Of it Blount says:—
“In this cablegram the Admiral most unfortunately repeated as true some wild rumours then currently accepted by the Europeans and Americans at Manila which, of course, were impossible of verification. I say ‘unfortunately’ with some earnestness, because it does not appear on the face of his message that they were mere rumours. And, that they were wholly erroneous, in point of fact, has already been cleared up in previous chapters, wherein the real state of peace, order, and tranquillity which prevailed throughout Luzón at that time has been, it is believed, put beyond all doubt.”[6]
Blount seems here to have overlooked the fact that the admiral himself was in Manila Bay and in Manila City at the time he sent this cablegram. The statements in question were not rumours, they were deliberate expressions of opinion on the part of a man who had first-hand information and knew what he was saying.
They were not the Admiral’s only allegations on this subject. When testifying before the Senate committee he said:—
“Admiral Dewey. I knew that there was no government in the whole of the Philippines. Our fleet had destroyed the only government there was, and there was no other government; there was a reign of terror throughout the Philippines, looting, robbing, murdering; a reign of terror throughout the islands.”
La Laguna
Having brought our tourist friends safely back to Manila, we must now leave them there and strike out by ourselves if we are to see other provinces.
La Laguna lies just east of Manila. Of it we learn that:
“Laguna Province was so overrun by bands of robbers that the head of the pueblo of San Pablo ordered the people to concentrate in the town to avoid their attacks.”[7]