Everything quiet both on lines and in town. Santa Cruz was captured by Lawton with no trouble & Santa Maria by Oregon & Minn. Ornegas* [Our niggers] have caused so much trouble & murdered so many of our boys that they recognize them no longer but shoot on sight all natives. Natives will not or cannot understand kind & civilized treatment. If you treat them as equals they will think you are afraid of them & murder you. Several lands of hostiles captured. A truce flag is to them nothing. Out [But] a ruse to get near our troops and fire on them with safely to themselves. They also [fight] contrary to all civilized warfare make it a point to abuse his figure & kill all wounded [and] torture all captured & shoot all hospital men.
*In the thesis, there is this footnote: “33. Omegas was his name for one of the groups of natives that occupy the Philippines.” But it is printed as above, “Ornesgas.” In view of common usage of soldiers at the time, the Philippine Diary Project extrapolates that the words are really “Our niggers.”