Nunez advanced to cut them off, but was so severely wounded
that he had to relinquish the command on the field. But the flight of
the insurgents was too far advanced to rally them, and they retired
south towards Pampanga.

In Tayabas the officiousness of the Governor almost brought him to
an untimely end. Two well-known inhabitants of Pagsanjan (La Laguna)
were accused of conspiracy, and, without proof, court-martialled
and executed. The Governor went to witness the scene, and returning
the next day with his official suite, he was waylaid near Lucbang
by a rebel party, who killed one of the officers and wounded the
Governor. Filipinos returning to Manila were imprisoned without trial,
tortured, and shipped back to Hong-Kong as deck passengers. The wet
season had fully set in, making warfare in the provinces exceedingly
difficult for the raw Spanish recruits who arrived to take the place
of the dead, wounded, and diseased. Spain was so hard pressed by
Cuban affairs that the majority of these last levies were mere boys,
ignorant of the use of arms, ill clad, badly fed, and with months of
pay in arrear. Under these conditions they were barely a match for
the sturdy Islanders, over mountains, through streams, mud-pools,
and paddy-fields. The military hospitals were full; the Spaniards
were as far off extinguishing the _Katipunan_ as the rebels were
from being able to subvert Spanish sovereignty. The rebels held only
two impregnable places, namely Angat and San Mateo, but whilst they
carried on an interminable guerilla warfare they as carefully avoided
a pitched battle. The Gov.-General, then, had resort to another edict,
dated July 2, 1897, which read thus:--

_Edict_

Don Fernando Primo de Rivera y Sobremonte, Marquis de
Estella, Governor and Captain-General of the Philippines, and
Commander-in-Chief of the Army.

Whereas the unlimited amplitude given to my former edicts by
some authorities who are still according the benefits of the
amnesty to those who present themselves after the expiration of
the conceded time, imperatively calls for a most absolute and
positive declaration that there is a limit to clemency and pardon,
otherwise the indefinite postponement of the application of the
law may be interpreted as a sign of debility; and

Whereas our generosity has been fully appreciated by many who
have shown signs of repentance by resuming their legal status,