Another thing which Blount would have found it inconvenient to discuss is the conduct of the people of Cuyo, at one time the capital of the province. On this island, which contains but twenty-one square miles, there were in 1903 no less than 7545 inhabitants. They hated and feared the people of Mindoro and sent messengers to Iloilo, after the Americans had occupied that place, to beg for a garrison of American troops, and to say that if furnished with an American flag they themselves would defend it. For some reason they were not given the flag, and the sending of a garrison was long delayed. Having grown weary of waiting, they made an American flag of their own, hoisted it, and when the Insurgents from Mindoro came intrenched themselves and defended it. They were actually being besieged when the American garrison finally arrived. Here is one more fact inconsistent with the theory that the Filipino people were a unit at Aguinaldo's back, and of course the easiest way to get around such an occurrence is to forget to mention it! _Mindanao_ And now we come to the great island of Mindanao, which all but equals Luzón in size, having an area of 36,292 square miles as against the 40,969 of Luzón. Blount's first mention of it is peculiar. In connection with the words "the other six islands that really matter," in the passage above cited on page 116 of his book, he has inserted a foot-note reading as follows:-- "The six main Visayan Islands. Mohammedan Mindanao is always dealt with in this book as a separate and distinct problem." [330] But it was hardly possible for him to dismiss this great island, which is a little continent by itself, quite so cavalierly and I will quote the more important of his further and later statements regarding it:--