is was fully recited to the General, and with his eyes
closing and his mouth whispering close to the interpreter's cheek he
gave his answer, and it was quickly rendered:

"The Jesuits, too, must go. They also are our enemies. We do not want
them. They betray. They can go to Spain. They may be wanted there,
not here; but not here, not here."

The question whether the friars must make choice between departure and
death was not met directly, but with repetitions--that they might be at
home in Spain, but could not be a part of the independent Philippines;
and, significantly, they should be willing to go when wanted, and
would be. Two Catholic priests--Americans, not Spaniards--were at this
moment waiting in the ante room, to ask permission for the priests
Aguinaldo has in prison to go back to Spain, and the General could
not give an answer until he had consulted his council. Probably he
would not dare to part with the priests, and an order from him would
be disregarded. They have many chances of martyrdom, and some of them
have already suffered mutilation.

Something had been said about my cabling the President as to the
Filipinos' determination to send a representative to Paris, and I had
tendered my good offices in bearing instructions to a commissioner from
Hongkong to meet the China at Nagasaki, the Japanese railway station,
where the American transports coal for their long voyage across the
Pacific. But that matter had been left in the air. General Aguinaldo
had said he would be obliged if I would telegraph the President,
and I thought if the decision was that there was to be a Philippine
representative hurried to Paris, it was something the President would
be glad to know. I was aware there might be a difficulty in getting
permission for a special messenger to go on the China to Japan to
meet the commissioners going from Hongkong, and I would be willing
to make the connection, as I had offered the suggestion. But it was
necessary to be absolutely certain of General Aguinaldo's decision
before I could cable the President; therefore, as I was, of course,
in an official sense wholly irresponsible, I could communicate with
him without an abrasion of military or other etiquette. It was the
more needful, as it would be a personal proceeding, that I should be
sure of the facts. Therefore I asked the General, whose time I had
occupied more than an hour, whether he authorized me to telegraph
the President that a commission