1

TO THE FILIPINOS

In the Noli me tangere I began the sketch of the present

state of our Native Land. The effect that my attempt

produced pointed out to me, before proceeding to unfold the

other successive pictures before your eyes, the necessity of

first making known to you the past in order that you may be

able to judge better the present and to measure the road

traversed during three centuries.

Born and reared in the ignorance of our Yesterday,

like almost all of you, without voice or authority to speak

about what we did not see or studied, I considered it

necessary to invoke the testimony of an illustrious Spaniard

who governed the destinies of the Philippines in the

beginning of her new era and witnessed the last moments of

our ancient nationality. It is then the shadow of the

civilization of our ancestors which the author is now

evoking before you. I transmit faithfully to you his words,

without changing or mutilating them, adapting them only

whenever possible to modern orthography for greater

clarity, and altering the somewhat defective punctuation of

the original in order to make its perusal easier. The post, the

nationality, and merits of De Morga, together with the data

and testimonies furnished by his contemporaries, almost all

Spaniards, recommend the book to your thoughtful con-

sideration.

If the book succeeds to awaken your consciousness of

our past, already effaced from your memory, and to rectify

what has been falsified and slandered, then I have not

worked in vain, and with this as a basis, however small it

may be, we shall be able to study the future.

Jose Rizal

Europe 1889

Translated by Encarnacion Alzona

2

P R O L O G U E

My very dear Friend:

I accept your kind invitation, which so honors me and

I'm going to write you a few lines instead of a prologue. I'm

not afraid of the difficulties of writing in a language which I

don't master; I'm not afraid because I follow the impulses of

my heart and the heart knows how to overcome

grammatical and lexicographic obstacles. It is not the

purpose of these lines to present a dish to those who relish

the rich phraseology of the majestic language of Cervantes,

no; my purpose is to thank you in the name of the

international republic of scholars, in the name of the

Philippines, in the name of Spain, for the publication of this

most important chronicle of the dear country in which you

were born and whose adopted son I consider myself to be.

With this reprinting you have erected a monumentum aere

perennius1 to the name Rizal. Morga's book always enjoyed

the fame of being the best chronicle of the "conquest" of the

Philippines. Spaniards and foreigners are agreed on this

opinion, on this estimate. No historian of the Philippines can

disregard with impunity the wealth of data that sparkle in the

work of the renowned justice; but neither can it satisfy his

desires, because Morga's Sucesos is a rare book, so rare a

book that the very few libraries that have it guard it with the

same solicitude as if it were a treasure of the Incas. It must

be supposed that the Spaniards rendered the just tribute of

gratitude to the noble compatriot, to the upright

representative of the metropolis in the Far East, to the gallant

defender of the glorious Spanish flag, to the greatest

chronicler of the Philippines, but the expectations of the

scientific world were not fulfilled in the country bathed by

the Tajo and

1A monument more enduring than bronze. (E. A.)

3

the Guadalquivir. Not one Spaniard could be found who,

following the inspiration of a noble and prudent patriotism,

admired the work of the author who possessed in his

character and soul the best virtues of his nation and whose

pen proved to be the precious pen of an excellent author of

lofty ideas. The Spaniards did nothing; the Spaniards who

always boasted of their patriotism and Hispanism; thus they

lost an opportune moment of renewing the glories of the

glorious past.

In view of this regrettable indifference of Spanish

Philipinologists, a foreigner (boldness)! meddled in the

affairs of the country: An English lord, Lord Stanley,

translated into the language of the "yes" the immortal work

of the great Spaniard, applauded by the world of foreign

orientalists, but did not receive an honorable mention from

that nation whose duty it was not to leave the laurels of his

undertaking to a foreigner. The scientific world was

satisfied; every orientalist, every Philippiniste, ought to

understand English, and the numerous notes and

appendices of the translation did not hurt the value of the

"resurrection" of the Sucesos de Filipinos. Thanks to .that

translation, we foreigners did not believe in the necessity or

at least in the urgent need for the reprinting of the Spanish

original.

