Chapter XXII (2)

Like every other Spanish general in supreme command abroad, Polavieja had his enemies in Spain. The organs of the Liberal party attacked him unsparingly. Polavieja, as everybody knew, was the chosen executive of the friars, whose only care was to secure their own position. He was dubbed the "General Cristiano." He was their ideal, and worked hand-in-hand with them. He cabled for more troops to be sent with which to garrison the reconquered districts and have his army corps free to stamp out the rebellion, which was confined to the Northern Provinces. Cuba, which had already drained the Peninsula of over 200,000 men, still required fresh levies to replace the sick and wounded, and Polavieja's demand was refused. Immediately after this he cabled that his physical ailments compelled him to resign the commandership-in-chief, and begged the Government to appoint a successor. The Madrid journals hostile to him thereupon indirectly attributed to him a lie, and questioned whether his resignation was due to ill-health or his resentment of the refusal to send out more troops. Still urging his resignation, General Fernando Primo de Rivera was gazetted to succeed him, and Polavieja embarked at Manila for Spain on April 15, 1897. General Lachambre, as the hero of Cavite, followed to receive the applause which was everywhere showered upon him in Spain. As to Polavieja's merits, public opinion was very much divided, and as soon as it was known that he was on the way, a controversy was started in the Madrid press as to how he ought to be received. _El Imparcial_ maintained that he was worthy of being honoured as a 19th century conquering hero. This gave rise to a volley of abuse on the other side, who raked up all his antecedents and supposed tendencies, and openly denounced him as a dangerous politician and the supporter of theocratic absolutism. According to _El Liberal_ of May 11, Senor Ordax Avecilla, of the Red Cross Society, stated in his speech at the Madrid Mercantile Club, "If he (the General) thought of becoming dictator, he would fall from the heights of his glory to the Hades of nonentity." His enemies persistently insinuated that he was really returning to Spain to support the clericals actively. But perhaps the bitterest satire was levelled against him in _El Pais_ of May 10, which, in an article headed "The Great Farce," said: "Do you know who is coming? Cyrus, King of Persia; Alexander, King of Macedonia; Caesar Augustus; Scipio the African; Gonzalo de Cordova; Napoleon, the Great Napoleon, conqueror of worlds. What? Oh, unfortunate people, do you not know? Polavieja is coming, the incomparable Polavieja, crowned with laurels, commanding a fleet laden to the brim with rich trophies; it is Polavieja, gentlemen, who returns, discoverer of new worlds, to lay at the feet of Isabella the Catholic his conquering sword; it is Polavieja who returns after having cast into obscurity the glories of Hernan Cortes; Polavieja, who has widened the national map, and brings new territories to the realm--new thrones to his queen. What can the people be thinking of that they remain thus in silence? Applaud, imbeciles! It is Narvaez who is resuscitated. Now we have another master!" No Spanish general who had arrived at Polavieja's position would find it possible to be absolutely neutral in politics, but to compare him with Narvaez, the military dictator, proved in a few days' time to be the grossest absurdity. On May 13 Polavieja arrived in Barcelona physically broken, half blind, and with evident traces of a disordered liver. His detractors were silent; an enthusiastic crowd welcomed him for his achievements. He had broken the neck of the rebellion, but by what means? Altogether, apart from the circumstances of legitimate warfare, in which probably neither party was more merciful than the other, he initiated a system of striking terror into the non-combatant population by barbarous tortures and wholesale executions. On February 6, 1897, in one prison alone (Bilibid) there were 1,266 suspects, most of whom were brought in by the volunteers, for the forces in the field gave little quarter and rarely made prisoners. The functions of the volunteers, organized originally for the defence of the city and suburbs, became so elastic that, night after night, they made men and women come out of their houses for inspection conducted most indecorously. The men were escorted to the prisons from pure caprice, and subjected to excessive maltreatment. Many of them were liberated in the course of a few days, declared innocent, but maimed for life and for ever unable to get a living. Some of these victims were well known to everybody in Manila; for instance, Dr. Zamora, Bonifacio Arevalo the dentist, Antonio Rivero (who died under torture), and others. The only apparent object in all this was to disseminate broadcast living examples of Spanish vengeance, in order to overawe the populace. Under General Blanco's administration such acts had been distinctly prohibited on the representation of General Carlos Roca.

Polavieja's rule brought the brilliant career of the notable Filipino, Dr. Jose Rizal y Mercado, to a fatal end. Born in Calamba (La Laguna), three hours' journey from Manila, on June 19, 1861, he was destined to become the idol of his countrymen, and consequently the victim of the friars and General Polavieja. Often have I, together with the old native parish priest, Father Leoncio Lopez, spent an hour with Jose's father, Francisco Mercado, and heard the old man descant, with pride, on the intellectual progress of his son at the Jesuits' school in Manila. Before he was fourteen years of age he wrote a melodrama in verse entitled _Junto al Pasig_ ("Beside the Pasig River"), which was performed in public and well received. But young Jose yearned to set out on a wider field of learning. His ambition was to go to Europe, and at the age of twenty-one he went to Spain, studied medicine, and entered the Madrid University, where he graduated as Doctor of Medicine and Philosophy. He subsequently continued his studies in Paris, Brussels, London, and at several seats of learning in Germany, where he obtained another degree, notwithstanding the fact that he had the difficulty of a foreign language to contend with. As happened to many of his _confreres_ in the German Universities, a career of study had simultaneously opened his eyes to a clearer conception of the rights of humanity. Thrown among companions of socialistic tendencies, his belief in and loyalty to the monarchical rule of his country were yet unshaken by the influence of such environment; he was destined only to become a disturbing element, and a would-be reformer of that time-worn institution which rendered secular government in his native land a farce. To give him a party name, he became an anti-clerical, strictly in a political and lawful sense. He was a Roman Catholic, but his sole aim, outside his own profession, was to save his country from the baneful influence of the Spanish friars who there held the Civil and Military Government under their tutelage. He sought to place his country on a level of material and moral prosperity with others, and he knew that the first step in that direction was to secure the expulsion of the Monastic Orders. He sympathized with that movement which, during his childhood, culminated in the Cavite Conspiracy (_vide_ p. 106). He looked profoundly into the causes of his country's unhappiness, and to promote their knowledge, in a popular form, he wrote and published in Germany, in the Spanish language, a book entitled "Noli me tangere." It is a censorious satirical novel, of no great literary merit, but it served the author's purpose to expose the inner life, the arrogance, and the despotism of the friars in their relations with the natives. On his return to the Islands, a year after the publication of this work, we met at the house of a mutual friend and conversed on the subject of "Noli me tangere," a copy of which he lent to me.

