91 that he held the office of Governor General, on a salary of
$40,000 a year. Of the proof of these reports I have naturally no
personal knowledge, but they are matters of common talk and belief,
and they have been stated to me by responsible persons, who have long
resided in the islands.

As above stated, the Governor General is supreme head of every branch
of the public service, not excepting the Courts of Justice. How
this power was exercised is shown in the hundreds of executions for
alleged political offenses, which took place during the years 1895,
1896 and 1897, by the thousands deported to Mindanao and Fernando Po,
and by the number of political prisoners in jail at the time of our
entry into Manila. On the first examination which General McArthur,
as Military Governor, made of the jail, about August 22nd, he released
over 60 prisoners confined for alleged political offenses. One of
them was a woman who had been imprisoned for eleven years, by order
of the Governor General, but without any charges ever having been
presented against her; another was a woman who had been in jail for
three years on a vague charge, never formulated, of having carried
a basket of cartridges to an insurgent.

The day of reckoning for three centuries of this sort of government
came when Admiral Dewey destroyed the Spanish squadron on May 1st,
1898. An insurrection had been in progress from August, 1896,
to December, 1897. Unable to suppress it the Government had made a
written treaty with the insurgent leaders, paying them a large sum
of money and promising to introduce various reforms on condition
that they would leave the country. Hardly had the Spanish officials
recovered from this when the appalling disaster of the destruction
of their fleet occurred under their very eyes.

Then followed in rapid succession the naval blockade, the arrival of
the insurgent leaders from Hongkong, the raising of the insurgent army,
which blockaded Manila on the land side, and finally, the American
troops. At the end of 104 days after the destruction of the Spanish
fleet, the city surrendered to a combined land and naval attack of
the American forces. On the day after the capitulation, the American
Commander in Chief issued his proclamation establishing a military
government, appointed a Military Governor, a Minister of Finance,
a Collector of Customs, Collector of Internal Revenue, Postmaster
and Judge of the Provost Court; took possession of all