Dapitan

Despujol’s decree produced consternation among Rizal’s friends

and partisans, but they soon overcome it. On the same night that

decree appeared in the Gazette, a secret meeting was held in an

accesoria (apartment) on Azcarraga street. The apartment was

modest, and its tenant was a nearsighted old man, inoffensive and

sickly in appearance. His name was DeodatoArellano and his only

companions were his wife and a nephew, a daring young man teeming

with vitality, named Gregorio del Pilar. Deodato was a brother-in-law of

Marcelo del Pilar, editor of La Solidaridad, and the copies of this

fortnightly magazine came consigned in his name.

At the meeting there were only seven persons in all, including the

tenant of the place, but among the seven was the fiery Andres

Bonifacio. They spoke in a low voice as if they were afraid to be heard

or surprised. Only one sentiment animated all, and in a short time the

meeting was adjourned after they had arrived at a solemn accord: to

found th Katipunan, an association of the sons of the people to

promote the sepreration of the country from Spain.

The Filipino League did not live long although it was backed by the

name of Rizal. Not being steeped in the intimate feelings of the

founder, those who had obligated themselves to it, believing it to be a

new instrument to ask peaceably for reforms from the government,

considered it to useless and of little efficacy and gradually separated

from it to join the Katipunan, whose program seemed to them more

determined, more resolute, and more daring in its aims.

A week later Rizal arrived at Dapitan and was delivered in person

by an officer in transport to the commander of the post, Don Ricardo

Carnicero, Captain of the Infantry.

Despujol was in a way considerate towards Rizal. In a sealed

document brought by the officer of the boat, Rizal was authorized to

lodge in the mission-house of the Jesuits; or, if he preffered to live in

the mission-house; but in view of that the Jesuits required him, as a

condition precedent, to retract his religious and political ideas to

submit himself to spiritual exercises in accordance with the

instructions received from the head of the Mission, he asked that he be

permitted to live in the house of him.

The commander of the district, Don Ricardo Carnicero, was a man

who was dicreet and generous and one not lacking in talent, Rizal lived

with him and had one long conversation with him at table or during the

walks which the two took almost daily. Always affable, respectful,

gracious, and of exquisite conversation, Rizal soon won the good will

and then the cordial friendship of his keeper, so much so that the latter

permitted him all the liberties not incompatible with official

surveillance. Carnicero also benefited by this mutual confidence, as he

became acquainted with Rizal’s most intimate ideas and thought and

was able to use them as material for his official report to the Governor

General.

In one of their conversations Rizal reiterated the program of reforms

that he wanted for the Philippines, which he had expressed previously

in his writing. He wished to: (1) give representation to the Filipinos to

the Cortes; (2) secularize the friars, doing away with the tutorship

which the latter exercise over the government and the country, and

the distributing the curaries as they became vacant among the

clergymen, who could be Filipinos or Spaniards; (3) improved and

reform the Administration in all its branches; (4) foster primary

instruction, taking away all intervention of the friars and giving the

teachers more pay; (5) divide fifty-fifty the appointments in the

country between the Spaniards and the Filipinos; (6) create schools

arts and trades in the capitals of the provinces of more than 16,000

inhabitants; (70 permit freedom of religion and of the press.

When Carnicero, feigning to be a partisan of his reforms, called

attention to the impossibility of obtaining these reforms on account of

the great influence of the friars both in Madrid and in Manila, Rizal

answered:

“Do not think so. The influence of the friars is warning in all parts of

the world. I am bold enough to assure you that with the government a

little advanced, where there are five or six men like Becerra, the friars

would disappear. In Madrid they know perfectly well all that the friars

do here, so much so that in the first interviews I had with Pi and

Linares Rivas, when the latter belonged to the liberal Party, they

informed me of things which I, a native of this country, did not know. I

could cite to you many who, like and miracles of the friars in the

Philippines; but, as they tell me: “The bad government that succeed

one another in Spain are guilty of many abuses committed on behalf of

the religious corporations; the day things change, we will not forget

those gentlemen. ’In the Philippines, I regret to tell you, the friars are

disliked and they make themselves more repugment and odious every

day by their meddling in everything. The deportation of my family is

due to the denunciation of a friar.”

