RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS
sailed away into what to me then was a very far distant and somewhat unreal world, I was exceedingly glad to hear from him.
The Hancock had stopped at Kobe and had then gone on to Nagasaki where it had to lie for two days taking on coal. The Commissioners seem to have begun by that time to chafe at delays and to long for their settled, definite employment. But they had to go to Hongkong on some business matters and it was from Hongkong that my first long letter came. They were received by the British authorities with the usual formality; pompous calls to be returned as pompously; din- ners, luncheons, club privileges, launch parties and much en- tertaining gossip; but they were interested, principally, in meeting for the first time the genus Filipino irreconcilable. The Filipinos, after three centuries of Christian educa- tion, which had taken the form of religious instruction only, had, with reason, risen in revolt against the Spanish system of friar domination and had demanded some measure of freedom and a voice in the control of their own affairs. This is a long and complicated story which can only be touched upon here.
They were engaged in a hopeless struggle with Spanish authority when the Spanish-American War, unexpected, un- dreamed of, suddenly turned the tables and placed them in an entirely new situation. They saw Spain defeated and turned from the islands she had held since Magellan's first. voyage, while another flag quickly rose above their ancient forts and strongholds. Then it was that the handful of am- bitious "illustrados," or well-to-do and educated ones, began freely to preach independence and were encouraged by not a few Americans, including some in official relation to the sit- uation, who, in complete ignorance of real conditions, approved the so-called aspiration and gave hope of its early fulfilment.
The idea of these Americans was that our forefathers had
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