The Inhabitants of the Philippines Part 15

The situation was now as follows: Arizon's Brigade threatened Noveleta, Marina's Brigade threatened Rosario and Sarralde's Brigade attacked Santa Cruz--the baggage being in the centre and out of fire.

At this moment a dense ma.s.s of the enemy issuing from San Francisco, made a desperate attack upon the Spaniards nearest to them.

The whole of the division with its twelve guns, was now in action and surrounded by the enemy, Lachambre in the centre keenly watching the fight. When he judged the right moment had arrived, he ordered Arizon's Brigade to storm Noveleta.

The Brigade greeted this order with thundering shouts of "Viva Espana,"

and with the pluck that has always distinguished the Spanish soldier when well led, carried the entrenchments at a run, and fought a hand to hand combat with the defenders, who were either killed or driven out, notwithstanding that these were the very best of the rebel troops, amongst them being many of Aguinaldo's Guards, wearing a special uniform, some of them having served in the native regiments. Here, again, the 74th Native Infantry distinguished themselves by their remarkable bravery, and once more their colour was displayed from the church tower as a recognition of their valuable and loyal services.

The capture of Noveleta placed the division in communication with the marines occupying the entrenchments of Dalahican.

This action cost the division 11 killed and 58 wounded, but many hundreds of the rebels were killed.

In consequence of this, the rebels abandoned Cavite, Viejo, and Binacayan, which were occupied the following day without resistance.

The rebels, however, on the 4th, and again on the 5th, attacked the troops in Noveleta and sustained the combat for some time, killing 10 and wounding 33 Spanish, but leaving 50 of their own dead on the ground.

On the 6th the division marched from Noveleta, which was occupied by a garrison of marines, and took the direction of San Francisco, the advanced guard in extended order across the same open ground upon which the engagement of April 1st was fought. The rebel positions on the right flank were marked by lines of skirmishers with their supports and reserves. The Tagals had, however, inundated the part of this plain immediately in front of the town, and the advance was made with great difficulty; the guns and ammunition boxes having to be carried by the gunners with the a.s.sistance of the infantry. With undaunted bravery the troops struggled on under a heavy fire, but Lachambre, realising the difficulty and the danger incurred, changed the direction of the advance. The right wing under Arizon inclined to the right, and the left, under Marina, bore away to the left. Half a brigade crossed the River Ladron, notwithstanding the opposition of the rebels, and attacked the town from the east. Firmer ground was soon reached, the guns that had cost so much labour taking up, were mounted, and a rain of sh.e.l.l soon fell amongst the rebels. The infantry poured in steady volleys, advancing in the intervals of firing. The whole combined attack being within a proper distance for the final rush, Lachambre gave the word, and like greyhounds released, the Spanish and native infantry leaped to the a.s.sault. The parapet was high and deep the ditch, for the defenders had not spared their labour on it, and as the Spanish line reached the edge, the rebels boldly mounted the parapet and discharged their arms at close quarters. In this critical moment the moral superiority of the white man once more was manifest. The Spanish troops reached the parapet and a hand-to-hand combat with the bolder rebels took place, the bayonet against the spear or bolo. The less-determined of the enemy fled, and in a few minutes 120 Tagals lay dead against the parapet, and five guns and eighty rifles remained as trophies to the victors. The companies re-formed for the pursuit, but the enemy fired the thatched huts to interpose a curtain of flame between them and their pursuers; a measure which was only partially successful, for some of the troops, nimbly darting through the lanes, shot down or bayoneted many of the fugitives, killing 400 in the pursuit, besides those who died at the entrenchments. The Spanish loss was 25 killed and 125 wounded, including several officers. The fighting had lasted four hours over very difficult ground, and the troops were exhausted. Lachambre therefore camped in the town, which has many fine edifices and a s.p.a.cious, church and convent. The bells of the church, in a joyful peal, announced the Spanish triumph. The rebels were under the command of Andres Bonifacio, the President of the formidable Katipunan. This terrible blow to the insurrection was followed by the occupation of the towns of Santa Cruz and Rosario, without firing a shot.

Many of the natives had joined the rebellion under compulsion, and had long desired to submit themselves. Now they came in by hundreds every day to claim the amnesty offered by General Polavieja.

Fifty-two days had the campaign lasted, fifty-seven combats had taken place, and the total loss of the division was 1 general, 14 officers, and 168 men killed, and 56 officers and 910 men wounded. Probably a far larger number died or were invalided from disease, induced by the fatigue, exposure and privations inseparable from such a campaign, especially as most of the men were mere youths, raw recruits, and with little possibility of taking care of themselves, even if they knew how. Notwithstanding the excessive fatigue and the depressing nature of the surroundings, the Spanish troops maintained a fine martial spirit, and ever showed themselves ready to respond to the calls made upon them. They were well led by their officers, who devoted themselves unsparingly in their country's service, and they had confidence in their generals, who were untiring in their exertions to do their best for their men. Lachambre displayed the greatest solicitude for the well-being of the force under his command; whilst showing the utmost resolution, and pushing his attacks home in every case, yet he sacrificed his men as little as possible, and always had patience to wait till his flanking attacks could join in the a.s.sault. The distances the division had to traverse were very small, but the absence of roads and bridges made the provisioning of the army a matter of the utmost difficulty.

