Chapter VI: Insurgent Rule in the Cagayan Valley (1)

Nueva Vizcaya is drained by the Magát River, a branch of the Cagayan. While the provinces of Isabela and Cagayan constitute the Cagayan valley proper, Blount includes Nueva Vizcaya in the territory covered by this designation, and for the purpose of this discussion I will follow his example.

Especial interest attaches to the history of Insurgent rule, in the Cagayan valley, as above defined, for the reason that Blount himself served there as a judge of the court of first instance. He says: [271]--

"The writer is perhaps as familiar with the history of that
Cagayan valley as almost any other American."

He was. For his action in concealing the horrible conditions which arose there under Insurgent rule, with which he was perfectly familiar, and in foisting on the public the account of Messrs. Wilcox and Sargent, as portraying the conditions which actually existed there, I propose to arraign him before the bar of public opinion. In so doing I shall consider these conditions at some length. We have much documentary evidence concerning them in addition to that furnished by the Insurgent records, although the latter quite sufficiently demonstrate many of the more essential facts.

In describing the adventures of Messrs. Wilcox and Sargent in this region, Judge Blount says: [272]--

"There [273] they were met by Simeon Villa, military commander
of Isabela province, the man who was chief of staff to
Aguinaldo afterwards, and was captured by General Funston
along with Aguinaldo in the spring of 1901."

The facts as to Villa's career in the Cagayan valley are especially worthy of note as they seem to have entitled him, in the opinion of his superiors, to the promotion which was afterward accorded him. He was an intimate friend of Aguinaldo and later accompanied him on his long flight through northern Luzon.

On August 10, 1898, Colonel Daniel Tirona, a native of Cavite Province and one of the intimates of Aguinaldo, was ordered to proceed to Aparri in the Insurgent steamer _Filipinas_ and establish the revolutionary government in northern Luzon. In doing this he was to hold elections for office-holders under Aguinaldo's government and was authorized to approve or disapprove the results, his action being subject to subsequent revision by Aguinaldo. His forces were composed of four companies armed with rifles.

Tirona reached Aparri on August 25 and promptly secured the surrender of the Spaniards there.

He was accompanied by Simeon Villa, the man under discussion, and by Colonel Leyba, who was also very close to Aguinaldo.

Abuse of the Spanish prisoners began at once. It is claimed that the governor of North Ilocos, who was among those captured, was grossly mistreated.

Taylor briefly summarizes subsequent events as follows: [274]--

"Whatever the treatment of the Spanish governor of Ilocos
may really have been, there is testimony to show that some
of the other prisoners, especially the priests, were abused
and outraged under the direction of S. Villa and Colonel
Leyba, both of whom were very close to Aguinaldo. Some of
the Spanish civil officials were put in stocks and beaten,
and one of the officers who had surrendered at Aparri was
tortured to death. This was done with the purpose of extorting
money from them, for it was believed that they had hidden
funds in place of turning them over. All the Spaniards were
immediately stripped of everything they had. The priests were
subjected to a systematic series of insults and abuse under
the direction of Villa in order to destroy their influence
over the people by degrading them in their eyes. It was for
this that they were beaten and exposed naked in the sun; and
other torture, such as pouring tile wax of burning candles
into their eyes, was used to make them disclose where they
had hidden church vessels and church funds. The testimony of
a friar who suffered these outrages is that the great mass
of the people saw such treatment of their parish priests
with horror, and were present at it only through fear of the
organized force of the Katipúnan."

Taylor's statement is mildness itself in view of the well-established facts.

The question of killing the Spanish prisoners, including the friars, had previously been seriously considered, [275] but it was deemed wiser to keep most of the friars alive, extort money from them by torture, and offer to liberate them in return for a large cash indemnity, or for political concessions. Day after day and week after week Villa presided at, or himself conducted, the torture of ill-fated priests and other Spaniards who fell into his hands. Even Filipinos whom he suspected of knowing the where-abouts of hidden friar money did not escape.

The following information relative to the conduct of the Insurgents in the Cagayan valley is chiefly taken from manuscript copy of _"Historia de la Conquista de Cagayan por los Tagalos Revolucionarios,"_ in which the narratives of certain captured friars are transcribed and compiled by Father Julian Malumbres of the Dominican Order.

The formal surrender of Aparri occurred on August 26. Tirona, his officers and his soldiers, promptly pillaged the _convento_. [276] The officers left the Bishop of Vigan ten pesos, but the soldiers subsequently took them away from him. Wardrobes and trunks were broken open; clocks, shoes, money, everything was carried off. Even personal papers and prayer-books were taken from some of the priests, many of whom were left with absolutely nothing save the few remaining clothes in which they stood.

On the same day Villa, accompanied by Victa and Rafael Perea, [277] went to the _convento_ and told the priests who were imprisoned there that their last hour had come. He shut all of them except the bishop and five priests in a room near the church, then separated the Augustinians, Juan Zallo, Gabino Olaso, Fidel Franco, Mariano Rodriguez, and Clemente Hidalgo, from the others and took them into the lower part of the _convento_ where he told them that he intended to kill them if they did not give him more money. The priests told him that they had given all they had, whereupon he had their arms tied behind their backs, kicked them, struck them and whipped them with rattans.

