UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



751 



together coal and provisions for the expedition. 

 Commodore Dcwey entered into communication 

 with the revolutionary Filipinos, and arranged with 

 their exiled leader, Aguinaldo, then in Hong-Kong, 

 for provisional co-operation with them. 



The Filipinos, oppressed by the financial bur- 

 dens imposed on them for the support of Spanish 

 Government authorities and clergy, and by the ex- 

 tortion and tyranny of the officials sent to rule 

 over them, were unanimous in their desire to throw 

 off the yoke of Spain. Out of an annual budget 

 amounting to $17,000,000, only $60,000 was applied 

 to education and science, $40,000 to railroads, a 

 trifling sum to river and harbor improvements, and 

 nothing at all to highways and bridges, while the 

 colony was burdened with the support of African 

 establishments and the Spanish consular service in 

 the eastern hemisphere, paid a heavy contribution 

 to the expenses of the General Government in 

 Madrid, defrayed a great part of the cost of the 

 Colonial Office, paid $1,600,000 a year in pensions to 

 Spaniards who nad served in the Philippines, and 

 was taxed $1,400.000 for the support of the church, 

 in addition to the fees obtained by the clergy for 

 marriages, indulgences, etc., amounting to a much 

 greater sum. 



When Capt.-Gen. Primo de Rivera made peace 

 with the insurgents at the end of 1897, the latter, 

 while still in possession of the mountain districts, 

 agreed, on the advice of their leaders, to lay down 

 their arms on these conditions: The expulsion or 

 secularization of the religious orders and the aboli- 

 tion of their vetoes in civil affairs ; a general 

 amnesty for all rebels, with guarantees for their 

 security from the vengeance of friars and parish 

 priests ; the reform of glaring abuses in the civil 

 administration ; freedom of the press to denounce 

 official corruption and blackmailing; representa- 

 tion of the colony in the Spanish Cortes ; and 

 abolition of the system of secret deportation of 

 political suspects. When the insurgent army was 

 disarmed and disbanded and the leaders were out 

 of the country the Governor General refused to 

 execute any of the conditions, and the insurgents 

 were exasperated to the point of renewing the re- 

 bellion at the first opportunity by the retaliatory 

 proceedings of the friars and officials. 



Hence Emilio Aguinaldo y Fami, their most 

 prominent leader, declaring that Spain's violation 

 of her agreement absolved him from his promise, 

 decided to revive the insurrection, and placed him- 

 self in communication with the American consul 

 general at Singapore, and with Commodore Dewey 

 at Hong-Kong, after war broke out between the 

 United States and Spain. He explained the nature 

 of the co-operation that he could give, promised to 

 maintain order among the Filipinos and to con- 

 duct military operations according to civilized 

 methods, declared his ability to establish a respon- 

 sible government in the Philippines on liberal 

 principles, and declared that he was willing to ac- 

 cept for Luzon the same terms that the United 

 States intended to give to Cuba. His aim was to 

 found a republic in the Philippines, of which he ex- 

 pected to be president. 



The American squadron departed for the Philip- 

 pines on April 27, the day on which the Spanish 

 gunboat "El Cano" made a prize of the American 

 bark "Saranac," laden with coal from Newcastle, 

 off Iloilo. Gov.-Gen. Basilio Augustin issued a 

 proclamation in which he told the Philippine na- 

 tives that the Americans had killed off the natives 

 of their own country and taken possession of their 

 lands, instead of preserving and civilizing them as 

 Spain had civilized the Philippine natives, and that 

 if the islanders now fell under the dominion of the 

 Americans the fate of the American Indians was in 



store for them. In another proclamation he warned 

 the people that the North Americans were social 

 excrescences from other nations, possessing neither 

 cohesion nor history, and were sending a squadron 

 manned by foreigners without instruction or disci- 

 pline, with the ruffianly object of treating Filipinos 

 as tribes refractory to civilization, taking possession 

 of their property, kidnaping them to man American 

 ships or to be exploited in agricultural and indus- 

 trial labor, and substituting Protestantism for the 

 Catholic religion. Martial law was proclaimed, 

 summary death threatened to any one proposing 

 submission, and every able-bodied man called to 

 arms. 



Although the Philippine rebellion was officially 

 terminated in the previous year, when the leaders, 

 after their military fortunes had begun to wane, 

 agreed to disarm and disband their followers, and 

 to leave the country for a bribe of $700,000, as to 

 the division of which they afterward fell to quarrel- 

 ing in Hong-Kong, still the insurgents had con- 

 tinued to make disturbances in a desultory way 

 after their leaders left, and now they were ready to 

 break out again in a general rising when war be- 

 tween the United States and Spain was threatened 

 promising to give independence to Cuba. About 

 the beginning of March, 1898, the rebellion started 

 up afresh. The most serious rising was in the prov- 

 inces of Zambales and Pangasinan. The natives 

 considered that they had been deceived by Gen. 

 Primo de Rivera, who had carried out none of the 

 reforms promised in the peace treaty. Telegraph 

 communication with Manila having been severed 

 at Bolinao, the rebels annihilated the scattered 

 Spanish detachments in Zambales. Troops that 

 were sent overland were unable to break through 

 the rebel intrenchments, and re-enforcements were 

 dispatched, until 8,000 men, with artillery and four 

 war vessels were on the scene of action, leaving Ma- 

 nila exposed to a rising which the former .chiefs, 

 who began to return from Hong-Kong, were ready 

 to set in motion. Bands of insurgents appeared in 

 Bulacan, Nueva Excija, Pangasinan, and Tarlac, 

 committing depredations and murders without the 

 restraints which their old leaders had exercised over 

 them. Risings took place also in the island of Panay. 

 which the Spaniards recaptured after killing several 

 hundred rebels, and in Zebu, where the Governor 

 and the other officials were massacred. The regular 

 Spanish troops in the Philippines numbered about 

 25,000 men. Gen. Primo de Rivera was recalled 

 and replaced by Gen. Augustin after the rebels had 

 attacked the m'ilitary stations at Subig, Apalit, and 

 Bautista. and captured a great many Mauser rifles 

 with ammunition, to take the place of the long 

 knives with which they fought the Spanish troops 

 in the mountains of Zambales. Emilio Aguinaldo 

 sent more arms from abroad. 



Such was the situation when Commodore Dewey 

 sailed to attack the Spaniards in Manila. While the 

 American fleets in the Atlantic were believed to be 

 strong enough to hold the sea against the Spaniards, 

 there was danger that the numerous small war vessels 

 that Spain had in the Philippine Islands, where the 

 rebellion had boon going on for two years, would 

 be able to paralyze American commerce in Asiatic 

 waters and the Pacific, Hence Commodore Dewey 

 was ordered to go to Manila and capture or destroy 

 the Spanish fleet. Sailing from Mirs Hay. and 

 running only eijit knots an hour in order to econ- 

 omize coal, Dewey's squadron arrived on April 30 

 in front of Subig Hay, which was explored in search 

 of the enemy's ships. Not finding them there. 

 Commodore Dewey, taking council with his officers, 

 determined to steam boldly into Manila Hay. The 

 fle.M entered the bay at night with all lights our. 

 regardless of the batterie> on Comgidoc Island, 



