Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-05-20
GOOD WORK OF THE GrNBo.Ts
Insurgents Driven From Their Cover
Along the River

MANILA, May ~. 90 a am-CoI. Kobbe's
expedition up the Rio Grande met with no
resistance except at the outskirts of San
LUIS, where severa! hundred Filipinps were
sntranched on the banks of the stream. The
Tebels retrcdted beyond Candaba. and the
gunb0ats steamed ahead. all the way train
ing their eating guns upon the banks and
cropping shells wherever uniforms appeared
on the shore- The gunboats dispersed the
Insurgents before San Luis.
After they had passed. sharpshooters
L E.m trees across the river a hundred
s"rds distant. harassed the nth Infantry.
which vas marching by fours along the
narrow wooded road from which the troops
"ere unable 10 see the enemy The mem
bers of one battalion lay on their faces in
the road for a quarter hour irving 10 IocstA
the rihemen and return their fire. Two
Americans were wounded
The road wound clos. to the stream and
was thickly settled 1t was a picruraeo,,a
march. Many groups Of hundreds of natives
Were clustered under the trees on the on
p"site bank, displaying white shirts. towels
sAsets' OF anything white on poles, some
shouted welcomes 10 the American soldiers
Out most of them maintained a surIen
silence.
An Old Mans Advice.
An old man in carriage met the troops
TWO miles outside of town. He said:
nave lived in England. ana haye told
the people that the Americans are Ika tha
English and that they need not be afraid ;,
capt Grant. in command Of the gunboats
landed before the troops arrived. and met
with a Porto Rican" welcome. Tn. ma
uves. who had assembled on the shore
crowded about the Americans with fuIsorne
expressions OF friendship. apparently half
AFRAID Llat they would be massacred
capt Grant quickly distributed the nan
from tn" gunboat Laguna De Bay to e1,ar5
the town. and the natives sent a messenger
to tell the people who had taken refuge in
tn swamps to return. Hundreds of the
natives thereupnn returned tfmidIy. a man
with an improvised nag Of truce fying
from a bamboo pole preceding each party.
A Capuchin priest one of the f.W whom,
the FiIipinos had not imprisoned was
found at Candaba. He said IT was useless
10 Try TO convince the natives that the
Americans had not come to oppress them
a they believed their leaders who had
strongly impressed this belief upon them
and who have told stories Of massacres
rapes and Filipino victories. The walls of
tn town were placarded with reports of
slaughter of Americans. hundreds of whom
were said 10 have been taken prisoners
InsurEents' Rice stores RaIded
As soon as Major kObbe reached San
LUIS the natives raided the insurgents rice
stores. All day a stream of haIf-nake
people emerged from the storehouse in the
manner of ants, rushing to their homes
wiki bags of rice on their heads on
Thursday night a body of rebels returned
to San Luis and burned part of the town.
Lieutenant Cunningham. with a signal
corps party engaged in running a telegraph
line, was camped near the place Major
kobbe sent the army gunboat Cavadonga
there and found the party today in the
town.
The Rio Graude, since Major Kobbe start
ed has been the highway for exodus of
the natives, and today there is a continu-
Gus procession Of matched cascoes, with
white flags, drifting down the river and
containing whole families, of twenty to
thirty persons, with their household goods