“When the Treaty of Paris was signed, General Otis was in possession of Cavite and Manila, with less than twenty thousand men under his command, and Aguinaldo was in possession of practically all of the rest of the archipelago with between 35,000 and 40,000 men under his command, armed with guns, and the whole Filipino population were in sympathy with the army of their country.” [342]

Ultimately, by one means or another, and chiefly by the use of armed emissaries, the Visayan Islands, with the exception of Negros, were brought into the Insurgent fold.

Mabini’s fear that Negros and Iloilo would form a federal republic was not realized, but Negros set up its own government, applied to the local commander of the United States forces for help, endeavoured with almost complete success to keep out Tagalog invaders, and presently settled down contentedly under American rule, facts of which Blount makes no mention.  On the contrary, without just cause, he includes this great island, with its 4881 square miles of territory and its 560,776 inhabitants, in the area over which he claims that Aguinaldo exercised complete control.

At Iloilo the American troops encountered opposition when they planned to land.  Negotiations had been entered into with the local Filipino officers, but the latter, under the influence of representatives whom Aguinaldo had sent from Luzon, announced themselves as adherents of his government, and when the American troops finally disembarked fired the town ahead of them.  It has been claimed that in doing this they were inspired by pure patriotism, but the facts shown by their own records present a very different picture.

In writing to Aguinaldo on April 8, 1899, Mabini says: 

“We have received a communication forwarded from Iloilo, from General Martin Delgado and Francisco Soriano, your commissioner.  Soriano states that the troops of Diocno have done nothing except commit excesses and steal money during the attack by the Americans upon the town of Iloilo, even going so far as to break their guns by using them as poles to carry the stolen money which they took to Capiz.  It is said that these forces, besides being unwilling to fight the Americans, refuse to give their guns to those who do wish to fight and do not want Capiz to aid the people of Iloilo, who are the ones who support the entire forces, including the troops of Diocno who went there.” [343]

This same letter contains the following brief reference to conditions in Cebu and Leyte:—­

“Also a native priest, Senor Pascual Reyes, has arrived here from Cebu, and says that in Leyte General Lucban is committing many abuses and that Colonel Mojica is only a mere figurehead.  In Cebu, he says, things are also in a chaotic condition, because the military chief, Magsilum [Maxilom,—­TR.], and the people are not in harmony.”

Further details as to conditions in Cebu are given in a letter to Aguinaldo from the commissioner whom he put in charge of elections in that island, who on February 19, 1899, writes:  [344]—­