Story of Jose Rizal by Austin Craig

The Story of Jose Austin Craig Rlzal Chinsegut Hill University of Florida Libraries )h- ?yv^. ^>-. (l. witliDUt lu-sitatioii. Willi not a reerret in the a’lv’mg; No matter what place, ‘Mid cypress or laurel or Whether on lilies. scaH’old. in open. Or combat or martyrdom same the Who the jtuem dies for his written home and by Dr. Rizal the ere of hix execution . crurl. to the hcrt) It is /'”/•(;/// “” what condition, (Lieut. E. in his tiresidt.

” Fort Santiago clnn^cL H, Rubottom^s translation uu . THE STOKY J R OSK rHK ORKATKS’I^ Ol 1 Z MAN A Ol THK UHOW? ^ HAO; The study of the life and character cannot but be beneficial esirous of imitating: him. of Dr, Rizal to those —President PHII. IPPINTK Wm. H. T^ff, MANILA KDUCATION PUBLltaHlKO 1 ooo CO. L A FTHOirS These pages aim the principal of Spanish time a to to summarise figure letter in NOTE the interest in him meant and suspicion.

fully destroyed everything relating circumstances variations it is from events in the life During mentioning Dr. Bical was sufficient cause deportation of both zvriter any main Philippine history. receiver, Even him. to and to Under such quite natural that there should he the popidar version of his show his family care- many life in this first uthentic hiography. The statements are based on lahorions researches in government and church records, extensive inquiries among relatives, associates and confemjwraries, and a careful study of the considerable Kizal literature, but achiowltdgment of those obligations must Jje deferred till the puhlication of the larger worlc.

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Here ii is possible only to express gratitude for the enthusiastic interest shown by the Filipinos, and appreciation , of the courtesy of the Spaniards, uniformly experienced during the five years i^i ivliich this study has been in indgrcss. I^HIUPflNK KDUCifVXION PUBLISH ^fC* COMPANY

KBCJISTERED IN THE PHILIPPINES ISLANI>S I (Txi’/Jif of Tranxhifiori lifiicrved . ) Press of Methodist Publishing House, Manila. EN The Story of ^Jose Rizae ^J OSE RIZAL, the martyr- hero of the Philippines, on the southwest shore of the picturesque laguna of Bay, in Luzon, June 19, 18G1. His father’s family began in the Philippines with a Chinaman named Lam co who came from the Amoy district to Manila possibly because of the political troubles which followed the conquest of his country by the Manchu invaders. It was in 1697 that this ancestor, whose Christian name was Domingo, was baptized in the Parian hurch of San Gabriel. » was born At first in Kiilamba, a merchant, he finally made up his mind to stay in these Islands, and turned farmer to escape the bitter anti Chinese prejudice which then existed in Manila. Rftther late in life he married the daughter of a countryman who was a dealer in rice and moved into La Laguna province to become a tenant on the Dominican Friars’ estate at Biiian. His son. Francisco Mercado y Chinco, apparently owed his surname to the Chinese custom of looking to the appropriateness of the meaning. Sangley, the name thruout all the Philippines for Chinamen ignifies “travelling trader” and in the shop Spanish cf the Islands “mercado” was used for trader. So Lamco evidently intended that his descendants should stop travelling but not cease being traders. Francisco Mercado was a name held in high honor in La Laguna for it had belonged to a famous sea captain who had been given the encomienda of Bay for his services and had there won the regard of those who paid tribute to him by his fairness and interest in their welfare. Francisco’s son was Captain Juan Mercado y Monica and he took advantage of his position to expunge from the municipal records the designation “Chinese mestizo” fter the names of himself and family. Thus he saved the higher fees and taxes which Chinese mestizos then were compelled to pay. The Captain died when his youngest son, Francisco Fngracio Mercado y Alexandra, was only nine years old. An unmarried sister, Potenciana, twenty years older than boy and sent him to the Latin school. years later the husband of their sister Petrona died and they moved to the neighboring hacienda of Kalamba, also belonging to the Dominican order, to help the widow with her farm. The landlords recognized the industry of the young farmer and kept increasing his land until he became one f the most prosperous of their tenants. In 1847 his sister Potenciana died and the following year Francisco married. he, looked after the Some Dr. Rizal’s Father His wife, Teodora Alonso y Quintos, was nine years his junior and a woman not only of exceptional ability but with an education unusual for that time in its modern- She was of Ilocano-Tagalog-Chineseness and liberality. Spanish descent, possibly having even a little Japanese blood, and her family counted lawyers, priests, govern- ment officials and merchants among its members. They boasted of one representative of the Philippines in the

