In August, 1896, the present rebellion was begun. The causes of this uprising were similar to those that caused the preceding insurrections; the arrogance and the exactions of the friars, the oppressive taxes, the licenses and numerous fees, and other extortions practised by the Government officials were again the source of much discontent among the people. The natives, furthermore, were compelled to submit to usurious loans whenever they wished to raise money to carry on the various kinds of domestic enterprise. If a native was unable to satisfy the claims against him, his property was immediately confiscated by the Government. This power of confiscation was used most effectively against the well-to-do-natives, who thus were fleeced by the officials on the slightest pretext. The Katipunan. Smarting under these grievances, the natives formed a secret Revolutionary League, called the Katipunan, which soon numbered not less than 50,000 men. Cavité was the rebel stronghold, and from the day of its inception till the present time the rebellion has steadily grown; the barbarity and inhumanity of the Spaniards, now proverbial, have caused similar retaliations on the part of the rebels. And while this is not surprising, it is, nevertheless, surely to be deplored. If the civilized and religious Spaniard tortured his prisoners,--by burning, smothering, disemboweling, and otherwise mutilating,--what was to be expected of the half-civilized ignorant native. He, however, displayed far more mercy and greater magnanimity than his European enemy. The Spaniards, indeed, revived all the horrors of the inquisition,--the thumbscrew, the stake, and the rack. Is it a wonder that the Filipinos, rankling with the memory of a recent outrage and an ancient wrong, sometimes inflicted the same punishments on the unfortunate Spaniards that fell into their hands? The Black Hole of Manila. For the rebels well knew that a policy of extermination had been declared against them. Was it not at a banquet in Manila that the Spanish officers made a compact to kill the savages like wild beasts in their lairs, and to show quarter to none! We yet shudder when we think of the black hole of Manila, in which one hundred prisoners were thrust one night, of whom sixty were found dead the next morning--because the one door that admitted air into the dungeon had been shut. We remember with horror, too, the executions of the rebels in Manila. The day of an execution was made a day of jubilee, when the élite of the city came out to grace the general rejoicing. It was eagerly looked forward to, and, in honor of the great event, all the prominent houses were decked in flags and bunting--the whole city, in fact, assumed a holiday aspect.