acts:--

"_Dear Mena_: I read with a happy heart your letter of the 3rd instant,
and in answer I have to say:--

"On the 22nd of August a mass meeting was held for the election of
the local presidente of this town, and I was elected to the office;
and on the 1st instant the Colonel appointed me Provisional Provincial
President of this province, so that you can imagine the position I
am in and the responsibilities which weigh on me.

"Your house is occupied by the Colonel, in view of the fact that it
is not rented.

"I have here eleven friar prisoners and the damned priests who escaped
from here have not as yet been returned, but it is known that they
are prisoners in Cagayan, and as soon as they arrive here I will
treat them as they deserve.

"It is with great regret that I have to relate the events and
misfortunes which we have been suffering here since the arrival of the
troops, as all the detachments are supported by the towns, and here
in the capital where the commissary is established, our resources
are exhausted, owing to the unreasonable demands of the commissary,
because he never asks what is only just and necessary, but if he
needs provisions for 200 men, he always asks enough for 1000. And
notwithstanding this, the most lamentable and sad occurrences are
taking place almost daily in the different barrios, and often in the
town itself; the soldiers are guilty of many abuses and disorderly
acts, such as rapes and murders, which usually remain unpunished by
reason of the real authors thereof not being found, and when they are
found and reported to their commanders, the latter do nothing. One
night the house and estate of Sario Tinon in Anannam was sacked by
six armed men, who threatened him and took his money, his wife's
jewels and the best horses he had. Thank God that his family was at
the time in the capital, and it appears that now the authors of this
act are being discovered.

"I am at the present time working with Father Aglipay to have
the forces stationed here replaced by our volunteers which I am
recruiting, in order to prevent in so far as possible the frequent
acts of barbarity which the former are committing in the province.

"When the friars from Lepanto arrived here, they were made to publish
the following proclamation:--

"'_Proclamation_.--We, the friars, declare that all the acts committed
by us against the honest Filipinos when we discharged our respective
offices, were false and in c