Because of the lack of physicians, Rizal practiced his profession in

the town, rendering his professional services to all persons who

solicited them, without changing the poor. He charged the others

according to their means. A rich English man who came to consult him

and whom Rizal operated on for paid him five hundred dollars, all of

which Rizal spent in endowing the town with electric lightings

In September, Rizal obtained more than six thousand pesos as

participation in the second price of the lottery of Manila, and he sent

the whole amount to his mother for her expenses and necessities.

Garnicero not only acceded to what Rizal asked him but even

offered him all kinds of stimuli, thinking that the more engrossed Rizal

might be in his project he less he would think politics and of his friends.

He try to induce him to establish himself in Dapitan with his friends

instead of Borneo since he seemed to like the district and there were

many abandoned lands there for lack of laborers. Rizal confided to him

that the English government offered him guaranties which the Spanish

government did not afford him. He feared that after cultivating the

lands for many years the friars might come and grab them. Always the

friars! But Carnicero persuaded him that the friars’ domination did not

reach Dapitan and that he could rest assured that if he brought his

family and his friends they would not regret the change of residence.

Perhaps because of this suggestions, Rizal planned to build a house

of his own, and for the present he asked for the lands that where near

the plaza, where he planted fruit trees of different varieties. Later he

acquired another parcel of land in Talisay which, according to

Carnicero’s report, was of great area and contained sixty cacao plants,

some coffee trees, and many fruit trees, and which cost him 18 pesos

in all. Carnicero proposed to Despujol to pardon Rizal’s relatives who

were in Jolo so that they might establish their residence in Dapitan,

and to persuade his sister Lucia and the cousin of hers who were in

Manila to go to Dapitan to live with Rizal. He also recommended that

Rizal be flatterd with hope of obtaining the position of provincial doctor

of the district so that he would not think of leaving it. Rizal was

contented with his new project and enjoyed his work in agriculture. He

wrote to his father, saying that if they should decide to come with the

family he would build a house and leave his books and profession.

From his retirement he witnesses with indifference the passing of men

and events.

Despujol who had done him so much harm; was relieved of his

office in the beginning of 1893. he was succeeded ad interim by the

second in command, Federico Ochando, and garnicero was also

relieved as a result of complaints preferred against him for his

excessive complacencies towards Rizal, and for being impious. His

successor was another captain of the infantry named Juan Sitges, who

assumed office on May 4, 1893. With Sitges things changed somewhat

for Rizal, at least in the first days. The new chief of the district

resented sharing his board and lodging with a drportee; and Rizal,

anticipating his desire, asked him to assign him to another house to

live. Sitges, then, made him move to a next house to the comandancia

and required his appearance three times a day. He took other

restricted measures such as prohibiting Rizal for visiting the boats and

taking walk outside the limit of the town proper. As confiscated a letter

from Blumentritt in which he spoke to Rizal only of things about his

familt, simply because he considered Blumentrit an enemy of Spain,

even though he himself acknowledged that in this letter it was the only

time he treated the Spaniars with indulgence and the first time in

which he did not give separatist advice.

But this harsh treatment did not last more than a few weeks.

General Blanco arrived in a short time to take over the reins of the

government of the islands; and whether by instruction received from

him, on his own initiative after seeing the docility demonstrated by

Rizal and his exemplary conduct, Sitges change his conduct and gave

Rizal the same liberties, if not a little more, as those given by his

predecessor.

About the middle of October, 1893, his mother and his sister

Trinidad joined him in Dapitan. Rizal was very much contented and,

desiring to celebrate Christmas, asked from Manila for a bale of

Japanese paper to make lanterns with which to decorate his garden

like those he saw as a child in Calamba, He now lived in new house he

near the seashore and at the foot of a mountain, covered with “eternal

verdure.”

Upon receipt of a card from Blumentritt greeting him for the New

Year, he wrote to his friend a poetic letter in which he narrated his

melancholies and his ordinary life

During Sitges’ command, Rizal not only enlarged the property

where he lived but also acquired other properties in different places to

plant coffee and hemp.

