810 THE SECOND CIVIL WAR IN THE PHILIPPINES but also along his line of.communications. He was thereforeorderedtoabandonhis mostrecent conquests and fall back on Marilao and Calocan. InJune General Lawton forced the line of the Zapote River, south of Manila,captured Bakor, and cleared the neighbouring country of the enemy. But such victories counted for very little. The enemy dispersed from a lost battlefield only to reassemble in the bush andresume hostilities a few days later. At the end of June the Americans only held securely the immediate neighbourhood of Manila. To occupy that they required the greater part of their army, and there were not ten thousandmen available foroperations in the field. On theother hand, it seemed certain that Aguinaldo had larger forces under arms than at thebeginning of the conflict,andhe wascontinuallyreceiving supplies from abroad. The war against the Americans hadspread to the islandsofNegrosandMindanao. The squadron in the Philippine seas was not strong enough to attempt anything like an effectual blockade of that enormous labyrinth of island rocks, coral reefs, winding creeks and narrow channels. To cut off the supplies of the enemy, therefore, seemed hopeless. It was at last realised inAmerica that the country could only be conquered by a large army that could permanently garrison the ground that it won, and tlae prospect of locking up tens of thousands of white-soldiers in thegarrisons of anunhealthy tropical archipelago was not inviting. Dewey's victory at Manila was proving a costly triumph, and the practical American felt all the more having paid Spain some millions of dollars in order " tobuy a civil warin full workingorder."