XIII.OFF TO THE WAR.The next day Mrs. Rizal and her companion, known as Hilario Agonoy, set out into the country to join Saguanaldo.After they had proceeded a few miles beyond the city they walked along through the jungle over a trail that was rough, stumpy, stony, and at places almost overgrown and hidden by bamboo growths, trees, ferns, and tropical grasses. Occasionally they came to a grass hut in the midst of a little clearing, and here the friendly peasants, who for the most part, knew Mrs. Rizal, extended their hospitality in the form of invitations to remain with them. In places the women would be at work in the rice fields or cultivating tobacco or sugar cane. They were barefoot and bare armed, wearing only shifts that but partly enveloped them, meagerly concealing their fine physiques. Sometimes a man, barefoot and wearing only two garments, would be seen following the carabao, the native ox, as it dragged the wooden plow that scratched the soil.There were fields of abace or native hemp, rice and indigo. Sometimes the pilgrims would pass through groves of mahogany or cashu and see men at work with bolos, felling trees for lumber, or with sierras1slowly cutting boards from teque or mahogany. Sometimes they saw them grinding cane in thetrapiche2. Sometimes at night they saw thezanita, the Philippine bee, working by moonlight and storing its honey on the underside of slanting branches; and one day, when the bees were asleep Agonoy climbed a tree whilethe two laughed at his struggles, and the honey he obtained constituted their supper. They passed haciendas3and pueblos4. Once they came upon a cemetery where a couple of corpses were hanging, because the friends of the dead could or would not put up enough money to pay for the continuous burial in consecrated ground. Occasionally they were “given a lift,” to use an American expression, on acarata, behind a carabao. They saw at times the timidgalina del monte, the wild chickens that ranged the forests, and at other times were regaled with theanonaor custard apple.Now and then there were streams to cross. For the most part these were waded or passed over on logs felled to bridge them, though in a few cases there were rustic bridges made of bamboo curiously woven together.Everywhere poverty was visible, poverty abject and pitiable.Now and then they came to villages where there were fine brick churches and conventos; and a few other good buildings, beside many huts that under the operation of the Spanish law poor people were enabled to build. The churches were guarded by American soldiers, and in almost every village the inevitableconventowas occupied by officers of the American army. Invariably the friar lands were better cultivated and of a better quality than elsewhere, and resembled the old plantations in the American southern states when they were kept in good condition by slave labor; for the peasants bore the marks of poverty and hard work.The weather was enervating at all times, and often dismal from the drenching tropical rains, for it was the rainy season. Streams were up and the trails were muddy. During the heat of the day a choking malarial steam arose from the earth as the moisture evaporated. The people were keptmuch indoors. It was too disagreeable even for a revolt against Spain.They inquired in private for Saguanaldo, and were told that he had deserted the American army and gone into the interior. Others of the Filipinos had followed his lead in desertion, but it seemed that they had not yet come together into anything like an army. As to his exact location, nobody knew. The Americans were looking for him, too, and the natives were careful, even before Mrs. Rizal and Agonoy, to not say too much.“The Americans are going to force us into fighting them,” a Filipino told them in one of the villages. “They are overbearing and insulting, calling us ‘niggers’ and treating us as inferiors.”“I feared as much. The Philippines are too rich for them to give up. They want the islands for themselves.”“Let me show you.”The Filipino led them to a hut where a man lay on a mat within, evidently seriously injured.“The Americans gave him the water cure. This punishment was first learned from the Filipinos themselves.” Said the Filipino: “They laid him on his back and pinioned his limbs. Then they put a funnel in his mouth and held his nose while they poured him so full of water that it ran out of his nose and eyes and ears. It was horrible torture.”“Why did they do it?” asked Agonoy, with sinking heart.“In order to force him to reveal the whereabouts of Saguanaldo. You see why I have to be careful as to what I say. All I can do is to direct you to go on still further.”On they went passing into the primitive. They went even into the region of the head hunters, where the beautiful and symmetrical volcano, Mayon, lifted its green sides againstthe blue sky beyond; and here they saw the warriors who adhered to the old ways, and, severing the heads of their enemies with the bolos which they used also for clearing the roads through the bamboo brakes, dried them and retained the gruesome relics, reduced to a few inches in diameter, as trophies of war.But the savage tribes were kind to the pilgrims. They, too, were at enmity with Spain and all they regarded as foreigners, ready to take sides with Saguanaldo should he call them forth.“It seems to me they are more civilized and gentle in their way than are the people from the West,” said Agonoy.“No people are so destructive and wasteful as those who call themselves civilized,” returned Mrs. Rizal. “I am of them and understand them, and I tremble for the future of the Filipinos. The Americans will bring the foreigner and the natives will disappear before him. They will bring the machine, and such as remain will be chained to it, and compelled to render to them a tribute many times in excess of that which Spain has exacted from you. You have been poor, but you have not starved. Civilization brings the slum and abject hunger.”Agonoy answered not. He was thinking about something that to him seemed to be a dream, yet which he knew to be true—of the awful experiences of a girl, to all intents and purposes dead, who had suffered at the hands of civilization, the apex of possible human suffering.So the two walked on and on. Sometimes they heard of Saguanaldo, and again lost trace of him. They passed on into wilder regions, into places infested bymosquitoes, snakes and other loathsome things; to regions where mango birds were numerous and where the pigeon of the crucifixion with the red cross on its breast had its habitat. Often lost, theycould go but slowly; sometimes they slept alone in the great forests. But ever they pressed on.Finally, after days out, the two travelers came upon Saguanaldo in a grass hut in a thicket near the southern end of the island. As they approached, piloted by a friendly Igorrote, Saguanaldo arose in evident surprise. After exchanging greetings Mrs. Rizal said:“General Saguanaldo, we came to take with you the fortunes of war.”“SeñoraRizal, you are welcome. We shall need all the soldiers we can gather, and your advice will be valuable in this time of trouble. The name of the boy”—“Hilario Agonoy,” said Mrs. Rizal, quickly.“You are welcome.SeñoraRizal and the boy; we shall want you both at the council of war which we are about to hold.”