"The commander received them well and even regaled them with iced drinks and coffee, but did not dare to accept the document, limiting himself to the taking of a copy of it and promising to transmit their desires to the Emperor; he also invited them to make a voyage to his country. Nothing has since been heard of the commander." So much for the testimony given concerning the Kongo and its commander. Information I have obtained from Japanese semi-official sources on this point, shows that the Kongo steamed into Manila bay in 1896 in the same manner as it did recently, on a non-official visit. As was customary, the Japanese Commander and other officers visited the Japanese Bazaar in Plaza Moraga as well as other Japanese business houses. The Bazar Japonés was a center to which friends and acquaintances gathered to salute the visiting officers. Upstairs were prepared iced drinks, etc. for those who cared to take them. Bonifacio and others, uninvited, walked in and presented themselves and their petition and offerings. The latter the commander accepted; the petition he did not accept: in this he showed good sense. As to the supposed copy which he promised to take, evidence goes to show that it was not taken, but that the said commander merely made a few notes of it on a scrap of paper. The proprietors of the Bazar ridicule the idea that the commander favored the petition or received the so-called commission with pleasure; their opinion is that to which any investigator of the affair would come, that the Commander was a gentleman and did not wish to hurt the feelings, by his refusal, of even such ignorantes as those who at that time forced themselves upon him.