As an oculist Rizal performed some very clever operations, but he had another mission--one which brought upon him all the odium of the clerical party, but which as quickly raised him in popular esteem in native circles. He led a party in his own town who dared to dispute the legality of the Dominican Order's possession of a large tract of agricultural land. He called upon the Order to show their title-deeds, but was met with a contemptuous refusal. At length prudence dictated a return to Europe. I often recall the farewell lunch we had together at the Restaurant de Paris, in the _Escolta_. During his absence his own relations and the chief families in his town became the objects of persecution. They were driven from the lands they cultivated and rented from the Religious Order, without compensation for improvements, and Spaniards took their holdings. In 1890 Rizal saw with his own eyes, and perhaps with envy, the growing prosperity of Japan; but the idea of annexation to that country was distasteful to him, as he feared the Japanese might prove to be rather harsh masters. On his return to Europe he contributed many brilliant articles to _La Solidaridad_, the Madrid-Philippine organ mentioned on p. 363; but, disgusted with his failure to awaken in Spain a sympathetic interest in his own country's misfortunes, he left that field of work and re-visited London, where he found encouragement and very material assistance from an old friend of mine, a distinguished Filipino. Rizal's financial resources were none too plentiful, and he himself was anxious for a position of productive activity. It was proposed that he should establish himself in London as a doctor, but with his mind always bent on the concerns of his country he again took to literary work. He edited a new edition of Dr. Antonio de Morga's work on the Philippines [180] (the original was published in Mexico in 1609), with notes, and wrote a new book in the form of romance, entitled "El Filibusterismo," [181] the purpose of which was to show how the Filipinos were goaded into outlawry.

About this time two priests, C---- and C----, who had seceded from the Roman Catholic Church, called upon my Philippine friend to urge him to take an interest in their projected evangelical work in the Islands. They even proposed to establish a new Church there and appoint a hierarchy--an extremely risky venture indeed. My friend was asked to nominate some Filipino for the archbishopric. It was put before Rizal, but he declined the honour on the ground that the acceptance of such an office would sorely offend his mother. Finally, in 1893, a Pampanga Filipino, named C----, came on the scene and proposed to furnish Rizal with ample funds for the establishment of a Philippine college in Hong-Kong. Rizal accepted the offer and set out for that colony, where he waited in vain for the money. For a while he hesitated between following the medical profession in Hong-Kong and returning to Manila. Mutual friends of ours urged him not to risk a re-entry into the Islands; nevertheless, communications passed between him and the Gov.-General through the Spanish Consul, and nothing could induce him to keep out of the lion's mouth. Rizal avowed that he had been given to understand that he could return to the Islands without fear for his personal safety and liberty. He arrived in Manila and was arrested. His luggage was searched in the Custom-house, and a number of those seditious proclamations referred to at p. 204 were found, it was alleged, in his trunks. It is contrary to all common sense to conceive that a sane man, who had entertained the least doubt as to his personal liberty, would bring with him, into a public department of scrutiny, documentary evidence of his own culpability. He was arraigned before the supreme authority, in whose presence he defended himself right nobly. The clerical party wanted his blood, but Gov.-General Despujols would not yield. Rizal was either guilty or innocent, and should have been fully acquitted or condemned; but to meet the matter half way he was banished to Dapitan, a town on the north shore of Mindanao Island. I saw the bungalow, situated at the extremity of a pretty little horse-shoe bay, where he lived nearly four years in bondage. His bright intelligence, his sociability, and his scientific attainments had won him the respect and admiration of both the civil and religious local authorities. He had such a well-justified good repute as an oculist that many travelled across the seas to seek his aid. The Cuban insurrection being in full operation, it opened the way for a new and interesting period in Rizal's life. Reading between the lines of the letters he was allowed to send to his friends, there was evidence of his being weighed down with _ennui_ from inactivity, and his friends in Europe took the opportunity of bringing pressure on the Madrid Government to liberate him. In a house which I visit in London there were frequent consultations as to how this could be effected. In the end it was agreed to organize a bogus "Society for the Liberation of Prisoners in the Far East." A few ladies met at the house mentioned, and one of them, Miss A----, having been appointed secretary, she was sent to Madrid to present a petition from the "Society" to the Prime Minister, Canovas del Castillo, praying for the liberation of Rizal in exchange for his professional services in the Spanish army operating in Cuba, where army doctors were much needed. Hints were deftly thrown out about the "Society's" relations with other European capitals, and the foreign lady-secretary played her part so adroitly that the Prime Minister pictured to himself ambassadorial intervention and foreign complications if he did not grant the prayer of what he imagined to be an influential society with potential ramifications. The Colonial Minister opposed the petition; the War Minister, being Philippine born, declined to act on his own responsibility for obvious reasons. Repeated discussions took place between the Crown advisers, to whom, at length, the Prime Minister disclosed his fears, and finally the Gov.-General of the Philippines, Don Ramon Blanco, was authorized to liberate Rizal, on the terms mentioned, if he saw no objection. As my Philippine friend, who went from London to Madrid about the matter, remarked to the War Minister, "Rizal is loyal; he will do his duty; but if he did not, one more or less in the rebel camp--what matters?" The Gov.-General willingly acted on the powers received from the Home Government, and Rizal's conditional freedom dated from July 28, 1896. The governor of Dapitan was instructed to ask Rizal if he wished to go to Cuba as an army doctor, and the reply being in the affirmative, he was conducted on board the steamer for Manila, calling on the way at Cebu, where crowds of natives and half-castes went on board to congratulate him. He had become the idol of the people in his exile; his ideas were _then_ the reflection of all Philippine aims and ambitions; the very name of Rizal raised their hopes to the highest pitch. Most fantastic reports were circulated concerning him. Deeds in Europe, almost amounting to miracles, were attributed to his genius, and became current talk among the natives when they spoke _sotto voce_ of Rizal's power and influence. He was looked up to as the future regenerator of his race, capable of moving armies and navies for the cause of liberty. Their very reverence was his condemnation in the eyes of the priests.

