The insurgent Filipinos have struck their stroke, and have, as
an army, been smashed. The leaders had gathered some thirty thousand men of sorts, including some Spanish artillerists, and a great many Ygorotes, savages armed with bows and arrows, and on Sunday night opened a fierce attack on the American lines, operating all round the head of the Bay of Manila over a distance of seventeen miles. The Americans, thirteen thousand in number, though taken by surprise, responded by a tremendous fusillade, and firing was kept up on both sides through the night. With daylight the Americans advanced, and supported on their flanks by heavy firing from the fleet, drove the enemy back, carried the villages to which they retired, and only paused when the Filipinos had been driven six miles from the shore. The natives fought fairly well, though they tortured and mutilated one or two officers who had fallen wounded into their hands; bat they could not stand up against the Americans. The latter lost only two hundred and fifty men, while the Filipinos lost four thousand in killed and wounded, and five thousand prisoners,—the latter a most satisfactory feature in the engagement. No further attack in force has been reported, and the Filipinos in Manila declare that they are utterly defeated. Orders have been issued to clear the neighbourhood of Manila "without excessive severity," and to capture the insurgents' second stronghold,—Iloilo, in the island of Panay. It is probable that the enemy, dismayed by the artillery, of which they had no previous experience, will dissolve, part submitting, part trying their fortune in bush warfare.
