HUGHES, FEBRUARY 27, 1902

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WASHINGTON, D. C., February 27, 1902.

The committee met at 10.30 o'clock a. m.

Present: Senators Lodge (chairman), Allison, Hale, Beveridge, McComas, Dietrich, Culberson, Dubois, Carmack, and Patterson.

STATEMENT OF BRIG. GEN. ROBERT P. HUGHES—Continued.

ITEMS OF SPECIAL EXPENDITURE IN MANILA.

General HUGHES. In looking over a general report of the proceedings of the provost-marshal-general's office, lately made by Gen. George W. Davis, who was the last provost-marshal-general and who turned the city over to the civil authorities, I was reminded of two or three things in Manila that caused considerable expenditure of funds, and if the question of finance comes up before the committee it might be well to mention them.

REPAIRING OF STREETS—MANILA.

One of the items was repairing and keeping the streets in passable condition. The getting of hard rock was a matter of considerable expense, as it had to be brought from the lake, some distance off, 30 or 40 miles, and a good deal of it was required.

CARE OF THE SICK AND POOR IN MANILA.

Another item was in the proper provisions to protect and care for the sick and poor who crowded into Manila. There were great numbers of the wives and families of the officers and soldiers who belonged to Aguinaldo's forces who were left in my charge, as well as the other poor.

APPOINTMENT OF PUBLIC MEDICAL OFFICERS.

The health board considered the matter, and on their recommendation certain medical officers were appointed at a fixed rate of pay, one to each one of the several districts of Manila for ten districts.

APPOINTMENT OF PUBLIC MIDWIVES.

In addition to the appointment of these physicians there were midwives for eight districts, combining two of the weaker ones, who were also on our pay rolls.

PROTECTION OF ANIMALS IN THE CITY.

We had also to make some expenditures in protecting the animals in the city. Cattle with anthrax came into the bay without our knowledge, and they were evidently thrown off the ships without our knowledge, and the first thing we knew some of them were on the shore in either a dead or dying condition. That introduced the trouble into the city, and it required some pains to eradicate it.

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GLANDERS AND PREVENTIVE MEASURES.

Glanders was very bad in the horses or ponies of the natives, and we had to adopt some measures to try to eradicate it, which entailed more or less expense. I think that pretty nearly covers, together with what I have already stated, the most expensive things we undertook.

GENERAL WILLISTON, PROVOST-MARSHAL.

On the 25th of May, 1899, I was relieved as provost-marshal-general of Manila by General Williston, who had just lately arrived from the United States, and ordered to the command of the Visayan district. The Visayan district is a little crooked. I do not know whether I can show it to you on this map or not. 1 could do it better on a small map I have here.

Senator HALE. State, generally, what it was. We have had some testimony about the districts and divisions of the islands.

VISAYAN DISTRICT.

General HUGHES. The Visayan district consists of the Romblon group of islands, the islands of Panay, Negros, Cebu, Bohol, Leyte, Samar, and all their contiguous smaller islands; the smaller islands being attached to the provinces of the larger islands.

COMMAND IN THE VISAYAS.

The command in the Visayas was designated as a separate brigade, in order to give me full power of acting on the proceedings of general courts-martial.

Senator HALE. You were not ordered there as provost-marshal, but in command?

General HUGHES. In command of that district.

Senator HALE. A military district?

General HUGHES. Yes, sir.

The Visayans are a different people from the Tagalos or Bicols, who are their neighbors, the Bicols occupying southern Luzon and Masbate.

I arrived at Iloilo on the 3d of June, as I recall it, and assumed command of the district.

BURNING OF THE CITY OF ILOILO.

The city of Iloilo had been burned on the 11th of February. The question of the responsibility for the burning has always been disputed, and very heavy claims have been put in against the United States for losses by the English, Swiss, Germans, etc., who were merchants in the town.

Senator HALE. How large a town is it?

ILOILO—DESCRIPTION OF.

