LITMIR.BIZ

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and the shops of the Chinese were completely sacked, and the men who objected were knocked down or cut down with bolos. Numerous girls and women were raped.

      On September 15 Leyba received notice of the surrender of Nueva Vizcaya. I quote the following from the narrative above referred to:—

“Delfin’s soldiers11 were the most depraved ever seen: their thieving instincts had no bounds; so they had hardly entered Nueva Vizcaya when they started to give themselves up furiously to robbery, looking upon all things as loot; in the very shadow of these soldiers the province was invaded by a mob of adventurous and ragged persons from Nueva Ecija; between the two they picked Nueva Vizcaya clean. When they had grown tired of completely shearing the unfortunate Vizcayan people, leaving them poverty-stricken, they flew in small bands to the pueblos of Isabela, going as far as Angadanan, giving themselves up to unbridled pillage of the most unjust and disorderly kind. Some of these highwaymen demanded money and arms from the priest of Angadanan, but Father Marciano informed them ‘that it could not be, as Leyba already knew what he had and would be angry.’

      “To this very day the people of Nueva Vizcaya have been unable to recover from the stupendous losses suffered by them as regards their wealth and industries. How many curses did they pour forth and still continue to level against the Katipúnan that brought them naught but tribulations!”

      Confirmation of these statements is found in the following brief but significant passage from the Insurgent records:—

“At the end of December, 1898, when the military commander of Nueva Vizcaya called upon the Governor of that province to order the police of the towns to report to him as volunteers to be incorporated in the army which was being prepared for the defence of the country, the Governor protested against it and informed the government that his attempt to obtain volunteers was in fact only a means of disarming the towns and leaving them without protection against the soldiers who did what they wanted and took what they wished and committed every outrage without being punished for it by their officers.”12

      The effect of the surrender of Nueva Vizcaya on Leyba and Villa is thus described by Father Malumbres:—

      “Mad with joy and swollen with pride Leyba and company were like men who travelled flower-strewn paths, crowned with laurels, and were acclaimed as victors in all the towns on their road, their intoxication of joy taking a sudden rise when they came to believe themselves kings of the valley. It was then that their delirium reached its brimful measure and their treatment of those whom they had vanquished began to be daily more cruel and inhuman. In Cagayan their fear of the forces in Nueva Vizcaya kept them from showing such unqualifiable excesses of cruelty and nameless barbarities, but the triumph of the Katipúnan arms in Nueva Vizcaya completely broke down the wall of restraint which somewhat repressed those sanguinary executioners thirsting to fatten untrammelled on the innocent blood of unarmed and defenceless men. From that melancholy time there began an era of unheard of outrages and barbarous scenes, unbelievable were they not proved by evidence of every description. The savage acts committed in Isabela by the inhuman Leyba and Villa cannot possibly be painted true to life and in all their tragic details. The blackest hues, the most heartrending accents, the most vigorous language and the most fulminating anathemas would be a pale image of the truth, and our pen cannot express with true ardour the terrifying scenes and cruel torments brought about by such fierce chieftains on such indefensive religious. It seems impossible that a fleshly heart could hold so much wickedness, for these petty chiefs were veritable monsters of cruelty who surpassed a Nero; men who were entire strangers to noble and humane sentiments and who in appearance having the figure of a man were in reality tigers roaring in desperation, or mad dogs who gnashed their teeth in fury.”

      On September 18 Leyba continued his march, while Villa remained behind at Ilagan to torture the prisoners who might be brought in from Isabela.

      On arrival at Gamut, Leyba at once entered the convento and as usual immediately demanded money from the priests. Father Venancio gave him all he had. He was nevertheless given a frightful whipping, six persons holding him while others rained blows upon him. A determined effort was made to force the priest to recant, and when this failed Leyba leaped upon him, kicking and beating him. He then ordered him thrown down face uppermost, and asked for a knife with the apparent intention of mutilating him. He did not use the knife, however, but instead, assisted by his followers, gave the unhappy priest another terrific beating, even standing upon him and leaping up and down. The priest was left unable to speak, and did not recover for months.

      Later Leyba had torture by water applied to Father Gregorio Cabrero and lay brother Venancio Aguinaco, while Father Sabanda was savagely beaten.

      On the 19th of September Father Miguel Garcia of Reina Mercedes was horribly beaten in his convento by a captain sent there to get what money he had.

      In Cauayan, on September 20, Fathers Perez and Aguirrezabal were beaten and compelled to give up money by five emissaries of Leyba, and the latter priest was cut in the face with a sabre. The convento was sacked. On the 25th Leyba arrived and after kicking and beating Father Garcia compelled him to give up $1700. He then informed the priests that if it were not for Aguinaldo’s orders he would kill all the Spaniards.

      On the afternoon of the 24th three priests and a Spaniard named Soto arrived at Ilagan. The following is the statement of an eye-witness as to what happened:—

      “They led the priests to the headquarters of the commanding officer where the tyrant Villa, always eager to inflict suffering on humanity, awaited them. The scene witnessed by the priests obeisant to the cruel judge was horrifying in the extreme. Four lions whose thirst for vengeance was extreme in all, threw themselves, blind with fury, without a word and with the look of a basilisk, upon poor Señor Soto giving him such innumerable and furious blows on head and face that weary as he was from his past journey, the ill-treatment received at Angadanan and weighted down by years, he was soon thrown down by his executioners under the lintel of the door getting a terrible blow on the head as he fell; even this did not satisfy nor tame down those fierce-hearted men, who on the contrary continued with their infamous work more furious than before, and their cruelty did not flag on seeing their victim at their feet. They could have done no worse had they been Silípan savages dancing in triumph around the palpitating head cut from the body of some enemy.

      “The priests who witnessed this blood-curdling scene trembled like the weak reed before the gale, waiting their turn to be tortured, but God willed that cruel Villa should be content with the butchery perpetrated upon unhappy Sr. Soto. Villa dismissed the priests after despoiling them of their bags and clothes telling them, to torment them: ‘Go to the convento until the missing ones turn up so that I may shoot you all together.’ ”

      Leyba entered Echague on September 22, promptly going to the convento as usual and demanding money of the priest, Father Mata. When the latter had given him all he had, he received three terrific beatings at the hands of some twelve men armed with whips and sticks, after which Leyba himself struck him with his fist and his sabre. He was finally knocked down by a blow with the sabre and left disabled. It took six months for him to recover.

      Shortly after Leyba’s arrival in Nueva Vizcaya on the afternoon of the 25th, five priests were summoned to Solano and there abused in the usual fashion in an effort to extort money from them. Only one escaped ill treatment and one was nearly killed.

      Leyba now went to Bayombong to carry out the established programme with the priests. There he found Governor Perez of Isabela, who had taken with him certain government moneys and employed them to pay salaries of soldiers and other employees. He insisted on the return of the total amount and threatened to shoot Perez if it was not forthcoming. The Spaniards of the vicinity subscribed $700 which they themselves badly needed and saved him from being shot. The priests of the place were then summoned to Leyba’s quarters and were beaten and tortured. One of them was thrown on the floor and beaten nearly to death, Leyba standing meanwhile with his foot on the unfortunate man’s neck. Another was given six hundred lashes and countless blows and kicks. Leyba stood on this man’s neck also. When

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