Part 13 (1/2)
The alleged outlaws, who were really persons who had been wronged in the land troubles, were pardoned and from their number under their former chief was organized a corps of rural guards which speedily brought a theretofore unknown tranquillity.
No wonder the Filipinos gave to the new administration an honor unknown to his predecessors, the spontaneous tribute of a popular serenade.
Twenty-one months pa.s.sed and De La Torre was replaced by Izquierdo, for whom he conscientiously compiled an explanation of his administration that the new authority might intelligently carry on the work. But reaction came, those who had applauded De La Torre for that reason found themselves in disfavor.
As a precaution Governor De La Torre had had all foreign mail examined and the list of men of liberal ideas thus obtained was the basis of the persecutions which followed the executions and wholesale exiling nominally connected with Cavite.
An old man, he retired to his family estates, once broad but sadly shrunken through his years of liberality. There from Pozorubio he wrote his defence against the charge of being responsible for the uprising of Cavite.
Contrast the brave words of the Governor-General upon his first coming to the Philippines, and his expressions after the conclusion of his office when he was upon the defensive.
”As good, honored and loyal, you are recognized as our brothers. * * *
I shall indicate to you the salient features that will characterize my administration, which I hope will be as my character dictates, foreign to all kinds of repression, because command is more pleasant when it is chosen by those who are under the necessity of being affected by it.”
And on the defensive: ”I have governed, with justice and, honesty, conformably to the special laws of that country, without consenting or permitting the slightest alteration in them, and what is more, without permitting in the newspapers of Manila any discussion nor even any allusion as to whether or no it were desirable to alter or modify those laws.”
Yet that was the most liberal period of Philippine history under Spanish rule. Twenty odd years later another liberal Governor of the Philippines defended himself against the charge of too great humanity by telling of how many men he had ordered shot.
Sorry indeed was Spain when a De La Torre had to save himself with his countrymen in the Peninsula by exaggerating his despotism and a Blanco found his only defense in magnifying his brutality. There's a contrast with the present regime which marks 1898 as the beginning of different days, and the men of the old era are ent.i.tled to the charitable consideration which belongs to those who come out of great tribulation.
Biographical details and incidents of De La Torre's administration would detract from the one great lesson which paints the past in its true colors and reveals how the Filipino people found themselves without hope and came to resort to the weapon of despair, insurrection. The outcome of the events of 1869 was the origin of the events of 1896.
THE REBELLION IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS
(A British magazine article of 1896, by John Foreman.)
At this crisis, when the development of j.a.pan is attracting public attention, the following paragraph in a recent issue of the St. James Gazette would be highly instructive were it based on real facts. That journal says:--
”This revolt, in fact, is really a consequence, to some extent, of the rising power of j.a.pan in Far Eastern waters. Having acquired Formosa and become ambitious of a territorial and commercial empire, the eyes of the j.a.panese have lately been eagerly directed towards the next islands to the south; and the weakness of Spain is regarded as the opportunity of j.a.pan. But it is quite another matter whether the European powers will take the same view.”
Those who have been long resident in the Far East and are well informed on the subject do not take that view at all. From the facts which I am about to give regarding this rebellion it will be clearly seen that the above statement is merely a hypothetical conjecture.
A plot was formed, at the instance of rich Chinese half-breeds, to murder all the Europeans. The priests choose to call this secret society ”freemasonry,” whilst the conspirators themselves style their body the ”Katipunan,” which simply means the ”League.” Each member, on being sworn in, made the ”blood compact,” which consists of an incision in the arm or leg whence the blood was taken to inscribe the roll of brotherhood. The general ma.s.sacre of whites was to have taken place on the night of the 20th of August last, but at almost the last hour a woman came to Father Mariano Gil, the parish priest of Tondo--a suburb of Manila--and paved the way for a repentant member of the League to make his full confession of the plot under a promise of immunity from punishment. The promise was given and the confession made. An hour afterwards the civil guard was on the track of the princ.i.p.al leaders of the movement. Three hundred known malcontents were arrested in a few hours in the capital and adjacent provinces of Bulacan and Pampanga and further arrests having since been effected daily, the Manila prisons are overcrowded with suspects and proved delinquents. Room for more is being made by the periodical s.h.i.+pping off of batches of prisoners to the Caroline Islands, Mindanao Island, Fernando Po, and other distant possessions. I have just learnt from the secretary of the military court that at this moment there are 4,377 individuals awaiting trial by court-martial. Many of the richest men in the colony, the leaders of Manila society, such as it is, figure amongst the promoters of this conspiracy. Pedro Rojas, a wealthy Chinese half-caste and popularly supposed to be the prime mover of the rebellion, accepted the hospitality of the Governor-General in his palace only forty-eight hours before the hour destined to witness the general ma.s.sacre. The most curious fact--which no one dares to discuss in public--is that this man, denounced by all, was allowed to quietly leave the colony. He embarked in a steamer, ostensibly for Spain, but left it at Singapore and is supposed to be residing in some Asiatic port to watch events. The arch-agitator, Jose Rizal, who had been purging himself of his former misdemeanors by a two years' banishment to the south, was sent as a prisoner to Spain, where he was confined in the Catalunian fortress of Montjuich for a few days and then s.h.i.+pped back to Manila for trial.
It appears that some months ago a deputation of Philippine natives went to j.a.pan and presented a pet.i.tion to the Mikado, praying his Majesty to annex these Islands. The pet.i.tion was signed, it is said, by 5,000 natives and half-breeds. The j.a.panese Government, far from regarding the troubled condition of Spanish affairs as their opportunity, forwarded the pet.i.tion to the Spanish Government, thus the names of 5,000 disaffected persons became known to the authorities here and were inscribed in their Black Book. No measures, however, were taken until the storm was about to burst. Intense excitement prevailed amongst the Europeans as the names of the 300 arrested were disclosed, for they were not mostly individuals known to us personally or by repute. But since then three months have lingered on, with the daily arrests of so many men of position that we are prepared to meet the most startling event with perfect equanimity.