Note 27 — THE FRIAR MEMORIAL OF 1898

It is somewhat difficult, and even dangerous, to answer the question, for if the Katipunan was six months ago relegated to the hills of Laguna and Bulacan among the rebel leaders who were fugitive there, or was dragging out a shameful existence in certain villages that were in communication with the insurgents, today the plague has spread. For the ones pardoned at Biac-na-bató, breaking the promise given to the gallant and energetic marquis de Estella,27 obedient to the watchword received, have spread through the central provinces; and by using threats and terrible punishments, which have no precedents in the pages of history, nor even of the novel, have succeeded in attracting to their ranks a great number of Indians, even in villages which gave eloquent proof of loyalty to the holy cause of the Spanish fatherland before the submission of Biac-na-bató. They have also succeeded in establishing themselves in Cápiz and in other points of the Visayas: and indeed the movement of Zambales, of Pangasinan, of Ilocos, of Cebú, and of the Katipunans, are at present open in Manila.