Page:The Pacific Monthly volumes 1-3.djvu/209



Vol. 1

N Sunday, the ninth of October, it was my good fortune to attend a grand fiesta and witness a review of the Filipino army by Emelio Aguinaldo, president of the so-called Republica Filipinas. The scene of festivities was the pueblo of San Fernando, capital city of the province of Pampanga, some 60 miles from Manila, and the place of residence of some of the wealthy sugar-planters who are backing the insurrection. When I beheld the display of wealth, the bitterness of feeling of the planters against Spain and their enthusiasm for the cause of liberty, I understood better than before how it has been possible for Aguinaldo to carry on the insurrection, and maintain his army of barefooted warriors in the field. These rich, educated and intelligent landed pro prietors are the brains and sinew of the revolution, while the common herd. which is guided by them as absolutely as the populace of any country is managed by the aristocracy, is the bone.

Spain, in her exactions of revenue, has spared neither high nor low. Every- thing has been taxed, from the pig of the peon to the sugar fields of the planter, and taxed beyond endurance. These ex- actions have not been extorted to sup- port a just and proper government, but to enrich the ecclesiastical and civil au- thority in the islands. Every man, wom- an and child has felt the heavv hand of

the tithe gatherer and the sting of official arrogance. Enterprise has been re- pressed and industry stifled, while toll has been levied upon the food and pro- ductive energy of the poor. No wonder the Mestisto or full-blood Filipino land- holder gives freely of his wealth to shake off the burden, and no wonder the peon carries the Mauser, Remington and bola and tramps barefooted through the swamps to break the power of Spain and give his native land freedom from op- pression. Go where you will, both in country and city, the same sentiment prevails, and the universal phrase, "Es- panol mucho malo" is heard on every hand and from the lips of age and infancy alike. Not a man with a drop of native blood in his veins is to be found among the supporters of Spain. I have seen men as white as the whitest Spaniard in Manila, and every drop of the white blood that of Spanish ancestors, declare his undying hatred of the Spaniard. To be sure there were volunteers of mixed blood and even pure native stock fight- ing with the Spaniards up to the capture of Manila by the Americans, but that was the result of conditions more than of sentiment. They were not adherents of Aguinaldo and were but following the custom of generations in filling the ranks of Spain's insular army; but now that the power of Spain has been broken, a Fili- pino government organized and Agui-