I desire to invite attention to the valuable services rendered by the native employed to translate from Tagalog and provincial dialects into Spanish-Mr. Casto Nieva. He is a good Spanish scholar and has performed his duties with praiseworthy diligence and fidelity. He possesses a letter from Captain John R. M. Taylor, expressing the same fact.

The chief clerk, Mr. Graham, formerly the sergeant aforementioned, and the enlisted men employed from time to time have worked faithfully and well as is evidenced by the immense amount of work accomplished.

For having brought into comparative order a chaotic conglomeration of miscellaneous foreign papers, great credit is due to Captain John R. M. Taylor, whose work shows remarkable painstaking and administrative ability.

The working force of this office on June 30th consisted of the translator from Spanish to English, also acting as chief clerk.

One native translator from Tagalog to Spanish.

Two enlisted men of the 14th Infantry, one as typewriter, one to stamp and file.

I relieved Captain John R. M. Taylor, 14th Infantry, July 10th, in accordance with S. O. No. 83, c. s., Division of the Philippines, July 9, 1900.

Very respectfully,

FRANK TAYLOR,

Captain, 8th U. S. Infantry,

In Charge of Insurgent Records.

As the provisional government established in Negros by competent authority is likely to receive further consideration at an early date, I beg leave, at the risk of making myself very tiresome, to present brief review of some of the circumstances preceding, attending and following American occupation of the Island.

Of the important islands in the Philippine Archipelago, Negros was probably the most conservative and patient under Spanish domination. Though laden with a heavy burden of abuses, her people, industrious by habit, and for the greater part engaged in agricultural pursuits, were slow to anger and slower still to raise the hand of violence against the "hardened front of wrong." Nevertheless on the 6th of November, 1898, conservatism ceased to be laudable and the Negrenos, taking advantage of Spain's preoccupation with other matters, rose against their old-time rulers, overpowered many of the Spanish garrisons, compelled the surrender of others, and finally forced a capitulation from the local governor under the terms of which the Spanish flag was lowered on the Island, the public property was turned over to the provisional government then and there established and the military aud civil officials of Spain, minus their arms, were permitted to

leave the island with their private belongings. The overturning of the existing order was wholly accomplished without intervention from Luzon or assistance from Panay. So, the Spanish flag ceased to fly in Negros and the people, who had been the playthings of the Centuries, found themselves for the time at least sudden masters of the pomp and circumstance of power. Yet no act of cruelty or wantonness spoiled the victors' triumph or cursed their new found liberty. Useless sacrifice of life-there was none-neither did pillaging or looting find countenance or sanction. In fact, everything was done with such moderation and deliberation, that if it did not induce the love of the fallen foe it compelled his respect.

At the time when Spanish domination ceased in Negros the Treaty of Paris had not been concluded. American military occupation of the Philippines was confined to the City of Manila and not even the wiseacre, who knoweth all things of the past and the present and many of the secrets of the future-much less the ordinary man-could tell whether Spain was to retain the whole or part of the Archipelago or whether, by a proper construction of the law and the sentence of the Court, she was to have none of it. Ultimate events proved that she was to have none of it but the people of Negros didn't know that and for the life of them they couldn't tell whether they were fish or flesh or only a fair sample of good red herring. Were they Spaniards still, might they be Americans or had they become, at one fell stroke, neither the one nor the other?

Such were the doubts that beset them at the very first taste of an unexpected freedom as sweet to their lips as ever was the manna of Heaven to the Jews of old and they set about resolving them with a thoughtfulness and precision deserving of commendation. They stood at the dividing of the ways-one the path of absolute independence, leading no man knew whither, and the other the highway of honorable dependence, ending in security for the freedom so hardly won. one hand was the dazzling show of independent power coupled

On

with the danger of partition and the probability of dissensions, on the other the United States and stability; unity of race and safety for the future. They chose to give permanence to their liberties and who will say that it did not require strength of mind, foresight and clearness and impartiality of judgment to ignore the glittering temptation of a bubble nationality, to put aside the ideals which for twenty years had made their pulses thrill and their blood run faster and to take the course which gave a blow to pride and yet secured the lasting good of all.

On the 12th of November, 1898, José Ereneta, a properly authorized Commissioner of the people of Negros, at the peril of his life, called on Captain Glass of the cruiser Charleston, the only representative of American authority in the vicinity, and presenting the resolutions of the Provisional Government that the Stars and Stripes be raised in Negros requested that the United States assume charge of the governmental infant at Bacolod. Either because the entire question of the Philippine Archipelago was then a matter of treaty consideration with Spain, or because Captain Glass' instructions did not permit him to do anything of the kind, or because he didn't like children anyhow, or for some other good reason, Captain Glass declined for the then present to raise the flag or to assume on his behalf or for the United States any responsibility in the matter. The Commissioner was, therefore, compelled to return to his island home with the nowise blissful consciousness that the principal hope for the future was in danger of never materializing and that Spain, after compounding her differences with the United States, might some day resume her suspended sovereignty and incidentally offer up a few sons of Negros as holocausts to her offended dignity. Though a bit unhappy, Negros was not discouraged and resisting the powerful pressure of Aguinaldo and others to unite her fortunes to those of Luzon and Panay, she set up housekeeping for herself, although Gen. Rios, across the Straits, then had at his disposition sufficient of the Mosquito Fleet to have given all her coast towns many a bad half

hour, if not something worse. General Miller and the American troops had not then arrived in the harbor of Iloilo and it would not have been unnatural for the Provisional Government to have united, for protection if nothing else, to the insurgent establishment, which was then assailing the Spaniards in Panay. Still any alliance with the Aguinaldo element was deprecated and avoided by the Chiefs in Negros-having an inkling as some of them did that once the Spaniards were disposed of, it was the secret intention to deal out terms to the Americans with the high hand. The Provisional Government therefore continued to act for itself and to administer the affairs of the Island without outside intervention or assistance until the Americans took Iloilo, about the 12th of February, '99, when the Provisional Government of Negros at once raised the American flag and sent a Comission to wait on General Miller, the Commanding officer in Panay, with a request for troops to protect them against the Tagalos who had threatened to land adherence to the United States. to proceed to Manila, there to Governor, Major General E. S. to be done. The Commission, composed of Aniceto Lacson, Provisional Presidente of Negros, José Luzuriaga, Presidente of the Provisional Congress, Eusebio Luzuriaga, Delegado de Hacienda, and Andres Ascona, Secretary of the Congress, arrived in Manila in the latter part of February, and in consequence of their visit the Military Sub-district of Negros was created, and its commanding officer, with a battalion of the California Volunteers, was directed to proceed to Bacolod, the capital of the Island, and giving protection to the inhabitants, assist them to develop Civil Administration in accordance with instructions received. The troops arrived on the 4th of March, 1899, and found the Stars and Stripes floating on the breeze to welcome them. A battalion of 200 Native Auxiliaries was formed within a few days after American occupation and from the time of entering the

and punish them for their This Commission was advised consult with the Military Otis, as to what was best