y to the mountain ravines. A few months
before, at the commencement of the rebellion, this same Austin friar,
Father Rafael Redondo, had ignominiously treated his own and other
native curates by having them stripped naked and tied down to benches,
where he beat them with the prickly tail of the ray-fish to extort
confessions relating to conspiracy. In San Fernando de la Union the
native priests Adriano Garces, Mariano Gaerlan, and Mariano Dacanaya
were tortured with a hot iron applied to their bodies to force a
confession that they were freemasons. The rebels attacked Bayambang
(Pangasinan), drove out the Spanish garrison, seized the church
and convent in which they had fortified themselves, made prisoner
the Spanish priest, burnt the Government stores, Court-house, and
Spanish residences, but carefully avoided all interference with the
British-owned steam rice-mill and paddy warehouses. Troops were sent
against them by special train from Tarlac, and they were beaten out
of the place with a loss of about 100 individuals; but they carried
off their clerical prisoner. General Monet operated in the north
against the rebels with Spanish and native auxiliary forces. He
attacked the armed mobs in Zambales Province, where encounters of
minor importance took place almost daily, with no decisive victory
for either party. He showed no mercy and took no prisoners; his
troops shot down or bayoneted rebels, non-combatants, women and
children indiscriminately. Tillage was carried on at the risk of
one's life, for men found going out to their lands were seized as
spies and treated with the utmost severity as possible sympathizers
with the rebels. He carried this war of extermination up to Ilocos,
where, little by little, his forces deserted him. His auxiliaries
went over to the rebels in groups. Even a few Spaniards passed to
the other side, and after a protracted struggle which brought no
advantage to the Government, he left garrisons in several places
and returned to Manila. In Aliaga (Nueva Ecija) the Spaniards had
no greater success. The rebels assembled there in crowds, augmented
by the fugitive mobs from Pangasinan, and took possession of the
town. The Spaniards, under General Nunez, attacked them on two sides,
and there was fought one of the most desperate battles of the north. It
lasted about six hours: the slaughter on both sides was appalling. The
site was strewn with corpses, and as the rebels were about to retreat
General