loss was one
lieutenant and four men killed, nine wounded and four missing. About
the same time, the insurgents driven back from the Laguna de Bay
shore occupied Taal (Batangas), where, under the leadership of
Miguel Malvar, a small battle was fought in the streets on July 12
and the town was burnt; a troop of cavalry was added to the police
force this month, and there was no lack of Filipinos willing to
co-operate with Americans for a salary. The backbone of insurgency
having been broken, the dollar proved to be a mightier factor than
the sword in the process of pacification. Compared with former times,
the ex-insurgents found in the lucrative employments offered to them
by the Americans a veritable El Dorado, for never before had they
seen such a flow of cash. The country had been ravaged; the immense
stores collected by the revolutionists had been seized; non-combatant
partisans of the insurgent cause were wearied of paying heavy taxes
for so little result; treasure was hidden; fields lay fallow, and for
want of food Aguinaldo had had partially to disband his army. He told
me himself that on one occasion they were so hard pressed for food
that they had to live for three days on whatever they could find in
the mountains. There were but two courses open to the majority of the
ex-soldiers--brigandage or service under their new masters. Some chose
the former, with results which will be hereafter referred to; others,
more disposed towards civil life, were allured by the abundance of
silver pesos, which made a final conquest where shot and shell had
failed. Still, there were thousands incognizant of the olive-branch
extended to them, and military operations had to be continued even
within a day's journey from the capital. A request had to be made
for more cavalry to be sent to the Islands, and the proportion of
this branch of the service to infantry was gradually increased, for
"rounding up" insurgents who refused to give battle was exhausting
work for white foot-soldiers in the tropics. In the course of four
months nearly all the infantry in the small towns was replaced by
cavalry. In this same month (July) American cavalry successfully
secured the Laguna de Bay south shore towns which the insurgents had
re-taken on the departure of the infantry sent there in January. Many
well-to-do proprietors in these towns (some known to me for 20 years),
especially in Vinan, complained to me of what they considered an
injustice infli