" He adds that they did nothing to the agents
of the great Tabacalera Company, then the most powerful commercial
organization in the Islands, for the significant reason that they
had found that its stock was largely held by Frenchmen and feared
trouble. [291]
On December 4, 1898, Leyba, concerning whose ideas as to public order
we are already informed, wrote a most illuminating letter setting
forth the conditions which had existed there. He does not claim that
there had been Octavian peace!
It should be borne in mind that this letter covers the very time
during which Messrs. Wilcox and Sargent passed through the Cagayan
valley. It paints a vivid picture of conditions, and as the painter
was the ranking Insurgent officer in the valley during this entire
period, he cannot be accused of hostile prejudice. I therefore give
the letter in full'--
"_Aparri_, December 4, 1898.
"_Don Baldomero Aguinaldo_,
"_The Secretary of War_:
"_Dear Sir and of My Greatest Esteem_: I take the liberty of addressing
this to you in order to state that owing to the lack of discipline
in the soldiers whom we have brought, since they are all volunteers
and whom I am not able to reduce to rigorous subordination, for the
revolution would find itself without soldiers with whom to win triumph,
they committed many abuses and misdeed which, for the lack of evidence,
I was not able to punish, although I knew of these abuses but had
no proof, and as a lover of my country and of the prestige of the
Revolutionary Army, I took care not to disclose the secret to any one,
in this way avoiding the formation of an atmosphere against the cause
of our Independence to the grave injury of us all.
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