But you, my dear friend, were not in accord with this

resignation and modesty of the outside world, with this

indifference and apathy of Spain. In your heart, which is

truly noble and generous, you have felt the extent of national

ingratitude, and you, the elder son of the Tagalog nation,

you, the martyr of a loyal and active patriotism, you were

the one who paid the debt of the nation — of the very nation

whose degenerate sons mock your race and deny them

intellectual endowments.

I admire this proof of patriotic nobility and generous

patriotism. The parasites, the friars, and the Spanish gods of

the Filipino world call you filibustero; thus you have been

slandered by those who, for their madness for greatness, for

the sake of their pockets, and for the bandage of their

passions, are the indefatigable

4

grave-diggers of the integrity of the mother country. You

have shown them who knows how to fulfill the duties of a

patriot: The Filipino scholar who renews the laurels of a

great author, statesman, and fighter of Spain and calls the

attention of the government to the evils of the mother

country or they who sow racial hatred in the breast of the

Filipinos by their jeers and irritating expressions of

contempt.

You know already that you will be attacked cruelly

by the crowd of Spaniards who consider an educated Indio a

crime of lese majeste. But if an Indio has entered the world of

scholars, if that Filipino scholar not only fulfills the duties

that Spaniards first of all ought to fulfill, but also censures

the conduct of the European colonizers and civilizers, then

the Malayan author can consider himself lucky if only the

anathema and curses of all those who believe themselves

superior beings, infallible and untouchable, should rain over

him on account of the place of his birth and the sickly color

of his skin.

But you have not written your book for them. The

new edition of the Sucesos is dedicated to scholars and

patriots. Both groups will be grateful to you. I have no doubt

that your notes, so scholarly and well-thought out, will stir

the European world. More than 150 years ago the just and

Christian protest against the cruelties committed by the

European discoverers in the New World stopped spreading,

its precursor being a noble Spaniard, the venerable prelate,

Las Casas. This man, truly a saint, spoke in the name of

Christian religion and compassion, but he succeeded only in

stopping the traffic of Negro slaves. The French idealists of

the last century protested against the maltreatment of the

"colored" man" as a result of their idea that the savage and

the uncivilized man represent the age of innocence of

humankind. Thus to the school of Rousseau as well as to

various Spaniards the colored man seemed a grown-up child

with the difference that the latter deduced from their theory

the right to oppress him while the French idealists were in

favor of applying to the "big children" all the inexhaustible

and indulgent love that a father professed toward

5

his child.2 So we observe that this affection toward the

"colored men" at bottom was a manifestation of the madness

for greatness of the European race because their supposition

(erroneous) was that, with the exception of the white race, of

the Chinese and Japanese, all the other nations and races of

the world are either savages, primitive men, or at least men

whom the providence of the Supreme Being endowed with a

childish and limited intelligence. Following this theory and

the other that modern civilization was a poison, the French

idealists wanted to guarantee a paternal and loving tutor-

ship, but withal an eternal tutorship of the "colored men".

And full of idealism they wanted that tutorship to be so

indulgent and so benign that everything would be permitted

the "colored men" while the white man was to play the role

of nurse or governess of the child whose bad conduct had to

be excused and even praised. A good example was the

German Forster. On an islet in eastern Oceania, the natives

stole his hat (if I remember rightly.) Forster did not complain

against the thieves; on the contrary, he accused himself of

having aroused the feeling of rapacity of the natives by

using a beautiful hat. He was a model for numerous others.

If the ideas of those deluded men had been realized, colored

men would not have to thank their benevolent protectors,

because they proposed not only to protect them against the

brutalities of our race but also to protect and even nourish

their vices and immoralities. The ugly nakedness of reality

ended the beautiful dream of the deluded men who forgot

that in the breast of every man slumbers the beast, that beast

which, like the noxious bacilli that are killed through

disinfection, is killed only through the spread of education.

