In this connection the following extract from
General Jaudenes's cablegram for June 8th to his home government is
highly significant:--
"Population of suburbs have taken refuge in walled city from fear
of outrages of insurgents, preferring to run risks of bombardment,
which has not yet begun." [164]
It would seem that the population of the suburbs did not have a high
idea of Insurgent discipline.
That their apprehensions were not groundless is shown by a passage
in a letter sent the following day to Governor-General Augustin
by Buencamino:--
"Manila being surrounded by land and by sea, without hope of assistance
from anywhere, and Senor Aguinaldo being disposed to make use of
the fleet in order to bombard, if Your Excellency should prolong
the struggle with tenacity, I do not know, frankly, what else to
do other than to succumb dying, but Your Excellency knows that the
entrance of 100,000 Indians, [165] inflamed with battle, drunk with
triumph and with blood, will produce the hecatomb from which there
will not be allowed to escape either women, children, or Peninsular
friars,--especially the friars; and, I believe that the rights of
humanity, imperilled in such a serious way, should be well considered
by Your Excellency, for however dear glory and military duty may be,
although worth as much or more than existence itself there is no right
by which they should be won at the cost of the rights of humanity,
and the latter outweigh every consideration and all duty.
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