll into a gully. But four days later there wandered back to the camp a man half dead with hunger and covered with festering wounds, some so infected that, but for the application of tobacco, gangrene would have set in. It was Captain Hendryx. Delirious for a while, he finally recovered and resumed his duties. A couple of years afterwards he was shipwrecked going round the coast on the Masbate. For days he and the ship-master alone battled with the stormy waves, a howling wind ahead, and a murderous rabble on the coast waiting for their blood. On the verge of death they reached a desolate spot whence the poor captain saved his body from destruction, but with prostrate nerves, rendering him quite unfit for further service. And the carnage in the Samar jungles, which has caused many a sorrow in the homeland, continues to the present day with unabated ferocity. By nature a lovely island, picturesque in the extreme, there is a gloom in its loveliness. The friendly native has fled for his life; the patches of lowland once planted with sweet potatoes or rows of hemp-trees, are merging into jungle for want of the tiller's hand. The voice of an unseen man gives one a shudder, lest it be that of a fanatic lurking in the cogon grass to seek his fellow's blood. Near the coast, half-burnt bamboos show where villages once stood; bleached human bones mark the sites of human conflict, whilst decay and mournful silence impress one with the desolation of this fertile land. The narrow navigable channel separating Samar from Leyte Island is one of the most delightful bits of tropical scenery.

The Constabulary Service Reports for 1903 and 1904 show that in the former period there were 357 engagements between brigand bands and the constabulary (exclusive of the army operations), and in the latter period 235 similar engagements. More than 5,000 expeditions were undertaken against the outlaws in each year; 1,185 outlaws were killed in 1903, and 431 in 1904, 2,722 were wounded or captured in 1903, and 1,503 in 1904; 3,446 arms of all sorts were seized in 1903, and 994 in 1904. The constabulary losses in killed, wounded, died of wounds and disease, and deserted were 223 in 1904. In Cavite Province alone, with a population of 134,779, there were, in 1903, over 400 expeditions, resulting in 20 brigands killed, 23 wounded, and 253 captured. At this date brigandage is one of the greatest deterrents to the prosperous development of the Islands.

The Adjutant-General's Report issued in Washington in December, 1901, gives some interesting figures relating to the Army, for the War of Independence period, i.e., from February 4, 1899, to June 30, 1901. The total number of troops sent to the Islands was as follows, viz.:--

Officers. Men.

Regular Army 1,342 60,933 Volunteers 2,135 47,867 3,477 108,800

Some were returning from, whilst others were going to the Islands; the largest number in the Islands at any one time (year 1900) was about 70,000 men.

The total casualties in the above period were as follows, viz.:--

Officers. Men. Total.

Dead (all causes) 115 3,384 3,499 Wounded 170 2,609 2,779 285 5,993 6,278

In the same period the following arms were taken from the insurgents (captured and surrendered):--

Revolvers 868 Rifles 15,693 Cannon 122 Bowie-knives 3,516

The Insurgent Navy, consisting of four small steamers purchased in Singapore and a few steam-launches, dwindled away to nothing. The "Admiral," who lived on shore at Gagalangin (near Manila), escaped to Hong-Kong, but returned to Manila, surrendered, and took the oath of allegiance on March 3, 1905.

Sedition, in its more virulent and active forms, having been frustrated by the authorities since the conclusion of the war, the Irreconcilables conceived the idea of inflaming the passions of the people through the medium of the native drama. How the seditious dramatists could have ever hoped to succeed in the capital itself, in public theatres, before the eyes of the Americans, is one of those mysteries which the closest student of native philosophy must fail to solve.

The most notable of these plays were Hindi aco patay ("I am not dead"), Ualang sugat ("There is no wound"), Dabas ng pilac ("Power of Silver"), and Cahapon, Ngayon at Bucas ("Yesterday, to-day, and to-morrow"). In each case there was an extra last scene not on the programme. Secret police and American spectators besieged the stage, and after a free fight, a cracking of heads, and a riotous scuffle the curtain dropped (if there were anything left of it) on a general panic of the innocent and the arrest of the guilty. The latter were brought to trial, and their careers cut short by process of law.

