He has expressed to the Commission the opinion that you may be able, upon their arrival at Iloilo, to submit a supplementary list of provinces in which it would be advisable to establish at once these governments." Meanwhile General MacArthur wrote on February 13, to Governor Taft:-- "In partial reply to your letter of the 5th instant I have the honor to inform you that the Commanding General, Department of Southern Luzon, reports but one province, Tayabas, as ready at the present time for civil government.

I add the provinces of Laguna, Batangas and Cavite, believing that the institution of civil government in all these provinces will be in assistance of the military authorities in the work of pacification." General MacArthur's communications seem to me to show something more than "a mere soldierly acquiescence in the will of Mr.McKinley," especially as the President had no knowledge of these provinces, and never made any recommendation whatsoever relative to the establishment of civil government there.
Similarly, in establishing civil government in Cebu and Bohol, the commission acted on the specific recommendation of the military, and rather against its own judgment.

There seemed no very good reason for refusing to try civil government, if the commanding general wanted it tried, and when it failed, as it promptly did, in Cebu, Bohol and Batangas, these provinces were immediately returned to the full control of the military, and left there until conditions became satisfactory.
Having escaped the perils of the deep, and the much graver perils of the dinner table, during our southern trip, we returned to Manila, wearier, wiser and sadder men than when we started, for we had learned much of the superstitions, the ignorance and the obsessions which prevailed among the Filipinos, and we knew that many of the men who from love of country had accepted office under us had done so at the peril of their lives.

We had all had an excellent opportunity to come to know the Filipinos.

Their dignity of bearing, their courtesy, their friendly hospitality, their love of imposing functions, and of _fiestas_ and display, their childishness and irresponsibility in many matters, their passion for gambling, for litigation and for political intrigue, even the loves and the hatreds of some of them, had been spread before us like an open book.