Father Zallo was thrown on his face and savagely beaten. Meanwhile two shots were fired over the heads of the others and a soldier called out "One has fallen," badly frightening the priests who had remained shut in the room. Villa then returned with soldiers to this room, ordered his men to load, and directed that one priest step forward to be shot. Father Mariano Ortiz complied with this request, asking that he be the first victim. Villa, however, contented himself with threatening him with a revolver and kicking and striking him until he fell to the floor. He was then beaten with the butts of guns.

Father José Vazquez, an old man of sixty years, who had thrown some money into a privy to keep it from falling into the hands of the Insurgents, was stripped and compelled to recover it with his bare hands, after which he was kicked, and beaten with rattans.

Father Aquilino García was unmercifully kicked and beaten to make him give up money, and this sort of thing continued until Villa, tired out with the physical exertion involved in assaulting these defenceless men, departed, leaving his uncompleted task to others, who continued it for some time.

The net result to the Insurgents of the sacking of the _convento_ and of the tortures thus inflicted was approximately $20,000 gold in addition to the silver, bank notes, letters of credit, jewels, etc., which they obtained.

On September 5 Villa had Fathers Juan Recio and Buenaventura Macia given fifty blows each, although Father Juan was ill.

Villa then went to Lalloc, where other priests were imprisoned. On September 6 he demanded money of them, causing them to be kicked and beaten. Father Angel was beaten in an especially cruel manner for the apparent purpose of killing him, after which he was thrust into a privy. Father Isidro Fernandez was also fearfully abused. Stripped of his habit, and stretched face down on the floor, he was horribly beaten, and was then kicked, and struck with the butt of a revolver on the forehead.

A little later the priests were offered their liberty for a million dollars, which they were of course unable to furnish. Meanwhile the torture continued from time to time.

On August 30 Tuguegarao was taken by the Insurgents without resistance. Colonel Leyba promptly proceeded to the _convento_ and demanded the money of the friars as spoil of war. He found only eight hundred pesos in the safe. Father Corujedo was threatened with death if he did not give more. Other priests were threatened but not tortured at this time. The prisoners in the jail were liberated, but many of them had promptly to be put back again because of the disorder which resulted, and that same evening Leyba was obliged to publish a notice threatening robbers with death.

At midnight on September 3 Father Corujedo was taken from the _convento_ by Captain Diego and was again asked for money. Replying that he had no more to give, he was beaten with the hilt of a sabre and stripped of his habit, preparatory to being executed. A mock sentence of death was pronounced on him and he was placed facing to the west to be shot in the back. Diego ordered his soldiers to load, adding, "When I count three all fire," but the fatal count was not completed. Three priests from Alcala were given similar treatment.

The troubles of the priests imprisoned at Tuguegarao were sufficiently great, but they were augmented a thousand fold when Villa arrived on September 11. He came to the building where they were imprisoned, bearing a revolver, a sabre and a great quantity of rattans. He ordered the priests into the corner of the room in which they were confined, and beat those who did not move quickly enough to suit him. He threatened them with a very rigorous examination, at the same time assuring them that at Aparri he had hung up the bishop until blood flowed from his mouth and his ears, and that he would do the same with them if they did not tell him where they had their money hidden. There followed the usual rain of kicks and blows, a number of the priests being obliged to take off their habits in order that they might be punished more effectively.

Fathers Calixto Prieto and Daniel Gonzales, professors in educational institutions, he ordered beaten because they were friars.

Fathers Corujedo and Caddedila were beaten, kicked and insulted. Both were gray-haired old men and the latter was at the time very weak, and suffering from a severe attack of asthma. Father Pedro Vincente was also brutally beaten.

The following is the description given by an eye-witness of conditions at Tuguegarao:--

"Even the Indios of Cagayan complained and were the victims of
looting and robbery on the part of the soldiery. So lacking in
discipline and so demoralized was that army that according to
the confession of a prominent Filipino it was of imperative
necessity to disarm them. [278] On the other hand we saw
with real astonishment that instead of warlike soldiers
accustomed to battle they were nearly all raw recruits and
apprentices. From an army lacking in discipline, and lawless,
only outrages, looting and all sorts of savagery and injustice
were to be expected. Witnesses to their demoralization are,
aside from the natives themselves who were the first to
acknowledge it, the Chinese merchants whose losses were
incalculable; not a single store or commercial establishment
remained that was not looted repeatedly. As to the Spaniards
it goes without saying because it is publicly known, that
between soldiers and officers they despoiled them to their
heart's content, without any right except that of brute force,
of everything that struck their fancy, and it was of no avail
to complain to the officers and ask for justice, as they turned
a deaf ear to such complaints. At Tuguegarao they looted in a
manner never seen before, like Vandals, and it was not without
reason that a prominent Filipino said, in speaking to a priest:
'Vandalism has taken possession of the place.' These acts of
robbery were generally accompanied by the most savage insults;
it was anarchy, as we heard an eye-witness affirm, who also
stated that no law was recognized except that of danger,
and the vanquished were granted nothing but the inevitable
duty of bowing with resignation to the iniquitous demands of
that soulless rabble, skilled in crime."

