That their apprehensions were not groundless is shown by a passage in a letter sent the following day to Governor-General Augustin by Buencamino:—
“Manila being surrounded by land and by sea, without hope of assistance from anywhere, and Señor Aguinaldo being disposed to make use of the fleet in order to bombard, if Your Excellency should prolong the struggle with tenacity, I do not know, frankly, what else to do other than to succumb dying, but Your Excellency knows that the entrance of 100,000 Indians,[94] inflamed with battle, drunk with triumph and with blood, will produce the hecatomb from which there will not be allowed to escape either women, children, or Peninsular friars,—especially the friars; and, I believe that the rights of humanity, imperilled in such a serious way, should be well considered by Your Excellency, for however dear glory and military duty may be, although worth as much or more than existence itself there is no right by which they should be won at the cost of the rights of humanity, and the latter outweigh every consideration and all duty.”[95]
Don Felipe knew his own people. He also knew, none better, what they had in mind at this time.
As it was the Insurgent forces made the most of such opportunity as they had, and their own records show it.
In the suburbs of Manila they sacked and committed outrages, threatening people with their arms, and this was still going on a week after the fall of Manila.[96]
General Pío del Pilar was believed to be responsible for much of this misconduct, and Mabini proposed that as it was necessary for him to leave the vicinity of Manila, and they could not remove him by force, he be promoted.[97]
Some time during this month Sandico wrote Aguinaldo as follows:—
“The Americans have already heard of the frequent cases of kidnapping (dukut) occurring in Tondo, San Sebastián and San Miguel. Last night some of ours were surprised in the act of kidnapping a person. I have also heard that many persons are asking for contributions of war. I tell them[98] that you know nothing of all this and that if some persons are kidnapped it is due to the hate of the natives for the Spanish spies and secret police, which is great.”[99]
Evidently Sandico continued to interest himself in the matter of preventing disorder, for on September 24, 1898, he wrote Aguinaldo from Manila as follows:—
“By authority of General Don Pío del Pilar and accompanied by the War Auditor, Señor Urbano, we entered a prison where the individuals Mariano de la Cruz and Mariano Crisóstomo were kept. They were almost prostrated. They had lately been released from Bilibid where they had been confined for political crimes. On being asked the reason for their imprisonment they began by showing us their bodies from which blood still issued as the result of the barbarous treatment received from Major Carmona who, by the way, is the same person of whom I spoke to you in one of my previous letters; I declared to you then that he had assaulted, revolver in hand, a man in the middle of one of the most frequented streets of the suburb of Paco on pure suspicion.