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At Ilagan they were given an entertainment and dance, Villa being a skilled hand in this sort of thing, and a few days later he accompanied them to Aparri without allowing them to set foot on land. The government of Aguinaldo no longer had everything its own way, and secret orders had been given to have every step of the explorers followed.
Father Blanco's library was thrown out of the window. Villa entered Ilagan on the 15th of September at 8 o'clock at night. Hastening to the convento, with a company of well-armed soldiers, he had his men surround the three priests who awaited him there, then summoned the local priest to a separate room and demanded money. The priest gave him all he had.
But let us continue our interrupted narrative: "The presence of the Americans in Ilagan soon freed us from certain forms of savagery and barbarous intentions on the part of Villa.
Something terrible was going to happen as Piera himself felt confident, for it is said that before leaving Aparri he went to confession where he settled the important business of his conscience in a Christian manner with a representative of God. "And so it turned out, for as soon as he arrived in Ilagan he was taken to the convento and placed incomunicado in one of its apartments.
Matias called the roll and the order to march, we were eighty-four friars in a long column climbing the steep ascent to Ilagan.
On the 25th Leyba arrived and after kicking and beating Father Garcia compelled him to give up $1700. He then informed the priests that if it were not for Aguinaldo's orders he would kill all the Spaniards. On the afternoon of the 24th three priests and a Spaniard named Soto arrived at Ilagan. The following is the statement of an eye-witness as to what happened:
Sabas Orros to whom we also owed the signal favour that Villa did not take us to our prisons at Tumauini and Gamut on foot and with our clothing in a bundle at our backs." On October 2 a banquet was given in Villa's honour at Ilagan and the pleasant idea occurred to him to have four of the friars dance at it for his amusement.
Never have I seen a man suffer more than did Mr. Taft at Ilagan on the day when we established a provincial government for Isabela, and the night that followed still lingers in my memory. The air was suffocating. My bed was in a corner. I dragged it out between a window and a door and threw both wide open. Still I could not sleep. Slipping off my pajamas, I seated myself on the broad window sill.
"The natives averred that the Americans referred to were spies who had come to explore those provinces and were making maps of the strategic points and principal roads, so that a very careful watch was kept upon them and Villa took measures to have them go down the river without landing at any place between Echague and Ilagan.
The religious man himself holds it as a veritable portent that he outlived such a terrible trial; but even this did not satisfy them as subsequently the Secretary again called Father Ceferino to subject him to a further scrutiny, as ridiculous as it was malicious, though it did not go beyond words or insults." Señor Perez, the governor of Isabela, and Father Diez were compelled to go to Ilagan.
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