d out, therefore, to be the _Katipunan_, which simply
means the "League." [173] The leaguers, on being sworn in, accepted the
"blood compact" (vide p. 28), taking from an incision on the leg or arm
the blood with which to inscribe the roll of fraternity. The cicatrice
served also as a mark of mutual recognition, so that the object and
plans of the leaguers should never be discussed with others. The drama
was to have opened with a general slaughter of Spaniards on the night
of August 20, but, just in the nick of time, a woman sought confession
of Father Mariano Gil (formerly parish priest of Bigaa, Bulacan),
then the parish priest of Tondo, a suburb of Manila, and opened the
way for a leaguer, whose heart had failed him, to disclose the plot on
condition of receiving full pardon. With this promise he made a clean
breast of everything, and without an hour's delay the civil guard
was on the track of the alleged prime movers. Three hundred supposed
disaffected persons were seized in Manila and the Provinces of Pampanga
and Bulacan within a few hours, and, large numbers being brought
in daily, the prisons were soon crowded to excess. The implacable
Archbishop Bernardino Nozaleda advocated extermination by fire and
sword and wholesale executions. Gov.-General Ramon Blanco hesitated to
take the offensive, pending the arrival of reinforcements which were
called for. He informed the Home Government that the rising was of no
great importance, but that he required 1,000 more troops to be sent
at once. The reply from Madrid was that they were sending 2,000 men,
2,000,000 cartridges, 6,000 Remington rifles, and the gunboats _Isla
de Cuba_ and _Isla de Luzon_. Each steamer brought a contingent of
troops, so that General Blanco had a total of about 10,000 Spanish
regulars by the end of November. Spain's best men had been drafted
off to Cuba, and these were chiefly raw levies who had all to learn
in the art of warfare.

Meanwhile, the rebellion had assumed alarming proportions. Among the
first to be seized were many of the richest and most prominent men in
the Colony--the cream of Manila society. There was intense excitement
in the capital as their names gradually leaked out, for many of them
were well known to us personally or by repute. No one who possessed
wealth was safe. An opulent Chinese half-caste, Don Pedro P. Rojas,
who was popularly spoken of as the prime supporter of the rebellion,
was a guest at Government House two days b