LUKBAN
Daza who added that 50 rifles were taken from the dead with as much ammunition , and one gunboat with a rapid firing gun sank . The uprising happened because some residents were about to be deported to Guam . The entire town sympathized with them . 9
In the town of San Julian on that coast . Daza also reported that 1,040 cartridges were taken from the enemy . 10
But Lukban may not have seen the overall picture in island and outside of it . With the appointment of Gen . Jacob Smith came some 300 Marines , many of them veterans of the Boxer Rebellion in China who understood how to quell similar mass uprisings . General Chaffee gave Smith substan tial reinforcements , assigning twelve battalions of regular infantry and seven companies of Filipino scouts , or approximately 4,000 men . 11 These were now carrying his orders of mass extermination and of pillage and destruction never before done by previous commanders . Smith had scoffed at the soft-hearted approach of his predecessors and had resolved to turn things around , regardless of public opinion . He actually basked in the description newspaper reports had of him and couldn ’ t care less , so long as he was winning his war .
In this Smith was making headway . Food blockade caused suffering to many Samareños , especially those who had not shifted from abaca cultivation . Even if they had money , there was nothing to buy . The Americans were confiscating and destroying boatloads of food supplies to Samar . To survive , unarmed civilians had to submit themselves to the concentration hamlets under American protection where food was more accessible . Slowly but steadily , the insurgents ’ important base of support was being eroded as the town centers , erstwhile Lukban ’ s firm supporters , buckled under pressure .
Then on the first week of December , it was reported in the New York Times that Lukban had sent surrender feelers to Smith , which the latter accordingly rejected , saying the time to negotiate was over . If this was true , it was a complete turnaround of Lukban ’ s previous pronouncements never to give up . In the same news article , the NYT reported that some 500 natives of Catbalogan volunteered to fight the insurgents in order to bring peace to Samar . Of these , 100 were accepted but they were not given rifles . Instead they were armed with bolos and spears , and did scouting duty under the command of Lt . Compton . 12 Evidently , American propaganda had succeeded . Lukban ’ s base was being eroded .
Smith also kept on pressuring civilians to be more actively pro- Americans . He ordered many male residents of coastal towns to leave for the interior , and they were to return only if they were able to bring guns , prisoners or information on the whereabouts of insurgents . 13
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