The Philippines: Past and Present (Volume 1 of 2)Worcester, Dean C. (Dean Conant)
History
The Philippines: Past and Present (Volume 1 of 2)
Worcester, Dean C. (Dean Conant)
Philippines; Philippines -- History -- 1898-1946
It would doubtless have interested the travellers to know that the
"robbery" consisted in taking the funds out of the province to save
them from falling into Villa's hands, and in paying them to soldiers in
Nueva Vizcaya to whom money was due. It would further have interested
them to know that this unfortunate Spaniard had been twice tortured
within an inch of his life by Villa.
But let us continue our interrupted narrative:--
"The presence of the Americans in Ilagan soon freed us from
certain forms of savagery and barbarous intentions on the
part of Villa. There can be no doubt that the tyrant was
constantly cudgelling his brains to invent new methods of
showing his contempt for the friars; at the unlucky time we
write of he conceived the infamous plan of ordering a circular
enclosure of cane to be made, put a pig into it--we trust
the reader will pardon the details--with a bell hung to his
neck, blindfolded the priests and compelled them to enter the
enclosure with sticks in their hands, and in this ridiculous
attitude, obliged them to strike about when the sound of the
bell appraised them of the animal's proximity; it is obvious
that the principal purpose of the fiendish Villa was to have
the priests lay about them in such a way as to deal each
other the blows instead of the pig. The tyrant also had the
idea of making us and the other priests in Ilagan parade the
streets of that town dancing and playing the band. The wish
to consummate his plan was not lacking but he was deterred by
the presence of the Americans and the arguments of Sr. Sabas
Orros to whom we also owed the signal favour that Villa did
not take us to our prisons at Tumauini and Gamut on foot and
with our clothing in a bundle at our backs."
On October 2 a banquet was given in Villa's honour at Ilagan and the
pleasant idea occurred to him to have four of the friars dance at
it for his amusement. The people of the town put their handkerchiefs
before their faces to shut out the sight, and some wept. Father Campo,
one of the priests who was obliged to dance, had great ulcers on his
legs from the wounds caused by the cords with which he had been bound
when he was tortured with water, and was at first unable to raise his
feet from the floor; but Villa threatened him with a rattan until he
finally did so. This caused the sores on his legs to burst open so
that the bones showed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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