I think that the title of Castile, or Spain's reward, if it
reaches me without the mentioned formalities, will be an object
of ridicule, and Spain ought not to expose me to this, because
I wish to serve her always, in the present and in the future.

I also recommend you very strongly to procure for my brother
Maximino Molo Agustin Paterno y Debera Ignacio the title of Count
or a Grand Cross free of duties, for he has not only rendered
great services to the nation, but he has continually sustained
the prestige of Spain with the natives.

I am, etc., etc.,
_Pedro A. Paterno_.

N.B.--1. I told you verbally that if my merits did not reach two
millimetres, it is the friend's duty to amplify them and extend
them and make others see them as if they were so many metres,
especially as they have _no equal_.

Prince of Limasaba is the first title of Castile conceded to a
native of the Philippines. He was the first king of the Island
of Limasaba in the time of Maghallanes, according to Father Jose
Fernandez Cuevas, of the Company of Jesus, in his "Spain and
Catholicism in the Far East," folio 2 (years 1519 to 1595). In
Spain, in modern times, Prince of Peace, Prince of Vergara, etc.

2. and 3. Verbally I mentioned _one million_ of dollars, and
that Parliament should meet sometimes for the Philippines and for
extraordinary reasons. Take note that out of the 25,000 men sent
here by Spain on account of the insurrection, statistics show
6,000 struck off the effective list in the first six months and
many millions of dollars expenses. The little present, or the
Christmas-box (_mi Aguinaldo_) is of no mean worth.

Some biographical notes of Don Pedro A. Paterno, with most of which
he furnished me himself, may be interesting at this stage.

His Excellency Don Pedro Alejandro Paterno belongs to the class of
Filipinos--the Chinese half-caste--remarkable in this Colony for that
comparative intellectual activity of which Don Pedro himself is one of
the brightest living examples. In the early decades of last century
a Chinaman, called Molo, carried on a prosperous trade in the _Calle
del Rosario_, in the Manila district of Binondo. His Philippine wife,
whose family name was Yamson, carried in her veins the "blue blood,"
as we should say in Europe, of Luzonia. She was the direct descendant
of the Great _Maguinoo_, or Prince