The simple plot of Hindi aco patay is as follows, viz.:--Maimbot (personifying America) is establishing dominion over the Islands, assisted by his son Macamcam (American Government), and Katuiran (Reason, Right, and Justice) is called upon to condemn the conduct of a renegade Filipino who has accepted America's dominion, and thereby become an outcast among his own people and even his own family. There is to be a wedding, but, before it takes place, a funeral cortege passes the house of Karangalan (the bride) with the body of Tangulan (the fighting patriot). Maimbot (America) exclaims, "Go, bury that man, that Karangalan and her mother may see him no more." Tangulan, however, rising from his coffin, tells them, "They must not be married, for I am not dead." And as he cries Hindi aco patay, "I am not dead," a radiant sun appears, rising above the mountain peaks, simultaneously with the red flag of Philippine liberty. Then Katuiran (Reason, Right, and Justice) declares that "Independence has returned," and goes on to explain that the new insurrection having discouraged America in her attempt to enslave the people, she will await a better opportunity. The flag of Philippine Independence is then waved to salute the sun which has shone upon the Filipinos to regenerate them and cast away their bondage.

The theme of Cahapon, ngayon at Bucas is somewhat similar--a protest against American rule, a threat to rise and expel it, a call to arms, and a final triumph of the Revolution. About the same time (May, 1903) a seditious play entitled Cadena de Oro ("The golden chain") was produced in Batangas, and its author was prosecuted. It must, however, be pointed out that there are also many excellent plays written in Tagalog, with liberty to produce them, one of the best native dramatists being Don Pedro A. Paterno.

There will probably be for a long time to come a certain amount of disaffection and a class of wire-pullers, men of property, chiefly half-castes, constantly in the background, urging the masses forward to their own destruction. Lucrative employments have satisfied the ambition of so many educated Filipinos who must find a living, that the same principle--a creation of material interest--might perhaps be advantageously extended to the uneducated classes. All the malcontents cannot become State dependents, but they might easily be helped to acquire an interest in the soil. The native who has his patch of settled land with unassailable title would be loth to risk his all for the chimerical advantages of insurrection. The native boor who has worked land for years on sufferance, without title, exposed to eviction by a more cunning individual clever enough to follow the tortuous path which leads to land settlement with absolute title, falls an easy prey to the instigator of rebellion. These illiterate people need more than a liberal land law--they need to be taken in hand like children and placed upon the parcelled-out State lands with indisputable titles thereto. And if American enterprise were fostered and encouraged in the neighbourhood of their holdings, good example might root them to the soil and convert the boloman into the industrious husbandman.

The poorest native who cannot sow for himself must necessarily feed on what his neighbour reaps, and hunger compels him to become a wandering criminal. It is not difficult partially to account for the greater number in this condition to-day as compared with Spanish times. In those days there was what the natives termed cayinin. It was a temporary clearance of a patch of State land on which the native would raise a crop one, two, or more seasons. Having no legal right to the soil he tilled, and consequently no attachment to it, he would move on to other virgin land and repeat the operation. In making the clearance the squatter had no respect for State property, and the damage which he did in indiscriminate destruction of valuable timber by fire was not inconsiderable. The law did not countenance the cayinin, but serious measures were seldom taken to prevent it. The local or municipal headmen refrained from interference because, having no interest whatever in public lands, they did not care, as landowners, to go out of their way to create a bad feeling against themselves which might one day have fatal consequences. Although no one would for a moment suggest a revival of the system, there is the undeniable fact that in Spanish times thousands of natives lived for years in this way, and if they had been summarily evicted, or prosecuted by a forest bureau, necessity would have driven them into brigandage. High wages, government service, and public works are no remedy; on the contrary, if the people are thereby attracted to the towns, what will become of the true source of Philippine wealth, which is agriculture? Even in industrial England the cry of "Back to the soil" has been lately raised by an eminent Englishman known by name to every educated American.