r political conditions seemed to
prevail to a considerable extent, and I fear that I was considered
by many of my university colleagues something of a "jingo." Indeed,
a member of the University Board of Regents said that I ought to be
compelled to enlist. As a matter of fact, compulsion would have been
quite unnecessary had it not been for physical disability.

My life-long friend and former travelling companion, Doctor Bourns,
was not similarly hampered. He promptly joined the army as a medical
officer with the rank of major, and sailed for the islands on the
second steamer which carried United States troops there. As a natural
result of his familiarity with Spanish and his wide acquaintanceship
among the Filipinos, he was ordered from the outset to devote his
time more largely to political matters than to the practice of his
profession. He did all that he could to prevent misunderstandings
between Filipinos and Americans. He assisted as an interpreter at
the negotiations for the surrender of Manila on August 13, 1898,
after taking part in the attack on the city. Later he was given
the rather difficult task of suppressing a bad outbreak of smallpox
among the Spanish prisoners of war, which he performed with great
success. He was finally made chief health officer of Manila, although
he continued to devote himself largely to political matters, got
numberless deserving Filipinos out of trouble, and rapidly increased
his already wide circle of Filipino friends. Through his letters I
was kept quite closely in touch with the situation.

Meanwhile I decided that the Philippines were not for me, asked for
and obtained leave for study in Europe, and in December 1898 set
out for New York to engage passage for myself and my family. I went
by way of Washington in order to communicate to President McKinley
certain facts relative to the Philippine situation which it seemed
to me ought to be brought to his attention.

I believed that there was serious danger of an outbreak of hostilities
between Filipinos and Americans, and that such a catastrophe, resulting
from mutual misunderstanding, might be avoided if seasonable action
were taken. I have since learned how wrong was this latter belief. My
previous experience had been almost exclusively with the Visayans and
the wild tribes, and the revolution against the United States was at
the outset a strictly Tagalog affair, and hence beyond my ken.

President McKinley very kindly gave