Of all places in the Philippines Cebú will please the conchologist. An old native named Legaspi once had a splendid shell collection, which he freely exhibited to foreigners. At one time he had a Gloria Maris, which he sold for $150, and some Russian naval officers are said to have offered him $5,000 for a part of his collection. At certain seasons of the year the Euplectella speciosa, Gray, or Venus baskets, locally known as Regaderas, can be obtained in quantities; they are found in the Cebú waters. The Eup. spec, is the skeleton secretion of an insect of the Porifera division. The basket is a series of graceful fretted spirals. Also fine Piña stuffs can be purchased here.
The population of Cebú City was 9,629 in 1888; 10,972 in 1896; and 18,330 in 1903. The inhabitants of the whole Island numbered 417,543 in 1876; 518,032 in 1888; 595,726 in 1896; and 653,727 in 1903.
In March, 1899, an American armed force was detailed from Cebú City to Bojol Island to demand the surrender of the native provincial government established there since the Spanish evacuation. Interpreters from Cebú were sent ashore, and after hearing their explanation of the Americans demands the native president in council resolved to yield peacefully. A volunteer regiment was then sent ashore, positions were occupied, and all went smoothly on the surface until the Islandersʼ powers of endurance were exhausted after 22 months of alleged harsh treatment imposed upon them by the troops. In January, 1901, the cry of rebellion was raised by one Pedro Sanson, whose band of Bojolanos, augmented by levies from Leyte, Sámar, and Panay Islands numbered about 2,000. Expeditions were sent out against them, and the lukewarm sympathy of the Islanders was turned to general indignation against the Americans by the alleged wanton destruction of a whole town by fire, by order of a captain of volunteers. Practically the whole Island became covertly anti-American. Having finished his campaign in Cebú Island in October, 1901, General Hughes carried his troops over to Bojol Island, where measures of repression were adopted similar to those which had been so effective in reducing the Cebuános to submission. A large number of small towns and villages within the range of military operations were entirely destroyed. The once pretty little town of Lauang was left a complete ruin, and many landmarks of a former progressive civilization have disappeared for ever. Nevertheless, the insurgents refused to yield until a decree was issued to the effect that if the leaders did not surrender by December 27 the invaders would burn down the town of Tagbiláran. In this town, formerly the seat of the native provincial government, Pedro Sanson and most of his officers had all their property and worldly possessions; and in view of the beggary which awaited them if they held out any longer, they accepted terms of peace from Pantaleon E. del Rosario, who went up to the mountains and acted as negotiator between General Hughes and the insurgent chiefs who finally surrendered. The Filipino, Aniceto Clarin, appointed provincial governor on April 20, 1901, continued in office; Pedro Sanson quietly resumed his occupation of dealer in hemp, etc., and thenceforth peace and poverty reigned in the Island.
In Cottabato (Mindanao Is.), the attempt to establish a local native government ended in tragic failure. In January, 1899, a Spanish gunboat silently entered the port without the customary whistling and firing of salute. It brought a despatch to the Governor from the nominal acting-Gov.-General Rios, who, coming from Yloilo, called at Zamboanga before proceeding to Manila, to receive on board a number of Spanish refugees. One of the crew of the gunboat also brought a private communication from the Jesuit Superior in Zamboanga to the Jesuit missionary Father Suarez. The official despatch notified the Governor that the Treaty of Paris had been signed, and consequently he was to evacuate Cottabato immediately. The private communication told the same tale to the missionary, with an inquiry from the Jesuit Superior as to whether he could continue his mission after the withdrawal of the Spanish Governor, and whether it would be of any advantage to do so. The Governor informed the missionary of his intended departure, and the missionary replied negatively to his superior in Zamboanga. The Governor then called Roman Vilo, his confidential christian native assistant, and told him that he and all who had been loyal to the Spanish Government and faithful in their service could take passage to Zamboanga. Vilo, however, for himself and his family, declined the offer on the ground that all his interests were in and about Cottabato, where he possessed real estate. The Governor then had the Moro-Chinese half-caste Datto Piang called, and in the presence of Vilo the former was appointed chief of the Moro people and the latter governor of the christian population. After making a short speech, exhorting the two chiefs, in benevolent phrases, to live in peace and act mutually for the common good, the Governor, accompanied by the Jesuit missionaries and others who were desirous of leaving the place, went to Zamboanga on the gunboat.