“Private soldiers are not often taken into councils,” suggested Agonoy.“Oh, yes, they are when there are only three present,” suggested Saguanaldo, with grim humor. But Agonoy did not join in the laugh that followed.By Saguanaldo’s side sat Bishop Aglipay, Obispo Maximo, the leader of the revolt against the friars. Only these four were left, though others were ready to take up arms when Saguanaldo suggested. It was a pitiful remnant of the gay throng that had such a short time ago celebrated Philippine independence, hailing Saguanaldo as president. Saguanaldo began:“We shall need to confer as to the best mode of procedure, because we are in desperate situation. We are in a much worse shape than before the American army came. Then we were in possession of more than half the churches in the Philippines, and besides that, held Manila. But nowI have been tricked away from the Philippine capital, and the American troops are protecting the churches for the friars.”“How did they come to get the churches which you had?” Mrs. Rizal was addressing Aglipay. She knew, but wanted his version of it.“We were fearing nothing,” the leader of the schism explained, “when in one night, just before the American troops arrived on the scene, Spanish soldiers seized on the churches while we slept. The next day the American troops came, and as, it appears, they had been ordered to protect in possession of their properties whoever they might find in possession of them, they at once became allies of the friars.”“And here I, who was with them,” exclaimed Saguanaldo indignantly, “I, who had given them peaceable possession of Manila, was ordered to protect the friars in possession that they gained by trickery.”“What did you do?” asked Mrs. Rizal.“Do? I passed the word to as many of my followers as possible, and fled. Not one of them came, though.”“That seems to have been the best thing you could have done—for the friars,” returned Mrs. Rizal. “In doing that you became rebellious against the United States, and now, I understand, have the American army on your trail.”“That is true; but what else could I have done? Had I done nothing I would have been fighting for the Spaniards, and, as it were, against myself. I had the Americans against me, anyhow.”“But now the case is hopeless. So long as the Spaniards were your enemies, without outside help, there was some hope that some day you might have beaten them. But, now that the Americans are allies of the Spaniards the case is hopeless. It is too great a nation for you to combat. Recall how the Spanish fleet melted away before the American fleet in thebay of Manila and tell me what chance you will have before the giant foe from across the seas.”“I don’t see why the Americans turned against us, when they came here to fight the Spaniards,” said Aglipay gloomily.“The reason is very plain,” returned the woman.“Was it that they were offended at me because I had been made president of the Filipino republic?” asked Saguanaldo.“No.”“Are the American people, then, not lovers of liberty, and are they merely waging a war of conquest in the name of liberty?” Aglipay asked.“The answer is found in the fact that there is not a member of the Filipino Catholic church in all America, while there are ten million Roman Catholics there.”“Ah, political reasons, then,” suggested the bishop. He as an olden friar understood something of how politics modified policies.“Yes. Though your schism might have a greater power here than the friars have, it commands no influence in America. The American who favors the other side will have friends at home, while one who would favor you would find enemies there that might destroy his influence and his future. You are not only fighting the American army here, and the friars here, but also, as it were, all the people of America.”The two men reflected moodily for a few minutes.“There is nothing to do but to fight until we perish,” said Saguanaldo.“One should not die for a cause unless there is good cause for the sacrifice. Do you find that the people rally to you?”“No,” said the insurgent bitterly. “They sympathizeand see the danger, but it seems they have not the interest that dares to risk all and fight.”“Even the men you can command are not disciplined or drilled or properly equipped.”“No. The Americans have the equipment I had collected.”“Nor would the various tribes be likely to cling together,” suggested the woman.“This cursed race feeling! The only way the tribes will stay together is when they war with each other; then they are together in battling each other.” There was dogged bitterness in Saguanaldo’s words.“I do not see how you can win by fighting. What does a grinning skull care forvengeance? But there is a way in which you may win, General Saguanaldo.”“How,” asked the general, eagerly.“By yielding. It is often the surest way of winning. You have an unexpected ally.”“Who can it be?”“None other than the Pope at Rome.”“The Pope!” exclaimed both men in a breath.“Yes. The Pope understands that the Spanish friars are at the bottom of the long trouble in the Philippines and is glad of the war that will give him an excuse for removing them. That will be a victory for him; and, as he has already managed to get possession of the churches, it means a victory for the church as well. If you can get the friendship of America, so that the country will treat you justly, it will also be a victory for the Filipino people.”“And I am to lose all that I have struggled for?” protested Saguanaldo.“And I to lose the organization which I have built up through the years?” added the Bishop.“Better to lose these things alone than to lose both them and your lives as well,” suggested Mrs. Rizal.“If a common soldier might be permitted to speak”—faltered Hilario Agonoy.“Say what you wish,” suggested the insurgent general. “We are all equal in our love for the cause.”“I prefer to fight even though I know we must lose. There is some satisfaction in punishing those who have treated us so unjustly, and every blow we strike will cause them to have the greater respect for the Filipino people in the future. If we could punish that Jesuit”—“And Bishop Lonzello,” added Aglipay.“To my mind there is nothing left us to do but fight,” added General Saguanaldo, visibly pleased. “We in the interior can conduct a guerrilla warfare that will cause the enemy to respect us, and make the new masters more inclined to do us justice. I trust,SeñoraRizal, you will not desert us if we take this action.”Mrs. Rizal arose. “I am with, you to the last,” she said. “I am not afraid to die, either, just as my husband died before me. If I may be asked to designate the service I am to perform, I would ask that the youth here and I be permitted to go among the people and arouse them with our songs and speeches. We can rally you a force, General.”“Go, and God bless you. There is one question I would ask you if I may speak to you in private.”GeneralSaguanaldoand Mrs. Rizal stepped a few paces away.“Have you seen Ambrosia?” he asked. “Is she well, and does she remain true to me?”“Ambrosia has the strength of a man,” returned Mrs.Rizal, “in the cause of Filipino independence. She is true, and will ever be near you—in spirit.”1Sierras—Saw used in Spanish countries, hence toothed or irregular.↑2Trapiche—A cane mill.↑3Haciendas—Large farms.↑4Pueblos—Villages.↑
