Note 12 — Chapter XXI · Governor Smith—1907–9

As a matter of fact, the report of the American Governor of Cavite—and conditions were conceded to be identical in the two provinces of Cavite and Batangas—shows that the reason it was so hard to suppress the Cavite-Batangas troubles of 1905 was that the people would not help the authorities to apprehend the outlaws. No doubt the King of England would have signed a similar certificate as to the people of the shires and counties in which Robin Hood, Little John, and Friar Tuck, held high carnival. Of course I do not mean to libel the fair fame of that fine freebooter Robin Hood and his companions by placing the rascally leaders of the bands of outlaws now under consideration in the same jolly and respectable class with those beloved friends of the childhood of us all. But the Cavite-Batangas “patriots” of 1905 could never have given the authorities as much trouble as they did if the people had not at least taken secret joy in discomfiture of the American authorities. Until finally suppressed, all such movements as these always grew exactly as a snow-ball does if you roll it on snow. Says Governor Shanks, a Major of the 4th United States Infantry, who was Governor of Cavite, in 1905 in his report for that year,12 in explaining the uprising under consideration, and the way it grew: “The Filipino likes to be on the winning side.” Certainly this is not peculiar to the Filipino. Governor Shanks proceeds: