The Inhabitants of the Philippines Part 13

They also had some bra.s.s mortars like quart pots, which are used for firing salutes on feast days. These they fastened at an angle to blocks of wood, thus making small howitzers, quite effective at short range. They loaded these with the punchings from boiler-plates and broken cooking-pots.

They showed a considerable ingenuity in making cannon out of any materials at hand. They would take a steel boiler-tube, a stay tube for choice, say about three inches bore and a quarter of an inch thick. Plugging up one end and drilling a touch-hole, they would drive this tube into a hole bored in a log of hard wood turned on the outside to a taper, then they drove eight or nine wrought-iron rings over the wood. They drilled through the wood to suit the touch-hole and the gun was ready.

They fitted no trunnions, but mounted this rude cannon upon a solid block of wood.

In other cases they made some wire guns by lapping steel boiler-tubes with telegraph-wire.

Towards the end of the campaign of Lachambre's division against the rebels, some modern field-pieces of eight centimetres were captured from them, but it is not clear where these came from.

To supplement their scanty stock of rifles, they made some hand-guns of gas-tube. These were fired by applying a match or lighted cigar to the touch-hole, and would seem to be very clumsy weapons. But I may say that when on a visit to the estate of Palpa, in Peru, I saw a Chinaman who was in charge of the poultry corral, kill a hawk hovering, with a similar gun.

The Spanish Military and Naval Authorities now took the revolt very seriously, and on the 8th November the squadron comprising the Castilla, Reina Cristina, and other vessels, and the guns of the forts at Cavite and Puerto Vaga, opened upon the rebel position at Cavite, Viejo, Noveleta, Binancayan, and other places within range, and kept it up for hours. The next morning the firing was resumed at daylight, supplemented by the guns from launches and boats well insh.o.r.e. Troops were landed under the protection of the squadron, and advanced against the entrenchments of Binancayan. They delivered three frontal attacks with great gallantry, reaching the parapet each time, but were beaten back, leaving many dead upon the ground. No flanking attack was possible here for the parapet extended for many miles each way.

A simultaneous attack was made upon Noveleta by a column of 3000 Spanish and native infantry under Colonel Fermin Diaz Mattoni.

This force started from Cavite and marched through Dalahican and along the road to Noveleta. This road is a raised causeway running through a mangrove swamp, having deep mud on each side impa.s.sable for troops. This is at least a mile of swamp, and the troops advanced along the causeway and crossed a bridge which spanned a muddy creek.

No enemy was in sight, and the town was not far off. Suddenly the head of the column fell into a most cunningly devised pitfall. The road had been dug out, the pit covered with wattle, and the surface restored to its original appearance. The bottom of the pit was set with pointed bamboo stakes which inflicted serious wounds upon those that fell upon them.

At the moment of confusion the rebels opened a withering fire from concealed positions amongst the mangroves upon the column standing in the open.

The Spaniards and native troops made great efforts to get forward, but could not stand the fire and had to retire. When they got back to the bridge it was down, and they had to wade across the creek under a close fire from the rebels hidden amongst the mangroves. In this action the Spaniards are said to have lost 600 killed and many hundreds wounded. The loss fell princ.i.p.ally on the 73rd and 74th Regiments of Native Infantry.

The rebels were greatly encouraged, and got possession of a large number of rifles, with ammunition and accoutrements.

Both these attacks were made under the direction of General Blanco, who witnessed them from a lofty staging erected within the lines of Dalahican. After these disasters he resumed the defensive, except that the squadron and the batteries at Cavite and Puerto Vaga frequently bombarded the rebel positions.

At this time thousands of natives were in prison in Manila awaiting their trial. A permanent court-martial had been organised to try the suspects. Great numbers were shot, and many hundreds were transported to the Caroline Islands, to Ceuta, and Fernando Po. Wealthy natives were mercilessly blackmailed, and it is reported that those who were discharged had to pay large sums for their release.

The Spanish Volunteers in Manila committed many arbitrary and even outrageous actions, and aroused the hatred of the natives far more than the regular troops did. They allowed their patriotism to carry them into most lamentable excesses.

On the 25th February a rising and mutiny of the Carbineers or Custom-House Guards took place in Manila at the captain of the port's office. The scheme miscarried and was only partially successful. The officer on duty was shot, and also the sergeant, and the rebels made off with some rifles and ammunition.

The volunteers and some troops hastily called together pursued the rebels through Tondo as far as the Leper Hospital, till nightfall, the last volley being fired at 6.15 P.M. In this affair the mutineers lost a great many men, but some of them got away and joined the rebels.

Blanco had not been severe enough with the rebels or suspected rebels to please the friars. His management of the attacks upon Noveleta and Binancayan had been faulty, and his health was bad. It was not surprising, having the priests against him, and the military dissatisfied, that he was recalled. He left at the end of 1896. General Polavieja, an officer who had risen from the ranks by his military talents, and who, when serving in Cuba, had very accurately gauged the situation, and had made a remarkably clever report to the government, was sent out to replace Blanco. Polavieja was inexorable with the rebels and their sympathisers. Military executions took place about once a week for two months. Francisco Roxas, a mestizo ship-owner, Numeriano Adriano, and many other mestizos and natives were shot at the Paseo de la Luneta.

