I was urged to attend, but thought best to decline.

A form of government was adopted, but General Aguinaldo told me today that his friends all hoped that the Philippines would be held as a colony of the United States of America." [67] Yet on Sunday, June 12, Aguinaldo had in reality proclaimed the independence of the Philippines.

Few Americans at this time knew any Spanish and none understood Tagalog, so that it was comparatively easy to deceive them.

What Consul Williams reported was what Aguinaldo considered it expedient to have him believe.
The following undated letter from Aguinaldo to Mabini, supposed to have been sent at this time, is of especial interest in this connection:-- "My dear Brother: I do not want to go there [where the addressee is] until after the visit of the American Consul, because I do not wish the negotiations to end in an ultimatum, and in order that you may tell him all that is favourable for the cause of our Nation.

I charge you with the task of giving him a reply, and if he should ask about me tell him that since the time of his last visit there I have not recovered from my illness.