XIII.OFF TO THE WAR.The next day Mrs. Rizal and her companion, known as Hilario Agonoy, set out into the country to join Saguanaldo.After they had proceeded a few miles beyond the city they walked along through the jungle over a trail that was rough, stumpy, stony, and at places almost overgrown and hidden by bamboo growths, trees, ferns, and tropical grasses. Occasionally they came to a grass hut in the midst of a little clearing, and here the friendly peasants, who for the most part, knew Mrs. Rizal, extended their hospitality in the form of invitations to remain with them. In places the women would be at work in the rice fields or cultivating tobacco or sugar cane. They were barefoot and bare armed, wearing only shifts that but partly enveloped them, meagerly concealing their fine physiques. Sometimes a man, barefoot and wearing only two garments, would be seen following the carabao, the native ox, as it dragged the wooden plow that scratched the soil.There were fields of abace or native hemp, rice and indigo. Sometimes the pilgrims would pass through groves of mahogany or cashu and see men at work with bolos, felling trees for lumber, or with sierras1slowly cutting boards from teque or mahogany. Sometimes they saw them grinding cane in thetrapiche2. Sometimes at night they saw thezanita, the Philippine bee, working by moonlight and storing its honey on the underside of slanting branches; and one day, when the bees were asleep Agonoy climbed a tree whilethe two laughed at his struggles, and the honey he obtained constituted their supper. They passed haciendas3and pueblos4. Once they came upon a cemetery where a couple of corpses were hanging, because the friends of the dead could or would not put up enough money to pay for the continuous burial in consecrated ground. Occasionally they were “given a lift,” to use an American expression, on acarata, behind a carabao. They saw at times the timidgalina del monte, the wild chickens that ranged the forests, and at other times were regaled with theanonaor custard apple.Now and then there were streams to cross. For the most part these were waded or passed over on logs felled to bridge them, though in a few cases there were rustic bridges made of bamboo curiously woven together.Everywhere poverty was visible, poverty abject and pitiable.Now and then they came to villages where there were fine brick churches and conventos; and a few other good buildings, beside many huts that under the operation of the Spanish law poor people were enabled to build. The churches were guarded by American soldiers, and in almost every village the inevitableconventowas occupied by officers of the American army. Invariably the friar lands were better cultivated and of a better quality than elsewhere, and resembled the old plantations in the American southern states when they were kept in good condition by slave labor; for the peasants bore the marks of poverty and hard work.The weather was enervating at all times, and often dismal from the drenching tropical rains, for it was the rainy season. Streams were up and the trails were muddy. During the heat of the day a choking malarial steam arose from the earth as the moisture evaporated. The people were keptmuch indoors. It was too disagreeable even for a revolt against Spain.They inquired in private for Saguanaldo, and were told that he had deserted the American army and gone into the interior. Others of the Filipinos had followed his lead in desertion, but it seemed that they had not yet come together into anything like an army. As to his exact location, nobody knew. The Americans were looking for him, too, and the natives were careful, even before Mrs. Rizal and Agonoy, to not say too much.“The Americans are going to force us into fighting them,” a Filipino told them in one of the villages. “They are overbearing and insulting, calling us ‘niggers’ and treating us as inferiors.”“I feared as much. The Philippines are too rich for them to give up. They want the islands for themselves.”“Let me show you.”The Filipino led them to a hut where a man lay on a mat within, evidently seriously injured.“The Americans gave him the water cure. This punishment was first learned from the Filipinos themselves.” Said the Filipino: “They laid him on his back and pinioned his limbs. Then they put a funnel in his mouth and held his nose while they poured him so full of water that it ran out of his nose and eyes and ears. It was horrible torture.”“Why did they do it?” asked Agonoy, with sinking heart.“In order to force him to reveal the whereabouts of Saguanaldo. You see why I have to be careful as to what I say. All I can do is to direct you to go on still further.”On they went passing into the primitive. They went even into the region of the head hunters, where the beautiful and symmetrical volcano, Mayon, lifted its green sides againstthe blue sky beyond; and here they saw the warriors who adhered to the old ways, and, severing the heads of their enemies with the bolos which they used also for clearing the roads through the bamboo brakes, dried them and retained the gruesome relics, reduced to a few inches in diameter, as trophies of war.But the savage tribes were kind to the pilgrims. They, too, were at enmity with Spain and all they regarded as foreigners, ready to take sides with Saguanaldo should he call them forth.“It seems to me they are more civilized and gentle in their way than are the people from the West,” said Agonoy.“No people are so destructive and wasteful as those who call themselves civilized,” returned Mrs. Rizal. “I am of them and understand them, and I tremble for the future of the Filipinos. The Americans will bring the foreigner and the natives will disappear before him. They will bring the machine, and such as remain will be chained to it, and compelled to render to them a tribute many times in excess of that which Spain has exacted from you. You have been poor, but you have not starved. Civilization brings the slum and abject hunger.”Agonoy answered not. He was thinking about something that to him seemed to be a dream, yet which he knew to be true—of the awful experiences of a girl, to all intents and purposes dead, who had suffered at the hands of civilization, the apex of possible human suffering.So the two walked on and on. Sometimes they heard of Saguanaldo, and again lost trace of him. They passed on into wilder regions, into places infested bymosquitoes, snakes and other loathsome things; to regions where mango birds were numerous and where the pigeon of the crucifixion with the red cross on its breast had its habitat. Often lost, theycould go but slowly; sometimes they slept alone in the great forests. But ever they pressed on.Finally, after days out, the two travelers came upon Saguanaldo in a grass hut in a thicket near the southern end of the island. As they approached, piloted by a friendly Igorrote, Saguanaldo arose in evident surprise. After exchanging greetings Mrs. Rizal said:“General Saguanaldo, we came to take with you the fortunes of war.”“SeñoraRizal, you are welcome. We shall need all the soldiers we can gather, and your advice will be valuable in this time of trouble. The name of the boy”—“Hilario Agonoy,” said Mrs. Rizal, quickly.“You are welcome.SeñoraRizal and the boy; we shall want you both at the council of war which we are about to hold.”