But the illusions of those enthusiasts did not remain sterile.

The idea of the emancipation of slaves originated in these

illusions. I only regret that the noble and generous nation,

the Spanish nation, had ceded the laurels of the

emancipation of the Negroes to a nation who bears the

surname of "mercantile" — the English nation. 2 It must be noted that the laws of the Spanish Indies had the same

affectionate and protective tendencies, but unfortunately those who

implemented them did not follow the intentions of the lawmakers.

6

In the following epoch, the cruelties committed by us

Europeans were attacked, not for noble motives but for

national rivalries and vain glory. Then the English accused

the Spaniards, the Germans the Portuguese, the Dutch the

French, etc., of having been barbarous and cruel toward the

natives of their colonies while they kept silent about the

cruelties committed by themselves either for malice or for

being blinded by national love.

The modern era, in short, with its democratic ideas,

ended by looking with other eyes on their colored brothers.

The new European generation proclaims, or rather

recognizes, not only the equality of races but also that of

whole mankind. To us the colored man is no longer a

mystery or a human curiosity; the colored man is the same

man as we are. Now through the diffusion and advancement

of geographical, ethnographical, and historical knowledge,

we are ashamed of the period when we denied to those

brothers the full rights of man. Now we regret the errors, the

crimes, the miseries that stain the pages of the history of the

European race. Now we confess with the frankness of a

repentant sinner our guilt and as the modern generation is

not a deluded generation but an active generation, we

extend our arms to our brothers asking them to forgive the

faults of our ancestors and we try to make up for the errors

and crimes of centuries past.

So then, your observations on the conduct of the

European conquerors and civilizers are in general not new to

the historian. The Germans specially discussed this theme

almost in the same manner as you do, and let no one tell me

that the Germans can talk about the cruelties committed by

other nations because they have had no colonies, for

Emperor Charles V transferred to the bankers of Augsburg,

to the Welsers (the Bal-zaros of the Spaniards) the territory

that is now called Republic of Venezuela, and though

German rule lasted only a few years, German cruelties were

no different from those committed by other nations and the

German historians rightly condemn with the greatest

harshness the crimes of their fellow nationals. So in general

the accusations in your notes are not a novelty. But with-

7

out doubt it interests us how the picture of these days of

discovery and civilization is presented to the descendants of

the maltreated, to the victims of European intolerance.

Naturally I have found out that you have painted it from

other points of view different from ours and that you have

discovered things which have escaped the attention of the

Europeans, because even the most impartial among us could

not renounce all the inveterate preoccupations of race and

nationality. And these new points of view give your notes an

imperishable value, an undeniable value even for those who

dream of an inaccessible superiority of race or nationality.

The scholar will salute with enthusiasm your erudite anno-

tations, the colonial politician with gratitude and respect.

Through those lines run a flood of serious observations

equally interesting and important to historians and ministers

of overseas colonies alike.

My great esteem for your notes does not hinder me

from confessing that more than once I have observed that

you suffer from the error of many modern historians who

censure the occurences of centuries past in accordance with

the concepts that correspond to contemporary ideas. This

ought not to be so. The historian ought not to impute to the

men of the XVI century the broad horizon of ideas that stirs

the XIX century.. The second point with which I don't agree

is some unbosoming against Catholicism. I believe that the

origin of numerous occurences regrettable to religion, to

Spain, and to the good name of the European race should be

sought in the harsh behavior and abuses of many priests.

Until this point I have referred only to your historical

notes. Their very perusal inspires great interest in every man

devoted to the scientific or political study of the colonial

regime of the Spaniards as well as of the other Europeans.

