as one of the reasons, that we should await your instructions in regard
to the matter before sending any message of that character. So the
message was not sent; but I was later informed that Basa had, after
all, sent it yesterday, because he believed that it would not injure
our cause. Upon learning this, I was carried away by passion and went
so far as to say to Basa the following: 'Many of us, especially myself,
think ourselves to be wise, without being so; politicians for what
we hear from others; we claim to be patriots, but we are only so in
words; we wish to be chiefs, but none of us act in a way worthy of
a chief.' To this he did not reply. Perhaps his conscience accused
him of an act of treachery, since we agreed in the meeting to await
your letter. What union can you expect from this people?" [84]

Note that the Basa here referred to is the man whose initials were
forged on the letter quoted on page 67.

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. [85]

On August 21, Apacible obviously did not think that it would be an
easy matter to escape from Spanish domination, much less that the
islands were already rid of it, for he wrote to Mabini that the United
States were likely again to deliver the Filipinos into the hands of
Spain. He said that "if events will be what their telegrams indicate,
we have a dark and bloody future before us. To be again in the hands
of Spain will mean a long and bloody war, and it is doubtful whether
the end will be favourable to us... Spain free from Cuba and her
other colonies will employ her energy to crush us and will send here
the 150,000 men she has in Cuba." [86] Apacible thought that the best
thing was independence under an American protectorate.

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." [87]

Even annexation to the United States was not excluded by Aguinaldo
from the possible accepted solutions, for in outlining the policy of
the Philippine government to Sandico on August 10, 1898, he wrote:--

"The policy of the government is as follows: 1st. To struggle for
the independence of 'the Philippines'