General Otis said that this force had been reported to him as
being 10,000 men. It is probably true that only a small number of
them had rifles; but armed with long knives and daggers they could
have inflicted much damage in a sudden night attack in the narrow
and badly lighted streets of Manila. On January 9, 1899, Aguinaldo
wrote his instructions for the sandatahan of Manila. Members of this
body were to enter the houses of the American officers on the pretext
of bringing them presents. Once in they were to kill. The sentinels
at the gates of the barracks were to be approached by men dressed as
women and killed. The gates of the barracks held and as many officers
as possible treacherously murdered, the sandatahan were to rise
throughout the city, and by attacking in the rear the United States
troops on the outer line were to aid in opening a way for Aguinaldo's
force. To further increase the confusion and perhaps to punish the
natives who had not joined them, the sandatahan were to fire the city.
* * * * *
"It is a fair deduction from Luna's orders for an uprising in Manila,
from Aguinaldo's instructions for the sandatahan, from other documents
among the papers of the insurgents and from what was done in Manila
on February 22 that Aguinaldo and his advisers about the middle of
January, 1899, drew up a plan of attack upon Manila which would, if
carried out, have inflicted a severe blow upon the Americans.
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