General HUGHES. I do not know what the population had been, but when I reached there I do not think there were over 5,000 people in what is Iloilo proper. Iloilo proper is a little corner running down between

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the Iloilo River, or what is known as Iloilo River, but is really simply an inlet of the sea coming in from the straits of Iloilo and going around and back, a course of 16 miles, coming out within about 2 miles of where it enters. But around Iloilo there are the suburbs of Molo, Jaro, Manduriao, and La Paz, which ordinarily would be considered part of the city. It is similar to Brooklyn and New York. The same situation prevails.

RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE BURNING OF ILOILO.

As to who was responsible for the burning of Iloilo, I have a letter here that we came across in the ordinary course of business at headquarters in translating captured documents, which is a very slow and tedious operation. This paper only appeared while I was in Samar last summer. I will read you one sentence from it. I presume it would be well to make the entire document a part of my statement.

Senator ALLISON. It seems to me it would be. Why not read it all?

General HUGHES. It is quite long.

Senator Allison. Use your own judgment.

The CHAIRMAN. Read what you want to read, and let all of it be printed.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE ISLAND OF PANAY.

General HUGHES. The document contains the proceedings of meeting of the committee of the island of Panay after they had been driven out of Iloilo. They seemed to have had the next previous meeting in Jaro on the 9th of February, just prior to the burning of the city, which occurred on the 11th. This is dated the 25th of March, and the members of the committee whose names appear on this paper are Jovito Yusay, who is at present secretary to the governor of Iloilo Province.

Senator HALE. Our governor?

MEMBERS OF THE OOMMITTEE OF THE ISLAND OF PANAY.

General HUGHES. Yes, sir. Julio Hernandez, who was at that time possibly, or at least later, a general of insurrectos; Magdaleno Javellana, who was an important man among them; Fernando Salas; Ramon Avanceña, who was a very active agent and, I think, treasurer for the insurrectos; Benito Lopez, and voters ex officio; Victorino Mapa, who is at present on the supreme bench of the government; Tranquilino Gonsalez, and Francisco Soriano, who, I think, is at present fiscal in Surigao under the civil government. The statement I wish to read is found in the fifth paragraph of their proceedings.

"For official knowledge of nations and at the proper time to exact responsibility from the proper people for the destruction caused by the fire of February 11, as well to natives as to strangers in Ilolio, it was resolved that a written protest be prepared which should be addressed to the consuls, to the effect that the Americans in the bombardment of the 11th had broken their agreement as to the end of the period fixed in the note of ultimatum sent by General Miller to the general in chief of the national forces of the Visayas, opening fire at early dawn, when sunset of the 11th was allowed for that to take place.

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"And in which protest it should be made evident that the burning of Iloilo was a sublime example of self-sacrifice and self-denial on the part of her sons, who, not being able to prevent the landing of the enemy, because from their powerful vessels they were sending destructive projectiles in showers, and because of the danger and certainty of sadly dying if they persisted in not abandoning the town, did abandon it, but left the town the food of flames in order not to see it flourishing in the power of the enemy, but full of ruins and debris."

The entire paper is as follows:

estado-federal-de-bisayas-meeting-1899mar15-crane.html#hughes-1902feb27

General HUGHES. That is a paper which shows the purpose of the burning of Iloilo, and who did it.

Senator HALE. The insurrectos left under the bombardment?

General HUGHES. They left at the time of the bombardment, after having previously prepared the town for burning by distributing kerosene

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all throughout it at different places in order that the fire could be readily started and would be sure.

When I arrived there was nothing but ruins, except in a small part of the town. After assuming command and looking over the situation, the wet season having begun, it was evidently impossible to undertake any field operations.

CHARACTER OF BUILDINGS BURNED IN ILOILO.

The CHAIRMAN. I should like to ask you a question. Were the buildings which were burned mostly the light houses, with nipa thatch, or were they more permanent buildings?

General HUGHES. A great many of them wore the leading business houses of the town. The camarins or large storehouses I think along the water front were generally saved. There was a small section of the town with very few houses in it, next the straits of Iloilo, being immediately protected by our people and possibly by the quick landing of the Tennessee Volunteers, which they had prepared to burn; but they did not succeed in doing so, and there were a few houses left there. But the main street, leading from the plaza to the residence of the provincial governor, was burned almost entire.

The CHAIRMAN. Were they important buildings?

