were hauled away. On the twenty-sixth armed insurrection broke out at
Caloocan, just north of Manila, from time immemorial the resort of bad
characters from all the country round and the center of brigandage,
while at San Juan del Monte, on the outskirts of the city, several
bloody skirmishes were fought a few days later with the Guardia Civil
Veterana, the picked police force.

Bonifacio had been warned of the discovery of his schemes in time to
make his escape and flee to the barrio, or village, of Balintawak,
a few miles north of Manila, thence to lead the attack on Caloocan
and inaugurate the reign of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity in
the manner in which Philippine insurrections have generally had a
habit of starting--with the murder of Chinese merchants and the
pillage of their shops. He had from the first reserved for himself
the important office of treasurer in the Katipunan, in addition to
being on occasions president and at all times its ruling spirit,
so he now established himself as dictator and proceeded to appoint a
magnificent staff, most of whom contrived to escape as soon as they
were out of reach of his bolo. Yet he drew considerable numbers about
him, for this man, though almost entirely unlettered, seems to have
been quite a personality among his own people, especially possessed
of that gift of oratory in his native tongue to which the Malay is
so preeminently susceptible.

In Manila a special tribunal was constituted and worked steadily,
sometimes through the siesta-hour, for there were times, of which
this was one, when even Spanish justice could be swift. Bagumbayan
began to be a veritable field of blood, as the old methods of
repression were resorted to for the purpose of striking terror into
the native population by wholesale executions, nor did the ruling