When doing business with the Tagals, I found that the elder men could be trusted. If I gave them credit, which was often the case, for one or two years, I could depend upon the money being paid when due, unless some calamity such as a flood or a conflagration had rendered it absolutely impossible for them to find the cash. In such a case (which seldom happened) they would advise me beforehand, and perhaps bring a portion of the money, giving a pagaré, bearing interest, for the remainder, and never by any possibility denying the debt. I never made a bad debt amongst them, and gladly testify to their punctilious honesty. This idea of the sacredness of an obligation seems to prevail amongst many of the Malay races, even among the pagan savages, as I had occasion to observe when I visited the Tagbanúas in Palawan (Paragua). They certainly did not learn this from the Spaniards. The More Instruction the less Honesty. When dealing with the younger men who had been educated in Manila, in Hong Kong, or even in Europe, I found that this idea had been eradicated from them, and that no sufficient sense of honour had been implanted in its stead. In fact, I may say that, whilst the unlettered agriculturist, with his old-fashioned dress, and quiet, dignified manner, inspired me with the respect due to an honest and worthy man, the feeling evolved from a discussion with the younger and educated men, dressed in European clothes, who had been pupils in the Atenéo Municipal, or in Santo Tomás, was less favourable, and it became evident to me that, although they might be more instructed than their fathers, they were morally below them. Either their moral training had been deficient, or their natures are not improved by education. I usually preferred to do business with them on a cash basis. Unsuitable Training. Dare I, at the tail-end of the nineteenth century, in the days of Board Schools, County Councils, conscientious objectors, and Hooligans, venture to recall to mind a saying of that grand old Conservative, the Peruvian Solomon, Tupac Inca Yupanqui? "Science should only be taught to those of generous blood, for the meaner sort are only puffed up, and rendered vain and arrogant by it. Neither should such mingle in the affairs of state, for by that means high offices are brought into disrepute." [24] That great monarch's words exactly express my conclusions about the young Tagals and other natives. To take a young native lad away from his parents, to place him in a corrupted capital like Manila, and to cram him with the intricacies of Spanish law, while there is probably, not in all those who surround him, one single honest and upright man he can look up to for guidance and example, is to deprive him of whatever principles of action he may once have possessed, whilst giving him no guide for his future conduct.