General HUGHES. They were the important buildings.

Senator BEVERIDGE. Some of them were very solidly constructed.

The CHAIRMAN. As well as the nipa thatch buildings?

General HUGHES. Yes, sir. Of course the nipa district was simply swept off. You could not find anything if you rode all over the place, as I often did.

It being the wet season and impracticable to take the field at all, I concluded to take possession of Molo, Jaro being already in our possession. The object in doing so, as much as anything else, was to bring our own people in immediate contact with the natives. As they were, they were entirely separated. Pretty much everybody, you might say, had gone from Iloilo and Jaro, and they were standing off as two different people.

I found I could occupy Molo and throw a bridge across the Iloilo there and get a connection with Jaro, and that in doing this I would not necessarily drive the people of Molo out of the town; that they would remain there. My object was to bring the two peoples together, thinking that by getting them acquainted with us we could probably do something with them. This worked out just as I expected it would, and we found some people in Molo who were afterwards quite useful.

FEELING BETWEEN THE VISAYANS AND THE TAGALOS.

I found that the feeling between the Visayans and the Tagalos, who had gone down there under direction of Aguinaldo and were in that province under one Diocno, was not good. I made it my business to foster that feeling just as much as possible, telling the Visayans that they were making a great mistake in encouraging the Tagalos, who were of a different class of people, to come in and take possession of their island, because they would dominate the whole island if allowed to stay there.

Whether by that influence or under what influence, in the course of

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possibly three months the breach between them became so great that the Tagalos were forced by the Visayans to leave the province of Iloilo. But we did not succeed in getting them forced out of the island. They simply crossed the mountains and took possession of the province of Capiz. Diocno making his headquarters in Capiz.

Senator HALE. How many of them were there?

General HUGHES. They were estimated at about 1,000, sometimes as high as 1,300, and sometimes as low as 800. I never could determine just how many there were, but I imagined myself there were just about a thousand.

They got down there from southern Luzon, some of them by way of Romblon, which is a very easy run in their native boats, across to Navas in northern Capiz, where they originally landed.

ASSASSINATION OF SEÑOR MAJIE.

In a short while, I can not fix the date now, after my getting there. Señor Majie, of Cebu, was assassinated in front of his own doorstep, evidently for the offense of being an American friend. His reputation was very much superior to that of most of the people of the country. The commanding officer in Cebu immediately called for help, and I had to send a battalion and, I think, a platoon of artillery over to help him out.

Cebu at that time was in a very peculiar condition. The town had been taken possession of by the Navy before any troops had been sent into those waters, and there was some arrangement made in that taking possession that our people might run the customs and look after their dues in that direction while the local provincial government continued in office.

A battalion of troops had been sent down under Major Goodale, of the Twenty-third Infantry. They occupied the town of Cebu, while the insurrectos occupied the old capitol which is at San Nicolas, just across a small stream which separates the two towns.

The position was not a very satisfactory one and the natives objected to our taking any additional ground; but I concluded that there was no use in trying to do business on that basis, and I directed the commanding officer to proceed with the additional troops to get possession of the island, which led to some strong protests. But he gradually spread out his troops.

He did not succeed in getting possession of the island because he did not have enough of troops to do that, but he spread them up and down the shore of Cebu proper, probably down as far as Argoa, which is one of the important towns of the island, although I can not now recall with exactness.

BURNING OF SUGAR HACIENDAS IN NEGROS.

In Negros there was a great deal in the papers concerning the burning of sugar haciendas. I can not recall what the total number was when it was finally stopped, but I can remember distinctly that in one report the number stated was 52.

CHARACTER OF SUGAR HACIENDAS.

The burning of a hacienda as read in this country would probably appear to be a good deal of a loss. When you come to look at it out

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there on the ground, it was usually nothing more than an old shack, set up on posts with a nipa roof over it and some old crude material for a grinding machine. The whole thing, plant and all, would not cost over $1,500.

CAUSE OF BURNING OF SUGAR HACIENDAS.

A careful examination as to the causes leading to the burning of these haciendas developed the fact to me beyond doubt that in nearly every case it was done by the employees of the native owners. In nearly all cases the haciendas burned belonged to natives.