“Private soldiers are not often taken into councils,” suggested Agonoy.“Oh, yes, they are when there are only three present,” suggested Saguanaldo, with grim humor. But Agonoy did not join in the laugh that followed.By Saguanaldo’s side sat Bishop Aglipay, Obispo Maximo, the leader of the revolt against the friars. Only these four were left, though others were ready to take up arms when Saguanaldo suggested. It was a pitiful remnant of the gay throng that had such a short time ago celebrated Philippine independence, hailing Saguanaldo as president. Saguanaldo began:“We shall need to confer as to the best mode of procedure, because we are in desperate situation. We are in a much worse shape than before the American army came. Then we were in possession of more than half the churches in the Philippines, and besides that, held Manila. But nowI have been tricked away from the Philippine capital, and the American troops are protecting the churches for the friars.”“How did they come to get the churches which you had?” Mrs. Rizal was addressing Aglipay. She knew, but wanted his version of it.“We were fearing nothing,” the leader of the schism explained, “when in one night, just before the American troops arrived on the scene, Spanish soldiers seized on the churches while we slept. The next day the American troops came, and as, it appears, they had been ordered to protect in possession of their properties whoever they might find in possession of them, they at once became allies of the friars.”“And here I, who was with them,” exclaimed Saguanaldo indignantly, “I, who had given them peaceable possession of Manila, was ordered to protect the friars in possession that they gained by trickery.”“What did you do?” asked Mrs. Rizal.“Do? I passed the word to as many of my followers as possible, and fled. Not one of them came, though.”“That seems to have been the best thing you could have done—for the friars,” returned Mrs. Rizal. “In doing that you became rebellious against the United States, and now, I understand, have the American army on your trail.”“That is true; but what else could I have done? Had I done nothing I would have been fighting for the Spaniards, and, as it were, against myself. I had the Americans against me, anyhow.”“But now the case is hopeless. So long as the Spaniards were your enemies, without outside help, there was some hope that some day you might have beaten them. But, now that the Americans are allies of the Spaniards the case is hopeless. It is too great a nation for you to combat. Recall how the Spanish fleet melted away before the American fleet in thebay of Manila and tell me what chance you will have before the giant foe from across the seas.”“I don’t see why the Americans turned against us, when they came here to fight the Spaniards,” said Aglipay gloomily.“The reason is very plain,” returned the woman.“Was it that they were offended at me because I had been made president of the Filipino republic?” asked Saguanaldo.“No.”“Are the American people, then, not lovers of liberty, and are they merely waging a war of conquest in the name of liberty?” Aglipay asked.“The answer is found in the fact that there is not a member of the Filipino Catholic church in all America, while there are ten million Roman Catholics there.”“Ah, political reasons, then,” suggested the bishop. He as an olden friar understood something of how politics modified policies.“Yes. Though your schism might have a greater power here than the friars have, it commands no influence in America. The American who favors the other side will have friends at home, while one who would favor you would find enemies there that might destroy his influence and his future. You are not only fighting the American army here, and the friars here, but also, as it were, all the people of America.”The two men reflected moodily for a few minutes.“There is nothing to do but to fight until we perish,” said Saguanaldo.“One should not die for a cause unless there is good cause for the sacrifice. Do you find that the people rally to you?”“No,” said the insurgent bitterly. “They sympathizeand see the danger, but it seems they have not the interest that dares to risk all and fight.”“Even the men you can command are not disciplined or drilled or properly equipped.”“No. The Americans have the equipment I had collected.”“Nor would the various tribes be likely to cling together,” suggested the woman.“This cursed race feeling! The only way the tribes will stay together is when they war with each other; then they are together in battling each other.” There was dogged bitterness in Saguanaldo’s words.“I do not see how you can win by fighting. What does a grinning skull care forvengeance? But there is a way in which you may win, General Saguanaldo.”“How,” asked the general, eagerly.“By yielding. It is often the surest way of winning. You have an unexpected ally.”“Who can it be?”“None other than the Pope at Rome.”“The Pope!” exclaimed both men in a breath.“Yes. The Pope understands that the Spanish friars are at the bottom of the long trouble in the Philippines and is glad of the war that will give him an excuse for removing them. That will be a victory for him; and, as he has already managed to get possession of the churches, it means a victory for the church as well. If you can get the friendship of America, so that the country will treat you justly, it will also be a victory for the Filipino people.”“And I am to lose all that I have struggled for?” protested Saguanaldo.“And I to lose the organization which I have built up through the years?” added the Bishop.“Better to lose these things alone than to lose both them and your lives as well,” suggested Mrs. Rizal.“If a common soldier might be permitted to speak”—faltered Hilario Agonoy.“Say what you wish,” suggested the insurgent general. “We are all equal in our love for the cause.”“I prefer to fight even though I know we must lose. There is some satisfaction in punishing those who have treated us so unjustly, and every blow we strike will cause them to have the greater respect for the Filipino people in the future. If we could punish that Jesuit”—“And Bishop Lonzello,” added Aglipay.“To my mind there is nothing left us to do but fight,” added General Saguanaldo, visibly pleased. “We in the interior can conduct a guerrilla warfare that will cause the enemy to respect us, and make the new masters more inclined to do us justice. I trust,SeñoraRizal, you will not desert us if we take this action.”Mrs. Rizal arose. “I am with, you to the last,” she said. “I am not afraid to die, either, just as my husband died before me. If I may be asked to designate the service I am to perform, I would ask that the youth here and I be permitted to go among the people and arouse them with our songs and speeches. We can rally you a force, General.”“Go, and God bless you. There is one question I would ask you if I may speak to you in private.”GeneralSaguanaldoand Mrs. Rizal stepped a few paces away.“Have you seen Ambrosia?” he asked. “Is she well, and does she remain true to me?”“Ambrosia has the strength of a man,” returned Mrs.Rizal, “in the cause of Filipino independence. She is true, and will ever be near you—in spirit.”1Sierras—Saw used in Spanish countries, hence toothed or irregular.↑2Trapiche—A cane mill.↑3Haciendas—Large farms.↑4Pueblos—Villages.↑
XIII.OFF TO THE WAR.