This interest naturally increases when you speak of present-

day affairs, defending your compatriots and condemning the

bad condition of the country. I recommend the perusal of

these annotations to all Spaniards who love the Philippines

and desire the preservation of the Archipelago. Even those

who

8

deny that the Indio possesses natural human intelligence

ought to read these lines in which an Indio speaks of the

errors and illusions of "superior beings." I don't expect that

those demi-gods can be cured of their prejudices ; to them

your work is like your Tagalog novel :3 A mene, tekel,

upharsian.4

But — thank God — there is a sufficient number of

Spaniards who do not need the operation of the cataract or

who suffer from gout and these will follow attentively your

suggestions. Every educated man knows by now that the

French adage applies to the questions of the colonial regime:

Les jours de fete sont pases.5 The brutal exploitation of the

natives cannot now find sufficient pretexts to appease the

very sensitive public morality of the present generation.

Neither religion nor civilization nor the glory of kings and

nations now permits the conversion of the natives into

servants without rights, without liberties. Even those states

which base their regime on the prestige of their race take

very great care not to offend the feelings of the ruled,

because they know well that colonies cannot be preserved if

the mother country does not know how to inspire her

children overseas if not with affection, at least with the

respect that one contracting party shows the other, to say the

truth, who contests the greater part part of the advantage of

the contract, but at least observes it scrupulously in all

points. It is impossible now to regard colonies as a rich

grazing-ground for the adventures or for the enfants perdus*

of the mother country. The best men, the best talents, the

most noble characters, ought to go out to fill the positions

overseas to be able to thus serve as leaders and supporters of

the integrity of the mother country and to restore, not the

prestige, but the good name of the European race.

3 Rizal's famous novel, Noli me tdngere. (E. A.) 4 Numbered, weighed, divided. (E. A.) 5 The days of festivities are over. (E A ) 6 Lost children. (E. A.)

9

The Philippines forms a colony sui generis,7 inhabited by

millions of men whose religion is like ours, whose

civilization is the child of our own, and whose diverse

peoples amalgamate with the bond of the Spanish language.

Those millions now aspire through the voice of their most

enlightened sons to the assimilation of their country by the

mother country and hope for the redemption of their

country and the guarantee of the integrity of the mother

country, not from the magnanimity and nobility of the

Spanish nation but from her sense of justice and prudence.

The best reforms that are introduced into the Philippines

will remain sterile if the policy of governmental terrorism

continues which places in danger the freedom of every

Filipino liberal and smothers brutally public discussion of

the ills of the country. The same policy in Russia created

nihilism and in the Philippines it will be indisputably the

godmother of separatist ideas. Thus the present policy

serves only to compromise Spanish rule. The misfortune of

Spain and the Philippines is that the majority of the

Spaniards do not want to recognize this truth. Some cannot

recognize it for their egotistic interests; others because they

live on illusions or they regard the colonies overseas with

the boasted national indifference To the first group belong

the friars and those government employees who do not

govern or administer the country but exploit the inhabitants.