Those who know the poverty of the Spanish Army in animals, vehicles, and stores, will understand what Lachambre and his staff accomplished. On the 12th April, 1897, the division was broken up, and the brigades were stationed at various places in Cavite and the neighbouring provinces.

The general, brigadiers, officers, and troops, are fortunate in having as chronicler of their exploits, so painstaking and appreciative an officer as Lieut.-Colonel Don Federico de Monteverde y Sedano, who in his book, 'La Division Lachambre,' published in 1898, gives a detailed account of the campaign, with sketches ill.u.s.trative of the various actions. Senor Monteverde does justice to every Spaniard, from the divisional-general downwards. I could wish he had said something more about the services of the 73rd and 74th Regiments of Native Infantry, who seem to have been always in the forefront of the battle and where the hardest work was being done, as in a.s.sisting the magnificent engineer corps, without whom I doubt if the campaign could have been successful. His book, however, is invaluable to those who may have to conduct operations in the Philippines, and the invariable success achieved by Lachambre, contrasts remarkably with the failures in the early part of the rebellion, and one cannot help seeing a parallel between this little war and the greater one in South Africa. Each was mismanaged at the beginning, but as soon as the invading forces were organised in one command, success was achieved.

A few days after the breaking up of the division, General Polavieja embarked for Spain, very much broken in health. In a letter written on the 9th March to the Minister of War, Polavieja declared himself too ill to ride and asked for his relief. He, however, still remained at Paranaque, directing the campaign till after the capture of San Francisco.

The Spanish press took sides for or against him, the papers advocating the interests of the friars praised him, whilst the Liberal press held him up to ridicule.

There is no doubt that he directed the military operations in an efficient manner, but under his government the arbitrary arrests, cruelties, and tortures, inflicted upon all who were suspected of being sympathisers with the rebels, or from whom money would be extorted, that had begun under Blanco, continued and increased. For Blanco, having been informed of the cruelties inflicted, issued an order forbidding the practice.

The next governor-general was General Primo de Rivera, who had held that office from 1880 to 1883, and had found it a very profitable one. He arrived on the 23rd April and went to the front on the 29th; on the 4th May, Naic was taken, also a small place called Quintana, and Indang. At Naic there was very heavy fighting, and some at Indang.

The troops then advanced to Maragondon, which was taken on the 10th after a most stubborn resistance, the Spaniards losing many men and the rebels still more heavily.

This place was the last where the rebels made a stand, in Cavite province. After this defeat they dispersed in roving bands and kept on the move.

The whole province was a scene of desolation, towns burnt, churches bombarded, stone houses blown up, property looted, putrefying bodies lying about in hundreds, the fields laid waste, the cattle driven off, the country depopulated, a remnant of the inhabitants hiding in the woods; a few of the bolder ones returned to the ruined houses. Such was the result of this unhappy rebellion.

I have this description from an eye-witness, and he a.s.sured me that he had been told by a colonel commanding one of the most distinguished regiments engaged in the campaign, that not less than 30,000 natives lost their lives in that province alone during the rebellion.

The rebels gave no quarter to Spaniards, and the Spaniards only occasionally took prisoners. However, once taken they were usually released after being exhorted to return to their homes.

Whilst the operations of Lachambre's division were proceeding in Cavite, General Monet, with a force of 3000 men, was carrying on an indiscriminate butchery of men, women, and children, in Bulacan and Pampanga, but he displayed no military qualities, and ultimately escaped, leaving his forces to surrender.

The Spanish Volunteers in Manila continued their series of abominable outrages, although in August, Primo de Rivera issued a decree forbidding intimidation, plundering and ravishing. He was ultimately obliged to disband them.

Driven out of Cavite, the remnant of the rebels under Aguinaldo took refuge in the hills and held a strong position near Angat, in the province of Bulacan. As it would have taken a long time to reduce them, Primo de Rivera tried conciliation, and employed Don Pedro Paterno, a native gentleman of means, who had been educated in Spain, as mediator. By his instrumentality, an arrangement was arrived at which, after being approved by the Government in Madrid, was signed by the mediator as attorney for the rebels and the governor-general for Spain.

This, known as the pact of Biak-na-bato, was signed on December 14th, 1897.

In consequence, Aguinaldo and a number of the prominent rebels were escorted to Hong Kong by a relative of the governor-general, and there received a sum of $400,000, being the first instalment of the sum agreed upon.

They lived in a quiet and economical manner upon their own resources. They did not divide the indemnity nor convert it to their own use, but kept it as a war fund in case of need.

