334 Heredity. 



' In a raid made on the Isle of Lugon by native soldiers, under 

 the orders of a Spanish officer, a young black about three years 

 old was taken prisoner. He was carried to Manilla. An 

 American having offered the authorities to adopt him, the boy 

 was baptized and named Pedrito. 



'When he was of proper age to receive some instruction, an 

 effort was made to give him as good an education as is to be got 

 in those remote regions. Old residents in the island, who knew 

 the Negrito character, laughed in their sleeves at the attempts made 

 to civilize Pedrito. They predicted that sooner or later the young 

 savage would go back to his mountains. His adopted father, 

 aware of the jests made on his care for Pedrito, was nettled by 

 them, and announced his intention of taking the boy to Europe. 

 He took him to New York, Paris, and London, and only brought 

 him back to the Philippines at the end of two years' travelling. 



' Gifted with all the readiness of the black race, Pedrito spoke 

 with equal fluency Spanish, French, and English ; he would wear 

 on his feet nothing but fine, polished boots, and every one at 

 Manilla to this day remembers the grave air, worthy of a "gentle- 

 man," with which he met the first advances of persons who had not 

 been introduced to him. Scarcely two years after his return 

 from Europe he disappeared from the house of his protector. The 

 mockers triumphed. We should probably never have learned 

 what became of the philanthropic Yankee's adopted son were it 

 not for the singular meeting a European had with him. A Prussian 

 naturalist, a kinsman of the celebrated Humboldt, resolved to make 

 the ascent of Mount Marivalis, not far from Manilla. He had 

 almost reached the summit of the peak when he all at once found 

 himself in presence of a swarm of little blacks. . . . The 

 Prussian was preparing to sketch a few portraits when one of the 

 savages drew near to him smiling, and asked him, in English, if 

 he was acquainted at Manilla with an American of the name of 

 Graham. It was our friend Pedrito. He told his entire history ; 

 when it was ended, the naturalist tried, but in vain, to induce him 

 to return with him to Manilla.' 1 



In missionary narratives we find abundance of similar facts. 



1 Revue des Deux Mondes, 15 Juin, 1869. 