Sitges suspected that Rizal’s partisans communicated with him

about political matters, but he never had proof. Shortly after he took

possession of his office in June, 1893, Sitges suspected three

individuals who arrived in Dapitan with a licence to sell images, and

who, after disembarking, went to Rizal’s house. Sitges found out that

they came from Calamba and ordered them to return at the first

opportunity. He suspected those sellers of images because a servant of

Rizal came on the previous mail boat to bring images, when these

came not lacking in the town. This and the constant coming and going

to Rizal’s sisters since his mother resided in Dapitan gave Sitges the

impression that something was being hatched. For this reason he

ordered the search of the baggage of these persons on various

occasions, without being found anything forbidden.

The year 1893 ended with a mysterious event for Rizal, which

could not be cleared entirely.

We copy from the official report.

“On the 4th [November, 1893] my attention was called to the

individual who, pulling his hat far down on his head and seemingly

trying to avoid being seen, crossed at dust the rice fields towards the

seashore and the lands of Rizal. The manner in which he passed,

through lands almost impassable, the hour, and the direction, made

me somehow suspect something that in that moment I could not tell

but which in the end seemed extraordinary. In this frame of mind I

came out to meet him from the opposite direction; but either because

before I crossed the river which runs through Rizal’s lands, he had

gone back or because he took another direction, I could not find him. I

returned to the comandancia thinking of the fact that had attracted my

attention.

“Two hours had not elapsed when Rizal appeared before me,

saying ( these are his words): ‘I regret to have to denounce, but I am

compelled to do so, on the one hand, by my ideas which were never

separatist, as on my words of honor I assured General Despujol; on the

other, by the old age and tranquillity of my mother who is now beside

me, where I have employed everything for her comfort and

entertainment and for that of my young sister; and, lastly, by the

obligation by which as a gentlemen I am bound to repay and the

generosity of the authorities, who respect the secrecy of

correspondence. I regret to denounce, and maybe I shall thereby

prejudice someone who still believe I am credulous and a fool to

expose my whole family to adversities. But I have no alternative but to

inform you that yesterday, at night-time, an individual named Pablo

Mercado, who say he is a relative of mine, came to me telling that he

came from Manila to find out my situation and necessities, offering to

send me all writings and correspondence that might be necessary for

my plans even if they should hang him, presenting to me a photograph

of mine and some buttons with the initials P.M.’

“At this point I dismissed him, and, accompanied by

gobernadorcillo, I proceeded to apprehend the said Pablo Mercado,

findings to his person the photograph referred to and a cedula with the

name of Florencio Namanan, with which document, order of

incommunication and presecution, I delivered him to the

gobernedorcillo. But I was greatly surprised by what I found out from

the investigation today, from which has resulted what could even be

remotely expected. . . .

“After the investigation Rizal appeared asking for the minutes of

the investigation, which I deemed it prudent not to give him.”

Here is an extract of that document:

“Tribunal of Dapitan,- Trial Against Pablo Mercado,-Judge: The

Gobernadorcillo, Don Anastacio Adriatico.

“The case is initiated by an official letter of Commander Sitges

dated November 6, 1893, ordering the gobernadorcillo to institute the

corresponding investigations to clarify the purpose of the coming to

this town of the individual Pablo Mercado.

“The same day this individual was interrogated. He said his name

is Lorenzo Namanan (as appears in his cedula attached to the record),

thirty years of age, single, and a native of Cagayan de Misamis. And he

added that he received instructions to get a photograph of Mr. Rizal in

order not to be mistaken when the occasion to talk to him should

come; to go around the towns of the district, come to Dapitan, and

gather all the way all books written by Rizal that he might find; to know

Rizal and to present himself as a political friend and a relative

commissions of his friends and relatives in Manila to find out his

situation and necessities; to offer to help him in this propaganda until

he succeeded in obtaining from him letters and writings of a separatist

nature, and that, in effect, a photograph of Rizal was left with him,

furnished by Estanislao Legaspi, a resident of Nos. 17-37 Madrid,

Manila, and a pair of buttons with the initials P.M. corresponding to the

name Pablo and the surname Mercado of Mr. Rizal, to inspire more

confidence in him by his supposed surname. That after going through

the towns where he had no other recourse but to steal two books that

he found, he came here on the 3rd of this month, lodging in the house

of Teniente Ramon, and at dusk he left for the outskirts of the town,

arriving at the house of Rizal, from whom he tried to obtain writings

and succeeded only in being thrown out by him. That he then returned

to his house, where he remained hiding until last night, when the

politicomilitary commander arrested him in person, finding the cedula

and the photograph that is on the table.