Every Hispanization or assimilation of the Filipinos or of the

Philippines disturbs the circles of those predominant and

powerful castes. To them the slogan "The Philippines for

Spain!" means "Filipino gold into our pockets!" They fear the

discussion of their abuses in the press of the country and in

the Cortes of the kingdom; so they work with all the strength

of their soul and of their gold to foment the traditional

suspicion of the rest of the Spaniards, nourishing that

hapless and hysterical suspicion by means of calumnies,

denouncing every truly pro-Spanish

7 Of its own kind, unique. (E. A.)

10

movement of the Filipinos as filibusterismo. I don't believe

that all the partisans of this anti-Filipino league are so

blinded by their passions that they cannot see the

consequences of their behavior — the inevitable separation

of the Philippines, or at least, a series of uprisings that will

cost Spain much blood and much more money; but perhaps

they trust in that "Apres nous le deluge"* for they know by the

Holy Scriptures that the sins of the fathers are visited upon

their children until the fourth generation. The friars at least

know well that their power, their rule, will surely fall with

or without the will of Spain and so they try by all means and

with the help of pious frauds to postpone the end of their

downfall. If this is brought about against the will of Spain,

that is, by the separation of the country, it would not matter

to them, because the orders of St. Augustine, St. Dominic,

and St. Francis are international and they remain

Augustinians, Dominicans, even if the Philippines does not

remain Spanish territory, and in this case the friars either

enter into an agreement with the Filipinos or emigrate to the

place indicated by their general who resides at Rome. If the

friars consent to the assimilation of the Philippines, they

would do a patriotic act, but a very imprudent act with

respect to the interests of their business. The ideas of the

friars are the following: "If we agree to assimilation, the

consequence will be that Filipino deputies will ask for the

expulsion of the friars from the Philippines and they will get

it; so it will be suicide to agree to the parliamentary

representation of the Philippines and to other attributes of

assimilation ; if we take advantage of the state of ignorance

of the country that prevails in the circles of the central

government, we can at least retard our downfall for some

years to the benefit of our pockets." Filipino radicals

contributed greatly toward the development of this friar

tactics, because they proclaim the slogan "Out

8 "After us the deluge." (E. A.)

11

with the Friars!", thus placing the friars in the dilemma:

Either to renounce voluntarily and immediately not only

their omnipotent influence but also all their temporal

property (which does not seem to them worthless) or retard

their ruin at the expense of the integrity of the mother

country and the welfare 'of the Philippines. Thus the Filipino

radicals, adopting the intolerance of the friars, compelled

them to follow the Latin adage oderint, dum metuant.0 The

reasoning of the exploiting employee is identical with that of

the friars. To them assimilation is their ruin, and naturally

the interests of the stomach are greater than the interests of

the mother country. Thus the Philippines count on an army

of enemies, so much more fearful as they have in Spain the

fame of being the support, the only support, of Spanish rule

and the only ones who know the country. According to my

modest opinion, the exploiting employees form an

uncompromising party while the friars would renounce

much if they are guaranteed the rest. . . .

I have said the adversaries of the assimilation of the

Philippines count on a large number of deluded persons.

Among them in the first place are those who suffer from the

madness of the greatness of the European race. Everything

that does not smell of their country is repugnant to them.

The climate and the culinary art of the country seem to them

hellish, and the noses and the color of the skin of the Filipino

Malays and Mestizos are horrifying to them. It is true that

those hapless representatives of our European race do not

belong to the haute volee10 of the educated class but in

political questions the most educated person do not play an

important role; so we will have to count on these speciments

of the genus humanum. They belong to the uncompromising

class, because de gustibus non est disputandum, and it is a

disgrace for Spain that

9 Let them hate, provided they fear. (E.A.) 10 High class. (E. A.) 11 There's no accounting for tastes. (E.A.)

12

they form a very large class. It is the fault of the government

of the metropolis because it did not know how to infuse in

the minds of the Spanish youth in school dynamic love for

their brothers overseas; it cultivated dangerous national

pride which is provocative and suicidal; but it forgot to

imbue the children with love and enthusiasm for all

countries and all races that form and inhabit the Spanish

kingdom. If Spain did not have millions of colored subjects,

it would be well and very good to educate the Spanish youth

in proud illusions that every man who is not a Spaniard is

inferior or repugnant, but as Spain still preserves remnants

of her old colonial empire, it seems more than imprudent for

the Spanish youth in the peninsula to forget that at least one

third of Spanish subjects do not have the phenomenal luck of

having been born in the peninsula. That national and

European pride is very aggressive and irritating and it is the

greatest enemy of Spain because it establishes as

indisputable the superiority of the Castilas (Spaniards) and

does not allow either the realization of the aspirations of the

Filipinos or even the discussion of Philippine questions in a

sense favorable to the desires of the country. And this is the

more regrettable as a favorable solution of the Philippine

question is certain, time only being insecure and the

question of whether the solution will be for or against Spain.

