rgo boat, of from 25 to 30 tons,
and having put two carronades on board of her, set sail for the laguna,
and while there amused themselves by bearing down, after nightfall,
on the villages and towns on its banks, and bombarding them with the
guns, taking care, however, not to do harm or to kill any one, either
by not shooting the guns, or if there was a ball in one of them, by
aiming it a little over the houses, so as not to damage them. On the
noise made by the guns being heard, and the flash seen so close to them
in the dark nights, the whole male population of the place would turn
out in haste to repel the attack of this supposed band of tulisanes,
arming themselves with any sort of weapon, and getting the women and
children out of harm's way by sending them off--and probably an urgent
despatch would be forwarded by the gobernadorcillo of the village to
the governor of the province, if he lived within some few miles of
him, requesting assistance--or detailing the flight of the robbers,
who, on seeing the determination and force of the villagers prepared
to defend their hearths, had not ventured to attempt landing, but had
sailed away without having been able to do any damage to the pueblo.

These midnight bombardments were repeated so frequently as to lead the
local authorities to make great efforts to put down the daring troop
of robbers who bearded them at their very doors at the town of Santa
Cruz, near which the Governor lives, and kept the country people,
who had begun to talk about them, in a state of constant alarm.

Notwithstanding all their efforts to discover the hiding-place of the
band, nothing could be found out about them, no one ever imagining
that the party of gentlemen in the chatta could be at all mixed up
with them--in fact, the well-intentioned alcalde of the province,
hearing that such a party was visiting the lake, sent off a _ministro_
to give them information about the desperate band of tulisanes who
were lurking in the neighbourhood, and advised them to be upon their
guard against an attack; for which attention they of course thanked
him, and assured the envoy that it was for that reason only they had
provided themselves with the two formidable looking pieces of ordnance
which he saw in the boat.

They were not found out to have been representing the parts of the
supposed tulisanes, till, on their return to Manilla, where people
had heard of the disturbances in the province of the Laguna by