On December 6th the prisoners in Cavite jail rose, murdered their jailer, and attempted to escape. One hundred and fifty prisoners were concerned in this affair. Of these, forty-seven were shot in the streets of the town, and twenty-one were captured, whilst thirteen were shot in the bushes behind Canacao. Those recaptured were tried for prison-breaking, and were all shot the next morning.

By the beginning of 1897, a large number of troops had arrived from Spain. They were, however, largely conscripts, raw youths who had never handled a rifle, mere raw material in fact, sent out without uniform or equipment, many having only what they stood up in, or at most, having a spare shirt and a singlet tied up in a handkerchief. We talk about the shortcomings of our War Office officials, and certainly they sometimes give examples of wooden-headed stupidity, and are behind the age in many particulars. But for deliberate inhumanity, for utter callousness to human suffering, to loss of health and life, I think the Spanish War Office could hardly be outdone. And I speak of their misdeeds from personal knowledge in the Philippines and in Cuba. What an enormous amount of suffering was caused to the working-people of Spain by the sending to Cuba and to the Philippines of over 200,000 men in 1895-96. Never in this generation were men shipped away so dest.i.tute of clothing, provisions, surgeons and medical comforts. Never have I seen troops in the field with such wretched equipment, or so devoid of transport, tents, and supplies.

Whatever successes they achieved were secured by the inborn valour of the troops, and by extraordinary exertions on the part of the generals and staff to improvise on the spot what the national treasury should have supplied them with at the commencement of hostilities.

The raw recruits having been drilled and exercised with the rifle were organised in fifteen battalions and called Cazadores (cha.s.seurs). These battalions, with four regiments of native infantry and some native volunteers, were formed into brigades under Generals Cornell, Marina, Jaramillo and Galbis. The first three brigades const.i.tuted a division, which was placed under the command of General Lachambre, an officer of great energy, and of long experience in the Cuban wars.

By the beginning of 1897 the Tagal rebellion had concentrated its forces in the province of Cavite. Embers of rebellion still smouldered in other provinces of Luzon, but many rebels from outlying places had thrown in their lot with those of Cavite, and in great numbers, very indifferently supplied with arms and ammunition, but amply with provisions, they confidently awaited the long-prepared attack of the Spanish forces behind the formidable entrenchments that their persevering labour had raised. In the interval they had organised themselves after a fashion, and had inst.i.tuted a reign of terror wherever they held sway.

The organisation of the rebels in the province of Cavite was of a somewhat confused nature, and seemed to respond to the ambition and influence of particular individuals rather than to any systematic principle.

Thus Silang was declared a vice-royalty under Victor Belarmino, styled Victor I.

The rest of the province was divided into two districts, each ruled by a council; the first was Imus and its vicinity, under Bernardino Aguinaldo with ministers of war, of the treasury, of agriculture and of justice.

The second was San Francisco de Malabon, presided over by Mariano Alvarez, with ministers of state as above.

But above the kingdom of Silang and the two republics, the President of the Katipunan, Andres Bonifacio, held sway as lieutenant of the Generalissimo Emilio Aguinaldo. He resided in his palace at San Francisco, and from there dictated his orders. The supreme power was in the hands of Aguinaldo.

All these authorities exercised despotic power, and certainly ill-treated and robbed their own countrymen who did not desire to join them, far more than the Spaniards have ever done in the worst of times. They frequently inflicted the death-penalty, and their so-called courts-martial no more thought of acquitting an accused person than a regimental court-martial in England would. The terrible President of the Katipunan ultimately became a victim of one of these blood-thirsty tribunals.

Their military organization was curious. The province was sub-divided into military zones. First Silang, second Imus, third Bacoor, fourth San Francisco de Malabon, fifth Alfonso. Each zone had an army which consisted of all the population able to work, and was divided into two parts, the active or fighting force and the auxiliary but non-combatant part. The active force was divided into regiments and companies, and these last into riflemen and spearmen, there being commonly five of the latter to one of the former. Besides the usual military ranks, they inst.i.tuted the following functionaries:

Minister of Marine Marcelo de los Santos.

Princ.i.p.al Chaplain to the Forces Eladio Almeyda.

Intendant-General of Taxes Silvestre Aguinaldo.

General of Artillery Crispulo Aguinaldo.

Inspector of Ordnance Factories Edilberto Evangelista.

General of Engineers Judge Advocate General Santos Nocon.

All the above held the rank of lieutenant-general. The badges of rank were as follows:

Rebel Badges of Rank.

Generalissimo, K on the hat or cap.

Z. L. I. B. on the arm.

Vertically stacked Maltese cross, K, and Maltese cross on the left breast.

Lieutenant Generals, K in concentric circles with eight segments.

Marshals, K in lower half of concentric circles.

Brigadiers, K in triangle with circle at each corner.

Colonels, Three K's surrounding Maltese cross.

K Majors, K K

The Ministers, K

The Secretary to the Generalissimo, K K K

The rebels occupied the whole of the province of Cavite, except the fortified town of that name containing the naval a.r.s.enal, and a small strip on the sh.o.r.es of the Laguna where the Spanish troops were posted.

Cornell's brigade was at Calamba and Marina's brigade at Binan. They had outlying detachments amounting to 1500 men at Santa Cruz, Santo Domingo, Tayabas, and along the line from Tanauan to Banadero, leaving each brigade 4000 men for the advance into the rebel territory. The divisional troops numbered about 1300, making a total of 9300 combatants.