There were no inter-island cables in those days, and the arrival of Rizal in the port of Manila was a surprise to the friars. They expostulated with General Blanco. They openly upbraided him for having set free the soul of disaffection; but the general would not relinquish his intention, explaining, very logically, that if Rizal were the soul of rebellion he was now about to depart. The friars were eager for Rival's blood, and the parish priest of Tondo arranged a revolt of the _caudrilleros_ (guards) of that suburb, hoping thereby to convince General Blanco that the rebellion was in full cry, consequent on his folly. No doubt, by this trick of the friars, many civilian Spaniards were deceived into an honest belief in the ineptitude of the Gov.-General. In a state of frenzy a body of them, headed by Father Mariano Gil, marched to the palace of Malacanan to demand an explanation of General Blanco. The gates were closed by order of the captain of the guard. When the general learnt what the howling outside signified he mounted his horse, and, at the head of his guards, met the excited crowd and ordered them to quit the precincts of the palace, or he would put them out by force. The abashed priest [182] thereupon withdrew with his companions, but from that day the occult power of the friars was put in motion to bring about the recall of General Blanco. In the meantime Rizal had been detained in the Spanish cruiser _Castilla_ lying in the bay. Thence he was transferred to the mail-steamer _Isla de Panay_ bound to Barcelona. He carried with him letters of recommendation to the Ministers of War and the Colonies, courteously sent to him by General Blanco with the following letter to himself:--

(_Translation_.)

_Manila_, _30th August_, 1896.

_Dr. Jose Rizal_.

_My Dear Sir_,--

Enclosed I send you two letters, for the Ministers of War and the Colonies respectively, which I believe will ensure to you a good reception. I cannot doubt that you will show me respect in your relations with the Government, and by your future conduct, not only on account of your word pledged, but because passing events must make it clear to you how certain proceedings, due to extravagant notions can only produce hatred, ruin, tears and bloodshed. That you may be happy is the desire of Yours, etc.,

_Ramon Blanco_.

He had as travelling companion Don Pedro P. Rojas, already referred to, and had he chosen he could have left the steamer at Singapore as Rojas did. Not a few of us who saw the vessel leave wished him "God speed." But the clerical party were eager for his extermination. He was a thorn in the side of monastic sway; he had committed no crime, but he was the friars' arch-enemy and _bete noire_. Again the lay authorities had to yield to the monks. Dr. Rizal was cabled for to answer certain accusations; hence on his landing in the Peninsula he was incarcerated in the celebrated fortress of Montjuich (the scene of so many horrors), pending his re-shipment by the returning steamer. He reached Manila as a State prisoner in the _Colon_, isolated from all but his jailors. It was materially impossible for him to have taken any part in the rebellion, whatever his sympathies may have been. Yet, once more, the wheel of fortune turned against him. Coincidentally the parish priest of Morong was murdered at the altar whilst celebrating Mass on Christmas Day, 1896. The importunity of the friars could be no longer resisted; this new calamity seemed to strengthen their cause. The next day Rizal was brought to trial for _sedition_ and _rebellion_, before a court-martial composed of eight captains, under the presidency of a lieutenant-colonel. No reliable testimony could be brought against him. How could it be when, for years, he had been a State prisoner in forced seclusion? He defended himself with logical argument. But what mattered? He was condemned beforehand to ignominious death as a traitor, and the decree of execution was one of Polavieja's foulest acts. During the few days which elapsed between sentence and death he refused to see any priest but a Jesuit, Padre Faura, his old preceptor, who hastened his own death by coming from a sick bed to console the pupil he was so proud of. In his last moments his demeanour was in accordance with his oft-quoted saying, "What is death to me? I have sown the seed; others are left to reap." In his condemned cell he composed a beautiful poem of 14 verses ("My last Thought"), which was found by his wife and published. The following are the first and last verses.

_Mi Ultimo Pensamiento_.

Adios, Patria adorada, region del sol querida,
Perla del Mar de Oriente, nuestro perdido Eden.
A darte voy alegre la triste mustia vida,
Y fuera mas brillante, mas fresca, mas florida,
Tambien por ti la diera, la diera por tu bien.

