The first period of the war, which we may term the period of organized armed resistance, drew rapidly to its close, and there followed the second period, characterized by guerrilla tactics on the part of the Insurgents.

On September 14, 1899, Aguinaldo accepted the advice of General Pio del Pilar, ex-bandit, if indeed he had ever ceased to rob and murder, and authorized this man, whom he had been again and again asked to remove, to begin guerrilla warfare in Bulacan.  Guerrilla tactics were duly authorized for, and had been adopted by, Insurgent forces everywhere before the end of November.

Of this style of fighting Taylor has truly said:—­

“If war in certain of its aspects is a temporary reversion to barbarism, guerrilla warfare is a temporary reversion to savagery.  The man who orders it assumes a grave responsibility before the people whose fate is in his hands, for serious as is the material destruction which this method of warfare entails, the destruction to the orderly habits of mind and thought which, at bottom, are civilization, is even more serious.  Robbery and brigandage, murder and arson follow in its wake.

Guerrilla warfare means a policy of destruction, a policy of terror, and never yet, however great may have been the injury caused by it, however much it may have prolonged the war in which it has been employed, has it secured a termination favorable to the people who have chosen it.” [422]

The case under discussion furnished no exception to the general rule.

Such semblance of discipline as had previously existed among the Insurgent soldiers rapidly disappeared.  Conditions had been very bad under the “Republic” and worse during the first period of the war.  During the second period they rapidly became unendurable in many regions, and the common people were driven into the arms of the Americans, in spite of threats of death, barbarously carried out by Insurgent officers, soldiers and agents in thousands of cases.  I have described at some length the conditions which now arose in the chapter on Murder as a Governmental Agency, to which the reader is referred for details. [423]

In the effort to protect the towns which showed themselves friendly, the American forces were divided, subdivided and subdivided again.  On March 1, 1901, they were occupying no less than five hundred two stations.  By December of the same year the number had increased to six hundred thirty-nine, with an average of less than sixty men to a post.  As a result of the protection thus afforded and of the humane conduct of our troops, the people turned to us in constantly increasing numbers.