Especial stress was laid on their alleged wholesale violations of women, partly to turn the powerful influence of the women as a whole against them, and partly to show that they were no better than the Insurgents themselves, who frequently committed rape.

[408] These horrible tales were at first believed even by some of the responsible Insurgent officers in remote regions, [409] but all such men soon learned the truth, which was known to most of them from the start.
In official correspondence between them, not intended for the public, orders were given to use women as bearers of despatches for the reason that Americans did not search them.

[410] More significant yet, when conditions became bad in the provinces, Insurgent officers sent their women and children to seek American protection in Manila or elsewhere.

Cartload after cartload of them came in at Angeles, shortly after General Jacob H.Smith took that place.

Aguinaldo himself followed this procedure, as is shown by the following extracts from Villa's famous diary: [411]-- "_December 22._--It was 7 A.M.when we arrived in Ambayuan.