The torturing of this unhappy man lasted for three hours, and the horrible scene was immediately succeeded by another quite as bad.  Villa called Father Domingo Campo and, after taking from him the little money that he had, ordered him stripped.  He was then given numberless kicks and blows from the butts of rifles and 150 lashes, after which he was unable to rise.  There followed the torture with water, on the pretext that he had money hidden away.

Meanwhile the houses of Spaniards and the shops of the Chinese were completely sacked, and the men who objected were knocked down or cut down with bolos.  Numerous girls and women were raped.

On September 15 Leyba received notice of the surrender of Nueva Vizcaya.  I quote the following from the narrative above referred to:—­

“Delfin’s soldiers [281] were the most depraved ever seen:  their thieving instincts had no bounds; so they had hardly entered Nueva Vizcaya when they started to give themselves up furiously to robbery, looking upon all things as loot; in the very shadow of these soldiers the province was invaded by a mob of adventurous and ragged persons from Nueva Ecija; between the two they picked Nueva Vizcaya clean.  When they had grown tired of completely shearing the unfortunate Vizcayan people, leaving them poverty-stricken, they flew in small bands to the pueblos of Isabela, going as far as Angadanan, giving themselves up to unbridled pillage of the most unjust and disorderly kind.  Some of these highwaymen demanded money and arms from the priest of Angadanan, but Father Marciano informed them ’that it could not be, as Leyba already knew what he had and would be angry.’

“To this very day the people of Nueva Vizcaya have been unable to recover from the stupendous losses suffered by them as regards their wealth and industries.  How many curses did they pour forth and still continue to level against the Katipunan that brought them naught but tribulations!”

Confirmation of these statements is found in the following brief but significant passage from the Insurgent records:—­

“At the end of December, 1898, when the military commander of Nueva Vizcaya called upon the Governor of that province to order the police of the towns to report to him as volunteers to be incorporated in the army which was being prepared for the defence of the country, the Governor protested against it and informed the government that his attempt to obtain volunteers was in fact only a means of disarming the towns and leaving them without protection against the soldiers who did what they wanted and took what they wished and committed every outrage without being punished for it by their officers.” [282]

The effect of the surrender of Nueva Vizcaya on Leyba and Villa is thus described by Father Malumbres:—­