When, after the lapse of some weeks, Datto Piang felt sure that the Spaniards would never be again in authority at Cottabato, he begged Vilo to let him have twenty rifles to defend himself against a rival. The christian governor agreed to this, and week by week Datto Piangʼs demands grew until, at length, all the rifles in the possession of the Christians passed to the Moros. But there still remained some cannons, and Datto Piang, having represented the necessity of making war on another chief up the Cottabato River, Vilo was persuaded to lend them to him. Piang had them placed in vintas (war-junks) and Vilo, with several friends, went down to the river-side to witness the departure of the supposed armed expedition. Suddenly Piang, his son-in-law Datto Ali and this manʼs brother, Datto Djimbangan, at the head of a large party of armed Moros, fell upon and slaughtered the Christians. Viloʼs head was cut off and the savage Mahometans made a raid on the town, looting all but the shops of the Chinese who were in league, or accord, with their half-countryman Piang. The Christians who were unable to escape were either massacred or carried off as slaves into the interior, with the loot. Datto Djimbangan caused the Christian women to be stripped naked and marched through the streets, whilst he and his companions made their selections for themselves, leaving the remainder for their followers. Amongst the captives were a father and two sons. In October, 1899, the Americans sent a gunboat to Cottabato, and the wife of this captive, mother of his two boys, represented her plight to the commander, who forthwith sent for Piang and ordered him immediately to send a message to the individual holding the captives to release them and hand them over to the messenger, who would conduct them back to Cottabato. Piang, without a momentʼs hesitation, offered to comply, and sent a vinta up the river with the required order, but at the same time he secretly sent another emissary overland with contrary instructions. The land messenger, as was expected, arrived first, and when the vinta party reached the place of captivity, Piangʼs people expressed their regret that they could not oblige the party because they had just cut off the captivesʼ heads. In 1904 a member of the victimsʼ family was a teacher in the Jesuitsʼ Catholic School in Zamboanga. Datto Piang, who owes his position and influence over the Moros to the protection of the late great Datto Utto (vide p. [143]) is the father-in-law of the terrible Datto Ali whose continual depredations and defiance made Cottabato the centre of that unabated conflict for the Americans described in Chapter [xxix].
In the belief that the Zamboangueños were loyally disposed towards Spain, the Spaniards, after the signing of the Treaty of Paris, chose Zamboanga (Mindanao Is.) as their point of concentration of all the Spanish troops and civil servants in the southern islands. At that time General Jaramillo was Gov.-General of Mindanao Island and commander of the forces in Zamboanga; but on the arrival there, December 27, 1898, of the ex-governor of Cebu, General Montero, with his co-refugees, General Jaramillo transferred his command to him and left for Manila with General Rios, who had come from Yloilo to Zamboanga to receive refugee passengers for the capital. Before his departure Jaramillo had led the Zamboangueño Christians to believe that the war with America was, at every turn, a triumphant success for Spanish arms; fictitious printed telegrams were circulated announcing Spanish victories everywhere, and one of the most extravagant reported that General Weyler had landed on American soil at Key West with an army of 80,000 Spanish troops. The motive of this harmless ruse was to bolster up Spanish prestige and thereby avoid bloodshed. During several months no trading or mail-steamer came, and the Zamboangueños were practically cut off from the rest of the world. Military preparations were made for the feigned purpose of resisting a possible attack on the place by the Americans, who were described to the people as cannibals and ferocious monsters more terrible than the dreaded Moros. Naturally the real object of the military preparations was the Spaniardsʼ justifiable endeavour to be ready to defend themselves against open rebellion when the true situation should ooze out. Nor was their misrepresentation of the Americans mere spiteful calumny; the Spaniards were in great jeopardy, and they instinctively wished to destroy any feeling of welcome which the natives might have for the new-comers for fear it might operate against themselves at the supreme moment of danger. Indeed, each party—native and Spanish—was seeking to outwit the other; hence, when the Zamboangueños were promised a supply of arms for the ostensible purpose of resisting invasion, they pretended to co-operate heartily with the Spaniardsʼ defensive measures, with the secret design of dispossessing the Spaniards of their arms in order to use them against them. The Zamboangueños therefore became so persistent in their demand upon Montero to fulfil his predecessorʼs promise that at last he had frankly to confess that peace had been signed between Spain and America, whereby the Islands were surrendered to the United States, and that very shortly the Spaniards would evacuate the Archipelago. But the conflicting versions of the situation, published severally by Jaramillo and Montero, sorely puzzled the natives. The Spaniards were still in undisturbed possession of Zamboanga for over four months after Monteroʼs arrival, notwithstanding the fact that the American warship Boston called at the port and left the same day and that an officer came ashore without the least objection or consternation on the part of the Spaniards. The orange-and-red flag still floated over the Fortress del Pilar, and, so far as the Zamboangueños could ascertain, it looked as if the Spaniards were going to remain. They therefore clamoured more loudly than ever