Blount quotes with approval Admiral Dewey’s statement made shortly after the return of Wilcox and Sargent that in his opinion their report “contains the most complete and reliable information obtainable in regard to the present state of the northern part of Luzon Island.” [243] This was true.

The admiral might have gone further and said that it contained practically the only information then obtainable in regard to conditions in the territory in question, but as I shall conclusively show it was neither complete nor reliable.

Judge Blount in describing the experiences of Messrs. Wilcox and Sargent naively makes the statement that: 

“The tourists were provided at Rosales by order of Aguinaldo with a military escort, ’which was continued by relays all the way to Aparri.’” [244]

It certainly was!

Very little Spanish was then spoken in Nueva Vizcaya, Isabela or Cagayan.  What opportunity had these two men, ignorant as they were of the native dialects, to learn the sinister facts as to what had been and was occurring in the territory which they visited?

No one can fail to be delighted with Filipino hospitality, which was lavishly bestowed upon them everywhere, and it is only natural that they should have reported favourably upon what they saw.  It was about this time that an order was issued [245] that fronts of buildings should be whitewashed, streets cleaned and fences repaired with a view to showing every one, and especially travellers through the territory of the Insurgents, that they were “not opposed to a good such as a refined and civilized people should have.”  Doubtless the report of the two men from Dewey’s fleet was made in the best of faith.  I will now endeavour to show what were some of the actual conditions in the territory through which they passed.

Bulacan

They first visited Bulacan.  They do not mention hearing of the activities of a Chinaman named Ignacio Paua, who had been given the rank of colonel by Aguinaldo and assigned the task of extorting contributions for the revolution from his countrymen.  In a letter to Aguinaldo written on July 6, 1898, Paua states that he has collected more than $1,000 from the Chinese of these small towns, but asks for an order “prohibiting the outrages that are being committed against such merchants as are not our enemies.”  He further says, “When the contributions from the Chinamen of all the pueblos shall have been completed I wish to publish a proclamation forbidding any injury to the Chinamen and any interference with their small business enterprises,” and adds that “the natives hereabouts themselves are the people who are committing said abuses.” [246]

Apparently Paua had no objection to the committing of outrages against merchants that were the enemies of the cause, nor does he seem to have objected to injury to Chinamen before contributions were completed.  His own methods were none too mild.  On August 27, 1898, General Pio del Pilar telegraphed Aguinaldo that five Insurgent soldiers, under a leader supposed to be Paua, had entered the store of a Chinaman, and tried to kidnap his wife, but had left on the payment of $10 and a promise to pay $50 later, saying that they would return and hang their fellow countryman if the latter amount was not forthcoming. [247]