Villa now set forth for Isabela. Meanwhile the jailer of the priests proceeded to steal their clothes, including shirts, shoes and even handkerchiefs. Isabela was taken without resistance on September 12. Dimas Guzman [279] swore to the priests on his life that he would work without rest to the end that all friars and all Spaniards might be respected, but he perjured himself.

On September 12 Villa and others entered the town of Cabagan Viejo, where Villa promptly assaulted Father Segundo Rodriguez, threatening him with a revolver, beating him unmercifully, insulting him in every possible way and robbing him of his last cent. After the bloody scene was over he sacked the _convento_, even taking away the priests' clothes.

Villa also cruelly beat a Filipino, Quintin Agansi, who was taking care of money for masses which the priests wished to save from the Insurgents.

After Father Segundo had suffered torture and abuse for two hours he was obliged to start at once on a journey to Auitan. The suffering priest, after being compelled to march through the street shouting "Vivas!" for the Republic and Aguinaldo, spent the night without a mouthful of food or a drink of water.

Father Deogracias García, a priest of Cabagan Nuevo, was subjected to torture because he had sent to Hongkong during May a letter of credit for $5000 which belonged to the Church. Villa and Leyba entered his _convento_ and after beating him ordered his hands and feet to be tied together, then passed a pole between them and had him lifted from the ground, after which two great jars of water were poured down his nose and throat without interruption. [280] In order to make the water flow through his nose better, they thrust a piece of wood into the nasal passages until it came out in his throat. From time to time the torture was suspended while they asked him whether he would tell the truth as to where he had concealed his money. This unfortunate priest was so sure he was going to die that while the torture was in progress he received absolution from a fellow priest. After the torture with water there followed a long and cruel beating, and the unhappy victim was finally thrust into a filthy privy.

Meanwhile Father Calzada was assaulted by a group of soldiers and badly beaten, after which he was let down into the filth of a privy, first by the feet and afterwards by the head.

On the 14th a lieutenant with soldiers entered the _convento_ of Tumauini and as usual demanded money of the occupants, who gave him $80, all they had at the time. This quantity not being satisfactory, a rope was sent for and the hands of the two priests were tied while they were whipped, kicked and beaten. They were, however, released when Father Bonet promised to get additional money. They had a short respite until the arrival of Villa, who still demanded more money of Father Blanco, and failing to get it for the reason that the father had no more, leaped upon him and gave him a dreadful beating, his companions joining in with whips, rattans and the butts of guns. They at last left their victim stretched on the ground almost dead. This priest showed the marks of his ill treatment six months afterward. Not satisfied with this, Villa gave him the so-called "water cure."

Meanwhile his followers had also beaten Father Bonet. Villa started to do likewise but was too tired, having exhausted his energies on Father Blanco. While the tortures were going on, the _convento_ was completely sacked. Father Blanco's library was thrown out of the window.

Villa entered Ilagan on the 15th of September at 8 o'clock at night. Hastening to the _convento_, with a company of well-armed soldiers, he had his men surround the three priests who awaited him there, then summoned the local priest to a separate room and demanded money. The priest gave him all he had. Not satisfied, Villa leaped upon him, kicking him, beating him and pounding him with the butt of a gun. Many of his associates joined in the disgraceful attack. The unfortunate victim was then stripped of his habit, obliged to lie down and received more than a hundred lashes. When he was nearly senseless he was subjected to torture by water, being repeatedly lifted up when filled with water, and allowed to fall on the floor. While some were pouring water down his nose and throat, others spilled hot wax on his face and head. The torment repeatedly rendered the priest senseless, but he was allowed to recover from time to time so that he might suffer when it was renewed.

The torturing of this unhappy man lasted for three hours, and the horrible scene was immediately succeeded by another quite as bad. Villa called Father Domingo Campo and, after taking from him the little money that he had, ordered him stripped. He was then given numberless kicks and blows from the butts of rifles and 150 lashes, after which he was unable to rise. There followed the torture with water, on the pretext that he had money hidden away.

Meanwhile the houses of Spaniards and the shops of the Chinese were completely sacked, and the men who objected were knocked down or cut down with bolos. Numerous girls and women were raped.

On September 15 Leyba received notice of the surrender of Nueva Vizcaya. I quote the following from the narrative above referred to:--

"Delfin's soldiers [281] were the most depraved ever seen:
their thieving instincts had no bounds; so they had hardly
entered Nueva Vizcaya when they started to give themselves
up furiously to robbery, looking upon all things as loot;
in the very shadow of these soldiers the province was invaded
by a mob of adventurous and ragged persons from Nueva Ecija;
between the two they picked Nueva Vizcaya clean. When they had
grown tired of completely shearing the unfortunate Vizcayan
people, leaving them poverty-stricken, they flew in small
bands to the pueblos of Isabela, going as far as Angadanan,
giving themselves up to unbridled pillage of the most unjust
and disorderly kind. Some of these highwaymen demanded money
and arms from the priest of Angadanan, but Father Marciano
informed them 'that it could not be, as Leyba already knew
what he had and would be angry.'

"To this very day the people of Nueva Vizcaya have been
unable to recover from the stupendous losses suffered by
them as regards their wealth and industries. How many curses
did they pour forth and still continue to level against the
Katipúnan that brought them naught but tribulations!"