Adios, padres y hermanos, trozos del alma mia.
Amigos de la infancia en el perdido hogar.
Dad gracias que descanso del fatigoso dia;
Adios, dulce extrangera, mi amiga, mi alegria,
Adios, queridos seres, morir es descansar.

The woman who had long responded to his love was only too proud to bear his illustrious name, and in the sombre rays which fell from his prison grating, the vows of matrimony were given and sanctified with the sad certainty of widowhood on the morrow. Fortified by purity of conscience and the rectitude of his principles, he felt no felon's remorse, but walked with equanimity to the place of execution. About 2,000 regular and volunteer troops formed the square where he knelt facing the seashore, on the blood-stained field of Bagumbayan. After an officer had shouted the formula, "In the name of the King! Whosoever shall raise his voice to crave clemency for the condemned, shall suffer death," four bullets, fired from behind by Philippine soldiers, did their fatal work. This execution took place at 6 a.m. on December 30, 1896. An immense crowd witnessed, in silent awe, this sacrifice to priestcraft. The friars, too, were present _en masse_, many of them smoking big cigars, jubilant over the extinction of that bright intellectual light which, alas! can never be rekindled.

The circumstances under which Rizal, in his exile, made the acquaintance of Josephine Taufer, who became his wife, are curious. The account was given to me by Mrs. Rizal's foster-father as we crossed the China Sea together. The foster-father, who was an American resident in Hong-Kong, found his eyesight gradually failing him. After exhausting all remedies in that colony, he heard of a famous oculist in Manila named Rizal, a Filipino of reputed Japanese origin. Therefore, in August, 1894, he went to Manila to seek the great doctor, taking with him a Macao servant, his daughter, and a girl whom he had adopted from infancy. The Philippine Archipelago was such a _terra incognita_ to the outside world that little was generally known of it save the capital, Manila. When he reached there he learnt, to his dismay, that the renowned practitioner was a political exile who lived in an out-of-the-way place in Mindanao Island. Intent on his purpose, he took ship and found the abode of Dr. Rizal. The American had been forsaken by his daughter in Manila, where she eventually married a young native who had neither craft nor fortune. The adopted daughter, therefore, was his companion to Dapitan. When they arrived at the bungalow the bright eyes of the lovely Josephine interested the doctor far more than the sombre diseased organs of her foster-father. The exile and the maiden, in short, fell in love with each other, and they mutually vowed never to be parted but by force. The old man's eyes were past all cure, and in vain he urged the girl to depart with him; love dissented from the proposition, and the patient found his way back to Manila, and thence to Hong-Kong, with his Macao servant--a sadder, but a wiser man. The foster-child remained behind to share the hut of the political exile. When, an hour after her marriage, she became Widow Rizal, her husband's corpse, which had received sepulture in the cemetery, was guarded by soldiers for four days lest the superstitious natives should snatch the body and divide it into a thousand relics of their lamented idol. Then Josephine started off for the rebel camp at Imus. On her way she was often asked, "Who art thou?" but her answer, "Lo! I am thy sister, the widow of Rizal!" not only opened a passage for her, but brought low every head in silent reverence. Amidst mourning and triumph she was conducted to the presence of the rebel commander-in-chief, Emilio Aguinaldo, who received her with the respect due to the sorrowing relict of their departed hero. But the formal tributes of condolence were followed by great rejoicing in the camp. She was the only free white woman within the rebel lines. They lauded her as though an angelic being had fallen from the skies; they sang her praises as if she were a modern Joan of Arc sent by heaven to lead the way to victory over the banner of Castile. But she chose, for the time being, to follow a more womanly vocation, and, having been escorted to San Francisco de Malabon, she took up her residence in the convent to tend the wounded for about three weeks. Then, when the battle of Perez Dasmarinas was raging, our heroine sallied forth on horseback with a Maeuser rifle over her shoulder, and--as she stated with pride to a friend of mine who interviewed her--she had the satisfaction of shooting dead one Spanish officer, and then retreated to her convent refuge. Again, she was present at the battle of Silan, where her heroic example of courage infused new life into her brother rebels. The carnage on both sides was fearful, but in the end the rebels fell back, and there, from a spot amidst mangled corpses, rivulets of blood, and groans of death, Josephine witnessed many a scene of Spanish barbarity--the butchery of old inoffensive men and women, children caught up by the feet and dashed against the walls, and the bayonet-charge on the host of fugitive innocents. The rebels having been beaten everywhere when Lachambre took the field, Josephine had to follow in their retreat, and after Imus and Silan were taken, she, with the rest, had to flee to another province, tramping through 23 villages on the way. She was about to play another _role_, being on the point of going to Manila to organize a convoy of arms and munitions, when she heard that certain Spaniards were plotting against her life. So she sought an interview with the Gov.-General, who asked her if she had been in the rebel camp at Imus. She replied fearlessly in the affirmative, and, relying on the security from violence afforded by her sex and foreign nationality, there passed between her and the Gov.-General quite an amusing and piquant colloquy. "What did you go to Imus for?" inquired the General. "What did you go there for?" rejoined Josephine. "To fight," said the General. "So did I," answered Josephine. "Will you leave Manila?" asked the General. "Why should I?" queried Josephine. "Well," said the General, "the priests will not leave you alone if you stay here, and they will bring false evidence against you. I have no power to overrule theirs." "Then what is the use of the Gov.-General?" pursued our heroine; but the General dismissed the discussion, which was becoming embarrassing, and resumed it a few days later by calling upon her emphatically to quit the Colony. At this second interview the General fumed and raged, and our heroine too stamped her little foot, and, woman-like, avowed "she did not care for him; she was not afraid of him." It was temerity born of inexperience, for one word of command from the General could have sent her the way many others had gone, to an unrevealed fate. Thus matters waxed hot between her defiance and his forbearance, until visions of torture--thumb-screws and bastinado--passed so vividly before her eyes that she yielded, as individual force must, to the collective power which rules supreme, and reluctantly consented to leave the fair Philippine shores in May, 1897, in the s.s. _Yuensang_, for a safer resting-place on the British soil of Hong-Kong.

