Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History
Benson Lossing, Ed.

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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.