In the year 1894 it seemed that Rizal completely forgot and forgotten

by all. He seemed to have realized his dream of being a humble

agriculturist engaged in planting abaca, coconuts, and coffee. He

thought of engaging not only agriculture but also in commerce. He

wanted to exploit the fishing industry of the district, and for the

purpose, he asked his brother-in-law Hidalgo for some fishing nets of

the kind used in Calamba to introduce them in Dapitan, where the

appliances and methods used by the natives were more primitive. At

the same time he associated himself with a Frenchman who resided in

Dapitan to exploit and sell the abaca produced in the district. His plan

was not precisely to get rich but to demonstrate to his countrymen the

value of developing the commerce and the small industries of the

country for their own benefit instead of leaving all the productive

activities in the hand of the Chinese.

But these and other projects for material development did not

usually bring happy results because he was not sufficiently free to

execute his plans, which could be vetoed or disapproved. Even if he

were free, the chanced of being pardoned or transferred to another

place could frustrate any plans, however will contrived they might

have been. But in the midst of this situation he did not keep his mind

or his pen idle; he became absorbed in scientific and artistic works, for

which his keeper gave him complete liberty. He had been occupied in

writing an original Tagalog grammar and learning the Visayan

language, in which he saw “traces of names more primitive in form

than the Tagalog, and yet the Tagalog conjugation contains in itself not

only all the forms of Visayan but also others.”

In 1894 his private correspondence indicated that he was in

constant communication with the sages of Europe who sought and

solicited his collaboration in diverse scientific matters. Doctor Rost of

the Library of London asked him to write philological articles for the

English magazines and, if possible, a comparative treatise on Philippine

dialects. The geographer Doctor Joest consulted with him about two

pieces of bamboo believed to have been used by the Moro chiefs of

Mindanao of ancient times for the transmission of written messages.

Dr. N. M. Khiel of Prague, who desired to publish a work of the fauna of

Mindanao, asked him for the collection of butterflies and even gave

him instructions as to how to catch, stuff, and export them. Doctor S.

Knuttel of Stuttgart solicited from him reports on the volcanic eruptions

in the Archipelago. Ferdinand Blumenttrit, his spiritual brother,

continued writing to him about his family and his works and, as usual,

always gave Rizal timely counsels about his situations. But it was with

Dr. A. B. Meyer of Dresten that he sustained the most frequent

correspondence and to whom he constantly sent boxes containing

samples of the flora and fauna of Mindanao to be studied and the

classified by the Eropean scientists. Because of his humble means and

the lack of experienced of his assistants, the insect and the other

animal specimen which Rizal sent did not arrive in good condition in

their destinations. Rizal collected all these materials and sent them to

Europe in exchange for scientific books which he in turn received from

Doctor Meyer.

The famous German amphibiologist, Professor Boettger, a great

connoisseur of the zoology of the Far East, discovered that the frog of

the collection sent by Rizal to Frunkfurt belong to a new species not

yet described and completely unknown to naturalist; and that learned

professor, in describing it, christened it with the name of Rhacophorus

Rizali. Another learned German zoologist, Dr. Carl M. Heller,

denominated a species of coleopatra discovered by Rizal in Dapitan

with the name of Apogonia Rizali.

Long accustomed to a wise distribution of his time, Rizal spent the

months absorbed in his occupation. Compared with the life he had led

abroad, that which he live here, although monotonous, he found

tranquil. He did not consider Dapitan less desirable than Calamba; on

the contrary, he found it better. It was, after all, a part of this country.

In his long meditation on the shores of the sea where he used to spend

many hours, he thought that, everything considered, his banishment

had been a blessing, and he thanked heaven for it.

“. . . So I thank you, O storm, and heaven-born breeze,

That you knew of the hour my wind fly to ease,

To cast me back down to the soil whence I rose.”

His present life was tranquil, peaceful, retired, and without glory,

but he believed it was also useful because he taught the children in the

school and the people of the town the best way of earning a leaving.

