RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS
fect on the native mind, if for nothing else. Not until we did, would the Filipinos be convinced that Civil Government was actually established.
Not that I wasn't well pleased with the idea of living in a palace, however unlike the popular conception of a palace it might be. I had not been brought up with any such destiny in view and I confess that it appealed to my imagination.
Malacañan is old and rather damp and, in my time, some of it had not been furnished or finished according to modern ideas, but in size and dignity it leaves nothing to be desired, and it has historic associations which give it an atmosphere that I found to be quite thrilling. It contains many fine, old-world Spanish portraits, and there is one large canvas of especial interest which hangs at the head of the main stairway. It depicts the ceremony through which Magellan made peace with the natives of Cebu when he landed on that island in April, 1521. This consisted of drawing blood from the breasts of the principal parties to the contract, the one drinking that of the other. The Spaniards called it the Pacto de Sangre, or the Blood Pact, and so the picture is named. In our own day the Katipunan League, the strongest and most sinister of all the insurrectionary secret societies, are said to have adopted this ceremony in their rites of initiation, and members of the League could be identified by a peculiar scar on the breast.
The grounds at Malacañan contain, perhaps, twenty acres, and in those days there were fields and swamps in the enclosure as well as lawns and fountains, flower-beds and kitchen gardens. There were five or six good-sized houses in the grounds for the use of secretaries and aides, and the stables were very large.
I would not care to hazard a guess as to the number of parientes we sheltered in the quarters of our employés. Mr. Taft called these quarters our "Filipino tenement" and
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