LUKBAN
Since not everyone could be accommodated in the tribunal , two other contingents were to be accommodated in separate houses near the plaza . The families of Belaez and Salazar gave up theirs since these were near the plaza , both visible from the tribunal and within hailing distance . These became the quarters of Sgts . Frank Breton and George Markley and their respective contingents . 6
That night , the captain called a meeting of the inhabitants of the town , where the organization of a municipal police force was ordered , leaving to the discretion of the town leaders the selection and appointment of those who were to compose the police body . The next day , August 12 , a meeting was also held in the house of the presidente municipal where Valeriano Abanador , a delegate of police in the revolutionary government , was appointed chief of police with 46 municipal policemen . 7
For about a month , the occupation of Balangiga went on without any untoward incident . Then Capt . Connell told the local leaders about the need to clean up the town since the surrounding jungle seemed to be creeping up to the settlement . It was necessary to clear the underbrush that was growing around , he said . The local leaders grudgingly complied and mobilized able-bodied men for the job . The results did not satisfy Connell . He saw that the people did not like what they were told to do . Then something happened that increased the growing animosity between the Americans and the native population .
The mauling incident
This happened on September 21 . In the account of Pedro Duran , one of the town leaders , two American soldiers , both already drunk , visited a tuba ( local wine fermented from coconut ) store tended by Catalina Catalogo , a native girl . They talked to her in English , and she responded by laughing , not having understood any word in that language . The soldiers mistook the girl ’ s laughter for an insult , and they soon started to drag her out of the store ( at bayonet point , according to one account .) The girl cried for help and was rescued by her two brothers , who engaged the two soldiers in a fistfight . The Americans ended up virtually mauled by their local opponents . 8 The next day , Connell ordered two Sibley tents put up at the northwest corner of the tribunal facing the plaza , and surround the town and arrest every able-bodied male and put them in the two tents . This was to avenge the mauling of his soldiers .
One of the survivors , William J . Gibbs , 9 of Springfield , Massachusetts , described this during a subsequent Senate Committee inquiry :
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