“In December, 1899, certain men charged with being members of this society [Guards of Honour] were interrogated in Nueva Ecija as to their purposes.  One of those questioned said:—­

“’That their purpose was one day, the date being unknown to the deponent, when the Ilocanos of Batac came, to rise up in arms and kill the Tagalos, both private individuals and public employees, excepting those who agreed to the former, for the reason that honours were granted only to the Tagalos, and but few to the Ilocanos.’” [269]

Blount has assured us that the Filipinos were a unit at Aguinaldo’s back and were and are an united people, and here are the Ilocanos of Nueva Ecija spoiling his theory by remembering that they are Ilocanos and proposing to kill whom?  Not certain individual Filipinos, who might have offended them, but the Tagalogs!

That there were other troubles in Nueva Ecija is shown by the following statement:—­

“On January 7, 1899, the commissioner of Aguinaldo’s treasury sent to collect contributions of war in Nueva Ecija Province reported that the company stationed in San Isidro had become guerillas under command of its officers and opposed his collections, stating that they were acting in compliance with orders from higher authority.” [270]

And now, in following the route taken by our tourist friends, we reach Nueva Vizcaya and the Cagayan valley.

CHAPTER VI

Insurgent Rule in the Cagayan Valley

Nueva Vizcaya is drained by the Magat River, a branch of the Cagayan.  While the provinces of Isabela and Cagayan constitute the Cagayan valley proper, Blount includes Nueva Vizcaya in the territory covered by this designation, and for the purpose of this discussion I will follow his example.

Especial interest attaches to the history of Insurgent rule, in the Cagayan valley, as above defined, for the reason that Blount himself served there as a judge of the court of first instance.  He says:  [271]—­

“The writer is perhaps as familiar with the history of that Cagayan valley as almost any other American.”

He was.  For his action in concealing the horrible conditions which arose there under Insurgent rule, with which he was perfectly familiar, and in foisting on the public the account of Messrs. Wilcox and Sargent, as portraying the conditions which actually existed there, I propose to arraign him before the bar of public opinion.  In so doing I shall consider these conditions at some length.  We have much documentary evidence concerning them in addition to that furnished by the Insurgent records, although the latter quite sufficiently demonstrate many of the more essential facts.

In describing the adventures of Messrs. Wilcox and Sargent in this region, Judge Blount says:  [272]—­

“There [273] they were met by Simeon Villa, military commander of Isabela province, the man who was chief of staff to Aguinaldo afterwards, and was captured by General Funston along with Aguinaldo in the spring of 1901.”