s to succour them. Just
as I extricated myself and looked out from under the palm-leaf
awning, the pirates flung a stone which severely cut our pilot's
face. They came very close, flourishing their knives, but our crew
managed to keep them from boarding us by pushing off their canoe
with the paddles. When the enemy came within range of my revolver,
one of their party, who was standing up brandishing a bowie-knife,
suddenly collapsed into a heap. This seemed to discourage the rest,
who gave up the pursuit, and we went on to Balanga.

The most famous _Tulisan_ within living memory was a Chinese half-caste
named Juan Fernandez, commonly known as _Tancad_ ("tall," in Tagalog)
because of his extraordinary stature. His sphere of operations was
around Bulacan, Tarlac, Morong, and Nueva Ecija. He took part in
21 crimes which could have been proved against him, and doubtless
many more. A man of wonderful perception and great bravery, he was
only 35 years old when he was captured in Bulacan Province by the
Spanish Captain Villa Abrille. Brought before a court-martial on the
specific charge of being the chief actor in a wholesale slaughter at
Tayud, which caused a great sensation at the time, he and ten of his
companions were executed on August 28, 1877, to the immense relief of
the people, to whom the very name of _Tancad_ gave a thrill of horror.

No one experienced in the Colony ever thought of privately prosecuting
a captured brigand, for a criminal or civil lawsuit in the Philippines
was one of the worst calamities that could befall a man. Between
notaries, procurators, barristers, and the sluggish process of the
courts, a litigant was fleeced of his money, often worried into a
bad state of health, and kept in horrible suspense for years. It was
as hard to get the judgement executed as it was to win the case. Even
when the question at issue was supposed to be settled, a defect in the
sentence could always be concocted to re-open the whole affair. If the
case had been tried and judgement given under the Civil Code, a way
was often found to convert it into a criminal case; and when apparently
settled under the Criminal Code, a flaw could be discovered under the
_Laws of the Indies_, or the _Siete Partidas_, or the _Roman Law_,
or the _Novisima Recopilacion_, or the _Antiguos fueros_, Decrees,
Royal Orders, _Ordenanzas de buen Gobierno_, and so forth, by which
the case could be re-opened. It was the same in the 16th century
(_