He had operated on his mother anew, and, thanks to the operation,

she could again read and write with facility. His fondness for sculpture

did not decline in Dapitan, and whenever an inspiration came to him,

he utilized his moments of leisure to model some statues. Among the

first sculptured works produced in dapitan are the bust of Father

Guerrico, who was superior of Mission of the Jesuits; a bust of General

Blanco; a Saint Paul, which he dedicated to Fr. Pablo Pastells; a

Dapitan girl; and the death of the crocodile.

The year 1895 brought him new complications. In the early part

of the year the fiesta of Talisay, where he lived, took place. He

composed a patriotic hymn which was sung by the pupils of the school.

Dapitan, October 13, 1895

After celebrating the fiesta, his mother left Dapitan, having been

called by his father who believed he was getting weaker every day and

was about to die. “Whether he will die without our saying each other, I

do not know. My deportation has lasted so long that I begin to lose the

hope of some day seeing myself free again.” “All agree with me that I

did not deserve this fate.”

In February of that year he became acquainted with Josephine

Bracken, and his soul, immersed in solitude, awakened eagerly to the

allurements of love. She was a girl of about nineteen, born in

Hongkong of an Irish mother and an English father. She was not

remarkably beautiful but was very attractive because of hear pleasant

countenance, her deep, blue, and dreamy eyes, and abundant golden

hair. When she was left an orphan, she became a dancer in one of the

café’s in Hongkong. Mr. Taufer, who was quite rich, knew her there and

took her not so much protect her as to have someone to take care of

him, for he had became blind. When Mr. Taufer went ot Dapitan to

place himself under the professional care of Doctor Rizal, she

accompanied him and passed for his daughter.

Miss Bracken and Mr. Taufer went to live in a house next to the

hospital. The old man suffered with double cataracts, and it seemed

that the operation required much time. The youth and exotic charm of

Josephine could not but impress Rizal, but as he suspected at first that

she was spy sent ot find out his movements, she was very much

reserved towards her. Later, however, they became very good friends

and Rizal declared sentiments to her. Mr. taufer, upon learning of the

affair, suffered an attact of desperation to tried to commit suicide with

a razor, which was avoided by Rizal’s opportune intervention. Mr.

Taufer then return to Hongkong and remained with Rizal’s mother in

Manila. Thence she returned alone to Dapitan to live with Rizal.

Rizal had great pity for the enamored Josephine, abandoned and

alone as she was. But his life with her was the subject of protests from

the Church, and Rizal, in order to avoid public scandal, decided to

marry her. But the Church would not sanction his marriage unless he

retract out of respect for the costumes of the people. Anyway he had

not been a very active figure in the high councils of freemasonry; he

could therefore submit himself without great pain to this demand of

the Church provided he could save love. Rizal wrote a form of

retraction agreed upon between him and Father Obach, and without

singing it sent it to the Bishop of Cebu for approval. It is not known

where the form of retraction landed; the fact is, that the approval dod

not come. And Rizal and Josephine continued to live as husband and

wife in the eyes of the public. Even his mother, who was religious and

devour, did not reproach him too much for his union with Josephine,

saying that “it is better to live in concubinage in the grace of God than

to be married in disgrace.”

Rizal thought that fate was playing a bad joke on him, but he

resignated himself to it. He revolution is rising in the dark and

foreboded that however far he was from it he would be implicated if he

remain in the country; that is why he decide to go far away, very far,

where the responsibility for one drop of blood could not reach him.

At the end of 1895 he again wrote to His Excellency asking for his

liberty or the review of the case, and if this were not possible, for his

enrollment in the army of Cuba. Blumentritt advised the latter course

and Rizal believed the advice good. But this application was always

undecided, even though he was a free mason, who had been asked by

a Manila lodge to place Rizal at liberty and permit him to go abroad.

