Note 80 — Appendixes to Part II (continued 2)

On November 8th, the military commander of Mumungan, under the pretext of a wedding to which the Datu of Pantar had invited him and which he attended, made an inspection of the country in the neighborhood of the said rancheria80 of Pantar, lying to the south of Mumungan, and had an opportunity of seeing that, in conformity with the reports I had received, Pantar possessed advantageous conditions for the establishment there of another advance fort, the construction of which could be commenced upon the continuation and completion up to that point of the new road built from Iligan to Mumungan. But in spite of the good intentions of the military commander not to break into hostilities except in the last resort, in accordance with the positive instructions I had given him, he was unable to prevent his troops being attacked upon the return journey, and therefore they opened fire upon the enemy; which proves once again the difficulty of following the path of conciliation and attraction with an enemy who pays absolutely no heed to reason; in spite of the fact that with this method there had been joined that of warning the neighboring Moros who profess to be so friendly, that the only genuine proof of adhesion to which I should give credit would be that of the moral and collective support of all of them against any act of aggression within their territory committed by Moros from other rancherias, whether in large or in small numbers.