1897] Cyrus Laurin Hooper 



posed of the three revenue cutters, Rush, Perry, 

 and Corwin. 1 The duty of this little flotilla was to 

 see that the Canadian sealing-fleet broke none of 

 the provisions of the Paris Tribunal of 1893. To 

 this end they were directed by our Government to 

 overhaul schooners out at sea and open up the barrels 

 of salted skins to find out if they bore indication of 

 having been put down before the end of the closed 

 season. Such inspections, carried out hastily in 

 rough weather, were very irksome to both parties; 

 and the unavoidable scattering of skins about the 

 deck naturally made the operation doubly dis- 

 tasteful to the Canadians. Furthermore, I believe 

 the whole operation to have been contrary to in- 

 ternational law. 



Dealing with these delicate and complicated 

 matters, Captain Hooper was always patient, con- tac . 1 and 



. , , . i i i 11 wisdom 



siderate, and just, so that his decisions, rendered as 

 a sort of Court of Appeal at Unalaska, won the re- 

 spect of all concerned in the acrid controversy. 

 Being afterward transferred to the United States 

 Navy, it was his fortune to bring Aguinaldo, the 

 Filipino leader, back from Hongkong, whither he 

 had been banished by the Spanish governor at 

 Manila. And knowing all the facts, Hooper be- 

 lieved that the Filipino War (which followed the 

 conclusion of peace with Spain) could have been 

 avoided by the exercise of tact and consideration 

 toward Aguinaldo. 



On each of the two cutters under my immediate 

 direction was a young officer in whom I took a 



1 The Corwin, under the noted Captain Healy, had then been assigned to 

 the relief of whalers in the farther North. 



HS973 



