d to carry out at the time of its
publication.

The Americans resumed the aggressive against the insurgents, and
an expedition of 1,509 men and two mountain-guns was fitted out
under the command of General Lawton to proceed up the Pasig River
into the Lake of Bay in order to capture Santa Cruz at the eastern
extremity. The expedition presented a curious sight; it comprised 15
native barges or "cascoes" towed by seven tugs. Some of the craft
ran aground at Napindan, the entrance to the lake, and delayed the
little flotilla until daylight. The barges ahead had to wait for the
vessels lagging behind. Then a mist came over the shore, and there was
another halt. A couple of miles off an insurgent steamer was sighted,
but it passed on. Finally Santa Cruz was reached; 200 sharpshooters
were landed under cover of the launch guns, and fighting continued
all the afternoon until nightfall. Early in the morning the town was
attacked, the church situated in the centre was captured, and the
American loss was only six men wounded; the insurgents were driven
far away, leaving 68 dead on the field, and a large number of wounded,
whilst hundreds were taken prisoners.

On April 12, at the request of the Spanish General Rios, [210] the
gunboat _Yorktown_ was despatched to Baler, on the east coast of Luzon,
to endeavour to rescue a party of 80 Spanish soldiers, three officers,
and two priests who were holding out against 400 insurgents. These
natives, who were all armed with Maueser rifles, laid in ambush,
and surprised the landing-party under Lieutenant Gilmore. The whole
party was captured by the insurgents, who were afterwards ordered to
release them all. General Aguinaldo was always as humanely disposed
as the circumstances of war would permit, and, at the request of the
commissioners for the liberation of the Spanish prisoners, he gave
this little band of 83 heroes and two priests their liberty under
a decree so characteristic of Philippine imitative genius in its
pompous allusion to the Spanish glorious past that it is well worth
recording. [211]

General Lawton asserted that 100,000 men would be required to conquer
the Philippines, but they were never sent, because there was always
an influential group of optimists who expected an early collapse
of the insurgent movement. General Otis sent frequent cablegrams to
Washington expressing his belief that the war would soon come to an
end. However, in April, 1899, 14,000 regular troops