Chapter 26Manfred and I spent most of October assisting with
the consolidation of the American occupation of Manila. General
Otis ordered all Spanish weapons to be seized and locked away.
Manfred and I were assigned to assist in that chore.
By the time we had finished, we had
collected some twenty thousand Spanish Mauser rifles and another
three thousand Remington rifles. In addition, we confiscated twenty
artillery pieces. The weapons were then moved to a navy transport
ship in the harbor for safekeeping.
“We can’t have these insurgent brigands
getting their hands on such fine weapons,” Otis said.
It was an uneasy time. For one thing,
Aguinaldo had convened a congress of the revolutionary government
of the Philippines in the city of Malolos, twenty-eight miles north
of Manil