In looking into the cause of the discontent of their own employees, which would lead them to burn what seemed to be the source of their own livelihood, I found that it was either because payment was not made or it was made in such small amounts—that is, the payment was so inadequate—that the discontent was with their employers, and the result was the burning of the haciendas.

In one case, that of Araneta, the man himself was killed and his younger brother had to escape. He came to Iloilo and said he was going to America. I do not know whether or not he did.

Senator HALE. Do you mean to convey the idea that the haciendas were burned by the owners themselves or by the dissatisfied employees?

General HUGHES. By the dissatisfied employees.

Senator CARMACK. On account of the nonpayment of wages, or the inadequate wages?

WAGES PAID AT SUGAR HACIENDA.

General HUGHES. The inadequate wages. The ordinary wages, if paid regularly and promptly, which seemed to satisfy the native, was 1 peso a week—a peso being 50 cents of our money. If he got that he seemed to be content. But he needed that to buy his rice. He had to have it.

WHIPPING OF NATIVE EMPLOYEES BY EMPLOYERS.

Senator BEVERIDGE. Did you in your investigation find any cases of whipping or other like punishment of native employees by their employers?

General HUGHES. I have been told by the employers themselves that they did that, and the details of how they did it and how severe it was, and all that, I have had them tell me. But whipping over there has been with the natives apparently an ordinary course of punishment.

Senator BEVERIDGE. For laxity in work or nonperformance of duty?

General HUGHES. Yes; or even for slight offenses.

CASE OF PUNISHMENT BY WHIPPING IN SAMAR.

A case occurred in Samar where I had to listen to the beating given. A woman came into my office one day who had evidently been badly abused. She said her husband did it, and she wanted him punished. The presidente of Calbayoc had been the ruling spirit for a long time, and was kept in office. He is a perfectly straightforward man, I think. I referred her to him. I told her that the presidents would attend to

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her case. I rather regretted it afterwards, because my room was within hearing of his office, and I heard the fellow get the beating; so I knew what was going on.

Senator CARMACK. Was he a Filipino presidente?

General HUGHES. Yes, sir; and a Filipino offender.

ROBBER BANDS IN NEGROS.

There was really no organized trouble with insurgents in Negros at the time I went down to this district. Babylanes [Babaylanes] and Tulisanes and these mountain bands of robbers had been in those islands for all time, I think. I could not find just where the trouble began, but in gathering up old histories of the Visayans I finally got an account of them as far back as 1730, where they became so bad in Panay that they had to form a force and hoped, they stated, to have an end put to it. They never have ended it. It is not ended now, but it is gradually being ended as they can be found.

These people would come down from the mountain and demand contributions. If they got their demands, which were sometimes not unreasonable, they went off perfectly content.

Senator ALLISON. Not unreasonable as to the amount.

General HUGHES. Usually not unreasonable as to the amount. They were very decent about it usually. Planters, or at least sugar growers, Europeans—there were German, Swiss, and English that I know of—have come to me and told me just what the situation was with them.

They said those demands were made, and that if they did not meet them they would lose their property. So we had to compromise on telling them to get off as easily as they could until we could take care of them. I did not have the troops to do it, and I did not want to bother the island any more than was necessary at that time; but in their cases, where they paid their men regularly and promptly, I do not think there was a single hacienda destroyed. They had to protect them occasionally in the manner I speak of. These mountain tribes would come down from the mountains and demand a carabao for meat or some rice to live on.

Senator HALE. Not money, but stock?

General HUGHES. Stock. They had no use for money. They had no means of exchange.

CHARACTER OF THE ROBBER BANDS.

The CHAIRMAN. These people are simply brigands—robber bands—that come out of the mountains?

General HUGHES. Yes, sir; they are known by different names. They are known as Babylanes [Babaylanes] and Tulisanes in Negros. They are known in Panay as Pulajans, Negritos, Monteses, etc.

The CHAIRMAN. Are they uncivilized tribes, non-Christian tribes?

General HUGHES. The Negritos?

The CHAIRMAN. Those are the aborigines.

General HUGHES. They are supposed to be. I do not agree with the books at all that the people of the archipelago are all of one stem.

