The first outbreak occurred on July 10, 1904, in the Gandara River valley where a settlement of the lowlanders was burned and some of its inhabitants were killed.  Eventually disorder spread to many places on the coast, and one scout garrison of a single company was surprised and overwhelmed by superior numbers.  Officers and men were massacred and their rifles taken.

In point of area Samar is the third island in the Philippines.  In its interior are many rugged peaks and heavily forested mountains.  It was here that a detachment of United States marines under the command of Major Waller, while attempting to cross the island, were lost for nearly two weeks, going without food for days and enduring terrible hardships.

At the time in question there were not five miles of road on the island passable for a vehicle, nor were there trails through the mountains over which horses could be ridden.  The only interior lines of communication were a few footpaths over which the natives were accustomed to make their way from the mountains to the coast.

Troops have perhaps never attempted a campaign in a country more difficult than the interior of Samar.  The traditional needle in the haystack would be easy to find compared with an outlaw, or band of outlaws, in such a rugged wilderness.

Upon the outbreak of trouble troops were hurried to Samar, and by December, 1904, according to Blount himself, there were some 1800 native soldiers on the island who were left free for active operations in the field by the garrisoning of various coast towns with sixteen companies of United States infantry.

If the nature of the feuds between the Samar lowlanders and highlanders had then been better understood, the ensuing troubles, which were more or less continuous for nearly two years, might perhaps have been avoided.  As soon as it became evident that the situation was such as to demand the use of the army it was employed to supplement the operations of the constabulary.

About the time that trouble ended in Samar it began in Leyte.  There was no real connection between the disorders in the two islands.  No leader on either island is known to have communicated with any leader on the other; no fanatical follower ever left Samar for Leyte or Leyte for Samar so far as we are informed.

For convenience of administration the two islands were grouped in a single command after the army was requested to take over the handling of the disturbances there, in cooeperation with the constabulary.  The trouble ended in 1907 and both islands have remained quiet ever since.  The same causes would again produce the same results now or at any time in the future, and they would be then, as in the past, the outcome of the oppression of the weak by the strong and without other political significance.  Under a good government they should never recur.