Lineage, Life, and Labors of Jose Rizal, Philippine Patriot - Austin Craig
Rizal's mother and several of his sisters, the latter changing from
time to time, had been present during this critical period. Another
operation had been performed upon Mrs. Rizal's eyes, but she was
restive and disregarded the ordinary precautions, and the son was
in despair. A letter to his brother-in-law, Manuel Hidalgo, who was
inclined toward medical studies, says, "I now realize the reason why
physicians are directed not to practice in their own families."
A story of his mother and Rizal, necessary to understand his
peculiar attitude toward her, may serve as the transition from
the hero's sad (later) married experience to the real romance of
his life. Mrs. Rizal's talents commanded her son's admiration, as
her care for him demanded his gratitude, but, despite the common
opinion, he never had that sense of companionship with her that he
enjoyed with his father. Mrs. Rizal was a strict disciplinarian and
a woman of unexceptionable character, but she arrogated to herself
an infallibility which at times was trying to those about her, and
she foretold bitter fates for those who dared dispute her.
Just before Jose went abroad to study, while engaged to his cousin,
Leonora Rivera, Mrs. Rivera and her daughter visited their relatives in
Kalamba. Naturally the young man wished the guests to have the best of
everything; one day when they visited a bathing place near by he used
the family's newest carriage. Though this had not been forbidden,
his mother spoke rather sharply about it; Jose ventured to remind
her that guests were present and that it would be better to discuss
the matter in private. Angry because one of her children ventured to
dispute her, she replied: "You are an undutiful son. You will never
accomplish anything which you undertake. All your plans will result
in failure." These words could not be forgotten, as succeeding events
seemed to make their prophecy come true, and there is pathos in one of
Rizal's letters in which he reminds his mother that she had foretold
his fate.
His thoughts of an early marriage were overruled because his unmarried
sisters did not desire to have a sister-in-law in their home who
would add to the household cares but was not trained to bear her
share of them, and even Paciano, who was in his favor, thought that
his younger brother would mar his career by marrying early.
So, with fervent promises and high hopes, Rizal had sailed away to make
the fortune which should allow him to marry his cousin Leonora. She
was constantly in his thoughts and his long letters were mailed with
regular frequency during all his first years in Europe; but only a
few of the earliest ever reached her, and as few replies came into
his hands, though she was equally faithful as a correspondent.
Leonora's mother had been told that it was for the good of her
daughter's soul and in the interest of her happiness that she should
not become the wife of a man like Rizal, who was obnoxious to the
Church and in disfavor with the government. So, by advice, Mrs. Rivera
gradually withheld more and more of the correspondence upon both sides,
until finally it ceased. And she constantly suggested to the unhappy
girl that her youthful lover had forgotten her amid the distractions
and gayeties of Europe.
Then the same influence which had advised breaking off the
correspondence found a person whom the mother and others joined in
urging upon her as a husband, till at last, in the belief that she
owed obedience to her mother, she reluctantly consented. Strangely
like the proposed husband of the Maria Clara of "Noli Me Tangere,"
in which book Rizal had prophetically pictured her, this husband was
"one whose children should rule "--an English engineer whose position
had been found for him to make the match more desirable. Their marriage
took place, and when Rizal returned to the Philippines she learned
how she had been deceived. Then she asked for the letters that had
been withheld, and when told that as a wife she might not keep love
letters from any but her husband, she pleaded that they be burned
and the ashes given her. This was done, and the silver box with the
blackened bits of paper upon her dresser seemed to be a consolation
during the few months of life which she knew would remain to her.
Another great disappointment to Rizal was the action of Despujol
when he first arrived in Dapitan, for he still believed in the
Governor-General's good faith and thought in that fertile but sparsely
settled region he might plant his "New Kalamba" without the objection
that had been urged against the British North Borneo project. All
seemed to be going on favorably for the assembling of his relatives and
neighbors in what then would be no longer exile, when most insultingly,
the Governor-General refused the permission which Rizal had had reason
to rely upon his granting. The exile was reminded of his deportation
and taunted with trying to make himself a king. Though he did not know
it, this was part of the plan which was to break his spirit, so that
when he was touched with the sufferings of his family he would yield
to the influences of his youth and make complete political retraction;
thus would be removed the most reasonable, and therefore the most
formidable, opponent of the unnatural conditions Philippines and of
the selfish interests which were profiting by them. But the plotters
failed in their plan; they had mistaken their man.
