ticians
were divided into three parties advocating respectively annexation,
protection, and abandonment of the Islands to the natives.

At the closing conferences of the Commission several additional
clauses to the treaty were proposed by the one party and the other and
rejected. Among the most singular are the following:--The Spaniards
proposed that America should pay annually to the descendants of
Christopher Columbus $7,400 to be charged to the treasuries of Porto
Rico and Manila. The Americans proposed that Spain should concede
to them the right to land telegraph-cables in the Canary Islands,
or on any territory owned by Spain on the coast of Africa, or in
the Peninsula, in consideration of a cash payment of one million
gold dollars.

We must now go back to September to follow the thread of events
which intervened from that period and during the 71 days' sitting of
the Peace Commission in Paris. My old acquaintance Felipe Agoncillo
was sent to Washington in September by Emilio Aguinaldo to solicit
permission from the American Government to represent the rebels'
cause on the Paris Commission, or, failing this, to be allowed to
state their case. The Government, however, refused to recognize
him officially, so he proceeded to Paris. Having unsuccessfully
endeavoured to be heard before the Commission, he drew up a protest in
duplicate, handing a copy to the Spanish and another to the American
Commissioners. The purport of this document was that whereas the
Americans had supplied the Filipinos with war-material and arms to gain
their independence and not to fight against Spain in the interests
of America, and whereas America now insisted on claiming possession
of the Archipelago, he protested, in the name of Emilio Aguinaldo,
against what he considered a defraudment of his just rights. His
mission led to nothing, so he returned to Washington to watch events
for Aguinaldo. After the treaty was signed in Paris he was received
at the White House, where an opportunity was afforded him of stating
the Filipinos' views; but he did not take full advantage of it, and
returned to Paris, where I met him in July, 1900, holding the position
of "High Commissioner for the Philippine Republic." His policy was,
then, "absolute independence, free of all foreign control." In 1904
we met again in Hong-Kong, where he was established as a lawyer.

In this interval, too, matters in Manila remained _in statu quo_
so far as the American occu