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f the situation, published severally by Jaramillo and Montero, sorely puzzled the natives. The Spaniards were still in undisturbed possession of Zamboanga for over four months after Montero's arrival, notwithstanding the fact that the American warship _Boston_ called at the port and left the same day and that an officer came ashore without the least objection or consternation on the part of the Spaniards. The orange-and-red flag still floated over the Fortress del Pilar, and, so far as the Zamboanguenos could ascertain, it looked as if the Spaniards were going to remain. They therefore clamoured more loudly than ever for the distribution of arms, which this time Montero positively refused, for the Spaniards had never for a moment been deceived as to the real intentions of the Zamboanguenos. On the other hand, by this time, their inoffensive delusion of the people had lost its virtue, and natives and Spaniards thenceforth became open enemies. After the visit of the _Boston_ the fighting population, no longer able to conceal their disappointment, threw off the mask, quitted the town, cut off the water-supply which came from the mountains, in collusion with the mutinied crews seized the firearms on board the Spanish gunboats lying in the harbour, and prepared for war against their old masters. The Spaniards immediately compelled the non-combatant townspeople and the Chinese to throw up earthworks for mounting artillery and dig trenches for defence against the rebels. The gunboat _Alava_ co-operated by firing shells into the rebel camp situated just outside the town. The rebels made two unsuccessful assaults, and in the second attack General Montero was mortally wounded by a rifle-shot. On May 23 the S.S. _Leon XIII._ arrived; the Spaniards silently embarked for Manila with their dying general, who succumbed during the voyage, and Zamboanga, one-fourth of which the defenders had destroyed by fire, was occupied by the rebels. During the siege the Filipinos, true to their instincts, had split up into two rival factions headed by Vicente Alvarez and Isidoro Midel respectively, and in the interval between the first and second assault on the town these party chiefs had fought out their own quarrel, Midel claiming to have been the victor. Nevertheless, the popular favourite was Vicente Alvarez, known as the _Tamagun Datto_ (high chief), who became the chosen president of the Zamboanga revolutionary government established immediat
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