CHAPTER IV.
Interview with General Aguinaldo.
The Insurgent Leader's Surroundings and Personal Appearance--His Reserves and Ways of Talking--The Fierce Animosity of the Filipinos Toward Spanish Priests--A Probability of Many Martyrs in the Isle of Luzon.
Practically all persons in the more civilized--and that is to say the easily accessible--portions of the Philippine Islands, with perhaps the exception of those leading insurgents who would like to enjoy the opportunities the Spaniards have had for the gratification of greed and the indulgence of a policy of revenge, would be glad to see the Americans remain in Manila, and also in as large a territory as they could command.
Spaniards of intelligence are aware that they have little that is desirable to anticipate in case the country is restored to them along with their Mausers and other firearms, great and small, according to the terms of capitulation.

They get their guns whether we go and leave them or we stay and they go.

It is obvious that the insurgents have become to the Spaniards a source of anxiety attended with terrors.

The fact that they allowed themselves to be besieged in Manila by an equal number of Filipinos is conclusive that their reign is over, and they are not passionately in favor of their own restoration.

Their era of cruel and corrupt government is at an end, even if we shall permit them to make the experiment.