blackmail, and
violent abuse of their functions. Indeed it took nearly a couple of
years to weed out the disreputable members of this body. The total
army forces in the Islands amounted to about 70,000 men, and at the
end of 1900 it was decided to send back the volunteer corps to America
early in the following year, for, at this period, General Aguinaldo had
become a wanderer with a following which could no longer be called an
army, and an early collapse of the revolutionary party in the field
was an anticipated event.

From September 1, 1900, the legislative power of the military
government was transferred to a civil government, Governor W. H. Taft
being the President of the Philippine Commission, whilst Maj.-General
McArthur continued in his capacity of Commander-in-Chief to carry
on the war against the insurgents, which culminated in the capture
of General Emilio Aguinaldo on March 23, 1901. This important event
accelerated the close of the War of Independence. On January 14 General
Emilio Aguinaldo had his headquarters at Palanan (Isabela), on the
bank of a river which empties itself into Palanan Bay, situated about
six miles distant from the town, on the east coast of Luzon. Being in
want of reinforcements, he sent a member of his staff with messages to
that effect to several of his subordinate generals. The fellow turned
traitor, and carried the despatches to an American lieutenant, who sent
him on to Colonel Frederick Funston at San Isidro (Nueva Ecija). The
despatches disclosed the fact that General Emilio Aguinaldo requested
his cousin, General Baldomero Aguinaldo, to send him, as soon as
possible, 400 armed men. With General McArthur's approval, Colonel
Funston proceeded to carry out a plan which he had conceived for the
capture of General Emilio Aguinaldo. An expedition was made up of four
Tagalog deserters from Aguinaldo's army, 78 Macabebe scouts (_vide_
p. 446, footnote), and four American officers, besides Colonel Funston
himself. Twenty of the scouts were dressed in insurgent uniforms,
and the remaining natives in common working-clothes. Ten of them
carried Spanish rifles, ten others had Krag-Joergensen rifles, which
they were to feign to have captured from American troops, and the
five Americans were disguised as private soldiers. The party was then
carried round the north and east coasts of Luzon, and put ashore in the
neighbourhood of Baler by the gunboat _Vicksburg_, which approached the
coast witho