arms if no steamer arrived the next day, and the company's employee
returned to the camp to notify this resolution. But in a few minutes
he observed a commotion among the insurgents; some one had descried
a warship approaching, and the native canoes were very busy making
ready for escape or attack. The British delegate, therefore, hastened
back to the station, and at 3 p.m. a Spanish gunboat arrived, to
their immense relief, and landed 107 marines. Heavy firing continued
all that afternoon, inflicting great loss on the rebels, whilst the
Spaniards lost one soldier. On March 12 a Spanish cruiser anchored
off the Bay of Bolinao; also a merchant steamer put into port bringing
the Company's Manila Superintendent with apparatus for communicating
with Hong-Kong in case the station were demolished. The next day
H.M.S. _Edgar_ entered, and Bolinao was again perfectly safe.
In consequence of this threatened attack on the cable-station the
cable was detached from Bolinao and carried on to Manila in the
following month (_vide_ p. 267).
As soon as the news reached Manila that Bolinao was menaced, General
Monet proceeded north with 1,000 men, whilst 3,000 more followed by
railway as far as they could reach. On the way the General had five
engagements with the enemy, between Lingayen (Pangasinan) and Bolinao,
where he arrived on the night of March 14, having routed the insurgents
everywhere with great loss to them. On the Spanish side one lieutenant
and one soldier were killed. After leaving a garrison of 300 men in
Bolinao, General Monet returned to Manila in the Spanish cruiser the
next day.
On March 31 Father Moises Santos, who had caused all the members of the
Town Council of Malolos to be banished in 1895, was assassinated. He
had been appointed Vicar of the Augustine Order and was returning to
Malolos station, en route for Manila, in a buggy which stuck fast in
a mud-pool (the same in which I have found myself several times),
where he was stabbed to death. His body was recovered and taken by
special train to Manila, where it was interred with great pomp in
the Church of St. Augustine. He was 44 years of age, and had been 19
years in the Colony (_vide_ p. 364).
In April, 1898, the Home Government recalled General Primo de Rivera,
appointing in his stead General Basilio Augusti, who had never before
held chief command in the Islands. Primo de Rivera was no doubt
anxious to be relieved of a position which he could not well
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