osperous town of Tinitian was abandoned as they
approached it, and was so thoroughly cleaned out by them that it has
never since been reoccupied except by a few stragglers. Other towns,
including Tay-Tay, were raided.

On November 27, 1899, Aguinaldo's representative in this province wrote
him that the inhabitants were preparing to kill all the Tagalogs and
revolt against Insurgent rule. [329] Later when some of the latter
were anxious to get the people of one of the northern settlements to
take them on a short boat journey, these Visayans consented to give
them a lift only on condition that they first allow themselves to be
bound, and then took them out to sea and threw them overboard.

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
Luzon in size, having an area of 36,292 square miles as against the
40,969 of Luzon. 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 reg