“Admiral Dewey.  Of Aguinaldo and the Filipinos.  They were bothering me.  I was very busy getting my squadron ready for battle, and these little men were coming on board my ship at Hongkong and taking a good deal of my time, and I did not attach the slightest importance to anything they could do, and they did nothing; that is, none of them went with me when I went to Mirs Bay.  There had been a good deal of talk, but when the time came they did not go.  One of them didn’t go because he didn’t have any toothbrush.

“Senator Burrows.  Did he give that as a reason?

“Admiral Dewey.  Yes; he said, ‘I have no toothbrush.’” [100]

However, Dewey ultimately yielded to the pressure exercised on him by Pratt and Wildman, and allowed Aguinaldo and some of his associates to be brought to Manila.  Having them there he proposed to get assistance from them, not as allies, but as a friendly force attacking a common enemy, in its own way.

Let us continue with his testimony as to cooperation between Aguinaldo and the naval forces of the United States:—­

“Senator Patterson.  Then, Admiral, until you knew that they were going to send land forces to your assistance you thought there was a necessity to organize the Filipinos into land forces, did you?

“Admiral Dewey.  No; not a necessity.

“Senator Patterson.  You thought it might prove of value to you?

“Admiral Dewey.  I testified here, I think, in a way that answers that.  I said to Aguinaldo, ’There is our enemy; now, you go your way and I will go mine; we had better act independently.’  That was the wisest thing I ever said.

“Senator Patterson.  But you stated that you were using these people and they were permitted to organize, that you might use them.

“Admiral Dewey.  They were assisting us.

“Senator Patterson.  Very well, they were to assist you.  Did you not either permit them or encourage them—­I do not care which term you use—­to organize into an army, such as it was, that they might render you such assistance as you needed?

“Admiral Dewey.  They were assisting us, but incidentally they were fighting their enemy; they were fighting an enemy which had been their enemy for three hundred years.

“Senator Patterson.  I understand that, Admiral.

“Admiral Dewey.  While assisting us they were fighting their own battles, too.

“The Chairman.  You were encouraging insurrection against a common enemy with which you were at war?

“Admiral Dewey.  I think so.  I had in my mind an illustration furnished by the civil war.  I was in the South in the civil war, and the only friends we had in the South were the negroes, and we made use of them; they assisted us on many occasions.  I had that in mind; I said these people were our friends, and ’we have come here and they will help us just exactly as the negroes helped us in the civil war.’