LUKBAN
meant a much longer time for the Americans unfamiliar with the terrain. It even took them around eight hours to reach Oquendo on horseback, Gilmore said in his report. The solution? Order their puppet presidentes to repair the roads and bridges – which they did little by little.
Laguan was easier to get to on a launch. This he did on the afternoon of the next day with a company of soldiers on the boat Santander. They arrived early the following morning at the outer harbour of Laguan. With 30 men in smaller boats, they landed a mile west of the town, reaching it at around 6:00 in the morning. It was deserted, Gilmore discovered. Reaching the outskirts of the town, he was told that the rebel leader Abuke had left five days earlier.
The town had a population of about 8,000 people, and the houses were larger, though fewer in number, than at Calbayog. Several of the streets were concreted. The public buildings consisted of a tribunal building, where their troops were quartered; a school building, which was used by the presidente for the police, and a small building, whose former use they did not know, but which was now being used as a hospital.
Gilmore, who had become an expert in civil relations, had appointed one Primitivo Acebuche, a prisoner at Catbalogan who had joined him in Calbayog, as temporary presidente municipal of Laguan. Acebuche had 30 policemen to keep the peace and order of the place.
The town was situated on the southern end of an island, and had a very good land-locked harbor, with a wharf running out into it for a hundred yards or so. Ships drawing 13 feet of water could anchor at the end of the wharf and load from it. There was a runway on the wharf, owned by Molleda y Oria, the Spanish-owned firm which did all the hemp and other businesses at this place. The rivers Catubig and Palopa emptied into the harbor opposite the town.
Catubig occupation
Gilmore could not stay at one place for a long time. Any news about insurgents operating in the vicinity drove him to scuttling his troops into a hunting party. After learning that Abuke was up the Catubig River at a small town called Bido, he put 50 men on board the steamer Cuco and started up the river at noon on the 20 th in pursuit of the rebel. As the boat was rounding the bend near Bido, a group of rebels fired on the soldiers, who returned the fire, forcing the attackers to retreat up the hill.
Gilmore found it impossible to follow them closely as it took them some time to land ashore. At the first burst, the captain of the ship
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