Part 18 (1/2)
The central plain with five provinces has already been fully described. If to this plain you add its two wings, above mentioned, you have the nine provinces of central Luzon you see on the map. And if to them you add the six provinces of the Ilocos country and the three of the Cagayan valley, you have clearly before you the political make-up of northern Luzon--eighteen provinces in all. When central Luzon was arranged by districts under the military occupation, it was divided into three parts, the Third, Fourth, and Fifth districts of the Department of Northern Luzon, the Third District being under General Jacob H. Smith of Samar fame, [286] the Fourth under General Funston, and the Fifth under General Grant. The Sixth and last district of northern Luzon was made up of the city of Manila and adjacent territory.
General Smith's district, the Third, comprised the provinces of
Province Area (sq. m.) Population
Zambales 2,125 104,549 Pangasinan 1,193 397,902 Tarlac 1,205 135,107 ----- ------- 4,523 637,558
Pangasinan with its near 400,000 people is the largest, in point of population, of the twenty-five provinces of Luzon, and the third largest of the archipelago.
General Funston's district, the Fourth, comprised the provinces of
Province Area (sq. m.) Population
Nueva Ecija 2,169 134,147 Principe [287] 331 15,853 ----- ------- 2,500 150,000
General Grant's district, the Fifth, comprised the provinces of
Province Area (sq. m.) Population
Bataan 537 46,787 Pampanga 868 223,754 Bulacan 1,173 223,742 ----- ------- 2,578 494,283
2,500 150,000 ===== ======= Totals, 4th and 5th Districts: 5,078 644,283
It will be seen from the foregoing that the Third District was nearly equal in area to the Fourth and Fifth added together, and that the same was true as to its population figure.
Just as the six provinces of the Ilocano country, first occupied by General Young and organized as ”The First District of the Department of Northern Luzon,” should some day evolve into a State of Ilocos, and the three provinces of the Cagayan valley, occupied by Colonel Hood as the Second District, into an ultimate State of Cagayan, so the provinces of General Smith's old district, the Third, should finally become a State of Pangasinan. [288] This Third District may be conveniently recollected as accounting for, roughly speaking, 4500 square miles of territory and 625,000 people. The total combined area of General Funston's old district, the Fourth, [289] and the adjacent one, the Fifth, General Grant's district, is--roughly--5000 square miles, and its total population 650,000. No reason is apparent why these two districts, the Fourth and Fifth, should not ultimately evolve into a State of Pampanga. The five original military districts, [290] which in 1900 const.i.tuted all of the Department of Northern Luzon except the city of Manila and vicinity, might make four ultimate states, with names, areas, and populations as follows:
State Area (sq. m.) Population
Ilocos 6,500 650,000 Cagayan 12,000 300,000 Pangasinan 4,500 625,000 Pampanga 5,000 650,000 ------ --------- 28,000 2,225,000
It may surprise the reader after all the blood and thunder to which his attention has hereinabove been subjected, apropos of northern Luzon and the winter of 1899-1900, to know that the insurgents were still bearding the lion in his den, i. e., General Otis in Manila, by operating in very considerable force in the village-dotted country within cannon-shot of the road from Manila to Cavite in January, 1900. Nevertheless such was the case.
On the 4th of January, 1900, General J. C. Bates was a.s.signed to the command of the First Division of the Eighth Army Corps, General Lawton's old division, and an active campaign was commenced in southern Luzon. The plan adopted was that General Wheaton with a strong force should engage and hold the enemy in the neighborhood of Cavite, while General Schwan, starting at the western horn of the half moon to which the great lake called Laguna de Bay has already been likened, should move rapidly down the west sh.o.r.e of the lake, and around its south sh.o.r.e to Santa Cruz near its eastern end, or horn, garrisoning the towns en route, as taken, instead of leaving them to be re-occupied by the insurgents. Santa Cruz is the same place where General Lawton had ”touched second base,” as it were, with a flying column in April, 1899.
This plan was duly carried out. The Schwan column started from San Pedro Macati, the initial rendezvous, a few miles out of Manila, on January 4, 1900, now garrisoning the towns en route, instead of leaving them to be fought over and captured again as heretofore. The first stiff fight we had in that campaign was at Binan, on January 6, 1900, one of the places General Lawton's expedition had taken when he fought his way over the same country the year before. O. K. Davis and John T. McCutcheon, who were in that fight and campaign--in fact one of them had the ice-cold nerve to photograph the Binan fight while it was going on, as I learned when we all went down to the creek near the town, after we took it, to freshen up--can testify that we did not then hear any nonsense about a ”Tagal” insurrection, such as Secretary of War Root's Report for 1899, published shortly before, is full of, and that on the contrary the whole country was as much a unit against us and as loyal to the Aguinaldo government as northern Luzon had been. And inasmuch as I am doing some ”testifying” along here myself, and a.s.suming to brush aside without the slightest hesitation, as wholly erroneous, information conveyed to the American public at the time in the state papers of President McKinley and Secretary of War Root, it is only due the reader, whose attention is being seriously asked, that ”the witness” should ”qualify” as to the opportunities he may have had, if any, to know whereof he speaks, concerning the character of the opposition. To that end, the following doc.u.ment, which General Schwan was kind enough to send me afterwards, is submitted as sent:
EXTRACT COPY.
Headquarters Detachment Macabebe Scouts.
The Adjutant General, Schwan's Expeditionary Brigade: