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!