Near the end of June 1896, the katipunan, which had replaced the

league, thought of sending one of its members of Dapitan to confer

with Rizal and find out whether he was disposed to place himself at the

head of a revolutionary movement. Pio Valenzuela, a young physician

and cofounder of the Katipunan, was the one chosen to see Rizal. In

effect, he feigned to bring an eye patient to be treated in Dapitan,

where he arrived in July 1. Rizal did not know Valenzuela in Manila, or if

he did, he could not remember him. The fact is that when the two were

left alone, Valenzuela told the real purpose of his visit and informed

him of the number of persons affiliated with the Katipunan and of the

funds on which they counted to realize a revolution. If Rizal wish to

head it, they would facilitate his escape. The most popular version

about that conference was that Rizal became indignant upon hearing

the proposition of Valenzuela and almost threw him out of his house. It

seems, however, that no such thing occurred and that, although Rizal

refused to have anything to with the revolution because it could not

succeed under the conditions in which he was told it was to be carried

out, he did not treat Valenzuela anger. Although he said that they must

not count on him as to the escape because he would thereby break his

word of honor, he suggested that Luna be approached if they needed a

military leader.

The Death Sentenced and the Last Farewell

Rizal exerted his last effort to record his innocence in an indubitable

manner: when asked whether he had anything to say, he the contents

of the document which he himself had prepared and in which he said:

Supplement to My Defense

“Don Jose Rizal y Alfonso respectfully requests the Court Martial to

consider the following circumstances:

“First. With the respect to the rebellion. I had absolutely refrained

politics since July 6, 1892, until the 1st of July of this year when, advised

by Don Pio Valenzuela that an uprising was proposed, I counseled

against it, trying to convince him with reasons. Don Pio Valenzuela

parted from me apparently convinced; so much so that instead of

taking part in the rebellion later, he presented himself to the

authorities for pardon.

“Second. A proof that I did not maintain any political relation with

anybody that what someone said about my having sent letters through

my family is false, is the fact that was necessary to send Don Pio

Valenzuela under an assumed name, at considerable cost, when on the

same boat went five members of my family, besides two servants. If

what they pretend were true, what necessity was there for Don Pio to

attract attention of anyone and incur a large expense? Moreover, The

mere fact that Mr. Valenzuela went to inform me [of the uprising]

proves that I was not in correspondence [with its promoters], for if I

had been, I would have known it, because to make an uprising would

be too serious a thing to conceal from me. The fact that they took the

step to send Mr. Valenzuela proves that they were aware that I knew

nothing; that is it to say, that I maintained no correspondence with

them. Another negative proof is that they cannot show even one letter

of mine.

“Third. They cruelly abused my name and wanted to surprise me at

the last moment. Perhaps they would say that I was resigned me at the

last moment. Why did they not communicate with me before? Perhaps

they would say that I was resigned to, if not contented with, my

banishment, for I had rejected various prepositions which many

persons made to rescue me from that place. It was only in these last

months that, as a consequence of certain domestic affairs-having had

difficulty with missionary priest-I asked leave to go to Cuba as a

volunteer. Don Pio Valenzuela came to advise me to play safe, for,

according to him, I might possibly be implicated. Inasmuch as I

considered myself entirely innocent and was not posted on the how

and the when of the movement (aside from the fact that I had

convinced Mr. Valenzuela), I did not take any precaution but, when His

Excellency the Governor General wrote to me informing me of my

going to Cuba, I sailed immediately, abandoning all my affairs. And

that, notwithstanding the fact that I could have gone somewhere else

or could have simply remained in Dapitan, for the letter of His

Excellency was conditional. He said therin: ‘if you still persist in your

idea in going to Cuba. . . . ‘When the movement broke out, I was on

board the Castilla, and I offered myself unconditionally to His

Excellency. Twelve or fourteen days later I left for Europe. If I had an

uneasy conscience, I would have tried to slip away in any port of call,

especially in Singapore, where I went ashore and where other

passengers who had passports to the Peninsula remained. I had easy

conscience, and hoped to go to Cuba.

“Fourth. In Dapitan I had boats and I was permitted to make excursions

along the coast and to the settlement, which excursions lasted all the

time I wished, sometimes for one week. If I still had intentions to

engage in politics, I would have left even in the vintas of the Moros

whom I knew in the settlements. Neither would I have built my small

hospital, nor would I have bought lands, nor I would called my family to

live with me.

“Fifth. Someone had said that I was the chief. What kind of chief is he

who is not consulted as to the projects and who is only advised to

escape/ What chief is that who when he laws, the aims of which were

to promote commerce, industry, the arts, et cetera, by means of union;

this has been confirmed by witnesses who where not favorable, but

rather opposed to me.

“Seventh. The League did not live nor was it established, for after the

first reunion it was not taken up again; it died because I was deported

a few days later.