The execution of Dr. Rizal was a most impolitic act. It sent into the field his brother Pasciano with a large following, who eventually succeeded in driving every Spaniard out of their native province of La Laguna. They also seized the lake gunboats, took an entire Spanish garrison prisoner, and captured a large quantity of stores. Pasciano rose to the rank of general before the rebellion ended. [183]

General Fernando Primo de Rivera, Marquis de Estella, arrived in Manila, as the successor of General Camilo Polavieja, in the spring of 1897. He knew the country and the people he was called upon to pacify, having been Gov.-General there from April, 1880, to March, 1883. A few days after his arrival he issued a proclamation offering an amnesty to all who would lay down their arms within a prescribed period. Many responded to this appeal, for the crushing defeat of the rebels in Cavite Province, accompanied by the ruthless severity of the soldiery during the last Captain-Generalcy, had damped the ardour of thousands of would-be insurgents. The rebellion was then confined to the north of Manila, but, since Aguinaldo had evacuated Cavite and joined forces with Llaneras, the movement was carried far beyond the Provinces of Bulacan and Pampanga. Armed mobs had risen in Pangasinan, Zambales, Ilocos, Nueva Ecija, and Tarlac. Many villages were entirely reduced to ashes by them; crops of young rice too unripe to be useful to anybody were wantonly destroyed; pillage and devastation were resorted to everywhere to coerce the peaceful inhabitants to join in the movement. On the other hand, the nerves of the priests were so highly strung that they suspected every native, and, by persistently launching false accusations against their parishioners, they literally made rebels. Hence at Candon (Ilocos Sur), a town of importance on the north-west coast of Luzon, five influential residents were simply goaded into rebellion by the frenzied action of the friars subordinate to the Bishop of Vigan, Father Jose Hevia de Campomanes. These residents then killed the parish priest, and without arms fled for safety to the mountain ravines. A few months before, at the commencement of the rebellion, this same Austin friar, Father Rafael Redondo, had ignominiously treated his own and other native curates by having them stripped naked and tied down to benches, where he beat them with the prickly tail of the ray-fish to extort confessions relating to conspiracy. In San Fernando de la Union the native priests Adriano Garces, Mariano Gaerlan, and Mariano Dacanaya were tortured with a hot iron applied to their bodies to force a confession that they were freemasons. The rebels attacked Bayambang (Pangasinan), drove out the Spanish garrison, seized the church and convent in which they had fortified themselves, made prisoner the Spanish priest, burnt the Government stores, Court-house, and Spanish residences, but carefully avoided all interference with the British-owned steam rice-mill and paddy warehouses. Troops were sent against them by special train from Tarlac, and they were beaten out of the place with a loss of about 100 individuals; but they carried off their clerical prisoner. General Monet operated in the north against the rebels with Spanish and native auxiliary forces. He attacked the armed mobs in Zambales Province, where encounters of minor importance took place almost daily, with no decisive victory for either party. He showed no mercy and took no prisoners; his troops shot down or bayoneted rebels, non-combatants, women and children indiscriminately. Tillage was carried on at the risk of one's life, for men found going out to their lands were seized as spies and treated with the utmost severity as possible sympathizers with the rebels. He carried this war of extermination up to Ilocos, where, little by little, his forces deserted him. His auxiliaries went over to the rebels in groups. Even a few Spaniards passed to the other side, and after a protracted struggle which brought no advantage to the Government, he left garrisons in several places and returned to Manila. In Aliaga (Nueva Ecija) the Spaniards had no greater success. The rebels assembled there in crowds, augmented by the fugitive mobs from Pangasinan, and took possession of the town. The Spaniards, under General Nunez, attacked them on two sides, and there was fought one of the most desperate battles of the north. It lasted about six hours: the slaughter on both sides was appalling. The site was strewn with corpses, and as the rebels were about to retreat General Nunez advanced to cut them off, but was so severely wounded that he had to relinquish the command on the field. But the flight of the insurgents was too far advanced to rally them, and they retired south towards Pampanga.

In Tayabas the officiousness of the Governor almost brought him to an untimely end. Two well-known inhabitants of Pagsanjan (La Laguna) were accused of conspiracy, and, without proof, court-martialled and executed. The Governor went to witness the scene, and returning the next day with his official suite, he was waylaid near Lucbang by a rebel party, who killed one of the officers and wounded the Governor. Filipinos returning to Manila were imprisoned without trial, tortured, and shipped back to Hong-Kong as deck passengers. The wet season had fully set in, making warfare in the provinces exceedingly difficult for the raw Spanish recruits who arrived to take the place of the dead, wounded, and diseased. Spain was so hard pressed by Cuban affairs that the majority of these last levies were mere boys, ignorant of the use of arms, ill clad, badly fed, and with months of pay in arrear. Under these conditions they were barely a match for the sturdy Islanders, over mountains, through streams, mud-pools, and paddy-fields. The military hospitals were full; the Spaniards were as far off extinguishing the _Katipunan_ as the rebels were from being able to subvert Spanish sovereignty. The rebels held only two impregnable places, namely Angat and San Mateo, but whilst they carried on an interminable guerilla warfare they as carefully avoided a pitched battle. The Gov.-General, then, had resort to another edict, dated July 2, 1897, which read thus:--

_Edict_

Don Fernando Primo de Rivera y Sobremonte, Marquis de
Estella, Governor and Captain-General of the Philippines, and
Commander-in-Chief of the Army.

