MANILA UNDER THE AMERICANS. 
311 
from colliers ; in the meantime Brother Johnathan began to de- 
velope a taste for annexation of territory which ended in the 
American squadron remaining and troops being sent over from 
America to occupy and drive out the Spanish. It was considered too 
that the Filipinos might ably assist in expelling the Spanish and that 
Aguinaldo might be a useful man. Aguinaldo was negotiated with 
and very soon Aguinaldo returned. Backed up by tLc Americans, he 
had great influence among the Filipinos, especially when the Americans 
gave him arms and ammunition to distribute among them. In a short 
time Manila was invested by the combined American and Filipino 
forces, and eventually on the 13th August the Spanish surrendered to 
the American troops on condition that they were to be allowed to 
retain their arms and that the Filipinos were not to be allowed to 
plunder the city. The American troops then took possession of the 
city and immediately guarded all approaches and prevented the 
Filipino troops from entering at all. This action the Filipinos resented 
very warmly, hoping at least to enjoy joint occupation with the 
Americans, and they at once assumed an offensive attitude towards the 
new comer. In a very short time the American troops found them¬ 
selves besieged in Manila in much the same position that the Spanish 
had been, and this was the state of affairs that existed at the end of 
January, 1899, the time of which I write. 
, To return to my personal experiences :—at the 
Cavite. east of Manila Bay is situated the capital and some 
six miles south-west of this is the long narrow peninsula of San 
Boque, from which runs out to the eastward the peninsula of Cavite 
joined to that of San Boque by a narrow causeway. Having 
landed at the Arsenal, situated at the eastern end of Cavite, N- 
and I decided to explore together and made up our minds to have 
a look at the Arsenal on our way back to the boat. We soon 
found our way outside and came across some squads of American 
soldiers drilling while others were engaged at a game of base ball; as 
a shower of rain came on we took shelter in the verandah of a barrack 
room ; we were soon surrounded by a bevy of occupants who turned 
out to be Tennessee Volunteers. On enquiry, we found that the 
garrison of Cavite consisted of two regiments of volunteers, in all some 
2,000 men armed with Springfield rifles. Up to the time I write all 
the volunteers sent from America to the Philippines were armed with 
this weapon, which seems to date back to some time 
between our Snider and Martini-Henry, it is an 
improvement on the former, on much the same 
principle, opening longitudinally with the barrel instead of across; 
carries a *457 bullet, the cartridge is solid drawn and of white metal; 
each man carries 100 cartridges in bandoliers round his waist belt; to 
admit of this number being carried they are double banked. The 
uniform consisted of a stout blue cotton shirt with breast pockets, 
breeches and gaiters a mixture of red and green of coarser texture (the 
material one uses in India for shikar purposes), as regards boots there 
seemed to be a variety—probably most of them had either worn theirs 
Springfield 
Rifle. 
