Cavite

Cavite province lies immediately south of Manila province as the latter was then constituted.  On August 24, 1898, the secretary of war wired Aguinaldo that two drunken Americans had been killed by Insurgent soldiers. [311] On the same day General Anderson advised the governor of Cavite that one American soldier had been killed and three wounded by his people, and demanded his immediate withdrawal, with his guard, from the town. [312] The governor asked Aguinaldo for instructions.  Aguinaldo replied instructing the governor to deny that the American had been killed by Insurgent soldiers and to claim that he had met death at the hands of his own companions.  The governor was further directed to give up his life before leaving the place. [313]

In view of the definite statement from one of his own officers that the soldier in question was killed by Filipino soldiers, Aguinaldo’s instructions to say that he was killed by Americans are interesting as showing his methods.

Not only were the Insurgents obviously unable to control their own soldiers in Cavite town sufficiently to prevent them from committing murder, but conditions in the province of the same name left much to be desired.  On December 29, 1898, the governor wired Aguinaldo that the town of Marigondong had risen in arms. [314]

It is a well-known fact that land records were destroyed in Cavite.  Of this matter Taylor says:—­

“In Cavite, in Cavite Province, and probably in most of the other provinces, one of the first acts of the insurgents who gathered about Aguinaldo was to destroy all the land titles which had been recorded and filed in the Spanish administrative bureaus.  In case the independence of the Philippines was won, the land of the friars, the land of the Spaniards and of those who still stood by Spain, would be in the gift of Aguinaldo or of any strong man who could impose his will upon the people.  And the men who joined this leader would be rich in the chief riches of the country, and those who refused to do so would be ruined men.” [315]

Sorsogon

“The native civil officials who took charge of the government of Sorsogon Province when the Spaniards abandoned it did not think it worth while to hoist the insurgent flag until a force of four companies arrived there to take station early in November, 1898.  The officer in command promptly ordered the Chinamen in the town of Sorsogon, who are prosperous people, to contribute to the support of his troops.  They at once gave him cloth for uniforms, provisions, and 10,000 pesos.  This was not sufficient, for on November 8 Gen. Ignacio Paua, who seems to have been the insurgent agent in dealing with the Chinese, complained that the troops in Sorsogon were pillaging the Chinamen there.  They had killed 13, wounded 19, and ruined a number of others.” [316]

In January, 1899, a correspondent wrote Aguinaldo that it was very difficult to collect taxes as every one was taking what he could lay his hands on. [317]