MANILA AND THE PHILIPPINES 69 



their rule was autocratic and absolute — an iron regime not only 

 for the natives but for every government official who might 

 have dared to cross the ways of the priestly lords. 



Since the days when the pious Spanish discoverer, holding 

 in one hand the sword and in the other the cross, took posses- 

 sion of these islands, 300 long years ago, has lasted this terrible 

 misrule over this unfortunate people. But at last the reaction 

 against that incredibly anachronistic administration took place. 

 A highly gifted young Tagale, educated in Europe and having 

 great poetical talent, was able by his songs and poems to excite 

 his countrymen against the Spanish rule, and when some years 

 ago that man was arrested by the government and shot, without 

 trial, on the Luneta in Manila, the Filipinos began their first in- 

 surrection against the hated priest-government. 



Terrible atrocities were committed at that time on both sides, 

 and there was hard fighting, too ; but at last the Spanish govern- 

 ment succeeded in overcoming the more open resistance. But 

 the fire was notextinguished. A secret society, the " Katipuna," 

 spread its membership over the whole island of Luzon, prepar- 

 ing another surprise! The murdered poet had acquired the 

 fame of a national hero and martyr, and mysterious tales were 

 told in all the Tagale villages that he lived still in the moun- 

 tains in the interior, to come down at the right moment to take 

 the leadership of his people in the great fight for independence. 

 And then the second insurrection began. The terrible scenes 

 of cruelty were repeated, but again without any decisive result. 

 A sort of armistice was arranged at the end of 1897 between the 

 young Tagale leader, Aguinaldo, and the Spaniards, and this 

 continued until the beginning of the recent American-Spanish 

 war and the glorious battle of Cavite. 



Strange tales, indeed, these time-blackened government build- 

 ings in Intra Muros can tell. They know many things about a 

 flourishing Japanese colony that existed two hundred years 

 ago in Manila town. Thirty thousand industrious Japanese 

 • once filled the streets of the old city, and the best regiments of 

 the Spanish government in those olden times were composed of 

 Japanese warriors, but the narrow-mindedness and intolerance 

 of the Spanish rulers drove out the followers of Buddha. The 

 Japanese warriors, the Samurais, and the industrious and able 

 workmen left this unfriendly and inhospitable country at the 

 same time, and that long sleep began which was to end at last 

 with the thunder of Admiral Dewey's guns. 