The CHAIRMAN. Except the Negritos?

General HUGHES. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. Everybody excepts the Negrito.

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DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TAGALO AND THE VISAYAN.

General HUGHES. I claim that the Tagalo and the Visayan are not the same racially. I have so reported to Mr. Worcester, who is an ethnologist.

Senator DUBOIS. What is the difference? Is it about the same as that between the Sioux and the Shoshone Indians?

Senator BEVERIDGE. It is a racial distinction.

General HUGHES. The Shoshone and the what tribe?

Senator DUBOIS. The Shoshone and the Sioux. The Shoshones are very peaceful and the Sioux are very warlike.

ETHNOLOGY OF THE TRIBES OF THE ISLANDS.

General HUGHES. I would have to see those tribes to know. I think of late ethnologists agree that the cephalic index is the best index of racial differences, and those of you who have been out there, if you have watched the Tagalo head, have noticed that it is the Berber head. It runs up to a point and down that way [indicatingl. The Visayan is a round head, as you find it in some of the Swiss cantons.

The CHAIRMAN. You do not think, then, they are Malays?

General HUGHES. They are all Malays, undoubtedly. There is Malay blood through them all.

Senator BEVERIDGE. That is the foundation blood?

General HUGHES. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Excepting the Negritos.

General HUGHES. The Negrotos are entirely different.

The CHAIRMAN. They are entirely different. I know that.

Senator DUBOIS. You think the difference is greater than among our American Indians?

General HUGHES. I think it is, unless you take the Pueblo Indians of Mexico and the Sioux. There is such a marked difference there that it might equal the difference between the true Visayans, or Pintados, as they were formerly called, and the Tagalos.

Senator HALE. Do you think it would be as great as that?

General HUGHES. I rather imagine it would be.

Senator ALLISON. Do they speak the same language?

General HUGHES. They speak an entirely different language.

Senator DUBOIS. That is true of our Indians, you know.

General HUGHES. Yes.

Senator DUBOIS. No two tribes speak the same language.

Senator CARMACK. Is it a language or dialect?

General HUGHES. So far as what they Speak may be called a language, it is entirely different.

DIFFERENT LANGUAGE ROOT BETWEEN VISAYAN AND TAGALO.

Senator BEVERIDGE. There is a different language root between the Visayan and the Tagalo?

VISAYAN LANGUAGE.

General HUGHES. Yes; and it is different in construction. Take the Visayan language. They take one word and they will patch it up. To make a plural they will repeat it. They say Iloilo. I have asked

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different ones where it came from. It really means point or nose. The best explanation they can make of it is that it is the name given in plural of the point coming into the Iloilo Strait. You know it runs out in points and they claim that that is where the name came from. It is possible; indeed, quite probable.

Senator DUBOIS. If it will not interrupt you at all, there is a matter about which I should like to inquire. We did not interrogate Governor Taft on this subject, and I am a little bit curious about it. Do they have declensions and genders and verbs in their language generally? Our Indians do not. They have no gender at all. Everything is "him." It is all masculine with them.

General HUGHES. They have the genders, of course, in some degree. How much they got from the Spanish and how much may have been their own it is very difficult for me to tell, but in the grammar I have—I have a sort of grammar, gotten up by a padre—there does not seem to be in their own language any decided distinction in gender.

Senator DUBOIS. Do they have declensions?

General HUGHES. No; no declensions, but take, for instance, the carabao and the carabella. I take it for granted that that word came from the Spanish, at least as it is used now. It gives the difference in gender, you see. They use it in the same way, carabella being the cow. But the language, as spoken by them, is so difficult in the use of partitives, etc., by which they get at their meaning---

NO VISAYAN SCHOOLS.

Senator HALE. Are there Visayan schools?

General HUGHES. No.

Senator HALE. Have there ever been?

General HUGHES. There never have been so far as I could ascertain. There is no record of any Visayan schools.

VISAYANS AN UNLETTERED PEOPLE.

Senator HALE. They are an unlettered people?

