They first visited Bulacan. They do not mention hearing of the activities of a Chinaman named Ignacio Paua, who had been given the rank of colonel by Aguinaldo and assigned the task of extorting contributions for the revolution from his countrymen. In a letter to Aguinaldo written on July 6, 1898, Paua states that he has collected more than $1,000 from the Chinese of these small towns, but asks for an order "prohibiting the outrages that are being committed against such merchants as are not our enemies." He further says, "When the contributions from the Chinamen of all the pueblos shall have been completed I wish to publish a proclamation forbidding any injury to the Chinamen and any interference with their small business enterprises," and adds that "the natives hereabouts themselves are the people who are committing said abuses." [246] Apparently Paua had no objection to the committing of outrages against merchants that were the enemies of the cause, nor does he seem to have objected to injury to Chinamen before contributions were completed. His own methods were none too mild. On August 27, 1898, General Pío del Pilar telegraphed Aguinaldo that five Insurgent soldiers, under a leader supposed to be Paua, had entered the store of a Chinaman, and tried to kidnap his wife, but had left on the payment of $10 and a promise to pay $50 later, saying that they would return and hang their fellow countryman if the latter amount was not forthcoming. [247] Paua was later made a general in consideration of his valuable services! _Pampanga_ Our travellers next visited Pampanga. Here they apparently overlooked the fact that Aguinaldo did not have "his whole people a unit at his back." The citizens of Macabebe seem not to have approved of the Aguinaldo regime, for the Insurgent records show that:-- "Representatives of the towns of Pampanga assembled in San Fernando on June 26, 1898, and under the presidency of General Maximino Hizon agreed to yield him complete 'obedience as military governor of the province and representative of the illustrious dictator of these Philippine Islands.' The town of Macabebe refused to send any delegates to this gathering." [248] It may be incidentally mentioned that Blount has passed somewhat lightly over the fact that he himself during his army days commanded an aggregation of sturdy citizens from this town, known as Macabebe scouts, who diligently shot the Insurgents full of holes whenever they got a chance. He incorrectly refers to them as a "tribe or clan." [249] It is absurd to call them a tribe. They are merely the inhabitants of a town which has long been at odds with the neighbouring towns of the province.