Confirmation of these statements is found in the following brief but significant passage from the Insurgent records:--

"At the end of December, 1898, when the military commander
of Nueva Vizcaya called upon the Governor of that province to
order the police of the towns to report to him as volunteers to
be incorporated in the army which was being prepared for the
defence of the country, the Governor protested against it and
informed the government that his attempt to obtain volunteers
was in fact only a means of disarming the towns and leaving
them without protection against the soldiers who did what
they wanted and took what they wished and committed every
outrage without being punished for it by their officers." [282]

The effect of the surrender of Nueva Vizcaya on Leyba and Villa is thus described by Father Malumbres:--

"Mad with joy and swollen with pride Leyba and company were
like men who travelled flower-strewn paths, crowned with
laurels, and were acclaimed as victors in all the towns on
their road, their intoxication of joy taking a sudden rise when
they came to believe themselves kings of the valley. It was
then that their delirium reached its brimful measure and their
treatment of those whom they had vanquished began to be daily
more cruel and inhuman. In Cagayan their fear of the forces
in Nueva Vizcaya kept them from showing such unqualifiable
excesses of cruelty and nameless barbarities, but the triumph
of the Katipúnan arms in Nueva Vizcaya completely broke
down the wall of restraint which somewhat repressed those
sanguinary executioners thirsting to fatten untrammelled on
the innocent blood of unarmed and defenceless men. From that
melancholy time there began an era of unheard of outrages and
barbarous scenes, unbelievable were they not proved by evidence
of every description. The savage acts committed in Isabela by
the inhuman Leyba and Villa cannot possibly be painted true
to life and in all their tragic details. The blackest hues,
the most heartrending accents, the most vigorous language
and the most fulminating anathemas would be a pale image of
the truth, and our pen cannot express with true ardour the
terrifying scenes and cruel torments brought about by such
fierce chieftains on such indefensive religious. It seems
impossible that a fleshly heart could hold so much wickedness,
for these petty chiefs were veritable monsters of cruelty who
surpassed a Nero; men who were entire strangers to noble and
humane sentiments and who in appearance having the figure of
a man were in reality tigers roaring in desperation, or mad
dogs who gnashed their teeth in fury."

On September 18 Leyba continued his march, while Villa remained behind at Ilagan to torture the prisoners who might be brought in from Isabela.

On arrival at Gamut, Leyba at once entered the _convento_ and as usual immediately demanded money from the priests. Father Venancio gave him all he had. He was nevertheless given a frightful whipping, six persons holding him while others rained blows upon him. A determined effort was made to force the priest to recant, and when this failed Leyba leaped upon him, kicking and beating him. He then ordered him thrown down face uppermost, and asked for a knife with the apparent intention of mutilating him. He did not use the knife, however, but instead, assisted by his followers, gave the unhappy priest another terrific beating, even standing upon him and leaping up and down. The priest was left unable to speak, and did not recover for months.

Later Leyba had torture by water applied to Father Gregorio Cabrero and lay brother Venancio Aguinaco, while Father Sabanda was savagely beaten.

On the 19th of September Father Miguel Garcia of Reina Mercedes was horribly beaten in his _convento_ by a captain sent there to get what money he had.

In Cauayan, on September 20, Fathers Perez and Aguirrezabal were beaten and compelled to give up money by five emissaries of Leyba, and the latter priest was cut in the face with a sabre. The _convento_ was sacked. On the 25th Leyba arrived and after kicking and beating Father Garcia compelled him to give up $1700. He then informed the priests that if it were not for Aguinaldo's orders he would kill all the Spaniards.

On the afternoon of the 24th three priests and a Spaniard named Soto arrived at Ilagan. The following is the statement of an eye-witness as to what happened:--

"They led the priests to the headquarters of the commanding
officer where the tyrant Villa, always eager to inflict
suffering on humanity, awaited them. The scene witnessed
by the priests obeisant to the cruel judge was horrifying
in the extreme. Four lions whose thirst for vengeance was
extreme in all, threw themselves, blind with fury, without
a word and with the look of a basilisk, upon poor Señor Soto
giving him such innumerable and furious blows on head and face
that weary as he was from his past journey, the ill-treatment
received at Angadanan and weighted down by years, he was soon
thrown down by his executioners under the lintel of the door
getting a terrible blow on the head as he fell; even this did
not satisfy nor tame down those fierce-hearted men, who on
the contrary continued with their infamous work more furious
than before, and their cruelty did not flag on seeing their
victim at their feet. They could have done no worse had they
been Silípan savages dancing in triumph around the palpitating
head cut from the body of some enemy.

"The priests who witnessed this blood-curdling scene trembled
like the weak reed before the gale, waiting their turn to be
tortured, but God willed that cruel Villa should be content
with the butchery perpetrated upon unhappy Sr. Soto. Villa
dismissed the priests after despoiling them of their bags and
clothes telling them, to torment them: 'Go to the _convento_
until the missing ones turn up so that I may shoot you all
together.'"

Leyba entered Echague on September 22, promptly going to the _convento_ as usual and demanding money of the priest, Father Mata. When the latter had given him all he had, he received three terrific beatings at the hands of some twelve men armed with whips and sticks, after which Leyba himself struck him with his fist and his sabre. He was finally knocked down by a blow with the sabre and left disabled. It took six months for him to recover.