This depends upon the Spaniards in the peninsula. If the

features and customs of the Filipinos seem to them so

repugnant that it is not possible for them to embrace them as

brothers, the Filipinos will separate from them without

doubt. A Castila god of Manila, on the occasion of my

humble defense of your Noli me tdngere, furious, wrote a

little article in which this passage is found: "Are we not

Spaniards, Spaniards of a good race and ready for every

sacrifice?" Congratulations, I agree and I hope that this is

not just a hollow phrase. The first duty of a Spaniard who

desires to preserve the country ought to be: Sacrifice the

folly for greatness of the European race and national vani

13

ties for the welfare and integrity of the mother country ; but,

if I know those gentlemen, they will sacrifice their life, their

money, and a hundred Philippines, Cubas, and Puerto Ricos

before they will renounce their national vanities, as the

fatuous and ruined nobleman sacrifices to his pride and

vanity the few properties that remain to him from his

grandparents: Trahit quem-que sua voluptas, stat pro ratione

vanitas.12 If Hispa-nism does not want to be converted into big

children s prattle, the Spaniards have to overcome their

aversion to the flat noses of the Indios and salute them as

brothers; if that is not possible, they should authorize the

Filipinos to begin the war for independence, lne interests of

Spain deserve more attention than the aesthetic concepts

that certain lordlings form of the Indios. I repeat: The

Philippines can be preserved only with, never against, the

Filipinos.

The second group of deluded Spaniards is formed by

those who are opposed to assimilation, because they believe

that it is not timely to grant it for the following reasons: 1st,

the country has numerous savage tribes; 2nd, even the

Christian and civilized Indios are still in a low level of

education and culture. This is true, but it does not impede

the realization of Philippine aspirations. The numerous

savage tribes do not matter because they have a small

number of souls, and the Filipinos do not claim the extension

of constitutional liberties to the savage tribes. Yes, it is true

that in general the Filipino Indios have little education, but

the example of Bulgaria proves that constitutional govern-

ment does not depend upon the number of illiterates and

literates Still it must be added that this is not the time to

discuss the question whether or not it is better to postpone

the time for constitutional emancipation, if we do not want

to provoke the danger of Hispania deliberante Philippinae

perierunt13. No one should forget that the present state of the

Philippines is intoler-

12 His own pleasure draws each man 13 While Spain deliberates, the Philippines dies

14

able for any man who has sufficient dignity in his breast and

even to the last peasant, because wherever he looks, he sees

oppression, injustice, and offensive and injurious

humiliation, and over this the impossibility of defending

oneself, because the last Spanish criminal believes himself

and considers himself superior even to the best and most

noble son of the country, while every Filipino who does not

keep quiet and says "Amen" to every despotic and corrupt

act of the ruling caste receives the appelation of filibustero

and runs the danger of being deported and not only he but

also his friends; for in the Philippines, it is not only the

criminal who is punished but also his whole family,

physically and spiritually, as the vexations of your family

prove. That peaceful and governable mass hears with greater

pleasure what its educated sons tell it than what the friars

preach, because naturally they have more confidence in the

men of their own race than in those of another, who always

boast of their superiority. Thus the Philippines will get by

force, if they don't get them gratuitously, their parliamentary

representation and their rights to live free and respected. But

I doubt if the Filipinos would go to Madrid as deputies in

the first case. Certainly the deluded ones of this group trust

in the painting of the Indio by the friars and the majority of

Spanish writers: The first ones disfigure it out of passion, the

second because, blinded by their pride, they do not know

that thus a very unpleasant awakening awaits them.

The third and last group of deluded men hold the

ideas of the first two groups; but their national and

European pride is not exaggerated to the point of dege-

nerating into folly for greatness, neither is it aggressive nor

injurious. Thus they are better than the first group but worse

than the second, because the latter at least promises to the

coming generation what the present generation asks, while

the third group says: "Never!" It is composed of the

routinists and doctrinaires who

15

believe that the purpose of colonies is to provide the

Spaniard with employment and money and that the children

of the country must subordinate the interests of their

country not to the interests of Spain but to the well-being of

a handful of Spaniards. As doctrinaires, they are not satisfied

with this rather bold and improvident pretension but they

demand in addition the gratitude of the Filipinos because

the superior beings permit them to be born, to live, to suffer,

to pray, to pay, and to die ad majorem Hispanae gloriam.1* To

be just, we must say that the deluded men of the third group

are against every kind of abuse and never will permit a

violation of the laws and honor to be covered up with the

prestige of the white race. But as their very ideas are nothing

more than the codification of the abuses of power and of the

prestige of our race (according to those who believe in the

innate superiority of the Europeans), so they create finally a

regime that demands from its employees justice and honesty

while it is founded on an unjust and immortal basis.

