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In the course of the above-mentioned letter Agoncillo came back once more to the question of independence under a protectorate and made it very clear that at this late day he did not know whether this was or was not what the Filipinos desired.
On August 7, 1898, Aguinaldo warned Agoncillo that in the United States he should "not accept any contracts or give any promises respecting protection or annexation, because we will see first if we can obtain independence."
When news of the attack of the Filipinos was received at Washington, Agoncillo, the special representative of Aguinaldo, immediately left the capital, taking the first train for Canada. He reached Montreal February 6. In an interview at the latter place he professed not to know that an attack on the American forces at Manila had been planned by his people.
The intensity of the folly of the Filipinos making war upon the United States is on exhibition in this letter, and it is serviceable as a measure of their intelligence. It is with this equipment of elementary knowledge that Agoncillo is in Europe to solicit the intervention of the great powers for his country and asserts that he lost Dewey's letters in a shipwreck.
Any claim that Aguinaldo had been promised independence by Wildman, or, indeed, that the latter had been allowed to know that the Filipinos desired it, seems to me to be negatived, not only by Wildman's own statements, but by a letter from Agoncillo to Aguinaldo written on August 5, 1908, in which he says:
Hongkong, November 3, 1897. Sir: Since my arrival in Hongkong I have been called upon several times by Mr. F. Agoncillo, foreign agent and high commissioner, etc., of the new republic of the Philippines. Mr.
Even as late as October 3, 1898, Agoncillo in a memorandum addressed to President McKinley did not claim that independence had been promised, but said:
This is what we shall endeavour to secure; meanwhile, if it should be possible to do so, still give them to understand in a way that you are unable to bind yourself but that once we are independent, we will be able to make arrangements with them." In a letter written on that date to Agoncillo he says:
You must bear in mind that the policy of the government is to obtain absolute independence, and if perchance we should know by the course of events that such cannot be the case, we will then think of protection or annexation." On August 30, 1898, Aguinaldo wrote Agoncillo: "It is said that General Merritt is going away to take part in the work of the Commission.
Agoncillo holds a commission, signed by the president, members of cabinet, and general in chief of the republic of Philippines, empowering him absolutely with power to conclude treaties with foreign governments. Mr. Agoncillo offers on behalf of his government alliance offensive and defensive with the United States when the United States declares war on Spain, which, in Mr.
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