We are prepared to purchase five hundred
horses at a fair price, but cannot undertake to bargain for horses
with each individual owner."
Aguinaldo sent this letter by a staff officer to General Anderson
inquiring whether it was sent by authority of the latter, who then
indorsed on it in a statement that it was. Nevertheless, Major Jones
reported on July 20 that it was impossible to secure transportation
except upon Aguinaldo's order and that the natives had removed their
cart wheels and hidden them, from which it is to be inferred that
the transportation requested had not been furnished.
Obviously General Anderson was informed that Aguinaldo had given
orders against furnishing the transportation desired, for on July 21
he wrote the Adjutant-General of the Army as follows:--
"Since I wrote last, Aguinaldo has put in operation an elaborate system
of military government, under his assumed authority as Dictator, and
has prohibited any supplies being given us, except by his order. As Go
this last, I have written to him that our requisitions on the country
for horses, ox carts, fuel, and bamboo (to make scaling ladders)
must be filled, and that he must aid in having them filled."
On July 23 General Anderson wrote Aguinaldo as follows:--
"_General_: When I came here three weeks ago I requested Your
Excellency to give what assistance you could to procure means of
transportation for the American Army, as it was to fight the cause
of your people.
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