[16]
"From January 4 to April 4, Aguinaldo withdrew from the banks 5786.46
pesos in part interest on the money he had deposited. This was used
to pay the expenses of himself and his companions in Hongkong. These
expenses were kept at a minimum; the money was drawn and spent
by him. If one of the men with him needed a new pair of shoes,
Aguinaldo paid for them; if another wanted a new coat, Aguinaldo
bought it. Minute accounts were kept, which are on file among his
papers, and it is seen from them that his expenses were exceeding
his income, which could only be 12,000 pesos a year, while he was
living at the rate of 22,000, with constant demands being made upon
him by men who came from the Philippines. Life was not easy under
these conditions. Aguinaldo's companions were entirely dependent
upon him. Their most trivial expenses had to be approved by him,
and he held them down with a strong hand. They were men living in
a strange land, among a people whose language they did not speak,
having nothing to do but quarrel among themselves, exiles waiting
for a chance to return to their own country, which they watched with
weary eyes while they guarded the embers by which they hoped to light
the fires of a new insurrection.
"The men who had accompanied Aguinaldo to Hongkong were not the only
Filipinos domiciled there; a number of men had taken refuge in that
British colony after the events of 1872, and some of them at least
had prospered.
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