in this port, have come to greet Your Excellency as the genuine
representative of the great and powerful American Republic in
order to express to you our eternal gratitude for the moral and
material support given by Admiral Dewey to our General Aguinaldo
in his campaign for the liberty of eight million Filipinos. The
latter and we ourselves hope that the United States, your nation,
persevering in its humanitarian policy, will without cessation and
(with) decided energy continue to support the programme agreed upon
in Singapore between Your Excellency and General Aguinaldo, that is
to say, the Independence of the Philippine Islands, under an American
protectorate. Accept our cordial acknowledgments and congratulations
on being the first one in accepting and supporting this idea which
time and events have well developed to the great satisfaction of our
nation. Finally, we request you, Most Excellent Sir, to express to your
worthy President and the American Republic, our sincere acknowledgments
and our fervent wishes for their prosperity. I have concluded.'

"The Consul replied hereto in French, in more or less the following
terms:--

"'You have nothing to thank me for, because I have only faithfully
followed the instructions received from my Government; the fact of
the sudden departure of your General will permit you to infer that
I have done so. I shall in any case inform my Government of your
good wishes and I thank you in its name. You know that your wishes
are mine also, and for this reason at the last interview I had with
Mr. Aguinaldo, I repeated to him that he should observe the greatest
humanity possible in the war, in order that our army, our soldiers,
our nation and all the other nations may see that you are humane and
not savages, as has erroneously been believed.'