The event showed the wisdom of this course, for Primo de Rivera had led them to understand that an amnesty and reforms were to follow, but, apparently, had caused the Spanish Government to look upon the arrangement in a very different light, and he subsequently denied that any treaty existed. No reforms were ever granted, and things in Luzon went on in the same old way. The friars joined in raising a large subscription for Primo de Rivera, and this seemed to incline him more favourably towards them.

The amnesty was disregarded, and the priests continued their arbitrary courses against those who had been concerned in the rebellion. Bands of marauders infested the provinces and the country was in a very unsettled state, some insurgent bands approaching Cavite.

On March 24th, the 74th Regiment of Native Infantry in garrison at that town, the regiment that had distinguished itself so remarkably in Lachambre's division, being always in the front, was ordered to march out against them. Whatever the reason, whether they felt that their splendid services had not been duly acknowledged, or, as is likely, their pay was months in arrears, they refused to march against their own countrymen. Eight corporals were called out of the ranks and shot then and there in the presence of the regiment, which was again ordered to advance, and a threat made that a refusal would mean death to all.

All did refuse and were sent to barracks to await sentence. The next morning the entire regiment with arms and equipment, marched out and deserted in a body to the insurgents, saying they were willing to fight the foreign enemies of Spain, but not against their own friends. The following day another regiment joined them, but I have no note of its number.

It was now that an event occurred in Manila that showed how little desire there was amongst the Spaniards to treat the natives with ordinary justice, much less to conciliate them.

This was the ma.s.sacre of the Calle de Camba, quite a short distance from the American Consulate, and it was perpetrated on the 25th and 26th of March. On the first of those day a number of Visayan sailors from the vessels in the Pasig had a.s.sembled in a house in the above street, which was their usual resort.

Somehow the story got about that an illegal a.s.sembly was being held, and the police, without more ado, attacked the meeting and shot down a dozen, taking sixty-two prisoners. The next morning the whole of these prisoners were marched to the cemetery, and all shot, though many them were known to have been merely pa.s.sing by at the time.

This is vouched for by Mr. Oscar F. Williams in an official letter to Mr. Cridler, dated 27th March, 1898. It could hardly have been a mere coincidence that a revolt of the Visayas broke out about ten days later, when they made a desperate attack upon the city of Cebu in which many lives were lost and much property damaged.

It seems hardly worth while to relate any more instances of Tagal revenge or Spanish brutality. The country that had been almost pacified was now again in revolt and amongst the insurgents were two battalions of well-trained and veteran troops.

But now events were impending of transcendent importance--the Spanish-American War had broken out.

Previously, however, Primo de Rivera left Manila to return to Spain, but before going he granted an amnesty to all who had tortured suspected persons to extort evidence from them.

Some of the victims had died under torture rather than bear witness against their friends, for the Tagal is a Stoic after the manner of the Red Indian. Others survive, mere wrecks, maimed for life, and living mementoes of Spanish cruelty.

Torture for extracting evidence from suspected persons is illegal in all Christian countries and their dependencies, and also in j.a.pan, but has not yet been entirely routed out in British India nor in Egypt. In 1897, four cases of police torture in the North-West Provinces and Oudh, ended in convictions.

In Spain, some police officers are now on their trial for applying the thumb-screw to the fingers of anarchist prisoners in the Castle of Monjuich with such severity, that one of them, a railway porter, lost the use of his hands and arms. And Ysabelo de los Reyes, a native of Ilocos, declares that he was tortured in the same prison by thirst, having been fed upon salt food and deprived of water.

Last March (1900), a captain of police was tried at Sambor, in Austrian Galicia, for torturing prisoners with the thumb-screw and by deprivation of food, and was sentenced to a long term of imprisonment. In Corea, China, and Siam, torture forms part of the legal procedure before sentence, to say nothing of the various and lingering deaths the judge may order after the prisoner has confessed. Let us hope that now there will be no more of it in the Philippines.

CHAPTER XII.

THE AMERICANS IN THE PHILIPPINES.

Manila Bay--The naval battle of Cavite--General Aguinaldo--Progress of the Tagals--The Tagal Republic--Who were the aggressors?--Requisites for a settlement--Scenes of drunkenness--The estates of the religious orders to be restored--Slow progress of the campaign--Colonel Funston's gallant exploits--Colonel Stotsenburg's heroic death--General Antonio Luna's gallant rally of his troops at Macabebe--Reports manipulated--Imaginary hills and jungles--Want of co-operation between army and navy--Advice of Sir Andrew Clarke--Naval officers as administrators--Mr. Whitelaw Reid's denunciations--Senator h.o.a.r's opinion--Mr. McKinley's speech at Pittsburgh--The false prophets of the Philippines--Tagal opinion of American Rule--Senor Mabini's manifesto--Don Macario Adriatico's letter--Foreman's prophecy--The administration misled--Racial antipathy--The curse of the Redskins--The recall of General Otis--McArthur calls for reinforcements--Sixty-five thousand men and forty ships of war--State of the islands--Aguinaldo on the Taft Commission.