The next day Mrs. Rizal and her companion, known as Hilario Agonoy, set out into the country to join Saguanaldo.After they had proceeded a few miles beyond the city they walked along through the jungle over a trail that was rough, stumpy, stony, and at places almost overgrown and hidden by bamboo growths, trees, ferns, and tropical grasses. Occasionally they came to a grass hut in the midst of a little clearing, and here the friendly peasants, who for the most part, knew Mrs. Rizal, extended their hospitality in the form of invitations to remain with them. In places the women would be at work in the rice fields or cultivating tobacco or sugar cane. They were barefoot and bare armed, wearing only shifts that but partly enveloped them, meagerly concealing their fine physiques. Sometimes a man, barefoot and wearing only two garments, would be seen following the carabao, the native ox, as it dragged the wooden plow that scratched the soil.There were fields of abace or native hemp, rice and indigo. Sometimes the pilgrims would pass through groves of mahogany or cashu and see men at work with bolos, felling trees for lumber, or with sierras1slowly cutting boards from teque or mahogany. Sometimes they saw them grinding cane in thetrapiche2. Sometimes at night they saw thezanita, the Philippine bee, working by moonlight and storing its honey on the underside of slanting branches; and one day, when the bees were asleep Agonoy climbed a tree whilethe two laughed at his struggles, and the honey he obtained constituted their supper. They passed haciendas3and pueblos4. Once they came upon a cemetery where a couple of corpses were hanging, because the friends of the dead could or would not put up enough money to pay for the continuous burial in consecrated ground. Occasionally they were “given a lift,” to use an American expression, on acarata, behind a carabao. They saw at times the timidgalina del monte, the wild chickens that ranged the forests, and at other times were regaled with theanonaor custard apple.Now and then there were streams to cross. For the most part these were waded or passed over on logs felled to bridge them, though in a few cases there were rustic bridges made of bamboo curiously woven together.Everywhere poverty was visible, poverty abject and pitiable.Now and then they came to villages where there were fine brick churches and conventos; and a few other good buildings, beside many huts that under the operation of the Spanish law poor people were enabled to build. The churches were guarded by American soldiers, and in almost every village the inevitableconventowas occupied by officers of the American army. Invariably the friar lands were better cultivated and of a better quality than elsewhere, and resembled the old plantations in the American southern states when they were kept in good condition by slave labor; for the peasants bore the marks of poverty and hard work.The weather was enervating at all times, and often dismal from the drenching tropical rains, for it was the rainy season. Streams were up and the trails were muddy. During the heat of the day a choking malarial steam arose from the earth as the moisture evaporated. The people were keptmuch indoors. It was too disagreeable even for a revolt against Spain.They inquired in private for Saguanaldo, and were told that he had deserted the American army and gone into the interior. Others of the Filipinos had followed his lead in desertion, but it seemed that they had not yet come together into anything like an army. As to his exact location, nobody knew. The Americans were looking for him, too, and the natives were careful, even before Mrs. Rizal and Agonoy, to not say too much.“The Americans are going to force us into fighting them,” a Filipino told them in one of the villages. “They are overbearing and insulting, calling us ‘niggers’ and treating us as inferiors.”“I feared as much. The Philippines are too rich for them to give up. They want the islands for themselves.”“Let me show you.”The Filipino led them to a hut where a man lay on a mat within, evidently seriously injured.“The Americans gave him the water cure. This punishment was first learned from the Filipinos themselves.” Said the Filipino: “They laid him on his back and pinioned his limbs. Then they put a funnel in his mouth and held his nose while they poured him so full of water that it ran out of his nose and eyes and ears. It was horrible torture.”“Why did they do it?” asked Agonoy, with sinking heart.“In order to force him to reveal the whereabouts of Saguanaldo. You see why I have to be careful as to what I say. All I can do is to direct you to go on still further.”On they went passing into the primitive. They went even into the region of the head hunters, where the beautiful and symmetrical volcano, Mayon, lifted its green sides againstthe blue sky beyond; and here they saw the warriors who adhered to the old ways, and, severing the heads of their enemies with the bolos which they used also for clearing the roads through the bamboo brakes, dried them and retained the gruesome relics, reduced to a few inches in diameter, as trophies of war.But the savage tribes were kind to the pilgrims. They, too, were at enmity with Spain and all they regarded as foreigners, ready to take sides with Saguanaldo should he call them forth.“It seems to me they are more civilized and gentle in their way than are the people from the West,” said Agonoy.“No people are so destructive and wasteful as those who call themselves civilized,” returned Mrs. Rizal. “I am of them and understand them, and I tremble for the future of the Filipinos. The Americans will bring the foreigner and the natives will disappear before him. They will bring the machine, and such as remain will be chained to it, and compelled to render to them a tribute many times in excess of that which Spain has exacted from you. You have been poor, but you have not starved. Civilization brings the slum and abject hunger.”Agonoy answered not. He was thinking about something that to him seemed to be a dream, yet which he knew to be true—of the awful experiences of a girl, to all intents and purposes dead, who had suffered at the hands of civilization, the apex of possible human suffering.So the two walked on and on. Sometimes they heard of Saguanaldo, and again lost trace of him. They passed on into wilder regions, into places infested bymosquitoes, snakes and other loathsome things; to regions where mango birds were numerous and where the pigeon of the crucifixion with the red cross on its breast had its habitat. Often lost, theycould go but slowly; sometimes they slept alone in the great forests. But ever they pressed on.Finally, after days out, the two travelers came upon Saguanaldo in a grass hut in a thicket near the southern end of the island. As they approached, piloted by a friendly Igorrote, Saguanaldo arose in evident surprise. After exchanging greetings Mrs. Rizal said:“General Saguanaldo, we came to take with you the fortunes of war.”“SeñoraRizal, you are welcome. We shall need all the soldiers we can gather, and your advice will be valuable in this time of trouble. The name of the boy”—“Hilario Agonoy,” said Mrs. Rizal, quickly.“You are welcome.SeñoraRizal and the boy; we shall want you both at the council of war which we are about to hold.”