During all this time Rizal had repeated chances to escape, and persons
high in authority seem to have urged flight upon him. Running away,
however, seemed to him a confession of guilt; the opportunities
of doing so always unsettled him, for each time the battle of
self-sacrifice had to be fought over again; but he remained firm
in his purpose. To meet death bravely is one thing; to seek it is
another and harder thing; but to refuse life and choose death over
and over again during many years is the rarest kind of heroism.
Rizal used to make long trips, sometimes cruising for a week in his
explorations of the Mindanao coast, and some of his friends proposed
to charter a steamer in Singapore and, passing near Dapitan, pick him
up on one of these trips. Another Philippine steamer going to Borneo
suggested taking him on board as a rescue at sea and then landing him
at their destination, where he would be free from Spanish power. Either
of these schemes would have been feasible, but he refused both.
Plans, which materialized, to benefit the fishing industry by improved
nets imported from his Laguna home, and to find a market for the abaka
of Dapitan, were joined with the introduction of American machinery,
for which Rizal acted as agent, among planters of neighboring
islands. It was a busy, useful life, and in the economic advancement
of his country the exile believed he was as patriotic as when he was
working politically.
Rizal personally had been fortunate, for in company with the commandant
and a Spaniard, originally deported for political reasons from the
Peninsula, he had gained one of the richer prizes in the government
lottery. These funds came most opportunely, for the land troubles
and succeeding litigation had almost stripped the family of all its
possessions. The account of the first news in Dapitan of the good
fortune of the three is interestingly told in an official report to the
Governor-General from the commandant. The official saw the infrequent
mail steamer arriving with flying bunting and at once imagined some
high authority was aboard; he hastened to the beach with a band of
music to assist in the welcome, but was agreeably disappointed with
the news of the luck which had befallen his prisoner and himself.
Not all of Dapitan life was profitable and prosperous. Yet in spite
of this Rizal stayed in the town. This was pure self-sacrifice,
for he refused to make any effort for his own release by invoking
influences which could have brought pressure to bear upon the
Spanish home government. He feared to act lest obstacles might be
put in the way of the reforms that were apparently making headway
through Despujol's initiative, and was content to wait rather than
to jeopardize the prospects of others.
A plan for his transfer to the North, in the Ilokano country, had been
deferred and had met with obstacles which Rizal believed were placed in
its way through some of his own countrymen in the Peninsula who feared
his influence upon the revenue with which politics was furnishing them.
Another proposal was to appoint Rizal district health officer for
Dapitan, but this was merely a covert government bribe. While the
exile expressed his willingness to accept the position, he did not
make the "unequivocally Spanish" professions that were needed to
secure this appointment.
Yet the government could have been satisfied of Rizal's innocence of
any treasonable designs against Spain's sovereignty in the Islands
had it known how the exile had declined an opportunity to head the
movement which had been initiated on the eve of his deportation. His
name had been used to gather the members together and his portrait
hung in each Katipunan lodge hall, but all this was without Rizal's
consent or even his knowledge.
The members, who had been paying faithfully for four years, felt that
it was time that something besides collecting money was done. Their
restiveness and suspicions led Andres Bonifacio, its head, to resort
to Rizal, feeling that a word from the exile, who had religiously
held aloof from all politics since his deportation, would give the
Katipunan leaders more time to mature their plans. So he sent a
messenger to Dapitan, Pio Valenzuela, a doctor, who to conceal his
mission took with him a blind man. Thus the doctor and his patient
appeared as on a professional visit to the exiled oculist. But though
the interview was successfully secured in this way, its results were
far from satisfactory.
Far from feeling grateful for the consideration for the possible
consequences to him which Valenzuela pretended had prompted the
visit, Rizal indignantly insisted that the country came first. He
cited the Spanish republics of South America, with their alternating
revolutions and despotisms, as a warning against embarking on a change
of government for which the people were not prepared. Education, he
declared, was first necessary, and in his opinion general enlightenment
was the only road to progress. Valenzuela cut short his trip, glad
to escape without anyone realizing that Rizal and he had quarreled.
