n their departure. The Spanish officials have
intense fear of the Insurgents; and the latter hate them, as well
as the friars, with a virulence that can hardly be described. They
have fought them with success, and almost without interruption for
two years, and they will continue to fight them with increased vigor
and still greated prospects of success, if any attempt is made to
restore the Spanish Government. In its present disorganized condition
the Spanish Government could not successfully cope with them; on the
other hand, it would not surrender to them. The result, therefore, of
an attempted restoration of Spanish power in any of the islands would
simply be civil war and anarchy, leading inevitably and speedily to
intervention by foreign nations whose subjects have property in the
islands which they would not allow to be destroyed.

Insurgent Troops.

It is very difficult to give figures for the exact numbers of insurgent
troops. In his message to foreign governments of August 6th, asking
for recognition of belligerency and independence, Aguinaldo claims
to have a force of 30,000 men, organized into a regular army. This
included the force in the provinces of Luzon outside of Manila. What
was in evidence around Manila varied from 10,000 to 15,000. They were
composed of young men and boys, some as young as fifteen years of age,
recruited in the rural districts, having no property and nothing to
lose in a civil war. They have received no pay and, although Aguinaldo
speaks in his proclamation of his intention and ability to maintain
order wherever his forces penetrate, yet the feeling is practically
universal among the rank and file that they are to be compensated
for their time and services and hardships by looting Manila.

Their equipment consists of a gun, bayonet and cartridge box; their
uniform of a straw hat, gingham shirt and trousers and bare feet;
their transportation of a few ponies and carts, impressed for a day
or week at a time; for quarters they have taken the public building
in each village or pueblo, locally known as the Tribunal, and the
churches and convents; from these details are sent out to man the
trenches. Their food while on duty consists of rice and banana leaves,
cooked at the quarters and sent out to the trenches. After a few days
or a week of active service they return to their homes to feed up or
work on their farms, their places being taken by others to whom they
turn over their guns a