General HUGHES. Yes, sir. In trying to get proclamations to the people I have tried to get them sent out as nearly the text as possible, and I have had the assistance of Judge Mapa and Judge Leon and the best scholars they had, and they said it was absolutely impossible to do it, as the language was so poor that they had to change it entirely; that they could not express the meaning of the English by anything they had in their language, and they simply had to follow the spirit of the proclamation and give it as nearly as their language would admit; but Judge Mapa told me it was absolutely impossible to translate it correctly.

Senator DUBOIS. Do any of the tribes have what you would call a language?

General HUGHES. Do you mean the Visayans?

Senator DUBOIS. Any of the people of the archipelago; any of the Filipinos?

General HUGHES. I never have seen any production in any of their dialects over there except the newspapers. There is no library of that kind at all, and the newspaper articles or the newspaper sheets that they publish are the only publications I have ever seen.

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VISAYAN DICTIONARY.

Senator DUBOIS. They have no dictionaries or grammars?

General HUGHES. Yes, sir; there is a Visayan dictionary. I have one. It is quite a large one. I am not certain whether I have brought it with me or not, but 1 think not. I can not give you the name of the author.

Senator HALE. Among their leading men are there no educated Visayans?

General HUGHES. Yes; there are educated Visayans, but they have been educated in Spanish.

Senator HALE. Where have they been educated?

General HUGHES. Most of them, so far as I know, have been educated in Manila at the schools of the church there—that is, the schools managed by the church people.

Senator ALLISON. And they speak Spanish?

General HUGHES. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Then, among the Visayans, education is Spanish, broadly speaking.

General HUGHES. Yes, sir.

Senator CARMACK. I had an idea that probably the difference in tongues between the Tagalo and the Visayans was about analogous to the difference between English and German. Is there, for instance, any identity of words such as would be used by all primitive men in the two languages?

General HUGHES; I should say, as it is to-day, that it more nearly resembles the Spanish and the Italian.

Senator CARMACK. The Spanish and the Italian?

General HUGHES. Yes, sir.

Senator CARMACK. That would be a little closer than the English and the German.

General HUGHES. Yes, sir; a good deal closer. By care and effort the Tagalo and the Visayan can easily make themselves understood, but there are times when they fail, and they have to get at it in some other way. We have had in the office cases of that kind.

Senator CARMACK. It is then a dialectical difference?

General HUGHES. Yes, sir.

Senator CARMACK. Of the same language?

General HUGHES. It is further than that. I think they are further apart than that. Each island has its own peculiarities.

DIALECTS IN THE PHILIPPINE&

The CHAIRMAN. Governor Taft spoke as if there were the northern and the southern dialects.

General HUGHES. That is the Cebuan and the Iloiloan. The grammar I have gives the difference, for instance, between Bohol and Cebu, showing just where they differ from time to time. Even they, close as they are drawn together, dependent upon one another for articles of food, etc., business exchange, do not agree.

The CHAIRMAN. There are dialectic differences?

General HUGHES. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. What language do the Moros speak?

General HUGHES. I have never been amongst them. I do not know anything about them.

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The CHAIRMAN. They are not Visayans?

General HUGHES. They are not Visayans. There are Visayans in Mindanao.

The CHAIRMAN. But the Moros do not speak Visayan or Tagalo?

General HUGHES. No, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. We have led you away. You were telling us about the conditions in Negros.

INSURRECTOS IN CEBU.

General HUGHES. In Cebu the insurrectos thought they were strong enough to perpetrate some depredations, and the troops had to go out and drive them out from one or two of their positions—teach them a lesson—which ended the trouble for some time.

OPERATIONS IN PANAY.

In Panay I prepared for operations as soon as the wet season was over. You will understand that there are in Panay no roads from one province to the other. You are dependent entirely on trails. Some of them are almost impassable, and others are in pretty good condition. The three provinces are determined by the ranges of mountains. This [indicating on map] is Antique; what I call a shoe-string province.

The CHAIRMAN. It runs along the whole of the west coast?

General HUGHES. The west coast. I think it is about 120 miles long, and at places it is not more than 10 miles wide.

HEIGHT OF MOUNTAINS IN PANAY.

Senator ALLISON. How high are the mountains?