“Private soldiers are not often taken into councils,” suggested Agonoy.“Oh, yes, they are when there are only three present,” suggested Saguanaldo, with grim humor. But Agonoy did not join in the laugh that followed.By Saguanaldo’s side sat Bishop Aglipay, Obispo Maximo, the leader of the revolt against the friars. Only these four were left, though others were ready to take up arms when Saguanaldo suggested. It was a pitiful remnant of the gay throng that had such a short time ago celebrated Philippine independence, hailing Saguanaldo as president. Saguanaldo began:“We shall need to confer as to the best mode of procedure, because we are in desperate situation. We are in a much worse shape than before the American army came. Then we were in possession of more than half the churches in the Philippines, and besides that, held Manila. But nowI have been tricked away from the Philippine capital, and the American troops are protecting the churches for the friars.”“How did they come to get the churches which you had?” Mrs. Rizal was addressing Aglipay. She knew, but wanted his version of it.“We were fearing nothing,” the leader of the schism explained, “when in one night, just before the American troops arrived on the scene, Spanish soldiers seized on the churches while we slept. The next day the American troops came, and as, it appears, they had been ordered to protect in possession of their properties whoever they might find in possession of them, they at once became allies of the friars.”“And here I, who was with them,” exclaimed Saguanaldo indignantly, “I, who had given them peaceable possession of Manila, was ordered to protect the friars in possession that they gained by trickery.”“What did you do?” asked Mrs. Rizal.“Do? I passed the word to as many of my followers as possible, and fled. Not one of them came, though.”“That seems to have been the best thing you could have done—for the friars,” returned Mrs. Rizal. “In doing that you became rebellious against the United States, and now, I understand, have the American army on your trail.”“That is true; but what else could I have done? Had I done nothing I would have been fighting for the Spaniards, and, as it were, against myself. I had the Americans against me, anyhow.”“But now the case is hopeless. So long as the Spaniards were your enemies, without outside help, there was some hope that some day you might have beaten them. But, now that the Americans are allies of the Spaniards the case is hopeless. It is too great a nation for you to combat. Recall how the Spanish fleet melted away before the American fleet in thebay of Manila and tell me what chance you will have before the giant foe from across the seas.”“I don’t see why the Americans turned against us, when they came here to fight the Spaniards,” said Aglipay gloomily.“The reason is very plain,” returned the woman.“Was it that they were offended at me because I had been made president of the Filipino republic?” asked Saguanaldo.“No.”“Are the American people, then, not lovers of liberty, and are they merely waging a war of conquest in the name of liberty?” Aglipay asked.“The answer is found in the fact that there is not a member of the Filipino Catholic church in all America, while there are ten million Roman Catholics there.”“Ah, political reasons, then,” suggested the bishop. He as an olden friar understood something of how politics modified policies.“Yes. Though your schism might have a greater power here than the friars have, it commands no influence in America. The American who favors the other side will have friends at home, while one who would favor you would find enemies there that might destroy his influence and his future. You are not only fighting the American army here, and the friars here, but also, as it were, all the people of America.”The two men reflected moodily for a few minutes.“There is nothing to do but to fight until we perish,” said Saguanaldo.“One should not die for a cause unless there is good cause for the sacrifice. Do you find that the people rally to you?”“No,” said the insurgent bitterly. “They sympathizeand see the danger, but it seems they have not the interest that dares to risk all and fight.”“Even the men you can command are not disciplined or drilled or properly equipped.”“No. The Americans have the equipment I had collected.”“Nor would the various tribes be likely to cling together,” suggested the woman.“This cursed race feeling! The only way the tribes will stay together is when they war with each other; then they are together in battling each other.” There was dogged bitterness in Saguanaldo’s words.“I do not see how you can win by fighting. What does a grinning skull care forvengeance? But there is a way in which you may win, General Saguanaldo.”“How,” asked the general, eagerly.“By yielding. It is often the surest way of winning. You have an unexpected ally.”“Who can it be?”“None other than the Pope at Rome.”“The Pope!” exclaimed both men in a breath.“Yes. The Pope understands that the Spanish friars are at the bottom of the long trouble in the Philippines and is glad of the war that will give him an excuse for removing them. That will be a victory for him; and, as he has already managed to get possession of the churches, it means a victory for the church as well. If you can get the friendship of America, so that the country will treat you justly, it will also be a victory for the Filipino people.”“And I am to lose all that I have struggled for?” protested Saguanaldo.“And I to lose the organization which I have built up through the years?” added the Bishop.“Better to lose these things alone than to lose both them and your lives as well,” suggested Mrs. Rizal.“If a common soldier might be permitted to speak”—faltered Hilario Agonoy.“Say what you wish,” suggested the insurgent general. “We are all equal in our love for the cause.”“I prefer to fight even though I know we must lose. There is some satisfaction in punishing those who have treated us so unjustly, and every blow we strike will cause them to have the greater respect for the Filipino people in the future. If we could punish that Jesuit”—“And Bishop Lonzello,” added Aglipay.“To my mind there is nothing left us to do but fight,” added General Saguanaldo, visibly pleased. “We in the interior can conduct a guerrilla warfare that will cause the enemy to respect us, and make the new masters more inclined to do us justice. I trust,SeñoraRizal, you will not desert us if we take this action.”Mrs. Rizal arose. “I am with, you to the last,” she said. “I am not afraid to die, either, just as my husband died before me. If I may be asked to designate the service I am to perform, I would ask that the youth here and I be permitted to go among the people and arouse them with our songs and speeches. We can rally you a force, General.”“Go, and God bless you. There is one question I would ask you if I may speak to you in private.”GeneralSaguanaldoand Mrs. Rizal stepped a few paces away.“Have you seen Ambrosia?” he asked. “Is she well, and does she remain true to me?”“Ambrosia has the strength of a man,” returned Mrs.Rizal, “in the cause of Filipino independence. She is true, and will ever be near you—in spirit.”
The next day Mrs. Rizal and her companion, known as Hilario Agonoy, set out into the country to join Saguanaldo.
