The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-24
REPORT OF
 MASSACRE American Soldiers Were
 AmbuShed. TRAGEDY AT DOLORES War Department Not Notified of Catastrophe. PuIaianes, warlike Tribe. surprised and Killed . Lieutenant and Thirty Eight Enlisted Men on
 Samar Island.
TRAGEDY AT DOLORES

Manila. Dec. 23.-The Pulajanes have ambushed and killed at Dolores on the Island of Samar, lieeutenant ana thirty-seven enlisted men of the Thir- ty-eighth company of native scouts. Two thousand Pulajanes, 1t is reported. threaten the town of Dolores and the situation is said to be critical. Lieu tenant Abbott in command of the scouts, has requested that aid be sent him
 War Department Not Notified.
 Up to the time of the closing of the war department nothing has been received from General Corbin, com manding the Philippine division re- garding the affair at Dolores. It is ex- pected however. that an official report from General Corbin will be received at the department to morrow morn ing.
 Secretary Taft, this afternoon. made public q mail report just received from Governor Wright in regard to the con- dition of affairs in Samar and other islands of the Philippine Island group. It in part is as follows:
 "The great bulk of the civilized Fill ipinos live on or not remote from the coast line but there are scattered com munities living in the mountains who are little removed from savagery. It frequently happens that some enter prising man among them will obtain a considerable following and will per- petrate all sorts of outrages upon peaceful and inoffensive inhabitants.
 This cannot be changed at once It. therefore. may be inferred that for several years to come there will be eruptions from this source and that they will make raids upon the civil ized Filipinos living in the lowlands as heretofore. This commission so far as it's finances permit are engaged in building roads to open these remote sections of the interior and to make them accessible.
 "A striking instance of the tenden- cies of these mountaineers is furnish ed by recent occurrences in the island of Samar. which is the third in point of size in the archipelago. Three months ago several hundred of these hill men under the leadership of one of their number who styles himself as Papa" (Pope), Bulan, and who, as is usually the case, claims to be divinely inspired. suddenly descended upon the native towns along the coast, burned and plundered the outlying barrios and began killing men, women and chill dren.
 The constabulary promptly took the field against them and they were soon broken up in small bands and are be-
 
 Members of the band state that the immediate cause of the outbreak was that certain of their countrSpen who were prominent in the insurrection and who have been employed by mer- camille houses as agents for the pur- chase of hemp. had oppressed them by paying them only a nominal price for their hemp. thereafter turning 1t into their principals at a much larger price.
 The Spaniards impressed themselves less. perhaps, upon the people of Sa- mar than upon the inhabitants of the other islands, and except Mindanao, the home of the Moros, there is therefore more combustible material here than in the other islands. Doubtless many of the inhabitants of these mountain regions have never seen a white man. The civilized Filipinos are in great terror of them and eagerly cooperate so far as their fears will permit, with the constabulary and scouts in their elimina tion."