Shortly after Leyba's arrival in Nueva Vizcaya on the afternoon of the 25th, five priests were summoned to Solano and there abused in the usual fashion in an effort to extort money from them. Only one escaped ill treatment and one was nearly killed.

Leyba now went to Bayombong to carry out the established programme with the priests. There he found Governor Perez of Isabela, who had taken with him certain government moneys and employed them to pay salaries of soldiers and other employees. He insisted on the return of the total amount and threatened to shoot Perez if it was not forthcoming. The Spaniards of the vicinity subscribed $700 which they themselves badly needed and saved him from being shot. The priests of the place were then summoned to Leyba's quarters and were beaten and tortured. One of them was thrown on the floor and beaten nearly to death, Leyba standing meanwhile with his foot on the unfortunate man's neck. Another was given six hundred lashes and countless blows and kicks. Leyba stood on this man's neck also. When the victim's back ceased to have any feeling, his legs were beaten. Leyba terminated this period of diversion by kicking Father Diez in the solar plexus and then mocking him as he lay gasping on the floor. That afternoon one of the priests, so badly injured that he could not rise unaided, was put on a horse and compelled to ride in the hot sun to Solano.

Villa and Leyba had their able imitators, as is shown by the following description of the torturing of Father Ceferino by Major Delfin at Solano, Nueva Vizcaya, on September 27:--

"They wished to give brave evidence of their hate for the friar
before Leyba left, and show him that they were as brave as
he when it came to oppressing and torturing the friar. This
tragedy began by Jimenez again asking Father Ceferino for
the money. The priest answered as he had done before. Then
Jimenez started to talk in Tagalog to the commanding officer
and surely it was nothing good that he told him, for suddenly
Delfin left the bench and darting fire from his eyes, fell
in blind fury upon the defenceless priest; what harsh words
he uttered in Tagalog while he vented his fury on his victim,
striking him with his clenched fist, slapping him and kicking
him, I do not know, but the religious man fell at the feet of
his furious executioner who, being now the prey of the most
stupendous rage, could scarcely get his tongue to stutter and
continued to kick the priest, without seeing where he kicked
him. Getting deeper and deeper in the abyss and perhaps not
knowing what he was about, this petty chief made straight for
a sabre lying on a table to continue his bloody work. In the
meantime the priest had risen to his feet and awaited with
resignation new torments which certainly were even worse than
the first, for he gave him so many and such hard blows with
the sabre that the blade was broken close to the hilt. This
accident so infuriated Delfin that he again threw himself upon
the priest, kicking him furiously and striking him repeatedly
until he again threw him to the ground, and not yet satisfied,
his vengefulness led him to throw himself upon his victim with
the fury of a tiger after his prey, beating him on the head
with the hilt of the saber until the blood ran in streams
and formed pools upon the pavement. The priest, more dead
than alive, shuddered from head to foot, and appeared to be
struggling in a tremendous fight between life and death; he
had hardly enough strength to get his tongue to ask for God's
mercy. At this most critical juncture, and when it seemed as
if death were inevitable, the martyr received absolution from
Father Diez, who witnessed the blood-curdling picture with
his heart pierced with grief at the sight of the sufferings
of his innocent brother, feeling as must the condemned man
preparing for death who sees the hours fly by with vertiginous
rapidity. The blood flowing from the wounds on the priest's
head appeared to infuriate and blind the heart of Delfin who,
rising from his victim's body, sped away to the armory in the
court house, seized a rifle, and came back furious to brain
him with the butt and finish killing the priest; but God
willed to free his servant from death at the hands of those
cannibals, so that generous Lieutenant Navarro interfered,
took the rifle away from him and caught Delfin by the arm,
threatening him with some words spoken in Tagalog. Then
Navarro, to appease Delfin's anger, turned the priest over
with his face to the ground and gave him a few strokes with the
bamboo, and feigning anger and indignation, ordered him away.

"Those who witnessed the horrible tragedy, the brutality of the
tyrant and the prostration of the friar were persuaded that
the latter would never survive his martyrdom. The religious
man himself holds it as a veritable portent that he outlived
such a terrible trial; but even this did not satisfy them as
subsequently the Secretary again called Father Ceferino to
subject him to a further scrutiny, as ridiculous as it was
malicious, though it did not go beyond words or insults."

Señor Perez, the governor of Isabela, and Father Diez were compelled to go to Ilagan. After they had arrived there on October 2d, Villa proceeded to torture them. At the outset ten soldiers, undoubtedly instructed beforehand, beat the governor down to the earth, with the butts of their guns. Villa himself struck him three times in the chest with the butt of a gun and Father Diez gave him absolution, thinking he was dying. Father Diez was then knocked down repeatedly with the butts of guns, being made to stand up promptly each time in order that he might be knocked down again. Not satisfied with this, Villa compelled the suffering priest to kneel before him and kicked him in the nose, repeating the operation until he left him stretched on the floor half-senseless with his nose broken. He next had both victims put in stocks with their weight supported by their feet alone. While in this position soldiers beat them and jumped onto them and one set the governor's beard on fire with matches. Father Diez was kept in the stocks four days. He was then sent to Tuguegarao in order that personal enemies there might take vengeance on him, Villa bidding him good-by with the following words: "Go now to Tuguegarao and see if they will finish killing you there." Señor Perez was kept in the stocks eight days and it is a wonder that he did not die.

