Triumphant Progress of the Rebels.
Dewey’s victory wonderfully increased the morale of the rebel army; while the Spaniards daily lost hope. In two weeks after landing, Aguinaldo had assembled a force of 3000 men with arms, and fought many skirmishes. He had also captured two strong batteries, and taken the whole province of Cavité. He had made sixteen hundred Spanish prisoners, and supplied his men with over 4000 rifles and with several field-guns captured from the enemy.
On May 30th the Spaniards attacked the rebels, intrenched in a strong position at Zapote. The engagement was a very severe one and lasted ten hours, the Spaniards being forced to retire with a loss of 500 killed and wounded.
The rebels, now numbering about 5000, full of enthusiasm, and well-armed, then attacked the Fourth, Sixth, and Eleventh Cazadores, and several companies of the Sixty-eighth and Seventy-fourth regiments. The natives in the last regiment deserted, after first killing their own officers. The Spaniards were beaten back with severe losses, and the rebels, with important reinforcements, then routed the enemy, taking many prisoners. Not long after, the capital of the province of Batangas was taken by the insurgents, and the Governor attempted to commit suicide. The Governor of the province of Malabra was also taken prisoner, and town after town, province after province, yielded to the victorious rebels, who daily grew stronger and gradually closed in on the capital. Outside, in the bay, was anchored Dewey’s victorious American squadron, calmly awaiting reinforcements from home. With these he would aid Aguinaldo to prosecute the war on land.