, there was to be an Advisory Council
elected by popular vote. This liberal scheme was, however, abandoned,
as its proposal seemed to have no effect in bringing the war to an
end, and the negotiations terminated with the Commissioners and the
insurgent delegates lunching together on board the U.S. battleship
_Oregon_, whilst the blood of both parties continued to flow on
the battlefield.

General Lawton's brigade was still operating in the Provinces of
Bulacan and north of Manila (now called Rizal). The fighting was so
severe and the exposure to sun so disastrous that about the beginning
of June he had to send back to Manila 500 wounded and heat-stricken
men. It was found impossible to follow up the ever-retreating
insurgents, who again escaped still farther north. Along the Manila
Bay shore detachments of insurgents passed from time to time, driving
women and children before them, so that the Americans would not care to
fire on them. Some, however, were picked off from the warships when the
insurgents omitted their precautionary measure. It was impossible to
"round up" the enemy and bring him into a combat to the finish. His
movements were so alert that he would fight, vanish in a trice,
conceal his arms and uniform, and mingle with the Americans with an
air of perfect innocence. With wonderful dexterity he would change from
soldier to civilian, lounging one day in the market-place and the next
day fall into the insurgent ranks. These tactics, which led to nothing
whatever in a purely military sense, were evidently adopted in the vain
hope of wearying the Americans into an abandonment of their enterprise.

In the middle of June General Lawton's brigade operated to the south
of Manila and in the Cavite province, where the natives gave battle
at the Zapote River, famous for a great Spanish defeat during the
rebellion. The insurgents were under cover the whole time, and their
assembled thousands could hardly be seen by the attacking columns. They
were also in great force and strongly entrenched near Las Pinas and at
Bacoor. [212] From the former place they worked one large and two small
guns with much effect, firing canister loaded with nails. One canister
shattered the legs of a private. American infantry, skirmishing along
the beach, came across a posse of insurgents who at once retreated,
pursued by the Americans until the latter found themselves surrounded
on three sides by hidden sharpshooters, who poured in a rakin