Читать книгу The Inhabitants of the Philippines - Frederic H. Sawyer - Страница 24

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Terrero was succeeded by Don Valeriano Weyler, Marquis of Ténérife, the son of a German doctor, born in Majorca, who brought with him a reputation for cruelties practised on the Cuban insurgents during the first war.

Weyler was said to have purchased the appointment from the wife of a great minister too honest to accept bribes himself, and the price was commonly reported to have been $30,000 paid down and an undertaking to pay the lady an equal sum every year of his term of office.

Weyler is a small man who does not look like a soldier. He is clever, but it is more the cleverness of a sharp attorney than of a general or statesman.

Curiously enough the Segundo Cabo at this time was an absolute contrast. Don Manuel Giron y Aragon, Marquis of Ahumada, is descended from the Kings of Aragon, and to that illustrious lineage he unites a noble presence and a charm of manner that render him instantly popular with all who have the good fortune to meet him. No more dignified representative of his country could be found, and I send him my cordial salutation wherever he is serving.

During Weyler’s term another expedition to Mindanao was made and some advantages secured. Some disturbances occurred which will be mentioned in another chapter, and secret societies were instituted amongst the natives. Otherwise the usual bribery and corruption continued unchecked.

There was a great increase in the smuggling of Mexican dollars from Hong Kong into Manila, where they were worth 10 per cent. more. The freight and charges amounted to 2 per cent., leaving 8 per cent. profit, and according to rumour 4 per cent. was paid to the authorities to insure against seizure, as the importation was prohibited under heavy penalties.

At this time I was Government Surveyor of Shipping, and one day received an order from the captain of the port to proceed on board the steamer España with the colonel of carbineers and point out to him all hollow places in the ship’s construction where anything could be concealed. This I did, but remembering Talleyrand’s injunction, and not liking the duty, showed no zeal, but contented myself with obeying orders. The carbineers having searched every part of the ship below, we came on deck where the captain’s cabin was. A corporal entered the cabin and pulled open one of the large drawers. I only took one glimpse at it and looked away. It was chock full of small canvas bags, and no doubt the other drawers and lockers were also full. Yet it did not seem to occur to any of the searchers that there might be dollars in the bags, and it was no business of mine. Nothing contraband had been found in the ship, and a report to that effect was sent in. I sent the colonel an account for my fee, which was duly paid from the funds of the corps.

Weyler returned to Spain with a large sum of money, a far larger sum than the whole of his emoluments. He had remitted large sums in bills, and having fallen out with one of his confederates who had handled some of the money, this man exhibited the seconds of exchange to certain parties inimical to Weyler, with the result that the latter was openly denounced as a thief in capital letters in a leading article of the Correspondencia Militar of Madrid. Weyler’s attorneys threatened to prosecute for libel, but the editor defied them and declared that he held the documents and was prepared to prove his statement. The matter was allowed to drop. Weyler was thought to have received large sums of money from the Augustinians and Dominicans for his armed support against their tenants. It was said that the Chinese furnished him with a first-rate cook, and provided food for his whole household gratis, besides making presents of diamonds to his wife. And for holding back certain laws which would have pressed very hardly upon them, it was asserted that the Celestials paid him no less than $80,000. This is the man who afterwards carried out the reconcentrado policy in Cuba at the cost of thousands of lives, and subsequently returning with a colossal fortune to Spain, posed as a patriot and as chief of the military party.