LUKBAN
at Catarman. In the meantime, Sweeney was besieged by rebel forces in Matuginao where one soldier was killed and four wounded in his 13-man detachment. Sweeney himself was slightly wounded. The encounter happened when Sweeney was making a sketch of the trail to Matuginao. They did not expect a large force of rebels in the area. He was said to have used a native guide who looked suspicious.
The encounter happened when Sweeney’ s detachment was walking on a river bed with steep banks on both sides. He took his troops up one of the banks but instead got one of them killed and two others wounded. After reaching the top of the hill, Sweeney tried to regroup his forces but found one of his men missing. So they went looking for him. When they located him, he was already dead. They had to retreat when the rebels’ fire intensified. Three of his men were wounded before they reached the top again. For three days and two nights, they were pinned at their positions, unable to move because of the wounded men. Sweeney did not want to reduce his detachment by sending for help. They did not have guides and the place was mountainous, sparsely settled and cut up by numerous trails. They were lost. So they stayed put at their positions.
Meanwhile. Lieutenant Jones, another of Gilmore’ s subordinates who was to meet Sweeney in Matuginao, had to find the town himself without maps or guides and did not arrive until Saturday afternoon. The trail was accordingly very difficult, and it was impossible to get guides. The next two days he spent in exploring the countryside and was preparing to return on Tuesday. As a last resort, he sent a detachment looking for Sweeney. On the merest of accidents, they found Sweeney living on almost nothing in the last four days. So his group helped the remainder of Sweeney’ s troops on a baroto back to safety.
Sweeney said there were about 30 rifles and two cannons, and that he was sure of killing three or four insurgents. He thought there were more wounded. They were able to capture one cannon that the rebels left behind.
One of the presidente’ s secret police, who lived at some distance from Matuginao, told Gilmore that he was forced by a party of eight men, two of them with guns, to guide them to Matuguinao. Two of these men said they were commissioners from Aguinaldo to Lukban. They had arrived in the area in the latter part of February, and had passes from the authorities m Manila.
The secret police said the party in Matuguinao, which attacked Lieutenant Sweeney’ s detachment, consisted of about 50 men under Rosario, with about 20 to 25 rifles and three cannons.
That very day, Gilmore dispatched Captain Spellman, with 40 men and fifteen days’ rations, to Matuguinao to thoroughly scour the
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