Samar,
An island of the Visayan group of the
Philippine Islands.
It is the most eastern of the group; is about 250 miles southeast of the island of
Luzon; has an area of 56,000 square miles, and a population of about 185,000, of which about 10,000 are natives living in the mountains in an almost savage state.
The island is traversed by mountain ranges; it is without established roads, and the only means of communication between its various parts are the trails laid out by the
American troops under
General Hughes.
On Sept. 28, 1901, there was a sudden rising of the natives, who had been regarded as friendly
[
26]
to the
Americans, and attacked Company C, 9th United States Infantry, near
Balangiga.
The natives surprised the troops while the latter were at breakfast, fought them with bollos, captured all the stores and ammunitions of the company and nearly all the rifles, and killed forty-eight members of the company.
The last previous intelligence from
Samar was under date of July 27, 1901, which noted the surrender of 500 natives, with two field-guns, twenty rifles, and seventy bollos to the
Americans.