The Americans are fighting in the Philippines with cool persistency,
but not as yet with complete success. The idea of General Otis, who is now in command, appears to be that if he can capture Aguinaldo, the island Hofer, and break up his army, which varies in number from ten thousand to thirty thousand men according as food is procurable, the population generally will accept the inevitable, and settle down. He is advancing, therefore, very slowly from the harbour of Manila to the interior, capturing village after village, and rebuilding either the railroad or the native jangle road. The Filipinos, on their side, try to atop him by cutting trenches from which to pour out their fire in safety, until the Americans arrive within three hundred yards, when the natives retreat, to begin again a few miles off. Naturally in this running battle, which need never end, both parties lose men, and, though the Filipinos lose most, sometimes five to one, the Americans feel their losses more acutely. Their men suffer from heat to an incomprehensible degree—unless, indeed, they are fed on a bad system—and what with bullets, disease. and heat-apoplexy more than four thousand of the invaders have died or been invalided. The Americans hope, however, to be in Malolos, the village which serves the insurgents as capital, by Easter Sunday, and are evidently making an im- pression, for Aguinaldo has felt compelled to execute those who advise negotiation, including his own second-in-command. Considerable reinforcements are on their way from San Francisco with many light guns, and part of the volunteers will be exchanged for regular regiments now serving in Cuba.
