eleven days after the plot was discovered in
Manila, he issued his _pronunciamiento_ simultaneously at his
birthplace, at Novaleta, and at San Francisco de Malabon. This
document, however, is of little historic value, for, instead of
setting forth the aims of the revolutionists, it is simply a wild
exhortation to the people, in general vague terms, to take arms and
free themselves from oppression. In San Francisco de Malabon Aguinaldo
rallied his forces prior to their march to Imus, [179] their great
strategic point. The village itself, situated in the centre of a large,
well-watered plain, surrounded by planted land, was nothing--a mere
collection of wooden or bamboo-and-thatch dwellings. The distance
from Manila would be about 16 miles by land, with good roads leading
to the bay shore towns. The people were very poor, being tenants
or dependents of the friars; hence the only building of importance
was the friars' estate-house, which was really a fortress in the
estimation of the natives. This residence was situated in the middle
of a compound surrounded by massive high walls, and to it some 17
friars fled on the first alarm. For the rebels, therefore, Imus
had a double value--the so-called fortress and the capture of the
priests. After a siege which lasted long enough for General Blanco to
have sent troops against them, the rebels captured Imus estate-house
on September 1, and erected barricades there. Thirteen of the priests
fell into their hands. They cut trenches and threw up earthworks in
several of the main roads of the province, and strengthened their
position at Novaleta. Marauding parties were sent out everywhere
to steal the crops and live-stock, which were conveyed in large
quantities to Imus. Some of the captured priests were treated most
barbarously. One was cut up piecemeal; another was saturated with
petroleum and set on fire, and a third was bathed in oil and fried
on a bamboo spit run through the length of his body. There was a
_Requiem_ Mass for this event. During the first few months of the
rising many such atrocities were committed by the insurgents. The
Naig outrage caused a great sensation in the capital. The lieutenant
had been killed, and the ferocious band of rebels seized his widow
and daughter eleven years old. The child was ravished to death,
and they were just digging a pit to bury the mother alive when she
was rescued and brought to Manila in the steam-launch _Mariposa_
raving mad, disguis