guinaldo never punished them, and from the
time when one of them tried to murder their commander until a guard
composed of them murdered General Antonio Luna in June, 1899, they
are mentioned only with fear and execration.

Blount describes with enthusiasm the establishment of civil government
in Cagayan.

Perhaps Americans will be interested in knowing who was its head and
how it worked. The "elections" were held on December 9, 1898, and Dimas
Guzman was chosen head of the province. He was the man subsequently
sentenced to life-imprisonment by Blount, for complicity in the
murder of Lieutenant Piera. In describing his method of conducting his
government he says that the people doubted the legality of attempts
to collect taxes; that the abuses of heads of towns caused rioting in
the towns, in which only Ilocanos took part; and that he not only did
not report these things but contrived to conceal them from foreigners
in the province. [294]

His failure to report these troubles and disorders to his government
is of interest, as Blount alleges [295] that differences between the
local authorities were in a number of cases referred to the Malolos
government for settlement.

Blount says [296] that General Otis's reports were full of inexcusable
blunders about the Tagalogs taking possession of provinces and making
the people do things, and cites the relations between Villa and Dimas
Guzman to illustrate the error of these allegations.

He has elsewhere [297] referred to Villa as the "arch-fiend" in the
matter of torturing the unhappy Spaniards as well as the Filipinos who
incurred his ill-will. We have seen that Guzman proved an apt pupil
and did credit to his instructor in connection with the torturing
of Lieutenant Piera, but it nevertheless appears from Guzman's own
statements that his relations with the Insurgent officers and their
subordinates involved some rather grave difficulties. Of Major Canoy,
for instance, he says:--

"I must add that the said Major Canoy is such a remarkable character
that he saw fit to give my cook a beating for not taking off his hat
when he met him. He insulted the delegate of rents of Cabagan Viejo
for the same reason. He struck the head man of the town of Bagabag in
the face. He put some of the members of the town council of Echague
in the stocks, and he had others whipped." [298]

It was really incautious for Governor Guzman to complain of these
conditions because Major Canoy and hi