The other week, we re-printed here the piece written by Rudan Alberto Matig-a on the Tagbilaran's evolution. He is again sending us last week a recapitulation of his article which deserves a three-part series which we started last Sunday. This is the second part and it goes:

"George Percival Scriven was a member of the U.S. expeditionary and occupation forces led by Maj. H.C. Hale who took over the government of Bohol in 1900. Scriven was in the U.S Army's signal corps. This was his experience in Bohol written in his diary but was never published by the U.S. government. I am summarizing his input in his diary and his sojourn in Bohol because I think this is another attempt, first by the Spaniards and now by the Americans to keep the history of Bohol away from the grasp of the Boholanos. They sailed from Iloilo on March 14, 1900 aboard the El Cano, a transport ship with 200 volunteer soldiers. They landed first in Cebu where an armed ship was to be added for the conquest of Bohol .

The armed ship was the gunboat Panay which was dispatched along the coast of Bohol before a landing force from the El Cano was to take place. The plan to land was in Panglao because there was a report that Panglao has a good road going to the capital.

Some provinces in the Visayas like Panay , Cebu , Negros , Romblon and Masbate were already under the hands of the Americans except Bohol . Scriven mentioned an island named Paragua. According to him the Americans engaged in a small skirmish with the islanders.

Scriven perceived Bohol as a secretive province and nothing was known except for the few books about the Visayas, like the maps that gave valueless outlines of doubtful facts and visitors to the island were infrequent, which is why the information was vague and guides they can trust were not to be found. The island had been shut from the outside world for more than a year, and the neighboring provinces knew that Bohol had its own independent government, laws, and police and military that protected the people from outside aggression. Scriven described Bohol as a Republican state within a greater native Republic which is the Philippines (Perhaps the reason why we earned the monicker Republic of Bohol-

DAB). It is like the Vatican which is a state within a state. It was known that it had a population of a quarter of a million people. This is the same data in the Spanish population census of 1879.

The gunboat Panay and the El Cano when nearing Tagbilaran shore and upon reaching shoal water they laid anchors about three miles away. They lowered down smaller boats to land ashore. The landing place of the American forces was Mansasa beach on a Saturday morning of March 17, 1900 . In Tagbilaran at that time, there was already a wharf at Sitio Ubos but this looked like a sneak landing maybe just in case there is opposition. Scriven mentioned that they rowed their boats into an inlet of Tagbilaran with Panglao Island on the other side. Along the way fishermen still going on with their business of fishing and never were disturbed by the presence of invaders in their land.

Their landing was expected because there was information reaching the government officials of Bohol days before that American occupation forces will land in Tagbilaran. At the shoreline they were met by three Bohol government dignitaries.

After a few minutes of hand shakings and pleasantries they proceeded by walking about one and a half mile to the capital along a road, described by Scriven, as carved smoothly from the stones. Scriven's description interests me because when you walk past "Villa Alzhun" all the way to Sug-ang this place is solid rock. While walking along the way he described of a few houses made of leaves [nipa] and then he reached a community where there were more nipa huts until he reached a place where houses are made of stones and wood and more nipa huts. Upon entering the center of Tagbilaran there was a bamboo gate across the street and he saw the church and the government house and in between is a big park. Both sides of the park, church and the government house were more nipa houses and roads. There was a ramp that goes straight to the wharf below. The church was built on a bluff." (To be concluded)

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