for the distribution of arms, which this time Montero positively refused, for the Spaniards had never for a moment been deceived as to the real intentions of the Zamboangueños. On the other hand, by this time, their inoffensive delusion of the people had lost its virtue, and natives and Spaniards thenceforth became open enemies. After the visit of the Boston the fighting population, no longer able to conceal their disappointment, threw off the mask, quitted the town, cut off the water-supply which came from the mountains, in collusion with the mutinied crews seized the firearms on board the Spanish gunboats lying in the harbour, and prepared for war against their old masters. The Spaniards immediately compelled the non-combatant townspeople and the Chinese to throw up earthworks for mounting artillery and dig trenches for defence against the rebels. The gunboat Alava co-operated by firing shells into the rebel camp situated just outside the town. The rebels made two unsuccessful assaults, and in the second attack General Montero was mortally wounded by a rifle-shot. On May 23 the S.S. Leon XIII. arrived; the Spaniards silently embarked for Manila with their dying general, who succumbed during the voyage, and Zamboanga, one-fourth of which the defenders had destroyed by fire, was occupied by the rebels. During the siege the Filipinos, true to their instincts, had split up into two rival factions headed by Vicente Alvarez and Isidoro Midel respectively, and in the interval between the first and second assault on the town these party chiefs had fought out their own quarrel, Midel claiming to have been the victor. Nevertheless, the popular favourite was Vicente Alvarez, known as the Tamagun Datto (high chief), who became the chosen president of the Zamboanga revolutionary government established immediately after the Spanish evacuation. Party spirit ran high; life was held in little esteem; a lifeless body found on the highway startled no one; assassination was an occurrence of small moment; cattle-shooting was practised for amusement, and the five-and-a-half monthsʼ essay of christian Philippine autonomy was so signalized by jealous self-interest, bitter rivalry, rapacity, and bloodshed as to make one doubt whether the christian Zamboangueño is one whit superior to his Mahometan neighbour in moral character.
The arrival of an American expedition in the waters of Zamboanga on November 15, 1899, produced a sanguinary crisis in these faction feuds. Vicente Alvarez at once took measures to oppose the invadersʼ landing, whilst his rival, Isidoro Midel, resolved to side with the Americans. Divide et impera. The want of unity amongst the natives themselves was a great help to the Americansʼ plans. By this time there appeared a third aspirant to local fame in the person of Melanio Sanson, a native marine engineer, until recently in the Spanish service, who pretended to co-operate with Alvarez, styling himself colonel of artillery in charge of the guns abandoned by his former masters. Each of these three individuals sought to rid himself of his two rivals. On the night of November 15 Isidoro Midel ended Melanio Sansonʼs rivalry for ever, and the Americans took peaceful possession of the town the next day. Subsequently Midel arranged a transfer to the Americans of the artillery which had, during the conflict, been under Sansonʼs control. Vicente Alvarez immediately fled to Mercedes, and thence to Basilan Island, where, aided by Datto Pedro Cuevas, he organized a brigand band, crossed over to Mindanao Island again, and made a raid on Oriquieta. Chased from place to place by American troops, he was finally captured and sent to Bilibid prison in Manila, but was subsequently pardoned on his taking the oath of allegiance, and sent back to Zamboanga, where he earns his living peacefully. Meanwhile, Isidoro Midel had been further rewarded for his services to the Americans with the office of municipal president, which he held for about 16 months in defiance of public opinion. The feeling which prompted public opposition to Midelʼs appointment was at least as much anti-American as it was dislike for the nominee. In March, 1901, municipal elections were held, and Mariano Arquiza succeeded, by popular vote, to the presidency, which he held for two years. Some weeks before Arquiza vacated office two American miners were murdered by the natives a few miles up the province. The murderers, when caught, sought to justify their deed by alleging that a municipal councillor named Eduardo Alvarez (no relation to the Vicente Alvarez already mentioned) had persuaded them that the miners were secretly engaged in poisoning the local wells. The whole municipal council was therefore cited to appear before the American Governor, who severely reprimanded Alvarez, whereupon this man withdrew from the audience-chamber, and his fellow-councillors volunteered such information against him that the Governor instantly issued a warrant for his apprehension. But the native police who went to his house to execute the warrant let him escape on horseback to the mountains, where he organized a band of outlaws and lived for about four months by robbery and violence. Under these circumstances the American Governor summarily dismissed Mariano Arquiza from the municipal presidency in the spring of 1903, and, much to the public chagrin, re-appointed Midel to the vacancy. The offer of $1,000 for the capture of Eduardo Alvarez spurred Midel into further activity, and under his direction the bandit was discovered hiding in a canoe in a swamp. On the approach of his pursuers the outlaw threw up his hands in sign of surrender, which was responded to by a volley of gunshots, for it was Alvarezʼs corpse which was wanted in Zamboanga. Isidoro Midel is an interesting character, apparently about forty-eight years of age. Brought up as a Roman Catholic, he assured me that he was a Protestant, with the strongest sympathy, however, for the Aglipayan movement (vide Chap. [xxx].).