Upon the 25th of September Villa went to the _convento_ in Ilagan prepared to torture the priests, but he succeeded in compelling a number of them to sign indorsements in his favour on various letters of credit payable by the Tabacalera Company and departed again in fairly good humour, having done nothing worse than strike one of them.

Later, however, on the pretext that Fathers Aguado and Labanda had money hidden away, he determined to torture them with water. The first to be tortured was Father Labanda. Villa had him taken to the prison where the priest found his two faithful Filipino servants who had been beaten cruelly and were then hanging from a beam, this having been done in order to make them tell where his money was.

He was tied after the usual fashion and water poured down his nose and throat. During the brief respites necessary in order to prevent his dying outright he was cruelly beaten. They finally dragged him out of the prison by the feet, his head leaving a bloody trail on the stones. After he had been taken back to his companions, one of the men who had tortured him came to beg his pardon, saying that he had been compelled to do it by Villa.

Father Aguado was next tortured in one of the rooms of the _convento_. Villa finished the day's work by announcing to the band of priests that he would have them all shot the next day on the plaza, and ordering them to get ready.

On the 29th the barbarities practised by this inhuman fiend reached their climax in the torturing to death of Lieutenant Piera. The following description gives some faint idea of one of the most diabolical crimes ever committed in the Philippines:--

"Villa's cruelty and sanguinary jeering grew without let
or hindrance from day to day; it seemed that this hyena
continually cudgelled his brains to invent new kinds of
torture and to jeer at the friars. On the night of the 29th of
September the diabolical idea occurred to him of giving the
_coup de grace_ to the prestige of the friars by making them
pass through the streets of Ilagan conducting and playing
a band of music. He carried out his nonsensical purpose by
calling upon Father Diogracias to play the big drum, and when
this priest had started playing Villa learned that Father
Primo was a musician and could therefore play the drum and
lead the band with all skill, so he called upon Father Primo
to come forward, and with one thing and another this ridiculous
function was carried on until the late hours of the night.

* * * * *

"While these two priests were serenading Villa and his
gang, the most dreadful shrieks were heard from the jail,
accompanied by pitiful cries that would melt the coldest
heart. The priests hearing these echoes of sorrow and pain,
and who did not know for what purpose Fathers Deogracias and
Primo had been separated from them, seemed to recognize the
voices of these two priests among the groans, believing them
to be cruelly tortured; for this reason they began to say
the rosary in order that the Most Holy Virgin might imbue
them with patience and fortitude in their martyrdom. Great
was their surprise when these priests returned saying that
they had contented themselves with merely making fun of them
by obliging them to play the big drum and lead the band.

"Although this somewhat tempered their sorrow, a thorn remained
in their hearts, fearing that the moving lamentations and the
mortal groans came from the lips of some hapless Spaniard. This
fatidical presentiment turned out unfortunately to be a
fact. The victim sacrificed that melancholy night, still
remembered with a shudder by the priests, was Lieutenant
Salvador Piera. This brave soldier, who had made up his
mind to die in the breach rather than surrender the town
of Aparri, was persuaded to capitulate only by the prayers
and tears of certain Spanish ladies who had been instructed
to do so by a man who should have been the first one to
shoulder a rifle. After having been harassed in Aparri he
was taken to Tuguegarao at the request of Esteban Quinta
or Isidoro Maquigat, two artful filibusters thirsting to
revenge themselves on the Lieutenant, who during the time
of the Spanish government had justly laid his heavy hand
upon them. In the latter part of September they conducted
him on foot and without any consideration whatever to the
capital of Isabela. In this town he was at once placed in
solitary confinement in one of the rooms of the _convento_
and allowed no intercourse with any one. The sin for which
they recriminated Piera was his having charged Dimas [283]
with being a filibuster, and their revengefulness reached
an incredible limit. The heartrending moans of this martyr
to his duty still resound in that _convento_ converted into
the scene of an orgy of blood. The unfortunate man was heard
to shout: 'For God's sake, for God's sake, have pity,' and
trustworthy persons tell that under the strain of torture
he would challenge them to fight in a fair field by saying:
'I will fight alone against twenty of you;' but the cowardly
torturers, a reproach to the Filipino race, looked upon it as
an amusement to glut their spite on a defenceless man whose
hands were tied. They had him strung up all night with but
insignificant refreshment and rest, sometimes being suspended
by his arms which finally became disjointed and useless, and
at others he was hung up by his feet, the blood rushing to his
head and placing him in imminent danger of sudden death. It
was the intention of these brutes to torture him as much as
possible before killing him, just as a member of the feline
race plays with, tosses in the air and pirouettes around the
victim which falls into his claws. If to the torture of the
rope are added the blows with cudgels and the butts of rifles
which were frequently rained upon the victim it will be no
surprise that early on the morning of the 30th he was in the
throes of death in the midst of which the sufferer had just
enough strength to say that he was hungry and thirsty; then
those cannibals (the heart is filled with fury in setting forth
such cruelty) cut a piece of flesh from the calf of the dying
man's leg and conveyed it to his mouth and instead of water
they gave him to drink some of his own urine. What savagery!

