"Kabalián, October 6, 1900. "B. Veloso, "Local Chief." [99] In Negros, the Tagálogs long failed to effect a lodgement. Ultimately, however, they managed to stir up trouble, and to secure the help of "Pope" Isio, a noted outlaw. On May 19, 1900, he suggested the advisability of punishing "by decapitation all those who go with the Americans" and ordered that "if it should appear that they are real spies of the enemy they must be beheaded immediately without any pretext whatsoever against it." To be considered a "real spy," it was necessary only to be seen talking to Americans. The letter from which I quote was addressed to Señor Rufo Oyos, General of Operations. [100] Evidently he obeyed orders, for he was still alive in November, 1901, at which time "Papa" Isio wrote him again, directing that there be an uprising of all the towns on December 20. Towns which did not rise on the appointed day were to be "reduced to ashes and all their inhabitants killed, men, women, children and old people." Any presidente who had not collected the taxes of his town before the arrival of Isio was to be "hung without any hesitation whatever." [101] Obviously Isio's order was not without effect, for we learn that sometime during August, 1900, a man had just left the camp "with the head of the infamous Juan Carballo to hang it in a public place with a label saying 'Juan Carballo, a man pernicious to the revolution. May he rest in peace.'" [102] Isio's agents collected blackmail according to a regular tariff, based roughly on the value of estates, threatening that those who did not pay up would be regarded as spies of the heretics. [103] And now let us briefly review conditions in Luzón. Here many of the common people were at first hostile to the Americans, but flesh and blood could not endue what they had to suffer at the hands of vicious Insurgent officers and ignorant soldiers, and ultimately, having learned by experience that Americans were not the incarnate fiends which they had been led to expect to find them, they began to turn to them for help. And the answer of the Insurgent leaders was everywhere the same,--death. On March 20, 1900, Tinio ordered the killing of all officials who did not report to the nearest guerilla commander the movements and plans of the American troops. [104]