Those of them who were personally known to me were men who invariably showed every courtesy and consideration to all who came in contact with them, whether Europeans or natives. Notwithstanding their misfortunes they were a credit to their country, and they did a good deal towards the development of the trade of the Philippines. I believe that the estates of Russell & Sturgis when realised, paid all their liabilities in full, and besides left considerable pickings in the hands of the liquidators and their friends. Two or three firms were built up out of their ruins. Some Chinese half-castes and natives had received heavy advances from this firm, especially about Molo and Yloilo. One well-known individual had received $60,000, and when summoned before the court he claimed the benefit of the 'Laws of the Indies,' by which his liability was limited to $5. The judge, however, ordered him to repay the principal at the rate of a dollar a month! I had this information from the judge himself. Curiously enough, American merchants have been equally unsuccessful in other parts of the Far East. Many will remember the failure of Messrs. Oliphant & Co., the great China merchants, agents for the American Board of Missions, [16] notwithstanding their desperate effort to retrieve their position by reviving the coolie trade with Perú, and in later days Messrs. Russell & Co. of Hong Kong also came to grief. I can give no explanation of the reasons for these four great failures, but I conjecture that all these firms were in too much of a hurry, and tried to "hustle the East." Yet in face of this calamitous experience, Oscar F. Williams advises more to come, "pledges every aid," and predicts that "trade can, and probably will, be multiplied by twenty during the coming twenty years." For my part, I should think it great progress if the exports and imports of the Philippines could be doubled in twenty years. The idea of sending plumbers to Manila where lead pipes are not used, is a comicality only matched by the suggestion that tailors are wanted amongst a population dressed in cotton shirts and trousers, and where the white people wear veranda-made white duck suits. Both notions are more suitable for a comic opera than for an official document. There is only one more paragraph in this letter that I need comment on. Mr. Williams says: "Good government will be easier, the greater the influx of Americans." To those who know the East there is no necessity to argue on this point. I therefore state dogmatically that the presence of white settlers or working people in the Islands would add enormously to the difficulties of government. This is my experience, and during the Spanish Administration it was generally admitted to be the case.