After reporting to his subordinates that the local chief of Bay had, under his orders, arrested Honorato Quisumbing, an Americanista who had never served as a spy, and that his captor had killed him when he called to American troops who were near to help him, Cailles adds: “His companion was likewise duly executed as a spy and guide for the enemy. Let us offer up a prayer for their eternal rest.”[45]
Blount has made the following statement:—
“I have heard, so far as I now recollect, of comparatively few barbarities perpetrated by Filipinos on captured American soldiers. Barbarities on their side seemed to have been reserved for those of their own race whom they found disloyal to the cause of their country.”[46]
One may well doubt whether he himself wrote the book which goes under his name, for in it he is made constantly to contradict himself. Relative to this matter he has also said:—
“He[47] can never forget the magnificent dash back into the wide, ugly, swollen stream, made by Captain Edward L. King of General Lawton’s staff, as he spurred his horse in, followed by several troopers who had responded to his call for mounted volunteers to accompany him in an effort to save the lives of the men who went down. Their generous work proved futile. But it was inspired partly by common dread of what they knew would happen to any half-drowned soldier who might be washed ashore far away from the column and captured. If an army was ever ‘in enemy’s country,’ it was then and there.”[48]
As a matter of fact, not only did the Insurgents repeatedly torture and murder American prisoners, but they poisoned soldiers. Lucban and others directed that this should be done, described the procedure to be followed, and furnished the poison.[49]
Directions for poisoning soldiers were included in a letter written on August 21, 1900, to the Brigadier General Superior Military Commander of the Province of Leyte as follows:—
“It would also be well, in my humble opinion, for you to find out from the old men and quack doctors the kind of poison that can be mixed in alcoholic drinks and in cocoanut wine (tuba), as our enemies now drink these liquors; and after this poison has been known and tried, let it be used in such a way as to undermine the constitution of the man, until some day death occurs; for which purpose you ought to have persons, wherever there are Americans, to poison them. These things are now being done in Luzón, Cebu and Panay.
“There is a tree here in the province whose leaves inflame the body of a man considerably, once applied; for I have seen about Manila the leaves converted into powder, rolled in pellets of paper and shot in the faces of Americans. This causes the parts to swell and become completely useless; and I believe it would be well to do this within the towns, and especially to the drunkards asleep along the roads and to the fellows making love.”[50]