"The blood from the wound finished the killing of the fainting
Piera. The blood shed served to infuriate more the barbarous
executioners who in order to give the finishing stroke to the
martyr, as an unrivalled expression of their savage ferocity,
thrust a red-hot iron into his mouth and eyes. That same night
these treacherous and ferocious tyrants whose sin made them
hate the light, buried the body in the darkness of the night
in a patch of cogon grass adjoining the _convento_."

Piera's torture was by no means confined to this last night of his life, as the following account of it shows:--

"In the first days of this accursed month, while the padres
were bemoaning their fate in jail, a dark drama was being
enacted in the _convento_, whose hair-raising scenes would
have inspired terror to Montepiu himself.

"Lieutenant Salvador Piera of the Guardia Civil, commanding
officer at Aparri, who, realizing that all resistance
was useless, gave way to the persistent solicitations of
Spaniards and natives and surrendered that town on honourable
terms, which the Katipúnan forces did not respect after
the capitulation had been signed, was sent for by Villa,
the military authority of Isabela. Something terrible was
going to happen as Piera himself felt confident, for it is
said that before leaving Aparri he went to confession where
he settled the important business of his conscience in a
Christian manner with a representative of God.

"And so it turned out, for as soon as he arrived in Ilagan he
was taken to the _convento_ and placed incomunicado in one of
its apartments. Soon after, three or four vile fiends,--for
they do not deserve the name of men,--bound him with strong
cords and hanged him to a beam. Then they began to charge
him with having prosecuted a certain Mason, and inflicted
upon him the most frightful tortures. The pen refuses to set
forth so many atrocities. For three days they had him in that
position while his vile assassins made a martyr of him. Our
hair stands on end to think of such crimes. The heart-rending
cries of this unfortunate man while prey to such barbarous
torments could be heard in every part of the town and carried
panic to the homes of all the inhabitants.

"The late hours of the night were always chosen by those
treacherous fiends to give Piera the _trato de cuerda_ (this
form of torture consists in tying the hands of the victim
behind his back and hanging him by them by a rope passed
through a pulley attached to a beam; his body is lifted as
high as it will go and then allowed to fall by its own weight
without reaching the ground); but this torture was administered
to him in a form so terrible that all the pictures of this kind
of torment found in the dreadful narratives of the calumniators
of the Holy Office, pale into insignificance in comparison
with the atrocious details of the tortures here recited; at
each violent jerk the unhappy victim feeling that his limbs
were being torn asunder would cry out 'My God! My God!' This
terrifying cry reverberating through the jail would freeze
the very blood of the poor priests therein incarcerated.

"On the third day, when those infuriated hyenas appeared
to have spent their diabolical rage; after they had thrust
a red-hot iron into his eyes and left him with sightless
sockets; the poor martyr, the prey of delirium, cried out
that he was hungry, and one of those _sicarii_ cut a piece of
flesh from Piera's thigh and was infamous enough to carry it
to his mouth. On the night of the seventh of the month very
late a number of wretches buried in the _convento_ garden a
body still dripping warm blood from the lips of which there
escaped the feeble plaints of anguish of a dying man."

The feeling of the Spaniards relative to this matter is well shown by the following statement of Father Malumbres:--

"This horrible crime cannot be pardoned by God or man, and
is still uninvestigated, crying to Heaven for vengeance with
greater reason than the blood of the innocent Abel. So long
as the criminals remain unpunished it will be a black and
indelible stigma and an ugly stain on the race harbouring
in its midst the perpetrators of this unheard-of sin. Words
of reprobation are not enough, justice demands exemplary and
complete reparation, and if the powers of earth do not take
justice into their own hands, God will send fire from Heaven
and will cause to disappear from the face of the earth the
criminals and even their descendants. A murder so cruel and
premeditated can be punished in no other way.

"If the courts here should wish to punish the guilty persons
it would not be a difficult task; the public points its
finger at those who dyed their hands in the blood of the
heroic soldier, and we shall set them forth here echoing
the voice of the people. The soulless instigator was Dimas
Guzman. The executioners were a certain José Guzman (alias
Pepin, a nephew of Dimas) and Cayetano Pérez."

The matter was duly taken up in the courts, and Judge Blount himself tried the cases.

The judge takes a very mild and liberal view of the occurrence. He says of it: [284]--

"Villa was accompanied by his aide, Lieutenant Ventura
Guzman. The latter is an old acquaintance of the author
of the present volume, who tried him afterwards, in 1901,
for playing a minor part in the murder of an officer of the
Spanish army committed under Villa's orders just prior to,
or about the time of, the Wilcox-Sargent visit. He was found
guilty, and sentenced, but later liberated under President
Roosevelt's amnesty of 1902. He was guilty, but the deceased,
so the people in the Cagayan Valley used to say, in being
tortured to death, got only the same sort of medicine he had
often administered thereabouts. At any rate, that was the
broad theory of the amnesty in wiping out all these old cases."

