The sun., 1902-03-10


a number OF times to be In Cavite, which
Ii a town very close TO Manila. but this
misapprehension arose from the fact that
his cousin Baldomero Aguinaldo had been
In the vicinity of Cavite. Aguinaldo
himself afterward told me that he lad
never returned anywhere near the vicinity
of Manila after he had been chased north
ward by Gen. Lawton. Cheers for Lawtonl.
He had retired TO the little village Of
Baler, near the northeast coast OF LuZon,
across an almost impassable range OF
mountains and there, accompanied by,
| believe, eight officers and forty soldiers,
had settled down in this small village,
which was fifty miles from the nearest
town garrlsoned by Americans, and i
can tell you that fifty miles over those
mountains is further than from here TO
San Francisco on Pullman car. Laugh
teri
He had maintained an irregular COM
munication with the insurgents, with chiefs
such as Pablo Tccson, Lacuna and numer-
Gus others, having maintained this com
munication by means Of runners who would
cross the mountains and then carry mes
sages south.
Clue FROM CAPTURED LETTERS
Well. he sent one lot OF messages too many.
and they fell into the hands Of Lieut.. Taylor
Of the TwPnty-fourth United States In
fantrv. Taylor's station was about $50
miles south Of where Aguinaldo was, and
was in my own district, He telegraphed
me M once that n band of inslrgent soldiers
had come in and voluntarily surrendered
to him. they stated that they had left hgui-
naldo's camp twenty six days before and
were bringing messages TO the south; that
when they came into those provinces they
found war over there. and they did not want
20 go back and so they would give up the
whole business, Consequently they gave
Lieut. TAYLOR the package Of letters.
He ran over them hastily and saw that
they were Of great importance because
they disclosed the whereabouts Of the long
lost Presidente and Dictator, Aguinaldo.
One of those letters was written in cipher,
and very difficult cipher TO work out.
II was a cipher Of figures, and every third
word was In the Tagalog dialect the others
were in Spanish, and there was way OF
subtracting certain numbers IN order 10
get at what letter was meant. We had no
kew 10 work on.
should have said, by the way, that this
correspondence and the man who brought
IL IN were taken down to my headquarters
at once had with me then an intelligent
and courteous man, man who had served
ten years as an enlisted man in the spanish
Army, and a man who knew the native dia-
lects perfectly. He went To work on the
cipher letter at about 0 o clock in the even
ing, and at about 4 clock in the morning
he had worked II out. IL was about sixty
words altogether and it was a magnificent
i
the thing can scarcely be appreciated Ivy
any one who does not understand how
difficult a cipher il without a KEY, espe-
ciallv when IL runs into two languages,
and those two languages dissimlar.
NOW now TO GET HIM.
But We found that Aguinaldo had sus-
pended his command in the central dis-
tricts Of Lu7on and that his cousin, Bal
domero Aguinaldo. should succeed him.
In this letter he told Baldomero Aguinaldo
that as soon as he had relieved AleJandrlno
he should select from the various insurgent
bands all through that region about four
hundred armed men and send them 20 him
at once.
OF course knew from this that Aguinaldo
would be expecting reenforcements. !
talked with this man bringing the corre-
spondenCe and suggested several plans
for Aguinaldo's capture, all OF which he
said were impossible. He said that the
miles north and one hundred miles south
OF where Aguinado was, and that the
Rulgas, who are the Wild savages in that
region, would be sure 20 give Aguinaldo
Information Of the approach Of any ship
along that coast.
OF landing party in small
boats az night and making a rapid march
to Planan, which was distant only six miles
from the beach, was impractcable. be-
cause no surprise could be effected; 70 march
from the west, the nearest post, fifty miles
across the mountains was impossible, be-
cause the north trail was well guarded
and he would have had information DAYS be-
fore We reached him and taken 20 the hills
LET'S 60 AS REENFoRcEMESTs.
Finally l said 20 this man: Well, now,
A Aguinaldo is expecting reenforcements,
rom this letter. Suppose We go there
passing ourselves of as these reinforce
nj saly yt,,., pIg
As prisoners; how about that" He said
Good, that will do, that will do; We can
80 il"
There was not much difficulty In Undue |
ng this man to aid us; We used no threats |
nut talked kindly and merely told him |
We succeeded. Then I sent the plan 20 |
nv immediate commanding officer, Gen. |
m Manila. who approved IL and |
forwarded IL TO Gen Macarthur, and they |
AZ once telegraphed Inc 10 come 10 Manila |
talked the plan over again with Gen |
Macarthur, and after suggesting, or rather |
Erecting some slight changes he ordered |
Is 10 go ahead and make arrangements |
With the Admiral commanding the squadron |
II taNite Ia give us one Of the smaller gum |
boats.
our plan, as you know, was 20 take a |
'nmpany of our own soldiers Macabebes |
Who have been in our service and always |
against the insurgents and pass them of |
Is insurgent troops. by merely putting |
hem in the clothing Of the country.
AS TO WEARING ISsURGENT UNIFORMS
! will say here that there seems 10 be a |
'cry general Misrepresentation Of the fact |
hat We had gone TO Aguiualdo clothed in |
uniforms The fact il that We |
iad been accustomed 10 going about in all |
urts Of uniforms, and sometimes with no |
informs az all We were merely dressed |
Is II We Lad gone out tonight IN evening |
'lothcs, 20 shoot people. and then come |
iack and hidden our Mausers. and put on |
egular working clothes again But we |
ook along some insurgent uniforms prob
IDLY about twenty, although not more than |
lalf dozen were worn az all. and il il a |
act that having those insurgent uniforms |
With MS had no bearing on the success Of |
he expedition.
The insurgent uniform, hy the way,
vas merely the uniform Of the Spanish |
Army. They had these uniforms because |
hey had captured thom when they drove
he Spauiards out Of the towns of central |
.uzon. and consequently when the in |
urgents began fighting us they uniformed |
very man In Spanish uniforms and | do |
Iot know but that we had about as much |
light To put that uniform on the Macabebe
oldiers a. had the insurgents TO wear il.
That i question worth thinking about.
A nECOy LETTER