Whereas the unlimited amplitude given to my former edicts by
some authorities who are still according the benefits of the
amnesty to those who present themselves after the expiration of
the conceded time, imperatively calls for a most absolute and
positive declaration that there is a limit to clemency and pardon,
otherwise the indefinite postponement of the application of the
law may be interpreted as a sign of debility; and

Whereas our generosity has been fully appreciated by many who
have shown signs of repentance by resuming their legal status,
whilst there are others who abuse our excessive benevolence
by maintaining their rebellious attitude, and encroach on our
patience to prolong the resistance; and

Whereas it is expedient to abolish the spectacle of a few groups,
always vanquished whilst committing all sorts of felonies under
the protection of a fictitious political flag, maintaining a
state of uneasiness and corruption;

Now, therefore, the authorities must adopt every possible means
of repression, and I, as General-in-Chief of the Army,

Order and Command

_Article_ 1.--All persons having contracted responsibilities up
to date on account of the present rebellion who fail to report
themselves to the authorities or military commanders before the
10th of July will be pursued and treated as guilty.

_Article_ 2.--Commanding generals in the field, military and civil
governors in districts where the rebels exist, will prohibit all
inhabitants from leaving the villages and towns, unless under
absolute necessity for agricultural purposes, or taking care of
rural properties or other works. Those comprised in the latter
class will be provided by the municipal captains with a special
pass, in which will be noted the period of absence, the place to
be visited, and the road to be taken, always provided that all
persons absenting themselves from the villages without carrying
such passes, and all who, having them, deviate from the time,
road, or place indicated, will be treated as rebels.

_Article 3._--After the 10th instant all persons will be required
to prove their identity by the personal document (_cedula
personal_), together with the pass above-mentioned, and neither
the amnesty passes already granted nor any other document will
have any legal validity.

All who contravene these orders will be tried by court-martial.

_Fernando Primo de Rivera_.

The indiscreetness of this measure was soon evident. It irritated the well-disposed inhabitants, from whom fees were exacted by the Gov.-General's venal subordinates; the rigorous application of the edict drove many to the enemy's camp, and the rebels responded to this document by issuing the following Exhortation in Tagalog dialect, bearing the pseudonym of "Malabar." It was extensively circulated in July, 1897, but bears no date. The Spanish authorities made strenuous but unsuccessful efforts to confiscate it. It is an interesting document because (1) It admits how little territory the _Katipunan_ itself considered under its dominion. (2) It sets forth the sum total of the rebels' demands at that period. (3) It admits their impotence to vanquish the loyal forces in open battle.

To the Brave Sons of the Philippines

The Spaniards have occupied the towns of Cavite Province because we
found it convenient to evacuate them. We must change our tactics
as circumstances dictate.

We have proved it to be a bad policy to be fortified in one place
awaiting the enemy's attack. We must take the offensive when we
get the chance, adopting the Cuban plan of ambush and guerilla
warfare. In this way we can, for an indefinite period, defy Spain,
exhaust her resources, and oblige her to surrender from poverty,
for it must be remembered that the very Spanish newspapers admit
that each soldier costs a dollar a day, and adding to this
his passage money, clothing and equipment, the total amounts
to a considerable sum. Considering that Spanish credit abroad
is exhausted, that her young men, to avoid conscription, are
emigrating to France and elsewhere in large numbers, Spain must
of necessity yield in the end. You already know that Polavieja
resigned because the Government were unable to send him the
further 20,000 men demanded. The Cubans, with their guerilla
system, avoiding encounters unfavourable to themselves, have
succeeded in wearying the Spaniards, who are dying of fever in
large numbers. Following this system, it would be quite feasible
to extend the action of the _Katipunan_ to Ilocos, Pangasinan,
Cagayan, and other provinces, because our brothers in these places,
sorely tyrannized by the Spaniards, are prepared to unite with us.

The Provinces of Zambales, Tarlac, Tayabas, etc., are already
under the _Katipunan_ Government, and to complete our success,
the revolutionary movement should become general, for the ends
which we all so ardently desire, namely:

(1) Expulsion of the friars and restitution to the townships
of the lands which the friars have appropriated, dividing the
incumbencies held by them, as well as the episcopal sees equally
between Peninsular and Insular secular priests.

(2) Spain must concede to us, as she has to Cuba, Parliamentary
representation, freedom of the Press, toleration of all religious
sects, laws common with hers, and administrative and economic
autonomy.

(3) Equality in treatment and pay between Peninsular and Insular
civil servants.

(4) Restitution of all lands appropriated by the friars to the
townships, or to the original owners, or in default of finding
such owners, the State is to put them up to public auction in
small lots of a value within the reach of all and payable within
four years, the same as the present State lands.

(5) Abolition of the Government authorities' power to banish
citizens, as well as all unjust measures against Filipinos;
legal equality for all persons, whether Peninsular or Insular,
under the Civil as well as the Penal Code.

The war must be prolonged to give the greatest signs of vitality
possible, so that Spain may be compelled to grant our demands,
otherwise she will consider us an effete race and curtail, rather
than extend, our rights.

_Malabar_.

Shortly after this Emilio Aguinaldo, the recognized leader of the rebels, issued a _Manifiesto_ in somewhat ambiguous terms which might imply a demand for independence. In this document he says:--

We aspire to the glory of obtaining the liberty, _independence_,
and honour of the country.... We aspire to a Government
representing all the live forces of the country, in which the most
able, the most worthy in virtue and talent, may take part without
distinction of birth, fortune, or race. We desire that no monk,
or friar, shall sully the soil of any part of the Archipelago,
nor that there shall exist any convent, etc., etc.

