UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. 



757 



other warlike stores in Cienf uegos and slipped away 

 again to Puerto Rico. Havana in the beginning of 

 May had supplies sufficient to last three months. 

 The poorer class were better off than before the war, 

 for free kitchens were instituted from which 35,000 

 rations were distributed daily. The transatlantic 

 steamer " Montserrat " slipped into Cienfuegos with 

 100 guns, 15,000 rifles, a large quantity of ammuni- 

 tion, stores of provisions, and 1,000 soldiers, and 

 made one or more trips to Batabano with cargoes 

 of foodstuffs to be conveyed to Havana by rail. 

 Many schooners from Mexico got provisions into 

 Havana by this route. French and English steam- 

 ers were allowed to ply in the tobacco trade at 

 Sagua la Grande, on the north coast. The Autono- 

 mist Government, late in May, decreed that block- 

 ade runners bringing provisions and coal should be 

 allowed to load with sugar for neutral ports, and 

 that their cargoes should have free entry at all 

 Cuban ports. 



On June 28 the President proclaimed a blockade 

 of all ports on the south side of Cuba, from Cape 

 Frances to Cape Cruz, in order to make it more dif- 

 ficult to bring supplies into Havana. At the same 

 time San Juan in Puerto Rico was declared a block- 

 aded port. 



Operations in the Philippines. After the de- 

 struction of the Spanish fleet and the surrender of the 

 forts, Admiral Dewey demanded the complete surren- 

 der of the city of Manila, the fortifications, munitions, 

 and stores. When Gen. Augustin, the Governor, re- 

 fused to surrender, Dewey threatened to bombard the 

 forts and the citadel, but having no military force at 

 hand to garrison,the place and fearing the revenge- 

 ful action of the insurgents against the Spaniards, 

 he refrained at the request of the foreign consuls 

 and established a close blockade, while the insur- 

 gents hemmed in Manila from the land side. He 

 reported that he could take the capital at any mo- 

 ment. He occupied Cavite and destroyed the 6 

 batteries at the entrance of the bay. The losses of 

 the Spaniards on land included the navy yard, with 

 its equipments and stores and 9 batteries. At 

 Cavite the Americans established hospitals, where 

 250 Spanish, wounded and sick were cared for and 

 protected. On May 12 the Spanish gunboat " Ca- 

 llao " was captured while attempting to run the 

 blockade. Communication with the outside world 

 was interrupted after the Americans acquired pos- 

 session of the bay ; for Commodore Dewey, after Gen. 

 Augustin had refused to allow him to use the tele- 

 graph, cut the cable. 



The number of Spanish troops fit for service then 

 in the Philippines was not more than 7,000. There 

 were 30,000 or more native troops, on whose loyalty 

 no reliance could be placed. No sooner had the 

 rebel flag been again unfurled than whole regiments 

 deserted to the enemy with their arms and accoutre- 

 ments, after killing the Spanish officers. Gen. 

 Emilio Aguinaldo arrived on May 18, having been 

 allowed by Admiral Dewey to take passage from 

 Hong-Kong on the dispatch boat " McCulloch." 

 When Admiral Dewey took Cavite arsenal the 

 rebels held all the heights within ten miles around, 

 ready to close in upon Manila. Their strength 

 rapidly increased, and even in the city the Spaniards 

 captured a conclave of 150 conspirators, all of whom 

 were put to death. Gen. Aguinaldo establishing 

 his headquarters in the town of Cavite, gradually 

 massed a force exceeding 30,000. Deserters from 

 the Spanish army and bold parties which, armed 

 only with knives, overcame Spanish detachments 

 by surprise, supplied the rebels with a number of 

 Mauser rifles, and Remingtons were smuggled in 

 on a steamer. Toward the end of May the reln-ls 

 crossed the bay in boats and, fighting from the 

 cover of the bush, attacked the Spanish positions 



on the Zapote river, taking 418 prisoners. On May 

 30 the Filipinos captured a powder magazine and 

 4 small field guns, taking 250 prisoners. Several 

 scattered detachments in Cavite" province were over- 

 come before re-enforcements were sent from Manila. 

