Note 7 — Treaty of Peace

The Macabebes who came so conspicuously into prominence during the Rebellion of 1896 are the inhabitants of the town of Macabebe and its dependent wards, situated in Lower Pampanga, near the Hagonoy River. They are the only Filipinos who have persistently and systematically opposed the revolutionary faction of their own free will, without bribe or extraneous influence. No one seems to be able to explain exactly why they should have adopted this course. They aided the Spaniards against the rebels, and also the Americans against the insurgents. All I have been able to learn of them in the locality is that they keep exclusively to themselves, and have little sympathy for, and no cordial intercourse with, the natives of other towns, either in their own province or elsewhere. A generation ago the Macabebes had a bad reputation for their petty piratical depredations around the north shore of Manila Bay and the several mouths of the Hagonoy River, and it is possible that their exclusiveness results from their consciousness of having been shunned by the more reputable inhabitants. The total population of Macabebe is about 14,000.