“Eight. If it was recognized b the other persons nine months later, as

they say now, I did not know it.

Ninth. The League was not an association with subversive ends, and

that is proven by the fact that they had to abandon it, organizing the

Katipunan, which perhaps better suited their purposes. If the League

could have left it but would have only modified it; for if, as some

pretend, I am the chief, out of consideration for me and for the

prestige of my name they would have preserved the denomination of

League. The fact that they laid it aside, name and all, and created the

Katipunan, clearly proves that they neither counted on me nor did the

League serve their purposes, as otherwise they would not have

another association when there was one already instituted.

“Tenth. With respect to my letters, if there be any bitter censures

therin, I request the Court to consider the time in which I wrote them

(1890); at that time we had been disposed of hours, camarins, lands,

et cetera, and on top of that all my brothers-in-law and my brother

were deported, as a consequence of a suit arising from an inquiry of

the Department of Finance, a suit in which, according to our lawyer,

Mr. Linares Rivas, we had the right on our side.

‘Eleventh. That I have suffered my deportation with resignation, not for

the reason alleged, which is inaccurate, but for what I might have

written. Asked the politico-military commanders of the district about

my conduct during these four years of my deportation; asked the

people, even the missionary priests themselves, in spite of my

personal differences with one of them.

Twelfth. All these facts and consideration destroy the ill-founded

accusations of those who have testified against me, with whom I have

asked the judge to be confronted. Is it possible that in one single night

I was able to line up all of the filibusterism, at a gathering which

discussed commerce, etcetera, and which did not go beyond that, for it

died subsequently? If the few who were present have taken my words

seriously, they would not have let the league die. Is it that those who

have formed part of the league that night founded the Katipunan? I

believe not. Who went to Dapitan to talk to me? They were persons

entirely unknown to me. Why was not an acquaintance sent in home I

would have had more confidence? Because those acquainted with me

knew very well that I have forsaken politics, they must have refused to

take a vain and futile step.

“In the City of Manila, on the 26th day of December, 1896: The

Court Martial met on this day under the presidency of Lieutenant

Colonel Don Jose Tagores Arojana to try and decide the case instituted

against Don Jose Rizal Mercado y Alonso, accused of the crimes of

rebellion, sedition, and illegal associated; has examined it minutely

and carefully after the reading of the actuations made therein by the

Judge Advocate; and, having heard the accusation of the Fiscal, the

brief of the defense, and the supplement thereto read by the accused,

the Court Martial declares that the act complained of constitutes the

crimes of founding illegal associations and of promoting and inciting

rebellion, the first being a necessary means of committing the second;

it resulting that the accused Don Jose Rizal is responsible as principal.

“Wherefore, the court decides that it ought to condemn and

condemns the said Don Jose Rizal to the penalty of death; and in case

of pardon, the penalty, unless specifically remitted, shall carry wit it

the accessories of absolute, perpetual disqualification and subjection of

the accused to the surveillance of the authorities during his whole life,

to pay as indemnity to state the sum of 100,00 pesos, with the

obligation of transmitting the satisfaction of this indemnity to his heirs,

all in accordance with article 188, No. 2, in relation to No. 1 of 189, and

230, in relation to 229, No. 1; 11, 53. 63, 80, 89, 119, 188, No. 2, 22,

No. 1, 123, in relation to 11, No. 3, 122, and others of general

application of the Penal Code.

“It is so pronounced and ordered by the court martial, the

President and Members of the same signing: Jose Tagores, Braulio

Rodriguez, Ricardo Monus, Fermin Perez Rodriguez, Manuel Reguera,

Manuel Diaz Ezcribano, Santiago Izquierdo.”

“Manila, December 28, 1896. Confrormably to the foregoing opinion, I

approve the sentence dictated by the Court Martial in the present case,

in virtue of which the death penalty is imposed on the accused JOSE

RIZAL MERCADO, which shall be executed by shooting him at 7 o’clock

in the morning of the 30th of this month in the field of Bagumbayan,

and with the formalities which the law requires. For compliance and

the rest that may correspond, let this returned to the Judge advocate.

Captain Don Rafael Dominguez. Camilio G. de Polavieja.”