Bonifacio called Rizal a coward when he heard his emissary's report,
and enjoined Valenzuela to say nothing of his trip. But the truth
leaked out, and there was a falling away in Katipunan membership.
Doctor Rizal's own statement respecting the rebellion and Valenzuela's
visit may fitly be quoted here:
"I had no notice at all of what was being planned until the first or
second of July, in 1896, when Pio Valenzuela came to see me, saying
that an uprising was being arranged. I told him that it was absurd,
etc., etc., and he answered me that they could bear no more. I advised
him that they should have patience, etc., etc. He added then that
he had been sent because they had compassion on my life and that
probably it would compromise me. I replied that they should have
patience and that if anything happened to me I would then prove my
innocence. 'Besides,' said I, 'don't consider me, but our country,
which is the one that will suffer.' I went on to show how absurd was
the movement.--This, later, Pio Valenzuela testified.--He did not
tell me that my name was being used, neither did he suggest that I
was its chief, or anything of that sort.
"Those who testify that I am the chief (which I do not know, nor do I
know of having ever treated with them), what proofs do they present of
my having accepted this chiefship or that I was in relations with them
or with their society? Either they have made use of my name for their
own purposes or they have been deceived by others who have. Where is
the chief who dictates no order and makes no arrangement, who is not
consulted in anything about so important an enterprise until the last
moment, and then when he decides against it is disobeyed? Since the
seventh of July of 1892 I have entirely ceased political activity. It
seems some have wished to avail themselves of my name for their
own ends."
This was Rizal's second temptation to engage in politics, the first
having been a trap laid by his enemies. A man had come to see Rizal
in his earlier days in Dapitan, claiming to be a relative and seeking
letters to prominent Filipinos. The deceit was too plain and Rizal
denounced the envoy to the commandant, whose investigations speedily
disclosed the source of the plot. Further prosecution, of course,
ceased at once.
The visit of some image vendors from Laguna who never before had
visited that region, and who seemed more intent on escaping notice
than interested in business, appeared suspicious, but upon report of
the Jesuits the matter was investigated and nothing really suspicious
was found.
Rizal's charm of manner and attraction for every one he met is best
shown by his relations with the successive commandants at Dapitan,
all of whom, except Carnicero, were naturally predisposed against him,
but every one became his friend and champion. One even asked relief on
the ground of this growing favorable impression upon his part toward
his prisoner.
At times there were rumors of Rizal's speedy pardon, and he would
think of going regularly into scientific work, collecting for those
European museums which had made him proposals that assured ample
livelihood and congenial work.
Then Doctor Blumentritt wrote to him of the ravages of disease among
the Spanish soldiers in Cuba and the scarcity of surgeons to attend
them. Here was a labor "eminently humanitarian," to quote Rizal's words
of his own profession, and it made so strong an appeal to him that,
through the new governor-general, for Despujol had been replaced by
Blanco, he volunteered his services. The minister of war of that time,
General Azcarraga, was Philippine born. Blanco considered the time
favorable for granting Rizal's petition and thus lifting the decree of
deportation without the embarrassment of having the popular prisoner
remain in the Islands.
The thought of resuming his travels evidently inspired the following
poem, which was written at about this time. The translation is by
Arthur P. Ferguson:
The Song of the Traveler
Like to a leaf that is fallen and withered,
Tossed by the tempest from pole unto pole;
Thus roams the pilgrim abroad without purpose,
Roams without love, without country or soul.
Following anxiously treacherous fortune,
Fortune which e'en as he grasps at it flees;
Vain though the hopes that his yearning is seeking,
Yet does the pilgrim embark on the seas!
Ever impelled by invisible power,
Destined to roam from the East to the West;
Oft he remembers the faces of loved ones,
Dreams of the day when he, too, was at rest.
Chance may assign him a tomb on the desert,
Grant him a final asylum of peace;
Soon by the world and his country forgotten,
God rest his soul when his wanderings cease!
Often the sorrowful pilgrim is envied,
Circling the globe like a sea-gull above;
Little, ah, little they know what a void
Saddens his soul by the absence of love.
