church. The first few days of the siege saw several attempts by the Filipinos to get the Spanish to surrender by leaving letters, while they surrounded the church with trenches. On 8 July, the revolutionary commander, Cirilo Gómez Ortiz, offered a suspension of hostilities until nightfall, which was accepted. On 18 July, Calixto Villacorta took command of the Filipinos. He also sent a warning letter, which was rebuffed. The Spanish had to endure confinement in a small, hot, humid space. As the siege progressed, their food supply began to diminish through usage and spoilage. Enemy rifle fire did cause casualties but diseases such as beriberi, dysentery, and fevers did more damage. The first Spaniard to die was Gómez Carreño. In September, Lieutenant Alonso was killed; in November, Captain Las Morenas succumbed to beriberi and command fell to Lieutenant Saturnino Martín Cerezo. More than once the Spanish made forays to burn nearby houses to deprive the Filipinos of much needed cover. The Filipinos attempted to smoke them out by setting fires beside the church wall but were repulsed and had their timber captured. At the start of the siege, the Spanish had provisions of flour, rice, beans, chickpeas, bacon, canned Australian beef, sardines, wine, sugar, and coffee – but no salt. Supplementing their food supplies, the Spanish foraged for pumpkins, pumpkin leaves, oranges, plantain shoots, various herbs, and planted a garden of peppers, tomatoes and pumpkins. By mid-November, having failed to dislodge the Spanish defenders, Villacorta, under a flag of truce, left newspapers on the church steps that told of Spain's planned departure from the Philippines and that the Spanish–American War was over. Martín Cerezo considered this a ruse de guerre. Villacorta brought in Spanish civilians and ultimately a military officer left behind to wrap up Spain's affairs on the island, to no avail. By 22 November, a total of 145 days had elapsed since the siege began, during which 14 Spanish defenders died of disease. Of the 40 remaining men, only 23 were combat effective, with the rest being sick. The Filipinos also had suffered casualties, mostly from rifle fire the Spanish were able to inflict on them from their protected firing positions. Gómez Ortiz was one of these. The new year brought more Spanish emissaries to Baler, but again Martín Cerezo turned them away. At the end of February, the Spanish killed three water buffaloes, eating the meat before