Note 17 — Chapter IV · Merritt and Aguinaldo

This report not only corroborates Aguinaldo’s claims of August 6th, but it also concedes to the Aguinaldo people eight other important provinces—four south of the Pasig River with a total population of about 630,000,17 the only four of southern Luzon not included in Aguinaldo’s claim of August 6th, thus conceding him practically all of Luzon south of the Pasig; and it furthermore concedes him four great provinces of northern Luzon with a total population of nearly 600,000.18 General Bell states that these last are “still in the possession of the Spanish,” but practically certain to be with the insurgents in the very near future. “Insurgents have been dispatched to attack the Spanish in these provinces,” says the Bell report.