Home may the pilgrim return in the future,
Back to his loved ones his footsteps he bends;
Naught will he find but the snow and the ruins,
Ashes of love and the tomb of his friends.
Pilgrim, begone! Nor return more hereafter.
Stranger thou art in the land of thy birth;
Others may sing of their love while rejoicing,
Thou once again must roam o'er the earth.
Pilgrim, begone! Nor return more hereafter,
Dry are the tears that a while for thee ran;
Pilgrim, begone! And forget thy affliction,
Loud laughs the world at the sorrows of man.
CHAPTER X
"Consummatum Est"
NOTICE of the granting of his request came to Rizal just when
repeated disappointments had caused him to prepare for staying
in Dapitan. Immediately he disposed of his salable possessions,
including a Japanese tea set and large mirror now among the Rizal
relics preserved by the government, and a piece of outlying land,
the deed for which is also among the Rizalana in the Philippines
library. Some half-finished busts were thrown into the pool behind
the dam. Despite the short notice all was ready for the trip in time,
and, attended by some of his schoolboys as well as by Josefina and
Rizal's niece, the daughter of his youngest sister, Soledad, whom
Josefina wished to adopt, the party set out for Manila.
The journey was not an uneventful one; at Dumaguete Rizal was the
guest of a Spanish judge at dinner; in Cebu he operated successfully
upon the eyes of a foreign merchant; and in Iloilo the local newspaper
made much of his presence.
The steamer from Dapitan reached Manila a little too late for the mail
boat for Spain, and Rizal obtained permission to await the next sailing
on board the cruiser Castilla, in the bay. Here he was treated like a
guest and more than once the Spanish captain invited members of Rizal's
family to be his guests at dinner--Josefina with little Maria Luisa,
the niece and the schoolboys, for whom positions had been obtained,
in Manila.
The alleged uprising of the Katipunan occurred during this time. A
Tondo curate, with an eye to promotion, professed to have discovered
a gigantic conspiracy. Incited by him, the lower class of Spaniards
in Manila made demonstrations against Blanco and tried to force
that ordinarily sensible and humane executive into bloodthirsty
measures, which should terrorize the Filipinos. Blanco had known of
the Katipunan but realized that so long as interested parties were
using it as a source of revenue, its activities would not go much
beyond speechmaking. The rabble was not so far-seeing, and from high
authorities came advice that the country was in a fever and could
only be saved by blood-letting.
Wholesale arrests filled every possible place for prisoners in
Manila. The guilt of one suspect consisted in having visited the
American consul to secure the address of a New York medical journal,
and other charges were just as frivolous. There was a reign of terror
in Luzon and, to save themselves, members of the Katipunan resorted to
that open warfare which, had Blanco's prudent counsels been regarded,
would probably have been avoided.
While the excitement was at its height, with a number of executions
failing to satisfy the blood-hunger, Rizal sailed for Spain,
bearing letters of recommendation from Blanco. These vouched for his
exemplary conduct during his exile and stated that he had in no way
been implicated in the conspiracies then disturbing the Islands.
The Spanish mail boat upon which Rizal finally sailed had among its
passengers a sick Jesuit, to whose care Rizal devoted himself, and
though most of the passengers were openly hostile to one whom they
supposed responsible for the existing outbreak, his professional
skill led several to avail themselves of his services. These were
given with a deference to the ship's doctor which made that official
an admirer and champion of his colleague.
Three only of the passengers, however, were really friendly--one
Juan Utor y Fernandez, a prominent Mason and republican, another
ex-official in the Philippines who shared Utor's liberal views,
and a young man whose father was republican.
But if Rizal's chief adversaries were content that he should go where
he would not molest them or longer jeopardize their interests, the
rabble that had been excited by the hired newspaper advocates was
not so easily calmed. Every one who felt that his picture had been
painted among the lower Spanish types portrayed in "Noli Me Tangere"
was loud for revenge. The clamor grew so great that it seemed possible
to take advantage of it to displace General Blanco, who was not a
convenient tool for the interests.
So his promotion was bought, it is said, to get one Polavieja,
a willing tool, in his place. As soon as this scheme was arranged,
a cablegram ordering Rizal's arrest was sent; it overtook the steamer
at Suez. Thus as a prisoner he completed his journey.