Every month brought to light fresh public exhortations, edicts, and proclamations from one side or the other, of which I have numerous printed copies before me now. About this time the famous Philippine painter, Juan Luna (_vide_ p. 195), was released after six months' imprisonment as a suspect. He left Manila _en route_ for Madrid in the Spanish mail-steamer _Covadonga_ in the first week of July and returned to Manila the next year (November 1898).

In the field there were no great victories to record, for the rebels confined themselves exclusively to harassing the Spanish forces and then retreating to the mountains. To all appearances trade in Manila and throughout the Islands was little affected by the war, and as a matter of fact, the total exports showed a fair average when compared with previous years. The sugar production was, however, slightly less than in 1896, owing to a scarcity of hands, because, in the ploughing season, the young labourers in Negros were drafted off to military service. Total imports somewhat increased, notwithstanding the imposition of a special 6 per cent. _ad valorem_ tax.

But the probability of an early pacification of the Islands was remote. By the unscrupulous abuse of their functions the volunteers were obliging the well-intentioned natives to forsake their allegiance, and General Primo de Rivera was constrained to issue a decree, dated August 6, forbidding all persons in military service to plunder, or intimidate, or commit acts of violence on persons, or in their houses, or ravish women, under penalty of death. In the same month the General commissioned a Filipino, Don Pedro Alejandro Paterno, to negotiate terms of capitulation with the rebels. By dint of bribes and liberal expenditure of money (_vide_ Paterno's own letter at p. 410) Paterno induced the minor chiefs in arms to accept, in principle, the proposal of peace on the basis of reforms and money. Paterno was appointed by the Gov.-General sole mediator in the discussion of the terms to be made with Emilio Aguinaldo, and the General's private secretary, Don Niceto Mayoral, was granted special powers to arrange with Paterno the details of the proposed treaty. From Paterno's lips I have the following account of the negotiations:--

On August 4, 1897, he started on a series of difficult journeys into the rebel camps to negotiate severally with the chiefs, who, one after the other, stoutly refused to capitulate. On August 9 he interviewed Aguinaldo at Biac-na-bato, situated in the mountains, about a mile north of San Miguel de Mayumo (Bulacan). Aguinaldo withheld his decision until Paterno could report to him the definite opinions of his generals. Thereupon Paterno returned to the rebel chiefs, some of whom still tenaciously held out, whilst others were willing to capitulate, subject to Aguinaldo's approval. Paterno's mission was daily becoming more perilous, for the irreconcilable leaders regarded him as an evil genius sent to sow discord in the camp. After many delays the principal warriors assembled at Biac-na-bato on October 31 and held a great meeting, which Paterno, who is a fluent speaker, attended and harangued his audience in eloquent phrases, but to no purpose. His position was now a somewhat critical one. Several of the chiefs assumed such a defiant attitude that but for the clement nature of Aguinaldo, Paterno might never have returned to tell the tale. They clamorously insisted on their resolution to fight. Then Paterno adroitly brought matters to a crisis in a bold peroration which changed the whole scene. "Capitulate," he exclaimed, "or get hence and vanquish the enemy! Is victory to be gained in this hiding-place?" Piqued by this fearless challenge, General Natividad immediately sallied forth with his troops and encountered the Spaniards for the last time. His dead body was brought into the camp, and, in the shades of night, with sombre lights flickering around them, in the presence of Natividad's bleeding corpse, again Paterno exhorted them to reflect on the prospects in the field and the offer of capitulation. Impressed by the lugubrious scene, Aguinaldo yielded, and the next day peace negotiations were opened. But other difficulties intervened. Aguinaldo having heard that a subordinate chief was conspiring to force his hand to capitulate, abruptly cast aside the papers, declaring that he would never brook coercion. The deadlock lasted a whole day, but at length Aguinaldo signed conditions, which Paterno conveyed to General Primo de Rivera at San Fernando (Pampanga). The willingness to capitulate was by no means unanimous. Paterno was forewarned that on his route a party of 500 Irreconcilables were waiting to intercept and murder him, so to evade them he had to hide in a wood. Fifteen minutes' delay would have cost him his life. Even a Spanish colonel for some occult reason sought to frustrate the peace negotiations by falsely reporting to General Primo de Rivera that Paterno was inciting the rebels to warfare. But the General believed in Paterno's good faith, although he declared the terms proposed unacceptable, and in like manner three other amended proposals were rejected, until finally the fifth document was accepted as tantamount to a Protocol of Peace to serve as a basis for the treaty. Here ends Paterno's verbal declaration.

The Protocol was signed in duplicate by Emilio Aguinaldo of the one part, and Pedro A. Paterno, as Peacemaker, of the other part. One copy was archived in the office of the _Gobierno General_ in Manila, [184] and the other was remitted to the Home Government with a despatch from the Gov.-General.

After many consultations and much deliberation it was decided at a Cabinet meeting to approve unreservedly of the negotiations, and to that effect a cablegram was sent to General Primo de Rivera fully empowering him to conclude a treaty of peace on the basis of the Protocol. Meanwhile, it soon became evident that there were three distinct interests at stake, namely, those of Spain and the Spanish people, those of the friars, and the claims of the rebels. Consequently the traditional feud between the Archbishop of Manila and the Captain-General was revived.

