10 GEORGE FERDINAND BECKER— MERRILL Btt, """i#jJgS£ 



engagement. He was as cool and collected as if he were pursuing geological investigations in his study, encour- 

 aged the men behind whom he was standing and rendered other valuable services which required him to pass 

 mounted immediately in rear of the entire line. I am sorry that, not being a soldier, he cannot receive the 

 reward which his courage and gallantry has entitled him to. 



The view he took of his duty referred to above, arose from the fact that for sometime before this war he 

 volunteered to assist me in the Information Bureau and the instincts of a courageous gentleman have prevented 

 his abandonment of his self imposed task of following me wherever I go now that the expected war with the 

 Insurgents has come about and sometimes calls me, in the line of my duty, into dangerous situations. 



In justice to him however I should add that long prior to any certainty of hostilities he made me promise 

 that if hostilities did occur I would permit him to accompany me wherever my duty called me. He has accom- 

 panied me, pursuant to his own desire, on every reconnaissance I have made and frequently against my judg- 

 ment as to what was best for him. 

 Very respectfully, 



Sgd. J. F. Bell, 



Major of Engineers. 



After the outbreak of hostilities, upon invitation of General McArthur, to whose staff 

 Major Bell was transferred, Doctor Becker accompanied the latter to the front and participated 

 in a number of military reconnaissances and engagements, rendering service that has been 

 favorably reported to the War Department. 



In May he made a journey to the island of Negros and endeavored to examine the deposits 

 of tertiary lignite there, but the hostility of the natives prevented extended investigations. 



While here he met with an adventure which gave him reputation quite unsought and along 

 lines little expected. It seemed that he wished to examine a coal deposit near San Carlos, and 

 for safety's sake was given an escort of a noncommissioned officer and 16 men. Notwith- 

 standing this they were attacked by a considerable body of natives. The'rest of the story is 

 told in a clipping from the newspaper Freedom of September 29 of that year: 



The men saw three lines of skirmishers surrounding the plantation. Guns were grabbed, orders given, and 

 they were soon out and ready to meet the enemy ; now here is where the " Old Professor " as the boys called him 

 [Becker] shone. Emerging from the owner's house in his shirt sleeves, with a little popgun, a 32-caliber revolver, 

 which he had borrowed from one of the boys, he took his position as commander on the right, accompanied by 

 four comrades. 



There was a hot fight for a time. Finally the rebels closed in on the right. The five men protecting that 

 position awaited the charge calmly. When the insurrectos were within about 10 yards a volley rang out, and 

 four blacks dropped. But one kept coming, and straight for the professor. Up went his little popgun and 

 never a tremor in his arm. He fired and missed. The black was now almost upon him. Again he fired and 

 this time he caught his man in the right arm shattering it, and causing him to drop the murderous looking bolo. 

 A volley rang out and the black dropped at the professor's feet. When it was all over 12 dead insurrectos were 

 counted. 



"Well it's the first time I ever fired a pistol at a human being, boys, but I had to do it, and I did it." 6 



Incidental to this it should be stated that Doctor Becker was twice "cited" for bravery 

 in the field during his stay in the islands. 



On December 26, 1902, President Roosevelt called upon the National Academy of Sciences 

 for a report on the desirability of instituting scientific explorations of the Philippine Islands 

 and on the scope to such an undertaking, expressing his hope that such a plan might be adopted 

 by Congress. 



A committee of the academy, consisting of Messrs. G. F. Becker, W. G. Brewer, C. Hart 

 Merriam, F. W. Putnam, and R. S. Woodward, representing Harvard, Yale, Columbia, the 

 Department of Agriculture, and the Geological Survey, was appointed on January 14 following. 

 Becker was elected secretary and under conditions usually prevailing may be assumed to have 

 done his full share of the work. 



The committee was unanimous in the opinion that scientific explorations of the Philippines 

 were most desirable, both for the good of science and for the benefit of the inhabitants of the 

 islands, and so reported on February 7, 1903. 



On March 9 following, the President constituted a board of scientific surveys of the islands, 

 consisting of Mr. C. D. Walcott, chairman, and Messrs. F. V. Coville, Barton Evermann, 



1 "A day or two since a half tipsy soldier called on Bell to speak about the reconnaissance at Gaudalupe of February 20, and ' to shake the hand 

 of a brave man.' Then he added, ' Say, Major, who was that old man [Doctor Becker] along with you? ' and when he had heard, remarked ' Well 

 he was a crackerjack, too.' " 