But this had not been entirely unforeseen, for when the steamer reached
Singapore, Rizal's companion on board, the Filipino millionaire Pedro
P. Roxas, had deserted the ship, urging the ex-exile to follow his
example. Rizal demurred, and said such flight would be considered
confession of guilt, but he was not fully satisfied in his mind that
he was safe. At each port of call his uncertainty as to what course
to pursue manifested itself, for though he considered his duty to his
country already done, and his life now his own, he would do nothing
that suggested an uneasy conscience despite his lack of confidence
in Spanish justice.
At first, not knowing the course of events in Manila, he very naturally
blamed Governor-General Blanco for bad faith, and spoke rather harshly
of him in a letter to Doctor Blumentritt, an opinion which he changed
later when the truth was revealed to him in Manila.
Upon the arrival of the steamer in Barcelona the prisoner was
transferred to Montjuich Castle, a political prison associated with
many cruelties, there to await the sailing that very day of the
Philippine mail boat. The Captain-General was the same Despujol
who had decoyed Rizal into the power of the Spaniards four years
before. An interesting interview of some hours' duration took place
between the governor and the prisoner, in which the clear conscience
of the latter seems to have stirred some sense of shame in the man
who had so dishonorably deceived him.
He never heard of the effort of London friends to deliver him at
Singapore by means of habeas-corpus proceedings. Mr. Regidor furnished
the legal inspiration and Mr. Baustead the funds for getting an opinion
as to Rizal's status as a prisoner when in British waters, from Sir
Edward Clarke, ex-solicitor-general of Great Britain. Captain Camus, a
Filipino living in Singapore, was cabled to, money was made available
in the Chartered Bank of Singapore, as Mr. Baustead's father's
firm was in business in that city, and a lawyer, now Sir Hugh Fort,
K.C., of London, was retained. Secretly, in order that the attempt,
if unsuccessful, might not jeopardize the prisoner, a petition was
presented to the Supreme Court of the Straits Settlements reciting the
facts that Doctor Jose Rizal, according to the Philippine practice of
punishing Freemasons without trial, was being deprived of his liberty
without warrant of law upon a ship then within the jurisdiction of
the court.
According to Spanish law Rizal was being illegally held on the Spanish
mail steamer Colon, for the Constitution of Spain forbade detention
except on a judge's order, but like most Spanish laws the Constitution
was not much respected by Spanish officials. Rizal had never had a
hearing before any judge, nor had any charge yet been placed against
him. The writ of habeas corpus was justified, provided the Colon were
a merchant ship that would be subject to British law when in British
port, but the mail steamer that carried Rizal also had on board Spanish
soldiers and flew the royal flag as if it were a national transport. No
one was willing to deny that this condition made the ship floating
Spanish territory, and the judge declined to issue the writ.
Rizal reached Manila on November 3 and was at once transferred to
Fort Santiago, at first being held in a dungeon "incomunicado" and
later occupying a small cell on the ground floor. Its furnishings
had to be supplied by himself and they consisted of a small rattan
table, a high-backed chair, a steamer chair of the same material,
and a cot of the kind used by Spanish officers--canvas top and
collapsible frame which closed up lengthwise. His meals were sent in
by his family, being carried by one of his former pupils at Dapitan,
and such cooking or heating as was necessary was done on an alcohol
lamp which had been presented to him in Paris by Mrs. Tavera.
An unsuccessful effort had been made earlier to get evidence against
Rizal by torturing his brother Paciano. For hours the elder brother had
been seated at a table in the headquarters of the political police,
a thumbscrew on one hand and pen in the other, while before him
was a confession which would implicate Jose Rizal in the Katipunan
uprising. The paper remained unsigned, though Paciano was hung up by
the elbows till he was insensible, and then cut down that the fall
might revive him. Three days of this maltreatment made him so ill
that there was no possibility of his signing anything, and he was
carted home.
It would not be strictly accurate to say that at the close of the
nineteenth century the Spaniards of Manila were using the same tortures
that had made their name abhorrent in Europe three centuries earlier,
for there was some progress; electricity was employed at times as
an improved method of causing anguish, and the thumbscrews were much
more neatly finished than those used by the Dons of the Dark Ages.