LUKBAN
meant a much longer time for the Americans unfamiliar with the terrain . It even took them around eight hours to reach Oquendo on horseback , Gilmore said in his report . The solution ? Order their puppet presidentes to repair the roads and bridges – which they did little by little .
Laguan was easier to get to on a launch . This he did on the afternoon of the next day with a company of soldiers on the boat Santander . They arrived early the following morning at the outer harbour of Laguan . With 30 men in smaller boats , they landed a mile west of the town , reaching it at around 6:00 in the morning . It was deserted , Gilmore discovered . Reaching the outskirts of the town , he was told that the rebel leader Abuke had left five days earlier .
The town had a population of about 8,000 people , and the houses were larger , though fewer in number , than at Calbayog . Several of the streets were concreted . The public buildings consisted of a tribunal building , where their troops were quartered ; a school building , which was used by the presidente for the police , and a small building , whose former use they did not know , but which was now being used as a hospital .
Gilmore , who had become an expert in civil relations , had appointed one Primitivo Acebuche , a prisoner at Catbalogan who had joined him in Calbayog , as temporary presidente municipal of Laguan . Acebuche had 30 policemen to keep the peace and order of the place .
The town was situated on the southern end of an island , and had a very good land-locked harbor , with a wharf running out into it for a hundred yards or so . Ships drawing 13 feet of water could anchor at the end of the wharf and load from it . There was a runway on the wharf , owned by Molleda y Oria , the Spanish-owned firm which did all the hemp and other businesses at this place . The rivers Catubig and Palopa emptied into the harbor opposite the town .
Catubig occupation
Gilmore could not stay at one place for a long time . Any news about insurgents operating in the vicinity drove him to scuttling his troops into a hunting party . After learning that Abuke was up the Catubig River at a small town called Bido , he put 50 men on board the steamer Cuco and started up the river at noon on the 20 th in pursuit of the rebel . As the boat was rounding the bend near Bido , a group of rebels fired on the soldiers , who returned the fire , forcing the attackers to retreat up the hill .
Gilmore found it impossible to follow them closely as it took them some time to land ashore . At the first burst , the captain of the ship
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