In the plenitude of the night, by the weak light of the lamp that

illumined his cell, thinking of the angel of death that flapped its black

wings around him, Rizal wrote a heartfelt farewell to his country.

Farewell thee well, motherland I adore, region the suns hold dear,

Pearl of the sea oriental, our paradise came to grief;

I go with gladness to give thee my life all withered and drear;

Though it will more brilliant, more fresh with flowery cheer,

Even then for thee would I give it, would give it for thy relief.

On many a field of battle, struggling mud of delirium,

Others give thee their lives, without a doubt or lament;

The place does not matters at all; cypress, laurel or lily may come,

The open arena of scaffold, a fight of cruel mattyrdon,

‘Tis the same if to that by one’s home, and his motherland he is sent.

I am dying now I behold how color is straining the sky,

Announcing the day at last beyond this dismal night;

If thou requirest scarlet with which thine aurora to dye,

Behold then, here is my blood, pour out as thine hour is nigh-

I give to thee for reflecting the gleam of thy natal light.

My dreams, while yet merely a child, or where nearing maturity,

My dreams, when a youth full of vigor at length I became,

Were to see thee were happier day, O jewel of the Orient sea,

Thine ebon eyes dried of their tears, thine uplifted brow clear and free

From the frowns and the furrows, the stains and the stigma of the

shame.

O dream that inspired my life, my ardent, enduring desire,

God bless thee!, this fervent soul cries, that soon in departing from

thee.

God bless thee! How lovely it is to fall and to lift thee higher;

To die and to give thee my life, here under thy sky expire,

And in thine enchanted terrain to sleep for eternity.

Of over my tomb thou beholdest, one day beginning to grow,

A slender and diffident flower peeping out through the crowding grass,

Draw it close to thy lips, and thy kiss, to my very soul shall go,

And I shall fell on my forehead, in the chilly tom below,

The tenderness of thy breathing, the warmth of its vapor pass.

Let the moon lok down upon me with her soft and tranquil ray;

Let the dawn sent forth her splendor on a swiftly fleeting wings;

Let the moaning wind above me murmur solemnly away;

And if a bird descending, on my cross alight, on day,

Let the bird his canticle of peace above me sing.

Let the sun turn the trains in the vapor with his ardent rays,

And carry them pure to heaven, my death knell ‘neath them passed.

Let some friendly person weep, for the premature end of my days,

And in the serene afternoons, while anyone for me prays,

O motherland, pray for me too, that I close to God my rest.

Pray for all of the others who haplessly died;

For those who were tormented with inimitable pain;

For our unhappy mothers who in bitter sorrow cried;

For orphans and widows and captives, by horrid torture tried;

And pray for thyself that thou mayest, thy final redemption gain.

And when in the night the darkness enwraps the graveyard round,

And only, only the dead remain there to watch with me,

Do not disturb their repose, their mystery profound;

If haply thou hearest a zither, or a psaltery resound,

‘Tis I, my motherland dear, I, who am singing to there.

And when in the end my tomb, forgotten by all men,

Has neither a cross nor a stone to keep its plane revealed,

Let any man plow it and spread it with his spade, and then

My ashes, before they resolve into dust upon thy flowery field.

Consign me to oblivion then, it matters naught,

This air, thy space, thy valleys I shall permeate,

My vibrant limpid notes shall to thine ear be brought,

Aroma, lights, and colors, songs with moaning fraught,

The essence of my faith shall constantly relate.

My idolized motherland, whose grieving makes me grieve,

Dearest Filipinas, hear my last farewell again!

I now leave all to thee, my parents, my loved ones I leave

I go where there are no slaves, a brute’s lash to receive;

Where faith does not kill, and where it is God who doth reign.

Farewell, my parents and brothers, parts of the soul of me,

Friends of my early childhood in the home now dispossessed,

Give thanks when I am at rest from this day of misery,

Sweet foreigner, my friends, my joy, farewell to thee,

Farewell, my loved ones all. . . To die is but to rest.

There waa not a single recrimination nor a hint pf hate for

anybody; he was thankful that he was going to rest from the “day of

weariness”. For death was not the end but a mere resting.

After he had finished writing these verses, he felt happy and

rested. He had already given all he could to his country: his talent, his

security, his felicity, his future. He could give no more. Let death come

soon!