[11] El Katipunan, etc.; p. 89.
[12] Blanco, whether because he was bound by compromise, or because of fear, heeded not the warnings of the approaching danger. As a soldier face to face with an enemy Blanco was not lacking in courage; but when the enemy was invisible, and more tact than courage was needed in the combat, Blanco was like a little child in the dark, frightened at the least sound—chicken hearted. It is certainly a remarkable thing that bro∴ Barcelona had the courage to pass through the ordeals of his initiation into freemasonry.
[13] The head of a pueblo. The most ancient form of rule in the Archipelago.
[14] See page 63.
[15] Pascual H. Poblete: a pobre diablo who speaks Spanish like a chino and writes it far worse. Poblete is greatly devoted to cock-fighting; but being as reckless in the enjoyment of this sport as he is in everything else he undertakes, he finds his pocket always more or less empty. To fill this pocket he is ever hunting up schemes to make money in the easiest way possible. The subscription lists he has started for various pious or patriotic objects are well nigh innumerable.
The Heraldo de Madrid, of the 19th of November 1896, says of this charlatan:
“Well paired with Tomás del Rosario, the indio who, by literary fraud gained from Señor Nuñez de Arce a good position in the Philippines, is Pascual H. Poblete also an indio[16] and a person of history too.
“His first steps in work in the newspapers of his country were as translator of the Spanish text of a bilingual review into Tagalog.
“He propagated political themes widely, but above all, those articles of the Civil and Penal code favorable to his countrymen; to these articles he added comments.... Under the pretext of competing with the Chinese he founded a cooperative association which was the subject of much talk. It was really nothing else than an association distinctly political and eminently anti-Spanish. He however succeeded in dissimulating, and when he created the newspaper El Resumen, placed a peninsular Spaniard, a native of Aragon, at its head. He then did all he could to gain the confidence of Despujols, whom he visited every once in a while.
“As Despujols step by step lost favor with the European element, Poblete praised him more and more and this was, in itself, a good sign of the direction in which was going this Poblete, a man lacking talent, lacking wit, and enjoying nothing but an insane intention. During the last years he made continuous anti-Spanish propaganda, and was a bitter enemy of the Spaniards, excepting some few degenerates who yet believed in the good faith of this pobre diablo.”