He produced a box of cigars, also a bottle of sherry, and chatted comfortably and humorously.  There was one thing then that he had in his heart—­that his anxiety for peace and appreciation of order as enjoyed under the American military government should be recorded and responsibly reported to the people of the United States.  The American priests had informed him that I was a friend of long standing of President McKinley, and he again enjoined that I should declare his sentiments to the President.  A beautiful work of wood carving was shown on an easel, which had a frame of hard wood, the whole, easel and frame, with elaborately wrought ornamentation, cut out of one tree.  It was at once strong and graceful, simple and decorative.  The picture was a gold medallion, raised on a plate of silver, an excellent likeness of his grace.  It was evident that the refinements of art were known to “these barbarians of the Philippines,” for their works testified.

His grace announced that he would return my call, and his convenience being consulted, the time was fixed for him to appear at 11 o’clock the next day, Sunday, and he came accordingly, accompanied by three priests, the chaplain of the First California, Father Daugherty who sailed with General Merritt to Manila, and Father Boyle, the superintendent of the famous observatory founded by the Jesuits, who was a typical Irishman of a strong and humorously hearty type.  Father Boyle had one of the most perfect methods of speaking English in the Irish way that I have ever heard, and admitted that he had resided in England long enough to be born there; and this was great fun.  It is not too much to say that the institution he represented is illustrious.

The cathedral of Manila is within the walled city and of immense proportions.  It was shattered by an earthquake, and in its reconstruction wood rather than marble was used for the supporting pillars within, but no one would find out that the stately clusters of columns were not from the quarries rather than the forests, unless personally conducted to the discovery.  Here 2,000 Spanish soldiers, held under the articles of capitulation, were quartered, consumed their rations and slept, munching and dozing all around the altar and pervading the whole edifice.  The other great churches, five in number, in the walled city, were occupied in the same way.  The Archbishop was anxious to have the soldiers otherwise provided with shelter, and if not all of them could be restored to their ordinary uses it was most desirable, in his opinion, the cathedral should be.