n the town. Melliza vehemently protested against such a barbarous
act, and asked why they should destroy their own property? What
could they gain by pillage and flames? [219] But a certain V----
and his party clamoured for the destruction of the place, and being
supported by an influential lawyer (native of another province) and
by one of the insurgent generals, Melliza exclaimed, "If you insist
on plunder and devastation, I shall retire altogether," whereupon
a tremendous hubbub ensued, in the midst of which Melliza withdrew
and went over to Guimaras Island. But there were touches of humour
in the speeches, especially when a fire-eating demagogue gravely
proposed to surround an American warship with canoes and seize her;
and again when Quintin Salas declared that the Americans would have
to pass over his corpse before the town surrendered! Incendiaries
and thieves were in overwhelming majority at the meeting; naturally
(to the common people in these Islands) an invitation to despoil,
lay waste and slay, bolstered up by apparent authority, found a ready
response, especially among the Tagalog mercenaries who had no local
attachment here. The instigators of this barbarity sought no share
of the spoils; they had no property interests in Yloilo, but they
were jealous of those who had. The animosity of Jaro and Molo against
Yloilo had existed for years, the formers' townspeople being envious
of the prosperous development of Yloilo (once a mere fishing-village),
which obscured the significance of the episcopal city of Jaro and
detracted from the social importance of the rich Chinese half-caste
residential town of Molo. [220] Chiefly from these towns came the
advocates of anarchy, whose hearts swelled with fiendish delight at
the prospect of witnessing the utter ruin and humiliation of their
rivals in municipal prestige. Yloilo, from that moment, was abandoned
to the armed rabble, who raided the small shops for petroleum to throw
on to the woodwork of the houses prior to the coming onslaught. The
bombardment having been announced for the 12th, they reckoned on a
full day for burning and sacking the town. But early in the morning
of the 11th the steam-launch _Pitt_, whilst reconnoitring the harbour,
was fired upon; the launch replied and withdrew. Natives were observed
to be busy digging a trench and hastening to and from the _cotta_
at the harbour entrance; there was every indication of their warlike
intentions. Therefore sudde