ho signed the I.O.U.'s and thanked God his
debts were paid. The ruler of Sulu was not over-willing and far
less able to give effect to its conditions, his power being more
nominal than real in his own possessions, and in Mindanao almost
_nil_. Nevertheless, it was a politic measure on the Americans'
part, because its non-fulfilment opened the way for the adoption,
with every appearance of justification, of more direct and coercive
intervention in the affairs of this region. General Bates was
succeeded by other generals in the command of this district, without
any very visible progress towards definite pacification and subjection
to civilization. The military posts on the coasts, evacuated by the
Spaniards, were occupied by American troops and new ones were created,
but every attempt to establish law and order beyond their limits, on
the white man's system, was wasted effort. When the Spanish-American
War broke out, the Spanish military authorities were on the point
of maturing a plan for the final conquest of Mindanao. Due to the
persistent activity of my old friend General Gonzalez Parrado, they
had already achieved much in the Lake Lanao district, through the
Marahui campaign. On the evacuation of the Spaniards the unrestrained
petty chiefs were like lions released from captivity. Blood-shed,
oppression, extortion, and all the instinctive habits of the shrewd
savage were again rife. A preconcerted plan of campaign brings little
definite result; it never culminates in the attainment of any final
issue, for, on the native side, there is neither union of tribes nor
any combined organized attempt at even guerilla warfare, hence the
destruction of a _cotta_ or the decimation of a clan has no immediate
and lasting moral effect on the neighbouring warlike tribe. Life is
cheap among them; a Moro thinks no more about lopping off another's
head than he does about pulling a cocoanut from the palm-tree. The
chief abhors the white man because he interferes with the chief's
living by the labour of his tribe, and the tribesman himself is
too ignorant even to contemplate emancipation. Subservience to the
bidding of the wily _Datto_, poverty, squalidity, and tribal warfare
for bravado or interest seem as natural to the Moro as the sight of
the rising sun. Hence, when the Americans resolved to change all this
and marched into the tribal territories for the purpose, the war-gongs
rallied the fighting-men to resist the dreaded foe, uncons