Part 48 (1/2)
The heat was intense and increasing perceptibly. It was impossible to provide shade for the troops in parts of the line.
On the 21st the following remarkable dispatch was received from General Otis:
”Manila, Feb. 21.--Adjutant-General, Was.h.i.+ngton: Following issued by an important officer of insurgent government at Malolos February 15, 1899, for execution during that evening and night in this city:
”'You will so dispose that at 8 o'clock at night the individuals of the territorial militia at your order will be found united in all of the streets of San Pedro, armed with their bolos and revolvers or guns and ammunition, if convenient.
”'Philippine families only will be respected. They should not be molested, but all other individuals, of whatever race they may be, will be exterminated without any compa.s.sion after the extermination of the army of occupation.
”'The defenders of the Philippines in your command will attack the guard at Bilibid and liberate the prisoners and ”presidiarios,” and, having accomplished this, they will be armed, saying to them:
”'”Brothers, we must avenge ourselves on the Americans and exterminate them, that we may take our revenge for the infamy and treachery which they have committed upon us; have no compa.s.sion upon them; attack with vigor. All Filipinos en ma.s.se will second you. Long live Filipino independence.”
”'The order which will be followed in the attack will be as follows: The sharpshooters of Tondo and Santa Ana will begin the attack from without and these shots will be the signal for the militia of Troso Binondo, Quiata and Sampaloe to go out into the street and do their duty; those of Pake, Ermita and Malate, Santa Cruz and San Miguel will not start out until 12 o'clock unless they see that their companions need a.s.sistance.
”'The militia of Tondo will start out at 3 o'clock in the morning; if all do their duty our revenge will be complete. Brothers, Europe contemplates us; we know how to die as men, shedding our blood in defense of the liberty of our country. Death to the tyrants.
”'War without quarter to the false Americans who have deceived us.
”'Either independence or death.'”
There is not sufficient reason to a.s.sume that this paper setting forth an order to carry out a conspiracy of house burning and a.s.sa.s.sination is beyond belief. It is characteristic of the Filipino literature that relates to Americans. General Otis is a man whose communications may be relied upon absolutely. He is a believer in the exact truth and has shown exemplary care in stating it. The Filipino faction of warriors are habitually false, and wherever they have an agent, are circulating falsehoods manufactured to order. The Junta of the Aguinaldo pretenders, issued at Hongkong a statement as follows:
”Information which has leaked through the Pinkertons, sent by President McKinley to investigate the s.h.i.+pment of arms to the Filipinos, shows that the first s.h.i.+pments to Aguinaldo were made by order of the American government, through Consul Wildman, hence the s.h.i.+pment per the Wing Foi. The American government subsequently telegraphed to cease this, coincident with the change of policy to annexation.
”Mr. Wildman and Rear Admiral Dewey promised to pay, but have not yet paid, for a subsequent expedition by the Abbey, authorized by Admiral Dewey, who afterward seized the steamer, and it is still held. Papers respecting this are now in the possession of the Secretary of the Navy.
”The protestations of Admiral Dewey and other Americans that they made no promises are ridiculous. In view of these facts let the American people judge how the nation's word of honor was pledged to the Filipinos and confided in by them, and violated by the recent treachery of General Otis.”
There may be an occasional member of Congress who cannot help believing this, but he does not allow his ignorance to be moderated by any ingredient of information.
On the same day the above publication appeared there was given at Hongkong to the American Consul, Wildman, news of the ”discovery of 20,000 rifles and 2,000,000 cartridges stored on lighters at Nankin by Filipinos and ready for s.h.i.+pment to the islands. The American Minister promptly induced the Chinese authorities to impound the munitions, thus inflicting a hard blow to Aguinaldo.
”The extraordinary thing is that the j.a.panese government sold the arms to the regular agent of the Filipinos at Yokohama, although, for the sake of appearances, a form of auction was used. The j.a.panese officials, it develops, offered 100,000 rifles, with machinery for loading and ammunition, to the Filipinos in September.
”Traitorous Americans here are aiding the insurgents to smuggle arms. Agoncillo's dispatches are leading the Filipinos to believe President McKinley intends to treat with them.”
The official correspondence of the American Consuls at Singapore, Manila and Hongkong with the State Department, proves that there was no treaty with Aguinaldo, no deception so far as our Government was concerned, and that he was a professor of Americanism, talking of annexation and a protectorate and his grat.i.tude; and then a sulking and swollen little creature; as Wildman wrote, a spoiled child, requiring flatteries to keep him in a good humor. Admiral Dewey was very careful never to promise Aguinaldo anything--giving him some old guns and encouraging him to keep the Spaniards busy, but never presuming or allowing it to be a.s.sumed that he was speaking for our Government. By way of Seattle we have an extract of a letter written by an insurgent officer at Hongkong in these terms:
”More than 25,000 families have left Manila since we began our war on the Americans. American soldiers are deserting and presenting themselves to our officers. In order to get the American troops who were ordered to Iloilo on board the transport many of the men had first been made drunk, others were embarked forcibly. They all protested against going, saying that they had come to fight Spaniards, not Filipinos. After the boat got under way the men mutinied. Many jumped overboard and swam ash.o.r.e. Those who remained began to wreck all parts of the vessel.”
The intensity of the folly of the Filipinos making war upon the United States is on exhibition in this letter, and it is serviceable as a measure of their intelligence. It is with this equipment of elementary knowledge that Agoncillo is in Europe to solicit the intervention of the great powers for his country and a.s.serts that he lost Dewey's letters in a s.h.i.+pwreck. He should exploit his mission in Madrid.
It was on the nights of the 22nd and 23d of February that an effort was made by the Filipinos to burn Manila. The attempt to destroy property closely resembled in the stealthy preliminaries, and desperate strife to burn the city, the cunningly prepared first attack upon the American army, repulsed with a slaughter that has moved deeply the sympathies of our statesmen opposed to the administration of our Government the growth of the country and the public honor. The fact is they are sentimentalists in decay or degenerates running for a decline and fall.
There was some fighting in the streets during the night, but the Americans quickly quelled the uprising. A number of the insurgents were killed and several American soldiers severely wounded. A large market place was the first to burn. Between six and seven hundred residences and business houses were destroyed. Fires started at several points simultaneously, and, spreading with great rapidity, resisted efforts to control them. Hundreds of homeless natives were huddled in the streets, making the patrol duty of the Americans difficult. The fire was started in three places. Native sharpshooters were concealed behind corner buildings. They shot at every American in sight. Flames burst forth simultaneously from Santa Cruz, San Nicolas and Tondo. From these points the fire spread. In a short time a great part of the city was burning. Notwithstanding the continual activity of the hidden sharpshooters the American garrison turned out and fought the fire. In many cases they had first to drive away the lurking a.s.sa.s.sins.
No one of our troops was killed, but seven members of the Minnesota regiment ere wounded making a rush into the burning Tondo quarter. Captain C. Robinson of Company C was one of the wounded. The troops were rallied from some of the outlying encampments, quickly spread through all parts of the city and subdued what was evidently planned for a general uprising and ma.s.sacre.
The fire lasted all night. The native rebels in the city have been completely checked by the prompt work of General Otis and the other commanders. It is evident that the incendiaries and a.s.sa.s.sins believed that the entire town would be destroyed and with it the foreign residents and the American soldiers.