General HUGHES. The highest, I think, is about a mile and a quarter. My recollection is that it is 2,100 meters.

The CHAIRMAN. That is 6,000 feet.

General HUGHES. Yes; and others are not so tall. You will find one peculiarity here [indicating], that the entire watershed of that island, you may say, starts from Mount Baloy. The rivers of Capiz run in here [indicating]. That is the Panay [indicating] and this [indicating] is the Aganan.

The CHAIRMAN. This [indicating] is the province of Capiz?

General HUGHES. Yes.

OPERATION IN PANAY.

Whatever we did in the interior depended upon getting means of crossing. I first tried to secure a pack train from the United States, there being no animals in that country fit for hard work. The governor was good enough to send to the United States for one, but the whole train was lost north of Luzon in a typhoon.

Senator ALLISON. Governor Otis?

General HUGHES. Yes. I then had to resort to carabao and the trotting bull, and by the 1st of November I was in pretty good condition.

But in the meantime the original volunteers who went out with us had to be relieved, and the regulars and the United States Volunteers who had been lately organized took their places. The California regiment

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had to be relieved from Negros and its place taken by the Sixth United States Infantry. The First Tennessee had to be relieved in Panay and Cebu, one battalion being there, which was done by the Nineteenth Infantry.

Later along the Twenty-sixth United States Volunteers was sent to Panay, arriving there about the 1st of November.

On the 9th of November the command moved out for the purpose of clearing the insurrectos out of Iloilo Province. At that time the line of the insurrectos, broadly speaking, ran from Oton, on the Straits of Iloilo, around to Dumangas on the north.

The command started on the night of the 9th. I accompanied it myself. It moved out by the way of Oton, the idea being to make a quick move around by San Miguel and Alimodian and Maassian [Maasin], getting behind the enemy who were stationed in the neighborhood of Pavia and Santa Barbara, which was their headquarters, and pushing them down into Dumangas mangle.

We were caught in a typhoon, and the bottom dropped out of the roads, and we had to change our whole route, and were delayed for some nine days at Tigbauan and spread along up the Sibalom River.

As soon as the rain ceased we continued the movement, and the first point they attempted to defend was at the crossing of one of these rivers at San Blaz [San Blas] —the river Aganan.

Senator HALE. How many did you have with you?

General HUGHES. I had with me personally four battalions. There were four battalions left in Iloilo with instructions to attack the next day after I left.

RESULT OF OPERATIONS IN PANAY.

The end of it all was that the command with which I had gone personally drove the enemy out of his position on the Aganan and had so attracted the strength from the force in front of Jaro that at the close of the engagement with my force I signaled over the heads of the enemy to General Carpenter, at Iloilo, to attack the enemy on the main road to Santa Barbara the next morning, which he did.

These two commands started the enemy going, and we only got another fight out of them at the foot of the mountains at Passi. There they scattered, and there was not an enemy to be found. We could go anywhere and we could not find a man with a rifle.

Senator HALE. Were they armed with rifles?

General HUGHES. Yes, sir. We never were able to determine just what number there were. They claimed 4,000, but I do not think they had that many.

At Passi we had to resort to our pack train and got across into Capiz, and there was a little resistance offered at the first town across the landing, at Dumarao. I had reduced the force to three battalions and left the others to occupy Iloilo Province. From Dumarao down there was no resistance offered and no insurgents found.

They were disposed to be exceedingly friendly, so much so that I had, in cases where I knew there was danger, to caution them. Some of the presidentes came to me and told me they were prepared to take the oath of allegiance to America, as they wished the American Government to have possession. In all cases of that kind I told them to "Stay away; stay away. If you do this, you will probably lose your lives, because we can not leave troops with you now. We have not

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the supplies to supply them, and we have to find a means of getting supplies in here before we can permanently occupy your town, and until we can do that your life is not safe if you take the oath of allegiance." They were sensible enough to know that that was true, and they would let me alone.

The CHAIRMAN. Inasmuch as the Senate meets this morning at 11.45, I think we had better stop here.

Thereupon (at 11 o'clock and 40 minutes a. m.) the committee adjourned until to-morrow, Friday, February 28, 1902, at 10.30 o'clock a. m.

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