After they had proceeded a few miles beyond the city they walked along through the jungle over a trail that was rough, stumpy, stony, and at places almost overgrown and hidden by bamboo growths, trees, ferns, and tropical grasses. Occasionally they came to a grass hut in the midst of a little clearing, and here the friendly peasants, who for the most part, knew Mrs. Rizal, extended their hospitality in the form of invitations to remain with them. In places the women would be at work in the rice fields or cultivating tobacco or sugar cane. They were barefoot and bare armed, wearing only shifts that but partly enveloped them, meagerly concealing their fine physiques. Sometimes a man, barefoot and wearing only two garments, would be seen following the carabao, the native ox, as it dragged the wooden plow that scratched the soil.
There were fields of abace or native hemp, rice and indigo. Sometimes the pilgrims would pass through groves of mahogany or cashu and see men at work with bolos, felling trees for lumber, or with sierras1slowly cutting boards from teque or mahogany. Sometimes they saw them grinding cane in thetrapiche2. Sometimes at night they saw thezanita, the Philippine bee, working by moonlight and storing its honey on the underside of slanting branches; and one day, when the bees were asleep Agonoy climbed a tree whilethe two laughed at his struggles, and the honey he obtained constituted their supper. They passed haciendas3and pueblos4. Once they came upon a cemetery where a couple of corpses were hanging, because the friends of the dead could or would not put up enough money to pay for the continuous burial in consecrated ground. Occasionally they were “given a lift,” to use an American expression, on acarata, behind a carabao. They saw at times the timidgalina del monte, the wild chickens that ranged the forests, and at other times were regaled with theanonaor custard apple.
Now and then there were streams to cross. For the most part these were waded or passed over on logs felled to bridge them, though in a few cases there were rustic bridges made of bamboo curiously woven together.
Everywhere poverty was visible, poverty abject and pitiable.
Now and then they came to villages where there were fine brick churches and conventos; and a few other good buildings, beside many huts that under the operation of the Spanish law poor people were enabled to build. The churches were guarded by American soldiers, and in almost every village the inevitableconventowas occupied by officers of the American army. Invariably the friar lands were better cultivated and of a better quality than elsewhere, and resembled the old plantations in the American southern states when they were kept in good condition by slave labor; for the peasants bore the marks of poverty and hard work.
The weather was enervating at all times, and often dismal from the drenching tropical rains, for it was the rainy season. Streams were up and the trails were muddy. During the heat of the day a choking malarial steam arose from the earth as the moisture evaporated. The people were keptmuch indoors. It was too disagreeable even for a revolt against Spain.
They inquired in private for Saguanaldo, and were told that he had deserted the American army and gone into the interior. Others of the Filipinos had followed his lead in desertion, but it seemed that they had not yet come together into anything like an army. As to his exact location, nobody knew. The Americans were looking for him, too, and the natives were careful, even before Mrs. Rizal and Agonoy, to not say too much.
“The Americans are going to force us into fighting them,” a Filipino told them in one of the villages. “They are overbearing and insulting, calling us ‘niggers’ and treating us as inferiors.”
“I feared as much. The Philippines are too rich for them to give up. They want the islands for themselves.”
“Let me show you.”
The Filipino led them to a hut where a man lay on a mat within, evidently seriously injured.
“The Americans gave him the water cure. This punishment was first learned from the Filipinos themselves.” Said the Filipino: “They laid him on his back and pinioned his limbs. Then they put a funnel in his mouth and held his nose while they poured him so full of water that it ran out of his nose and eyes and ears. It was horrible torture.”
“Why did they do it?” asked Agonoy, with sinking heart.
“In order to force him to reveal the whereabouts of Saguanaldo. You see why I have to be careful as to what I say. All I can do is to direct you to go on still further.”
On they went passing into the primitive. They went even into the region of the head hunters, where the beautiful and symmetrical volcano, Mayon, lifted its green sides againstthe blue sky beyond; and here they saw the warriors who adhered to the old ways, and, severing the heads of their enemies with the bolos which they used also for clearing the roads through the bamboo brakes, dried them and retained the gruesome relics, reduced to a few inches in diameter, as trophies of war.
But the savage tribes were kind to the pilgrims. They, too, were at enmity with Spain and all they regarded as foreigners, ready to take sides with Saguanaldo should he call them forth.
“It seems to me they are more civilized and gentle in their way than are the people from the West,” said Agonoy.
“No people are so destructive and wasteful as those who call themselves civilized,” returned Mrs. Rizal. “I am of them and understand them, and I tremble for the future of the Filipinos. The Americans will bring the foreigner and the natives will disappear before him. They will bring the machine, and such as remain will be chained to it, and compelled to render to them a tribute many times in excess of that which Spain has exacted from you. You have been poor, but you have not starved. Civilization brings the slum and abject hunger.”
Agonoy answered not. He was thinking about something that to him seemed to be a dream, yet which he knew to be true—of the awful experiences of a girl, to all intents and purposes dead, who had suffered at the hands of civilization, the apex of possible human suffering.
So the two walked on and on. Sometimes they heard of Saguanaldo, and again lost trace of him. They passed on into wilder regions, into places infested bymosquitoes, snakes and other loathsome things; to regions where mango birds were numerous and where the pigeon of the crucifixion with the red cross on its breast had its habitat. Often lost, theycould go but slowly; sometimes they slept alone in the great forests. But ever they pressed on.
Finally, after days out, the two travelers came upon Saguanaldo in a grass hut in a thicket near the southern end of the island. As they approached, piloted by a friendly Igorrote, Saguanaldo arose in evident surprise. After exchanging greetings Mrs. Rizal said:
“General Saguanaldo, we came to take with you the fortunes of war.”
“SeñoraRizal, you are welcome. We shall need all the soldiers we can gather, and your advice will be valuable in this time of trouble. The name of the boy”—
“Hilario Agonoy,” said Mrs. Rizal, quickly.
“You are welcome.SeñoraRizal and the boy; we shall want you both at the council of war which we are about to hold.”
“Private soldiers are not often taken into councils,” suggested Agonoy.
“Oh, yes, they are when there are only three present,” suggested Saguanaldo, with grim humor. But Agonoy did not join in the laugh that followed.