He adds:--

"I sentenced both Dimas and Ventura to life imprisonment for
being accessory to the murder of the Spanish officer above
named, Lieutenant Piera. Villa officiated as arch-fiend on
the grewsome occasion. I am quite sure I would have hung
Villa without any compunction at that time, if I could have
gotten hold of him. I tried to get hold of him, but Governor
Taft's attorney-general, Mr. Wilfley, wrote me that Villa was
somewhere over on the mainland of Asia on British territory,
and extradition would involve application to the London Foreign
Office. The intimation was that we had trouble enough of our
own without borrowing any from feuds that had existed under
our predecessors in sovereignty. I have understood that Villa
is now practising medicine in Manila. More than one officer
of the American army that I know afterwards did things to
the Filipinos almost as cruel as Villa did to that unhappy
Spanish officer, Lieutenant Piera. On the whole, I think
President Roosevelt acted wisely and humanely in wiping the
slate. We had new problems to deal with, and were not bound
to handicap ourselves with the old ones left over from the
Spanish régime." [285]

But it happens that this was the Filipino régime. Piera's torture occurred at the very time when, according to Blount, Aguinaldo had "a wonderfully complete 'going concern' throughout the Philippine archipelago."

Furthermore, it occurred in the Cagayan valley where Blount says "perfect tranquillity and public order" were then being maintained by "the authority of the Aguinaldo government" in a country which Messrs. Wilcox and Sargent, who arrived on the scene of this barbarous murder by torture four weeks later, found so "quiet and orderly."

Not only was Blount perfectly familiar with every detail of this damnable crime, but he must of necessity have known of the torturing of friars to extort money, which preceded and followed it.

The following statement seems to sum up his view of the whole matter:--

"It is true there were cruelties practised by the Filipinos
on the Spaniards. But they were ebullitions of revenge for
three centuries of tyranny. They do not prove unfitness for
self-government. I, for one, prefer to follow the example set
by the Roosevelt amnesty of 1902, and draw the veil over all
those matters." [286]

The judge drew the veil not only over this, but, as we have seen, over numerous other pertinent matters which occurred in this land of "profound peace and tranquillity" just at the time Wilcox and Sargent were making their trip. My apologies to him for withdrawing the veil and for maintaining that such occurrences as those in question demonstrate complete and utter unfitness for self-government on the part of those who brought them about!

If it be true that Blount knew more than one officer of the American army who did things to the Filipinos almost as cruel as Villa did to Lieutenant Piera, why did he not report them and have the criminals brought to justice?

Such an attack on the army, in the course of which there is not given a name or a fact which could serve as a basis for an investigation, is cowardly and despicable.

I do not for a moment believe that Blount speaks the truth, but if he does, then his failure to attempt to bring to justice the human fiends concerned brands him!

It has been the fashion in certain quarters to make vile allegations of this sort against officers of the United States army, couching them in discreetly general terms. This is a contemptible procedure, for it frees those who make reckless charges from danger of the criminal proceedings which would otherwise doubtless be brought against them.

On arrival at Ilagan, the town where Piera was tortured to death, Blount says [287] that Messrs. Wilcox and Sargent were

"given a grand _baile_ [ball] and _fiesta_ [feast], a kind
of dinner-dance, we would call it.... From Ilagan they
proceeded to Aparri, cordially received everywhere, and
finding the country in fact, as Aguinaldo always claimed in
his proclamations of that period, seeking recognition of his
government by the Powers, in a state of profound peace and
tranquillity--free from brigandage and the like."

Within sight of the banquet hall, within hearing of the music, lay a lighter on which were huddled eighty-four priests of the Catholic Church, many of them gray-haired old men, innocent of any evil conduct, who for weeks had suffered, mentally and physically, the tortures of the damned.

Of the events of this evening and the following day Father Malumbres says:--

"From the river the _convento_ could be seen profusely
illuminated and the strains of music could be heard, an
evident sign that they were engaged in revelry. This gave us
a bad start, as we came to fear that Villa had returned from
the expedition undertaken to come up with two Americans who
had crossed the Caraballo range and were thinking of coming
down as far as Aparri. It was late to announce to Villa our
arrival at Ilagan, so that we were obliged to pass the night
on the lighter. In the morning our boat was anchored in front
of the pueblo of Ilagan, where we were credibly informed that
Villa had returned. This accursed news made us begin to fear
some disagreeable incident.

"Our Matias went ashore and delivered the official
communication regarding our transfer to Villa, while we
waited impatiently for his decision. Sergeant Matias at length
returned with orders for our disembarkation; we put on the best
clothes we had and the rowers placed a broad plank between
the lighter and the arsenal and we left our floating prison
two abreast. Matias called the roll and the order to march,
we were eighty-four friars in a long column climbing the
steep ascent to Ilagan.

"When we had arrived in front of the building used for
headquarters, we faced about in front thereof, and the
first thing we saw in one of the windows were the sinister
features of Falaris, who with a thundering brow and black
look was delighting himself in the contemplation of so many
priests surrounded by bayonets and filled with misery. Any
other person but Villa would have melted on seeing such
a spectacle, which could but incite compassion. The two
American tourists were also looking on at this horrible scene
as if stupefied, but they soon withdrew in order, perhaps,
not to look upon such a painful picture. It was, indeed,
heartrending to contemplate therein old gray-haired men who
had passed their lives in apostolic work side by side with
young men who had just arrived in this ungrateful land, and
many sick who rather than men seemed to be marble statues,
who had no recourse but to stand in line, without one word
of consolation; therein figured some who wore religious garb,
others in secular dress limited to a pair of rumpled trousers
and a cast-off coat, the lack of this luxurious garment being
replaced in some instances by a native shirt.