sario, Gracio
Gonzaga, and Jose Maria Basa (50), all very wealthy land-owners,
bankers, and lawyers of Manila, desired to tender their allegiance
and the allegiance of their powerful families in Manila to the
United States, and that they had instructed all their connections
to render every aid to the United States forces in Manila. On May
14 he forwarded statements of other Filipinos domiciled in Hongkong,
not members of the junta, that they desired to submit their allegiance
and the allegiance of their families in the Philippine Islands to the
United States. One of Aguinaldo's followers, writing somewhat later,
spoke with bitterness of the rich old men who went about calling
their companions 'beggarly rebels,' but these men were rich, and
their names and their apparent adhesion to the cause represented by
Aguinaldo would inspire confidence in him among men of property in
the Philippines. They were, accordingly, not to be lightly alienated;
therefore, at first, at least, no open break took place with them,
but their attitude toward the leaders of the insurrection is shown
by the fact that after the early summer of 1898 they took no, or very
little, part in the insurgent movement, although they were living in
Hongkong, the seat of the junta, which conducted the propaganda for
the insurgent government of the Philippines.

* * * * *

"But, in fact, Aguinaldo had no just conception of the conditions and
of the opportunities which were about to open before the Hongkong
junta, for although war between Spain and the United States was
imminent and a United States squadron was in Hongkong threatening
Manila, Aguinaldo was chiefly concerned in finding how to avoid
losing the money which had been received from the Spanish government
as the price of his surrender. The importance of his presence near the
Philippines in case of war did not occur to him, or if it did occur to
him anything which he could obtain there from the aid of the United
States probably seemed for the moment of little consequence compared
with escaping from his wrangling companions with enough money to live
on in Paris.

"Artacho, who had received 5000 pesos as his share of the second
payment, arrived in Hongkong and on April 5 demanded 200,000 pesos
of the insurgent funds, probably under the agreement that he should
establish a company in Hongkong for the benefit of the former leaders
and not merely of those who had accompanied