ad to be left to the mercy of the rebels, whilst my
friends took passage to Singapore on the _Gulf of Martaban_.

All immediate danger having now been dispelled, the Spaniards solaced
themselves with the sweets of revenge. A Spanish functionary (who
with his wife and brother's family were well known to me for several
years) caused the soldiers to raid private houses, and bring out
native families by force into the public square, or conduct them to
the cemetery on the Guadalupe road, where they were shot in batches
without inquiry and cremated. The heartrending scenes and wailing
of the people failed to turn their persecutor from his purpose,
save in one case--that of a colleague, who, wearing his chain of
office, stepped forward and successfully begged for his life. A low
estimate of this official's victims is 200. The motive for his awful
crime was greed, for he formally confiscated his victims' goods and
shipped them off daily in schooners to Yloilo. His ill-gotten gains
would have been greater but for the action of the Governor, who,
fearing that retribution might fall on his own head as the highest
authority, ordered his guilty subordinate to appear before him, and
in the presence of Filipinos he reprimanded him, boxed his ears,
and commanded him to quit the island within a given period under
pain of death. The Governor's indignation was evidently feigned,
for he very shortly availed himself of an altogether novel means
of terrorism. Sedition was smouldering throughout the island, but
after the events of April the Spaniards seemed too daunted to take
the field against the Cebuanos. The Christian Governor, therefore,
took into his service a Mindanao Mahometan, Rajahmudah Datto Mandi, and
his band of about 100 Samal Moros to overrun the island and punish the
natives. This chief, with his warriors, had been called from Zamboanga
(Mindanao Is.) to Yloilo by General Rios, who immediately commissioned
him to Cebu in the month of July, 1898. On his arrival there he at once
started his campaign under the auspices of the Governor, who granted
him full liberty to dispose of the lives and property of the Cebuanos
to his heart's content, and as proof of the accomplishment of his gory
mission he brought in and presented to his patron the ears which he
had cut off the Cebuanos. North of Cebu City he and his retainers made
a fresh start, slaying the people, burning villages, and devastating
the standing crops. Having accomplished