New-York tribune., 1900-01-08

Manila. Jan. 4 $50 2. m.-Lieutenant ]. c.
Gilmore. OF the United States gunboat York
.oUn. who was captured by the insurgents last
Anrtl near Baler. on the east coast of Luzon.
and rescued few days ago by Colonel Luther
R. Hare, Of the SD Volunteer Infantry. sat to-
day in the apartment of his sister, the wife of
Major Price. at the Hotel Oriente, in Manila. and
told 2 remarkable story of his eight months in
captivity. ending with his dramatic deliverance
from death that seemed inevitable.
The steamer Venus came into the harbor last
evening from Vigan. Province of South Ilocos,
with Lieutenant Gilmore and nineteen other
American prisoners including seven of his sail
ors from the Yorktown. Lieutenant Gilmore,
after reporting. came ashore and hobbled along
with the aid Of to the Hotel Oriente
where American officers and American women
were Waiting through the halls to the strains
OF "AguinaIdo's March" Although tanned and
ruddy from exposure, he is weak and nervous
showing the results of long hardships He
speaks warmly OF Aguinaldo and very bitterly
against General Tino. declaring that while in
the formers Jurisdiction he was treated splen-
didIy. but that after he fell into Tinos hands he
suffered everything.
Colonel Hare and Lieutenant Colonel Howe,
the latter of the 34th Volunteer Infantry, res
cued Gillmores party on December IS, near the
headwaters of the Abalut River, after they had
been abandoned by the Filipinos and were ex-
pecting death from the savage tribes around
them. When the rescuing force reached them
they were nearly starved. but were building
RATS in the hope of getting down the river to
the coast
LIEUTENANT GILLMORE's STORY.
Lieutenant Gilmore made the following state
r1ent TO correspondent OF The Associated
Press:
The Filipinos abandoned us on the night of
December 16. We had reached the Abalut
River near its source, that morning and the
Filipinos RATED US over. We then went down
company of Filpincs That night were
separated from this guard, and another COM
pany, armed with Mausers was put in charge
of US I suspected something, and questioned
the lieutenant in command. He said:
Il have orders from General Tino to shoot you
all; but my conscience forbids. l shall leave
I begged him for two rifles to protect US from
savages, adding that I would give him letters
TO the Americans. who would pay him well and
keep him from all harm. He refused this, how
Soon afterward he left with his company.
We had seen some savages in war paint
around US, and we prepared to fight them with
cobblestones, the only weapons that were avail
able TO The next morning we followed the
trail of the Filipino soldiers feeling that 1t
was better TO stick TO them than TO oe muir
dered by savages but We could not catch up
with them. Then I ordered the men to build
RATS in the hope of floating down the river.
II was a forlorn hope; but I knew the river must
empty into the somewhere. was so weak
roZseI@ that I did not expect TO get out but
h4 0ff he T71aT
On the morning Of December lS while we
were working on the RATS the Americans came
toward us yelling. One Of my men shouted.
They are on usr' He lashing raft Of
bamboos. I, however, knew it was not the yell
OF savages but the yen OF AeT1Gans r. rne
and called to US in English to lie down, so that
they could shoot the Filipinos. That was the
finest body Of officers and men ever saw
THE RESCUE OF THE PARTY
Lieutenant Gilmore could not speak enthusi-
asticalIy enough about the 40 picked men who
had rescued him and his party.
The command spent the day in making RATS
Colonel Hare thought Lieutenant Gilmore too
weak to live through the trip, but there was no
alternative. They shot many rapids. the men
losing all their effects, and Lieutenant Gilmore
SEINE valuable papers. Only fourteen out Of
Ihirty-SeFen raltS survived the hiSl n'Bhl eA-
perience, and eighty men were practically un-
able to walk when Vigan was reached.
Describing the fight from Benguet when the
Americans approached. Lieutenant Gilmore
said:
The FiHpnos completely terrified. left Ben
-guet on December 4 They hurried the prisoners
from town 10 town, often retracing the trail,
not knowing where the Americans would attack
After being almost without food for three days
they killed several horses, and we lived
horsehesh for several days I did not have full
meal from December until 1 reached Vlgan.
Indeed, the rescuing party lived largely upon
rice without salt There day when l
was reduced to chewing grass and bark.
While we were in the hands of General Tino's
Iaen he issued order that any person aiding
an American by food money should be treated
as a criminal. One citizen Of Vigan, Senior Vera
was probably killed for befriending us We
would have starved but for the kindness of some
OF the presidents Of the towns and some Of the
Filipino colones, but others treated brutally
Wherever there was prison were kept
there. When there was no prison they would
lodge US in a convent. We suffered greatly
from want Of exercise as well as lack Of food.
sPANIARDs HARsHLY TREATED.
For weeks Lieutenant Gilmore was covered
with boils and in great pain. When the F1lipinos
found the Americans We're approaching the
treatment became better. There was sign
painter in the party and he painted advertise
rnents on the rocks throughout the retreat, with
other enblems like skull and the word Ven
were able 10 follow.
The Filipino treatment Of the spaniards"
asfd Lieutenant Gilmore was brutal in the