 When the Spanish column advanced, on May 30, 

 along a narrow road flanked by impassable swa'mps. 

 Gen. Tornas Mascado, the Filipino commander, 

 posted 500 men at a bridge, where 4 field guns 

 were concealed. The Spaniards were checked and 

 fell back in disorder when these guns were suddenly 

 unmasked, accompanied by a withering fire o'f 

 musketry. They rallied and charged, but were 

 again repelled. The rebels afterward drove the 

 Spaniards from Old Cavite and captured the town 

 of Imus, where 4 Krupp field pieces fell into their 

 hands. Their own cannon consisted of boiler pipes 

 wound with wire. After the Spanish garrison in 

 Old Cavite surrendered, on June 8, the rebels began 

 a general advance upon Manila. 



In the Visayas and Mindanao islands the rebels of 

 Aguinaldo's faction were less successful than in 

 Luzon. In Panay, where rebellion first broke out, 

 the Spanish were victorious, storming on May 3 an 

 intrenched position held by 4,000 rebels, of whom 

 172 were slain in the battle and 500 more during 

 the retreat. In Cebu the Spaniards slew great 

 numbers of both sexes after overcoming the re- 

 bellion. In Luzon, however, the principal island, 

 most of the detachments of Spanish troops sur- 

 rendered for lack of food, and all officials, priests, 

 and planters who escaped with their lives took 

 refuge in Cavite. In Cavite province the rebels 

 took nearly 2,000 prisoners, adding as many modern 

 rifles to their supply. Aguinaldo summoned Capt. 

 Gen. Augustin to surrender, but the Spanish com- 

 mander refused to treat on any terms with the 

 rebel chieftain, though provisions were becoming 

 very scarce, and the troops, weakened by hunger 

 and disease, had difficulty in maintaining their po- 

 sition inside of the line of blockhouses. The Chi- 

 nese in Manila had requested the British consul to 

 take them under his protection, but the Spanish 

 authorities would not acquiesce. In response to an 

 application of German firms, the German Govern- 

 ment ordered 4 war ships to proceed to Manila 

 Bay. As a means of conciliating the natives, the 

 Captain General instituted a consultative assembly 

 of 15 members of mixed and native blood, having 

 for its president Senor Peterno, who had achieved 

 the peace with the rebel leaders in the previous De- 

 cember. The Archbishop of Manila, in a pastoral 

 letter, told the natives that in the event of Ameri- 

 can victory altars would be desecrated, churches 

 converted into Protestant chapels, vice inculcated 

 instead of pure morality, and the children turned 

 from the true faith. The rebel leaders on their ar- 

 rival promised Admiral Dewey to regulate their 

 conduct according to the principles of humanity. 

 The Spanish gunboat " Leyte," pressed by insur- 

 gents, came out from its place of concealment and 

 surrendered to Rear-Admiral Dewey on June 20. 



Occupation of the Ladrones. Capt. Glass, of 

 the " Charleston/' received sealed orders at Hono- 

 lulu to call at the island of Guam and destroy the 

 Spanish fortifications and ships there. He arrived 

 off the island on June 20, and, leaving his convoy 

 the transports "Peking," "Australia," and "Syd- 

 ney" outside,-he steamed into the harbor of San 

 Luis de Apra and fired 13 shells at the abandoned 

 f or t_which the Spanish officers mistook for a sa- 

 lute, being ignorant of the existence of a state of 

 war. Spanish officers who came aboard were sent 

 to notify the Governor to surrender himself and his 

 military forces, and on his declining on the ground 

 that Spanish law forbade him to step aboard a for- 

 eign war ship, a landing party was got ready. On 



