Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-01-08
.G|LLMORES DRAMATIC STORY
CT HOW HE AND HIS FELLOW
PRISONERS ESCAPED FROM
THE EILIPINOS.
T1No GAVE ORDERS TO KILL.
BUT THE NATIVE OFFICER LET HIS
CAPTIvES GO.
In Danger From Snvages. and Had
no Weapons of Defense But Stones
Lived ON Horse Flesh Grass and
Roots-Hoyv They Were Found by
American Troops and Brought to
The Coast.

MANILA, January Z, $3.50 p. NJ
Lieut. j. c.. Gilmore, of the United
States gunboat Yorktown, who was
captured by the Insurgents last April
near Balor, on the east of Luzon, and
rescued few days ago by Col. Luther
R. Hare, of the Thirty-third volunteer
infantry, sat to-day in the apartments
of his sister, Mrs. Major Price, at the
Hotel Oriente, in Manila, and told a
remarkable story of his eight months
in captivity, ending with his dramatic
deliverance from a death that seemed
inevitable
The steamer Venus came into the
harbor last evening from Vigan, pro-
vince of South Hocos, with Lieut.. Gill
more and nineteen other American
prisoners, including seven from his YES
sci, the Yorktown.
Lieut.. Gilmore, after rising, came
ashore and hobbled along, with the aid
of a cane, to the Hotel Oriente, where
American officers and ladies were
Waiting through the halls to the
strains of ''Aguinaldo's March"
Although tanned and ruddy from ex-
posture, he is weak and nervous, show
ing the results of long hardships. He
speaks warmly of Aguinaldo and very
bitterly against Gen. Tino, declaring
that while in the formers jurisdiction
he was treated splendidly, but that af-
ter he fell into Tino's hands, he suffer-
ed everything.
Col. Hare and Lieut.. Colonel Howse,
the latter Of the Thirty-fourth volun-
teer infantry, rescued Gillmore's party
on December 18th, near the head waters
of the Abalut river, after they had been
abandoned by the Filipinos and were
expecting death from the savage tribes
round them. When the resucing force
reached them they were nearly starved,
but were building RATS in the hope of
getting down the river to the coast
Lieut.. Gilmore made the following
statement to a correspondent Of the
Associated Press:
1.-The Filipinos abandoned us on the
night of December 10th. We had
reached the Abalut river, near its
source, that morning and the Filipinos
RATED us over. We then went down
the stream, along a rough trail, guard
ed by a company of Filipinos. That
night we were separated from this
guard, and another company, armed
with Mausers, was put in charge of us.
I suspected something, and questioned
the lieutenant in command. He said:
4 have orders from Gen. Tino to shoot
you all, but my conscience forbids.
shall leave you here
81 begged him for two rifles to pro-
tect us from savageS, adding that l
would give him letters to the Ameri-
cans, who would pay him well and
keep him from all harm. He refused
this, however, saying that he would
not dare to comply. Soon afterward
he left with his company.
1--WE had seen some savages in war
paint around us, and we prepared to
fight them with cobble stones, the only
weapons that were available to us.
The next morning we followed the trail
IaA
was better to stick to them than to be
murdered by savages, but we could
not catch up with them. Then l or
dered the men to build RATS, in the
hope of floating down the river. It
was a forlorn hope, but 1 knew the
river must empty into the sea some
where. 1 was so weak myself that l
did not expect to get out, but l thought
some of the men could.
ION the morning of December 18th,
while we were working on the RATS,
the Americans came towards us yell
ing. One of my men shouted They are
on us,' He was lashing a raft of bam-
boos. I, however, knew it was not the
yell Of savages, but the yell Of Amer
leans. The rescuing troops thought
we had Filipino guards, and called 10
us in English to lie dawn, so that they
could shoot the Fiiipinos. That was
the finest body of officers and men
ever saw
Lieut.. Gilmore could not speak en-
Enthusiastically enough about the one
hundred and forty picked men who had
rescued him and his party.
The command spent the day in max
ing RATS, Col Hare thought Lieut.. Gil
more too weak to live through the trip,
but there was no alternative. They
shot many rapids, the men losing all
their effects and Lieut. Gilmore some
valuable papers Only fourteen out of
thirty-seven RATS survived the first
nights experiences, and eighty men
were practically unable to walk when
yigan was reached.
h Describing the fight from Benguet
when the Americans approached Lieut..
|Gillmore said:
~The Filipinos. completely terrified,