[6] “Water-cure” was a method adopted by the Americans. Water was poured down the throat of the victim until the stomach was distended to the full; then it was pressed out again and the operation repeated. The pretext for this mode of torture was to extort confession; but it was quite inefficacious; because the victim was usually disposed to say anything, true or false, for his own salvation. The “water-cure” operation, in vogue for awhile all over the Islands, proved fatal in many cases. It is now a penal offence (Phil. Com. Act 619, Sec. 2).
[7] Otong in olden times was a place of importance when the galleons put in there on their way to and from Mexico, taking the longer route in order to avoid the strong currents of the San Bernardino Straits.
Under the old territorial division, the Jurisdiction of Otong comprised all Panay Island (except a strip of land all along the north coast—formerly Panay Province, now called Cápis) and a point here and there on the almost unexplored Negros coast. Galleons were sometimes built at Otong, which was on several occasions attacked by the Dutch. Yloilo at that time was an insignificant fishing-village.
[8] A half-caste Chinese family of large means and local influence.
[9] Esteban de la Rama is of the family of the late Isidro de la Rama, a well-known prosperous and enterprising Yloilo merchant. Pedro Regalado, personally known to me, is the son of my late friend José Regalado, at one time a wealthy middleman, who, however, lost his fortune in adverse speculations. Pedro Regalado and I were, at one time, together in Hong-Kong, where he learnt English. On the entry of the American troops into Yloilo he was imprisoned on a charge of disaffection, but shortly released and appointed a government interpreter.
[10] The protest contained the following significant clauses, viz: (1) “Ceder á tal exigencia en vista de la superioridad de las armas Americanas. (2) No tener poder, ni la provincia ni todos los habitantes juntos, de ejecutar actas como esta, prohibidas por el Presidente de la República, Señor Emilio Aguinaldo.”—Extracts taken by myself from the official copy of the protest.
The Spanish Prisoners
Extreme interest was naturally taken by all Europeans in the miserable fate of the thousands of Spanish soldiers and civilians who had fallen into the rebels hands up to the capitulation of Manila.[1] Held captive in groups at different places in the Island of Luzon, many of them passed a wretched existence, with bad food, scant clothing, and deprived of every pleasure in life beyond the hope of one day seeing their native land. Many of them died, either from natural causes or the effect of their privations (some of starvation in Tayabas), or as a result of brutal treatment. A minority of them received as good treatment as possible under the circumstances. The fate of the majority depended chiefly upon the temperament of the native commander of the district. There were semi-savage native chiefs, and there were others, like Aguinaldo himself, with humane instincts. Amongst the former, for instance, there was Major Francisco Braganza, who, on February 28, 1900, in Camarines Sur, ordered one hundred and three Spanish soldiers to be tied up to trees and cut and stabbed to death with bowie-knifes and their bodies stripped and left without burial. He was tried by court-martial and sentenced to be hanged, September 26, 1901, and the sentence was carried out at Nueva Cáceres (Camarines Sur) on November 15 following. Many prisoners managed to escape, no doubt with the aid or connivance of natives, until Aguinaldo issued a decree, dated Malolos, November 5, 1898, imposing a penalty of twenty yearsʼ imprisonment on whomsoever should give such aid. Aguinaldo told me he was personally inclined to liberate these prisoners, or, at least, those civilians accustomed to an easy office life who, if they went free, would have had no inclination whatever to fight, but would have done their best to embark for Spain. The few who might have broken their parole would have been easily caught again “for the last time in their lives,” and the women and children were an obstacle to military operations. Indeed, from time to time, Aguinaldo did liberate small groups of civilians, amongst whom were some of my old friends whom I afterwards met in Spain. Aguinaldoʼs Prime Minister, Apolinario Mabini (vide p. [546]), was, however, strongly in favour of retaining the Spaniards as hostages until the Spanish Government should officially recognize the Philippine Republic. It will be clearly seen from the negotiations entered into between the respective parties that this recognition was the condition which the rebels most pertinaciously insisted upon, whilst the Spaniardsʼ offers of millions of dollars were always met by much larger demands, which practically implied a refusal to treat on a money basis. The facts in the negotiations certainly support Aguinaldoʼs statement to me that the rebels never sought money, but political advantage, by the retention of the prisoners.
The intense excitement in Spain over the prisonersʼ doom called into existence meetings, liberation societies, frequent discussions in and out of Parliament, and continual protests against the apparent Ministerial lethargy. In reality, the Spanish Government, fearful of a rupture with America, could take no official action in the matter, further than appeal, indirectly, to the generosity of the captors, and remind America of her undertaking under Article 6 of the treaty. In January, 1899, the Colonial Minister cabled to several people in Manila, begging them to use their influence—but they themselves were already in the rebel camp. No form of compensation in money or armament for the captivesʼ liberty could be officially made without involving Spain in a casus belli with America. Recognition of a Philippine Republic would have been in direct opposition to the spirit of the treaty of peace. In September, 1898, the Superiors of the regular clergy in Manila appealed to Rome; the Vatican communicated with President McKinley, and the President sent an inquiry to Maj.-General E. S. Otis concerning the captive friars. General Otis, after investigation, reported that these prisoners were fairly well treated. In the following month, whilst the Treaty of Paris was under discussion, the Spanish Government appealed to the United States Government to aid them in the rescue of the prisoners, and orders to do so were transmitted to General Otis. The Filipinos and the Americans were ostensibly on good terms at that period, and General Otis suggested to Aguinaldo that the friars and civilian Spaniards should be set free. On the subject of this request, Aguinaldo replied to General Otis by letter dated Malolos, November 3, 1898, as follows, viz:—“The Philippine people wish to retain the Spanish civil functionaries in order to obtain the liberty of the Filipinos who are banished and under arrest, and the friars in order to obtain from the Vatican a recognition of the rights of the Philippine secular clergy.... It is not hatred or vengeance which inspires the Filipinos to retain the Spanish civil and religious functionaries, but political expediency, and the tranquillity of the Philippine people demands this measure.”
At this date there were hundreds of Philippine prisoners held by the Spanish Government in different places, some of them under worse conditions than the Spanish prisoners. For instance, 218 were deported to the fever-stricken colony of Fernando Po, and only 94 of them came out alive. The treaty of peace was still being discussed, and on its conclusion, Article 6 stipulated a release of “all persons detained or imprisoned for political offences in connection with the insurrections in Cuba and the Philippines,” and that the United States would “undertake to obtain the release of all Spanish prisoners in the hands of the insurgents”; but there was no proviso that the release of the Philippine prisoners should depend on that of the Spanish prisoners, and after the treaty was signed, Spain showed no particular haste immediately to carry out her undertaking to return the Philippine prisoners to their islands.