Note 8 — Chapter VI · Insurgent Rule in the Cagayan Valley

“Even the Indios of Cagayan complained and were the victims of looting and robbery on the part of the soldiery. So lacking in discipline and so demoralized was that army that according to the confession of a prominent Filipino it was of imperative necessity to disarm them.8 On the other hand we saw with real astonishment that instead of warlike soldiers accustomed to battle they were nearly all raw recruits and apprentices. From an army lacking in discipline, and lawless, only outrages, looting and all sorts of savagery and injustice were to be expected. Witnesses to their demoralization are, aside from the natives themselves who were the first to acknowledge it, the Chinese merchants whose losses were incalculable; not a single store or commercial establishment remained that was not looted repeatedly. As to the Spaniards it goes without saying because it is publicly known, that between soldiers and officers they despoiled them to their heart’s content, without any right except that of brute force, of everything that struck their fancy, and it was of no avail to complain to the officers and ask for justice, as they turned a deaf ear to such complaints. At Tuguegarao they looted in a manner never seen before, like Vandals, and it was not without reason that a prominent Filipino said, in speaking to a priest: ‘Vandalism has taken possession of the place.’ These acts of robbery were generally accompanied by the most savage insults; it was anarchy, as we heard an eye-witness affirm, who also stated that no law was recognized except that of danger, and the vanquished were granted nothing but the inevitable duty of bowing with resignation to the iniquitous demands of that soulless rabble, skilled in crime.”