Those three groups of deluded men exist in reality —

the first is composed of many Spaniards in Manila ; the

second is represented by a series of benevolent ministers to

whom the country owes many laudable reforms but reforms

that, in view of despotism and terrorism, are like an

excellent velocipede that is presented to a prisoner; the third

group includes a large number of Spanish senators and

deputies to which we can also add General Salamanca in

view of his speeches in the Senate of the kingdom, though

unwitting agents provocateurs1* of filibusterismo, while the

second functions like a good Samaritan who bandage the

wounds of a wounded gladiator so that he can come out

quickly again to the arena ad majus gaudium1* of the sove-

reign people. The lions and tigers that attack the gla-

14“For the greater glory of Spain.” 15 “Hired plotters” 16 “For the greater delight”

16

diator are the friars and other Castilas, and the manager of

the performance is the third group of deluded Spaniards.

Though it seems paradoxical, I believe that the in-

different persons among the Spaniards constitute the hope of

the country, for, as they have no anti-Filipino prejudices, it is

supposed that some day they may fraternize with those from

the Philippines, if they are informed of their true condition.

But for this the help of the government is also needed to see

to it that the youth of the kingdom is taught the geography

and ethnography of the Philippines. It is very sad, and

perhaps more than sad, to note that the youth of countries

which have no colonies, like my country Austria, is in

general better informed about the Philippines than the

Spanish youth and in part even the Spanish bureaucracy. It

is very sad, and perhaps even more than very sad, that Spain

who reigns over 6 or 8 million Malays, does not have either a

college or academy for Malay or oriental studies, the

seminaries of the friars being the exclusive enterprises of

private or international corporations. It is imprudent, and

perhaps even more than imprudent, that the employees in

the Philippines work like apprentices, for they do not know

the languages and ideas of their subjects, unable to graduate

from the status of apprentices because even when their

terms of office have not expired yet, they retire after staying

a few years in their post, the governors a mere three years. It

is a monstrosity of transcendental consequences if every

Petition of Right of the Filipinos is considered a filibustero act

that endangers the integrity of the mother country. All this

only serves to nourish filibusterismo and to separate the

colony from her metropolis. All the enemies and adversaries

of the assimilation of Filipinos will get the same thing that

the counselors of King Charles X of France obtained in 1830.

17

These observations are the fruit of the perusal of your notes,

and it is the desire of my soul that your book find in Spain a

circle of readers who will not burst into imprecations but

will know how to deduce from its perusal that the Filipinos

in reality are not like those in the disfigured picture painted

by the friars and your enemies. If then they do not attend to

the Filipinos, the Philippines will be lost, but through their

fault. They pretend to be noble but they do not know how to

be just; they pretend to be a superior nation and they do not

know how to follow a prudent policy; they fear separatist

ideas and they compel the Filipinos to seek refuge in

revolution. May God will that these prophecies be not

realized; but it seems that the governments of Spain lack the

aptitude for that of parat tueri17 habent sua fata non solum

libelli, sed eliam regna.18

Finally, I reiterate my expressions of gratitude for the

precious gift with which you have favored your mother

country, and the whole civilized world. I hope that you may

continue your studies that honor Spain and the Philippines

and glorify your name and with it the name Tagalog.

I conclude these lines wishing justice for your work.

Ferdinand Blumentritt

Leitmeritz, Austria 9 November 1889

1 7 He prepares to look. 1 8 Not only books have their own destiny but also kingdoms.