I dedicate to you this modest work with a view to informing you respecting the international events which have occurred duringthe past three years and are still going on in the Philippines, in order that you may be fully acquainted with the facts andbe thereby placed in a position to pronounce judgment upon the issue and be satisfied and assured of the Justice which formsthe basis and is in fact the foundation of our Cause. I place the simple truth respectfully before and dedicate it to youas an act of homage and as testimony of my admiration for and recognition of the wide knowledge, the brilliant achievementsand the great power of other nations, whom I salute, in the name the Philippine nation, with every effusion of my soul.
The Author.
Spain maintained control of the Philippine Islands for more than three centuries and a half, during which period the tyranny,misconduct and abuses of the Friars and the Civil and Military Administration exhausted the patience of the natives and causedthem to make a desperate effort to shake off the unbearable galling yoke on the 26th and 31st August, 1896, then commencingthe revolution in the provinces of Manila and Cavite.
On these memorable days the people of Balintawak, Santa Mesa, Kalookan, Kawit, Noveleta and San Francisco de Malabon roseagainst the Spaniards and proclaimed the Independence of the Philippines, and in the course of the next five days these uprisingswere followed by the inhabitants of the other towns in Cavite province joining in the revolt against the Spanish Governmentalthough there was no previous arrangement looking to a general revolt. The latter were undoubtedly moved to action by thenoble example of the former.Page 2
With regard to the rising in the province of Cavite it should be stated that although a call to arms bearing the signaturesof Don Augustin Rieta, Don Candido Firona and myself, who were Lieutenants of the Revolutionary Forces, was circulated therewas no certainty about the orders being obeyed, or even received by the people, for it happened that one copy of the ordersfell into the hands of a Spaniard named Don Fernando Parga, Military Governor of the province, who at that time was exercisingthe functions of Civil Governor, who promptly reported its contents to the Captain-General of the Philippines, Don Ramon Blancoy Erenas. The latter at once issued orders for the Spanish troops to attack the revolutionary forces.
It would appear beyond doubt that One whom eye of man hath not seen in his wisdom and mercy ordained that the emancipationof the oppressed people of the Philippines should be undertaken at this time, for otherwise it is inexplicable how men armedonly with sticks and gulok1 wholly unorganized and undisciplined, could defeat the Spanish Regulars in severe engagements at Bakoor, Imus and Noveletaand, in addition to making many of them prisoners, captured a large quantity of arms and ammunition. It was owing to thisastonishing success of the revolutionary troops that General Blanco quickly concluded to endeavour, to maintain Spanish controlby t