General Primo de Rivera in his despatch urged the Madrid Government to grant certain reforms, in any case, which could not fail to affect the hitherto independent position of the friars in governmental affairs. He also drew the attention of the Government to the defenceless condition of the capital in the event of a foreign attack (_vide_ Senate speeches reported in the _Diario de las Sesiones_, Madrid, 1899 and 1900). The friars were exceedingly wroth, and combined to defeat the General's efforts to come to an understanding with the rebels. They secretly paid natives to simulate the _Katipunan_ in the provinces, and the plot only came to light when these unfortunate dupes fell into the hands of the military authorities and confessed what had happened. Nevertheless, the General pursued the negotiations with Paterno as intermediary. Aguinaldo's original demand was for a total indemnity of P3,000,000, but, in the course of the negotiations alluded to, it was finally reduced to P1,700,000, inclusive of P800,000 to be paid to Aguinaldo on his retirement from the Colony.

The terms of the Protocol of Peace having been mutually agreed upon, a treaty, known as the _Pacto de Biac-na-bato_, [185] is alleged to have been signed at Biac-na-bato on December 14, 1897, between Emilio Aguinaldo and others of the one part, and Pedro A. Paterno, as attorney for the Captain-General, acting in the name of the Spanish Government, of the other part. Under this treaty the rebels undertook to deliver up their arms and ammunition of all kinds to the Spaniards; to evacuate the places held by them; to conclude an armistice for three years for the application and development of the _reforms to be introduced_ by the other part, and not to conspire against Spanish sovereignty in the Islands, nor aid or abet any movement calculated to counteract those reforms. Emilio Aguinaldo and 34 other leaders undertook to quit the Philippine Islands and not return thereto until so authorized by the Spanish Government, in consideration whereof the above-mentioned P800,000 was to be paid as follows:--P400,000 in a draft on Hong-Kong to be delivered to Aguinaldo on his leaving Biac-na-bato [This draft was, in fact, delivered to him]; P200,000 payable to Aguinaldo as soon as he should send a telegram to the revolutionary general in command at Biac-na-bato, ordering him to hand over the rebels' arms to the Captain-General's appointed commissioner [This telegram was sent], and the final P200,000 immediately after the singing of the _Te Deum_ which would signify an official recognition of peace.

_It was further alleged_ that on behalf of the Spanish Government many radical reforms and conditions were agreed to (outside the Treaty of Biac-na-bato), almost amounting to a total compliance with the demands of the rebels. But no evidence whatever has been adduced to confirm this allegation. Indeed it is a remarkable fact that neither in the Madrid parliamentary papers (to copies of which I have referred), nor in the numerous rebel proclamations and edicts, nor in the published correspondence of Pedro A. Paterno, is even the full text of the treaty given. It is singular that the rebels should have abstained from publishing to the world those precise terms which they say were accepted and not fulfilled by the Spanish Government, which denies their existence.

Whatever reforms might have been promised would have been purely governmental matters which required no mediator for their execution; but as to the money payments to be made, Paterno was to receive them from the Government and distribute them. An Agreement to this effect was, therefore, signed by General Primo de Rivera and Pedro A. Paterno in the following terms, viz.:--

In the peace proposals presented by the sole mediator, Don Pedro
Alejandro Paterno, in the name and on behalf of the rebels in arms,
and in the Peace Protocol which was agreed to and submitted to His
Majesty's Government, _which approved of the same_, there exists
a principal clause relating to the sums of money which were to be
handed over to the rebels and their families as indemnity for the
loss of their goods consequent on the war, which sums amounted to
a total of P1,700,000, which the mediator, Senor Paterno, was to
distribute absolutely at his discretion, but the payment of the
said sum will have to be subject to the conditions proposed by
the representative of the Government, H.E. the General-in-Chief of
this Army. These conditions were agreed to be as follows, viz.:--

(1) For the rebels in arms a draft for the sum of P400,000 will
be handed to Senor Paterno, payable in Hong-Kong, as well as
two cheques for P200,000 each, payable only on the condition
of the Agreement being fulfilled on the other part. (2) For
the families of those who were not rebels in arms, or engaged
in rebellion, but who have likewise suffered the evils of war,
the balance of the sum offered shall be paid in three equal
instalments, the last to be paid six months after the date on
which the _Te Deum_ shall be sung, assuming the peace to become
an accomplished fact. Peace shall be held to be effectively
concluded if, during the interval of these instalment periods,
no party of armed rebels, with recognized leader, shall exist,
and if no secret society shall have been discovered as existing
here or abroad with the proved object of conspiracy by those who
benefit by these payments. The representative of the rebels, Don
Pedro Alejandro Paterno, and the representative of the Government,
the Captain-General Don Fernando Primo de Rivera, agree to the
above conditions, in witness whereof each representative now
signs four copies of the same tenour and effect, one being for
the Government, another for the archives of the Captain-Generalcy,
and one copy each for the said representatives.

[186]Done in Manila on the 15th of December, 1897.

_Fernando Primo de Rivera_,
_The General-in-Chief._
_Pedro A. Paterno_,
_The Mediator._

In the course of a few days a military deputation was sent by the Gov.-General, under the leadership of Lieut.-Colonel Primo de Rivera, to meet Aguinaldo and his 34 companions-in-arms at a place agreed upon in the Province of Pangasinan. They had a repast together, and Aguinaldo called for cheers for Spain, in which all heartily joined. Thence they proceeded in vehicles to Sual to await the arrival of the s.s. _Uranus_, in which they embarked for Hong-Kong on Monday, December 27, 1897. Armed rebel troops were stationed at several places all along the route to Sual, ready to avenge any act of treachery, whilst two Spanish generals were held as hostages at the rebel camp at Biac-na-bato until Aguinaldo cabled his safe arrival in Hong-Kong.