Some of the Spanish soldiers and the civil servants concentrated in Zamboanga were carried direct to the Peninsula, viá the Straits of Balábac, in the steamers Buenos Aires, Isla de Luzon, and Cachemir, and from Manila many of them returned to their country in the s.s. Leon XIII. In conformity with the Treaty of Paris (Art. 5), little by little all the Spanish troops, temporarily prisoners of the United States in Manila, were repatriated.
The Philippine Republican Congress at Malolos had now (December 26, 1898) adjourned in great confusion. The deputies could not agree upon the terms of a Republican Constitution. They were already divided into two distinct parties, the Pacificos and the Irreconcilables. The latter were headed by a certain Apolinario Mabini (vide p. [546]), a lawyer hitherto unknown, and a notorious opponent of Aguinaldo until he decided to take the field against the Americans. The Cabinet having resigned, Aguinaldo prudently left Malolos on a visit to Pedro A. Paterno, at Santa Ana, on the Pasig River.
At the end of the year 1898, after 327 years of sovereignty, all that remained to Spain of her once splendid Far Eastern colonial possessions were the Caroline, the Pelew, and the Ladrone Islands (vide p. [39]), minus the Island of Guam. Under the treaty of peace, signed in Paris, the Americans became nominal owners of the evacuated territories, but they were only in real possession, by force of arms, of Cavite and Manila. The rest of the Archipelago, excepting Mindanao and the Sulu Sultanate, was virtually and forcibly held by the natives in revolt. At the close of 1898 the Americans and the rebels had become rival parties, and the differences between them foreboded either frightful bloodshed or the humiliation of the one or the other.
Treaty of Peace
concluded between the United States of America and Spain, signed in Paris on December 10, 1898, and ratified in Washington on February 6, 1899. The original documents (in duplicate) are drawn up in Spanish and in English respectively.
The English Text}[17]
Article 1.—Spain relinquishes all claim of sovereignty over and title to Cuba. And as the Island is, upon its evacuation by Spain, to be occupied by the United States, the United States will, so long as such occupation shall last, assume and discharge the obligations that may under international law result from the fact of its occupation, for the protection of life and property.
Article 2.—Spain cedes to the United States the Island of Porto Rico and other islands now under Spanish sovereignty in the West Indies, and the Island of Guam in the Marianas or Ladrones.
Article 3.—Spain cedes to the United States the archipelago known as the Philippine Islands, and comprehending the islands lying within the following line: A line running from W. to E. along or near the 20th parallel of N. latitude, and through the middle of the navigable channel of Bachi, from the 118th to the 127th degree meridian of longitude E. of Greenwich, thence along the 127th degree meridian of longitude E. of Greenwich to the parallel of 4° 45′ N. latitude, thence along the parallel of 4° 45′ N. latitude to its intersection with the meridian of longitude 119° 35′ E. of Greenwich, thence along the meridian of longitude 119° 35′ E. of Greenwich to the parallel of latitude 7° 40′ N., thence along the parallel of latitude of 7° 40′ N. to its intersection with the 116th degree meridian of longitude E. of Greenwich, thence by a direct line to the intersection of the 10th degree parallel of N. latitude with the 118th degree meridian of longitude E. of Greenwich, and thence along the 118th degree meridian of longitude E. of Greenwich to the point of beginning.
The United States will pay to Spain the sum of $.20,000,000 within three months after the exchange of the ratifications of the present treaty.