The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-08-19
FELIPE BUENCAMINO.
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 shot, giving up cannon and small arms public funds and authority, and two hundred Apalit volunteers, whom I myself had recruited, although General Monet transferred them to Captain J. Roldan
 T also learned that the Bacoor gar rison,s two hundred volunteers of my contributing and one hundred odd of marines, under Lieutenant Colonel l.. Toledo, was besieged and had asked Colonel Pintos for help. Gle was the man who replaced me at Parenaque) Eintos committed the blunder of send ing one hundred of my volunteers from Las Pinas to the aid of Bacoor, not re- f1ecting that if three hundred men could do nothing against their besiegers, sending paltry one hundred to break through the enemy was simply throw ing the men away And so it turned out, for the one hundred were surround ed on the way by over one thousand and had to surrender, as had also the Bacoor post.
 (Then follows a list of other places captured, of high officers, military and civil, with their wives and families, taken and we'll treated, and the state ment of the capture of 2,500 prisoners, 5000 rifles, eight field guns, large quan- titles of money and ammunition, to- gether with the assertion that Aguinal- do has about thirty thousand troops near Manila, besides force at Bataan and Nueva Eoija to cut off General Mo net, and another in Kalamba, under Paoiono Rizal, to attack Ratanzas.l
 Finally, to-day my son and my cousin have come to me, blood stained and badly injured in resisting a force that surrounded them on the Zapote road, where they went to stop Pic del Pinars men from going over to the rebels. From them I learned of the utter collapse of my section-all the fault of peninsula officers whom Your Excellency put in my place.
 ITO sum up, it is indeed a sorry pic- ture your army presents, and it gives proof of veritable helplessness before the onslaught of the rebels. I do not blame Your Excelency nor your off, cers. I think you all would do your duty till you died at your posts; but I put my faith in the logic of hard facts, and I see to my sorrow that Aguinaldo is bound to win sooner or later, and that nothing better is in store for Your Excellency than glorious death, though a sad and 1eplorable sort of glory, since it involves the death of thousands of human beings.
 Manila is surrounded ashore and blockaded by sea, without hope of help from anywhere, and Aguinaldo is ready to make use of the (American?) squad- ron to Lombard if you stubbornly con- tinue to resist. Frankly, I know no other possibility than death But you are aware that the entry of 100000 In- dians infuriated with fierce fighting, intoxicated with victory, inflamed with bloodshed, means a massacre in which none would be spared, not women nor children, nor Spanish priests-especially Friars. I think the laws of humanity should lead Your Excelency to avert this by timely surrender. Glory and military duty are as dear as life itself, or dearer, but here they would mean a sacrifice of the rights of humanity, which ought to come before all other considerat tions and all other duties
 Your Excellency must know, and I grieve to say, taht in view of the im- potence demonstrated before my eyes by the Spanish army and it's inability to uphold the sovereignty of Spain in these islands, I have this day decided to join the rebels, and I firmly believe that in the eyes of God and of all thinking men I am released from my oath of fealty to Spain, the moment Spaniards themselves show that they cannot or will not defend her with their lives. Your Excellency must know that here in Cavite are over one hundred volunteers killed or wounded. while Spaniards remain safe and sound, say- ing openly that they do not care to fight for the cursed cause of the Friars. with which, here and in Madrid, is un- fortunately linked the cause of Spain.
 Finally, I beg your excellency to ex- cuse this long and painful letter. the fruit of my earnest desire to avoid fur ther bloodshed, and I trust you will come through this crisis as we'll as may be--a crisis due to circumstances utter ly foreign to your own ideas, for even in this camp of the enemy 1t is recog- nized that your ideas are broad, liberal and sound. but unhappily your excel lency arrived in the Philippines just too late to frustrate the revolutionary plans which were then already far ad- vanced having been provoked by your predecessors breach of faith 1t is now impossible to undo the glorious and swift triumphs of the rebel hosts against the Spanish army. May God enlighten your excellency to the accept ance of my advice to capitulate instead of fighting to the death, inasmuch as it is emphasized by the sad reality which your excellency undoubtedly sees and feels already. I repeat, God guide your excellency's thoughts and keep you and your family in health, and in case of the family becoming prisoners, as- suredly Aguinaldo will give instruc- tions for the best treatment
 Such are the wishes of your former subordinate and present intending rebel. "S. e. q. S. m. b., Felipe Buancemino."
 To this letter Buencamino added a postscript on June 12, bringing up to date the tale of insurgent victories and mentioning the Declaration of Indepen- dence. In Batanzas the friars collected