OFF FOR BALER
That night Marie had a good rest. The next morning, fired with ambition
and discontent, she lit her accustomed cigarette and started for
Manila. Instead of going overland, she went in a row boat via the
Pasig river which drains the lake into Manila bay and which flows
through the city of Manila situated at its mouth.
While stealthily prowling around through Manila during the next few
days, Marie accidentally discovered that plans were being carried
out by the Americans to relieve the remnant of the old Spanish
garrison of fifty men stationed at the little town of Baler, near
the eastern coast of Luzon. This garrison was of course surrendered
to the American forces with the remainder of the Spanish army on
August 13, 1898, but as all lines of communication with them had been
destroyed by the Filipinos they had never been officially notified
of the capitulation. Scouting parties brought in the information that
they were being besieged by a horde of blood-thirsty Filipinos which
outnumbered them ten to one, and that it was only a question of time
before all would be exterminated.
Accordingly, Admiral Dewey and General Otis decided that something
must be done at once to relieve them. A rescuing party was formed and
placed aboard the "Yorktown," which carried them around the southern
point of Luzon and then northward to the mouth of the Baler river.
Marie, nerved by the thought of a new exploit, forgot her oath not
to take up arms against the Americans again during the insurrection,
and hastily departed overland for Baler to notify the besieging
Filipinos of what was to take place, and to help them as best she
could to resist the advance of the rescuing party.
Although Baler is situated on the Baler river, near the eastern coast
of Luzon, and Manila is on the west side of the island Baler is,
nevertheless, almost directly north of Manila. This is caused by the
deep indention of Manila bay, on the extreme eastern side of which
Manila is situated, and by the abrupt inclination to the westward of
the eastern coast line of Luzon directly above a point straight east
of Manila.
In starting on her journey Marie left Manila by a little Filipino
foot-path which enters the city in the northeastern part near the
San Sebastian church. She followed it to Block-house No. 4, which is
situated about three miles north and a trifle east of Manila. At that
point she took a road which veered off perceptibly to the east for a
short distance and which was made by the Americans' commissary train
on the morning that the advance was begun toward Malolos, March 25,
preceding.
She had gone but a quarter of a mile when her attention was
attracted to a board used as the head-stone for a grave only a few
feet distant from her pathway. She walked over to in and found these
words inscribed thereon:
"R. I. P. D. O. M.
Wat Erbuf Falo
Born -- (?) Died, February 12, 1899.
To those who bring flowers to this lonely grave,
Some facts on its headstone we wish to engrave;
If this mound could speak no doubt it would tell
Bill Sherman was right when he said, 'War is Hell.'
He charged on two pickets whose names are below;
They took him for niggers,--poor wronged buffalo.
As to the way he met death, everybody knows how;
As to whom he belonged we don't caribou.
Signed: Barney and Barkley, Co. "M," 1st. Col. Vols."
It was now April 2nd, and Marie had ahead of her about ninety miles
overland to be made on foot or else on horse-back; and it was necessary
for her to hurry along, as the rescuing party was scheduled to reach
the mouth of Baler river April 10th, or 12th.
Her course led past the little shack on the bank of the San Mateo
river, where she had robbed the elderly couple who had been so kind
to her and near where she later had shot the old man when he was
pursuing her to regain possession of his stolen property.
She found it deserted; but in a little bamboo corral nearby she found
three Chinese ponies. Evidently they had made their escape from the
scene of battle and had drifted into this yard for refuge. There was
a small stack of rice straw just outside the corral. From this Marie
soon made a stoutly-twisted rope which she hastily arranged in the
form of a bridle. Placing it over the head of the largest pony she
mounted him and rode off.
She got ten miles beyond this last stopping place before sunset. That
night she stopped at a small inland village. As she lay down to sleep
on the bamboo floor in the hut of a Tagalo family whose acquaintance
she had readily formed, recollections of the place which she had
passed during the afternoon where she had previously robbed the old
couple immediately after she was released upon oath by the Americans,
suggested to her the thought that she was violating her oath; that she
was now out in a country where she might be betrayed at any moment by
her own people, or else be captured by a squad of American infantry
or cavalry; therefore, she decided that on the following day she
would destroy her identity.
Upon retiring the previous night Marie coiled up for a pillow her head
of long black hair. "I hate to give it up," thought she, "but what
will the Americans do to me if they capture me another time? Oh! well,
after the war is over it will soon grow out again."
The next morning, after a scanty breakfast of bananas and rice, and
a pineapple which Marie salted heavily before she ate it, she went to
a native barber and had her long hair cut close to the scalp, except
for a little tuft on top which she had him brush up for a pompadour.
Before cutting off her hair the barber tied a piece of hemp very
tightly around it, just back of her neck. After he had detached it,
he held it in front of Marie and asked her what she wished done with
it. She took it in her own hands.
The barber kept on trimming her shortened hair. Marie stopped talking
and seemed to be in deep meditation.
Presently the barber said. "That's all."
Marie arose from the rough mahogany slab on which she had been sitting,
handed him a puesta (twenty cents, Mexican), looked out of the window
and said, "I'll tell you what I'll do: I'll trade you my hair for
that quilas (two-wheeled cart) standing there."
"All right"; said the barber, "My pony is dead, and the war has so
devasted the country, and money has become so scarce, that I can't
afford to buy another one."
"The harness hanging on it goes with the cart," said Marie.
"Oh no!" exclaimed the barber, "my wife borrowed that, and I must
return it."
"It doesn't make any difference to whom it belongs," said Marie,
emphatically, "you traded me the cart, and everything that was in it
goes with the trade. How do you suppose I could hitch my pony into
the cart without a harness?"
Just then she pulled a bolo out from under her apron. The barber said
no more.
Marie hitched her pony into the cart and started on toward Baler.
That day she followed a good road leading toward the mountains near
the eastern coast of Luzon. By night her pony had made twenty miles.
She had already reached the foot-hills. It was impossible for her
to make head-way any longer with the cart. She would soon be across
the mountains and be in the region to be approached by the American
relief party. What was to be done?
A happy thought came to Marie. She clasped her hands and muttered to
herself, "I'll trade the cart for a suit of men's clothes and trade
the harness for a sombrero," (bamboo hat.)
Since the middle of the afternoon she had been driving parallel to a
stream that wound its way, nearby, from the mountains across the plains
to the sea. Villages along the banks were numerous. At night fall she
was still in Tagalo territory. It was her own tribe. She soon found a
place to stay over night. Her pony was turned loose in a vacant yard,
with an old bamboo fence around it, and given some young rice.
That evening while smoking cigarettes, and while inflaming the minds
of the villagers with startling stories about the atrocities, of the
American soldiers, Marie finally succeeded in making the trade which
she had planned during the afternoon.
Next morning, April 5, she rode on. Before her lay sixty miles of
unknown territory to be covered during the next four days, if she
were to reach Baler in time to warn the besieging Filipinos of the
contemplated attack by the Americans.
A half mile out from the village, Marie came to an abrupt turn in the
road. Near by was a dense cluster of banana trees. She dismounted,
and while her pony was nibbling young rice she went into the thicket
and changed her attire. Then she tied a good-sized stone up in her
old clothes and threw them into the river. As she stood on the bank
watching them sink, she saw her shadow in the water. How changed she
looked! The sombrero was such a relief in keeping the hot sun off
her head.
"Now, I'll not be recognized," thought she. "How nice it is to be
dressed like a man. From now on I mean to play a man's part and be
a full-fledged soldier."