By Saguanaldo’s side sat Bishop Aglipay, Obispo Maximo, the leader of the revolt against the friars. Only these four were left, though others were ready to take up arms when Saguanaldo suggested. It was a pitiful remnant of the gay throng that had such a short time ago celebrated Philippine independence, hailing Saguanaldo as president. Saguanaldo began:
“We shall need to confer as to the best mode of procedure, because we are in desperate situation. We are in a much worse shape than before the American army came. Then we were in possession of more than half the churches in the Philippines, and besides that, held Manila. But nowI have been tricked away from the Philippine capital, and the American troops are protecting the churches for the friars.”
“How did they come to get the churches which you had?” Mrs. Rizal was addressing Aglipay. She knew, but wanted his version of it.
“We were fearing nothing,” the leader of the schism explained, “when in one night, just before the American troops arrived on the scene, Spanish soldiers seized on the churches while we slept. The next day the American troops came, and as, it appears, they had been ordered to protect in possession of their properties whoever they might find in possession of them, they at once became allies of the friars.”
“And here I, who was with them,” exclaimed Saguanaldo indignantly, “I, who had given them peaceable possession of Manila, was ordered to protect the friars in possession that they gained by trickery.”
“What did you do?” asked Mrs. Rizal.
“Do? I passed the word to as many of my followers as possible, and fled. Not one of them came, though.”
“That seems to have been the best thing you could have done—for the friars,” returned Mrs. Rizal. “In doing that you became rebellious against the United States, and now, I understand, have the American army on your trail.”
“That is true; but what else could I have done? Had I done nothing I would have been fighting for the Spaniards, and, as it were, against myself. I had the Americans against me, anyhow.”
“But now the case is hopeless. So long as the Spaniards were your enemies, without outside help, there was some hope that some day you might have beaten them. But, now that the Americans are allies of the Spaniards the case is hopeless. It is too great a nation for you to combat. Recall how the Spanish fleet melted away before the American fleet in thebay of Manila and tell me what chance you will have before the giant foe from across the seas.”
“I don’t see why the Americans turned against us, when they came here to fight the Spaniards,” said Aglipay gloomily.
“The reason is very plain,” returned the woman.
“Was it that they were offended at me because I had been made president of the Filipino republic?” asked Saguanaldo.
“No.”
“Are the American people, then, not lovers of liberty, and are they merely waging a war of conquest in the name of liberty?” Aglipay asked.
“The answer is found in the fact that there is not a member of the Filipino Catholic church in all America, while there are ten million Roman Catholics there.”
“Ah, political reasons, then,” suggested the bishop. He as an olden friar understood something of how politics modified policies.
“Yes. Though your schism might have a greater power here than the friars have, it commands no influence in America. The American who favors the other side will have friends at home, while one who would favor you would find enemies there that might destroy his influence and his future. You are not only fighting the American army here, and the friars here, but also, as it were, all the people of America.”
The two men reflected moodily for a few minutes.
“There is nothing to do but to fight until we perish,” said Saguanaldo.
“One should not die for a cause unless there is good cause for the sacrifice. Do you find that the people rally to you?”
“No,” said the insurgent bitterly. “They sympathizeand see the danger, but it seems they have not the interest that dares to risk all and fight.”
“Even the men you can command are not disciplined or drilled or properly equipped.”
“No. The Americans have the equipment I had collected.”
“Nor would the various tribes be likely to cling together,” suggested the woman.
“This cursed race feeling! The only way the tribes will stay together is when they war with each other; then they are together in battling each other.” There was dogged bitterness in Saguanaldo’s words.
“I do not see how you can win by fighting. What does a grinning skull care forvengeance? But there is a way in which you may win, General Saguanaldo.”
“How,” asked the general, eagerly.
“By yielding. It is often the surest way of winning. You have an unexpected ally.”
“Who can it be?”
“None other than the Pope at Rome.”
“The Pope!” exclaimed both men in a breath.
“Yes. The Pope understands that the Spanish friars are at the bottom of the long trouble in the Philippines and is glad of the war that will give him an excuse for removing them. That will be a victory for him; and, as he has already managed to get possession of the churches, it means a victory for the church as well. If you can get the friendship of America, so that the country will treat you justly, it will also be a victory for the Filipino people.”
“And I am to lose all that I have struggled for?” protested Saguanaldo.
“And I to lose the organization which I have built up through the years?” added the Bishop.
“Better to lose these things alone than to lose both them and your lives as well,” suggested Mrs. Rizal.
“If a common soldier might be permitted to speak”—faltered Hilario Agonoy.
“Say what you wish,” suggested the insurgent general. “We are all equal in our love for the cause.”
“I prefer to fight even though I know we must lose. There is some satisfaction in punishing those who have treated us so unjustly, and every blow we strike will cause them to have the greater respect for the Filipino people in the future. If we could punish that Jesuit”—
“And Bishop Lonzello,” added Aglipay.
“To my mind there is nothing left us to do but fight,” added General Saguanaldo, visibly pleased. “We in the interior can conduct a guerrilla warfare that will cause the enemy to respect us, and make the new masters more inclined to do us justice. I trust,SeñoraRizal, you will not desert us if we take this action.”
Mrs. Rizal arose. “I am with, you to the last,” she said. “I am not afraid to die, either, just as my husband died before me. If I may be asked to designate the service I am to perform, I would ask that the youth here and I be permitted to go among the people and arouse them with our songs and speeches. We can rally you a force, General.”
“Go, and God bless you. There is one question I would ask you if I may speak to you in private.”
GeneralSaguanaldoand Mrs. Rizal stepped a few paces away.
“Have you seen Ambrosia?” he asked. “Is she well, and does she remain true to me?”
“Ambrosia has the strength of a man,” returned Mrs.Rizal, “in the cause of Filipino independence. She is true, and will ever be near you—in spirit.”
1Sierras—Saw used in Spanish countries, hence toothed or irregular.↑2Trapiche—A cane mill.↑3Haciendas—Large farms.↑4Pueblos—Villages.↑
1Sierras—Saw used in Spanish countries, hence toothed or irregular.↑
2Trapiche—A cane mill.↑
3Haciendas—Large farms.↑
4Pueblos—Villages.↑