“With reference to the 4th Company stationed in the Province of Isabela, whose captain is Don Antonio Monzon of Panamitan, there are many complaints of thefts and assaults committed by the soldiers, and in answer to my questions, Don Simeon Adriano y Villa, Major and Sanitary Inspector and doctor of this battalion, whom I have stationed there for lack of a competent person, tells me that he has always punished and offered advice to officers and soldiers in order to prevent the recurrence of thefts and assaults, but he has never been able to suppress them completely, because the soldiers are abandoned by their officers, and because of lack of example on the part of the latter; they do not understand that it is a great blot when they commit these abuses, since when they discover the goods or house of a Spaniard they believe they have a right to appropriate everything which they encounter.

“I have learned lately, that some foreigners, residents in that province, among them some employees of the Tobacco Factory, ’El Oriente’ and of the firm of Baer Senior & Co., who have Spanish employees in various pueblos of that province, have some very serious complaints to make of assaults committed against them prejudicial to their interests; however, I hope that now with the arrival of General Tirona he will regulate matters, although I believe that this gentleman is not sufficiently energetic in proceeding against the officers and soldiers, as I have seen when I reprimanded and punished them for faults committed he has pardoned them, and it appears that he censures energetic acts which we must use in order to subject them to rigorous discipline.  The same thing happened when Major Sr.  Victa wished to discipline them; it appears that the Colonel reprimanded him when he punished some soldiers for gambling in their quarters, since, as you know, that gentleman believes that he who is right is the one who comes to him first, and who is best able to flatter him.

“The Colonel has agreed with me that his first act on arrival at the province of Isabela should be to disarm and take all the money he finds among the soldiers of the 4th Company (Panamitan) in order to serve as indemnity for the property of the foreigners in case they should make any claim.

“I request that you send some leader or officer in order to superintend our actions, and to lift the doubt which hangs over the person who has worked faithfully and honourably in the sacred cause of our Independence.

“I am filling the position of First Chief in the Port of Aparri temporarily on account of the absence of the Colonel who has conferred on me all his duties and power.  After the military operations which were carried on as far as the last town in Isabela, being tired and somewhat sick, I was put in charge of these military headquarters, which I found to be very much mixed up, the town, moreover, being desperate on account of the assaults committed by my predecessor,