LUKBAN
reached passing through a dense underbrush. Afterwards, they found that this path was full of mantraps. The rebels did that on purpose. In the ensuing battle against the rebel forces, Cooke claimed he had succeeded in driving them out, killing 154 of them before the day was over. On the part of the soldiers, they had only one wounded, a private. He thought there could have been more than 200 casualties on the rebels’ side.
Warner, Barnes & Co. had in the meantime gotten out all their hemp and had also loaded in the launches the Chinamen and their goods. They took all their troops on the Loo Aug, the San Bernardino and the four launches on their return to Calbayog. As they left, a number of insurgents were seen on the beach.
Encounter at Pambujan
From Laguan, Gilmore sailed for Pambujan with 100 troops. The town was just along the coast of the northern tip of Samar. A mile away from Laguan, they found shacks occupied by rebels, evidently an outpost. Four miles from Laguan was a river about 60 meters wide, spanned by a good bridge. But 30 feet of the center of this bridge was removed, delaying the march of their column by an hour. Two more similar bridges had to be crossed before reaching Pambujan. Luckily for Gilmore and his men, the bridges were intact.
As they reached the town, no one was in sight. But at the outskirts, they came upon two boys whom they interrogated. From another house, four or five men ran out. One of them they shot at, wounding him. But he succeeded in getting away. In that house, they found an American flag the town had brought some time before. It was being used on the bed.
While the troops rested from the heat of the sun, the captured boys told them that there were no large bands of rebels for a week, when a party of 50 passed from Catubig to Catarman. Pambujan seemed to be deserted, and all the stores were looted. But several rebels could be seen prowling around across the river while they rested. Then they returned on their tracks.
Three miles away, their advance party fired upon two insurgents, killing one and wounding the other. They later learned that these were scouts sent by the main body of rebels nearby. At the first bridge which was partly destroyed, they saw a man hiding in the bush and fired on him. There was a number on the right side of the road which they fired upon too. On each side, they discovered that bolomen were waiting to hack them when they came close by.
Gilmore took a small party and went into the bush at a site where
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