GOVERNOR OF MANILA SUBJECTS WOMEN AND CHILDREN TO PERILS OF BOMBARDMENT RATHER THAN

LEAVE THEM TO AGUINALDO

To this demand, the Spanish Governor made a refusal and, in the course of his reply, said:

Finding myself surrounded by insurrectionary forces, I am without places of refuge for the increased numbers of wounded, sick, women and children who are now lodged within the walls."

Here you may get an idea of how the Spanish Governor regarded Aguinaldo. The Governor was afraid to trust his wounded, sick, women or children in the city in the hands of Aguinaldo. He preferred, for their sakes, to subject them to the perils of a joint bombardment and assault of a hostile army. When you hear Aguinaldo spoken of as the George Washington of the Philippines, it might be well to recall this remark of the Spanish Governor-General.

The Spanish refused to capitulate, and as they did not dare to send their sick, wounded, and women and children outside the city where Aguinaldo's army might endanger them, the Spanish Governor kept all these non-combatants within his

own lines. This made the task of the Americans doubly hard; but they were equal to it.

Here, in passing, record should be made of one thing that is a pleasant memory.

Just as the

hour to commence the bombardment arrived, the four British men-of-war hauled up their anchors and solemnly steamed over between the Germans and the Americans, and let their anchors down there, while their bands played "The StarSpangled Banner." The American sailors cheered. this movement to the echo. It was an act of friendship at a time when friends might be needed. It was a little thing; but it told. The Germans would have had to shoot through the English menof-war before they could have gotten in range of Dewey's ships, unless the latter changed their positions. England was the only friend we had; but, with her, no other was needed.

MANILA SURRENDERS

Dewey's guns were trained carefully so as to do no further damage than to reduce the Spanish forts, as their dismantling, with the demonstration that the American troops would make on the land, was believed to be sufficient to cause the capitula

tion of the city and, of course, the city itself could not be bombarded while it was filled with sick, wounded, disabled and women and children.

When the forts had been reduced, some of the American troops moved forward to take possession of them. One little picture that Abbott draws in his book is well worth quoting. It shows the American soldier at his best.

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At last," says Abbott, "there was a rattle of musketry from the shore, and, after allowing the smoke to clear away, the men on the ships could see a column of men advancing up the beach toward the fort, in water up to their waists ... but pressing forward with cheers, with colors waving and with a band stoutly plodding along in their rear, from which there came faintly over the waters, strains of a novel battle song, 'There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town To-night.' It was the Ist Colorado Infantry."

As soon as the forts were taken, the white flags appeared along the fortifications surrounding the city and the Americans entered and received the formal surrender of the city and the Spanish army defending it. These latter were disarmed and treated as prisoners of war. This was on the 13th day of August, 1898, three and one-half months after Manila Bay.

AGUINALDO'S FORCES HAD TO BE KEPT OUT OF MANILA

In these final operations Aguinaldo's army was requested to take no part, because Admiral Dewey and Generals Merritt and Greene, who commanded all our forces, believed that Aguinaldo's army could not be held in restraint if it ever got inside the city walls. In the unanimous judgment of all these commanders, Aguinaldo's army would do everything in its power to loot and sack the city. That we could not allow. To prevent it, General Greene, on the 12th of August, the night before the attack was to be made, notified Aguinaldo that the latter's army was not to take any hand at all in the next day's operations, nor in the occupation of Manila upon its capitulation.

Of this action of Dewey, Merritt and Greene, Mr. Abbott says, in his history:

"The sufficient justification for the restraint put upon the insurgents is the fact that, had they been admitted to the city before the American authority was complete and arrangements for the protection. of life and property perfected, they would, beyond a shadow of a doubt, have sacked and looted the town." (Blue Jackets of '98, p. 344.)

Mr. Lodge says of them (Hist. of the Spanish War):

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These natives wanted to kill and plunder . . Behind them (the American troops) would come the insurgents with pillage, bloodshed and fire in their train.

"The American troops posted at the bridges and approaches to the city, holding back the insurgents, forbidding their entrance entirely, determined that there should be no pillage, no slaughter, no burning."

Now I want to call attention to an incident that throws another light on Aguinaldo's army and their code of morals. It is as follows, as taken from Mr. Lodge's book, p. 338:

"In spite of this request (that Aguinaldo would not join at all in the attack), when General Greene's advance guard reached the walls of Manila, they were followed by a considerable number of natives who, by their superior knowledge of the roads, rushed ahead of our troops and opened fire at once upon the 5000 or 6000 Spanish soldiers on the walls of the city, regardless of the fact that at that time the Spaniards had ceased firing and the white flag was flying from the fortifications. This unprovoked attack precipitated a renewal of the firing on our troops resulting in the death of one and the wounding of two of the Ist California Volunteers."