They profited little by the best information we could give them, and by the services of the expert tracker whom we loaned to them.

Meanwhile I obtained from one of them, Senor Domingo Sanchez, information destined to become of great importance in the development of the Philippines.
Senor Sanchez, who was an employee of the Spanish forestry bureau, told me that in the highlands of Northern Luzon at an elevation of about five thousand feet, there was a region of pines and oaks blessed with a perpetually temperate climate and even with occasional frosts.

I confess that I did not believe all of his statements.

I was then experienced in climbing Philippine mountains, and at five thousand feet had invariably found a hopeless tangle of the rankest tropical vegetation, with humidity so high that trees were draped with ferns, orchids, and thick moss, and dripping with moisture.

However, I knew that the mere presence of pine and oak trees would mean the occurrence of special bird species feeding upon their seeds, and so determined to investigate.
A severe attack of typhoid fever necessitated my leaving the islands before I could carry out this plan, but upon my return with the first Philippine Commission in 1899 I remembered Senor Sanchez's story.