Spanish Cortes, and it is said to have been a youthful ambition of Dr. Rizal to fill some day the same position. A new family name was adopted in 1850 by authority of the royal decree of the preceding year which sought to remedy the confusion resulting from many unrelated Filipinos having the same surnames and a still greater number having no last names at all. The new name, however, was not taken from the government lists but appears to have been selected, as was the old one, because of its appropriateness. Rizal, a shortened form of the Spanish word for “second crop”, seemed suited to a family of armers who were making a second start in a new home. Francisco Rizal soon found that in spite of his legal authority for it. the new name was making confusion in business affairs begun under the old name, so he comproHis mothmised, after a few years, on “Rizal Mercado”. er-in-law, who lived in the neighborhood, at the same time adopted the name “Rialonda” and her children fol lowed her example. So it was that when Jose Protasio Rizal was baptized, the record showed his parents as Francisco Rizal Mercado and Teodora Realonda, another spelling of “Rialonda”. St. Protasio, the child’s patron, very properly was a artyr, and that a Filipino priest baptized and a secular archbishop confirmed him seem also fitting. Jose’s mother taught him his letters, learned at three, and his uncles and an- aunt interested themselves in his training untila young man named Monroy, who had studied for the priesthood but never taken the final orders, came into the house as Jose’s tutor. The impression of his first reading lesson, which was the story of the foolish butterfly in Abbe Sabatier’s “Children’s Friend”, was prophetic of a martyr’s fate, for the child envied the insect which had died for the sake of Early the injustices and abuses daily to be he light. seen in Kalamba attracted his attention and he wondered if in the land across the lake, which to him then seem- ed a distant country, the people were happier and the officials less cruel than they were on the shore where his home was. No small part of his childhood training came from listening to the Spaniards, officials and priests, who generally were guests in the Eizal home when they visited Kalamba. The parish priest, Father Leoncio Lopez, also made the boy the companion of his walks, and the confidant of his views on the injustices done the Filipino clergy. On his pony or afoot with his dog

Usman, Jose explored all the picturesque region which lies about Kalamba, but his first journey from home was at seven when his family -visited Antipolo during the festival in honor of the Virgin *’of Peace and Safe Travf’l” which had been brought from America by an early Spanish governor. Until he went away to school, and then during his holidays at home, entertainments were given the neighbors ‘Our Lady of Peace and Safe Voyages who is venerated at Actipolo” — l’>()rii Hail. Flower of Purity, Queen Hail, “Al Juveniud Pilipina,’. of the seas. Seamen’s Security, Emblem of peace. Antipolo. Of thee we all know.

The fame of thy name shall not cease. The picture was found RizaVs album and in Dr. engraving placed by him, according to the Filipino custom, inside his is the chest home. when he Jirst left and shadow movintr pictures. These shadowgraphs were made by paper figures moved by his clever fingers between a lamp and a white curtain. Their novelty and his skill were the subject of village talk which magnified them as it repeated the stories until the boy came to be enveloped in a sort of mystery. As he became more than a local hero, these tales spread thru the archipelago abreast with his growing reputation nd were doubtless the foundation for the belief in his miraculous powers which existed among the illiterate of his countrymen. In two years at the Biiian Latin school, where he lived in the home of an aunt, he got beyond tlie old schoolmaster, Florentino Aquin Cruz, and returned to Kalamba to wait till he was old enough to go to Manila. After a few weeks in the public school under a Lucas Padua, who had been a student in the Jesuit Normal School, Jose rested for a while from studying. His unfavorable opinion of the public school and its methods are very apparent, however, from frequent references in his writings.

His brother Paciano had been studying philosophy in San Jose College but really had been more interested in the stirring political matters of the day so that it was considered better for Jose, when he went to Manila, to not go with the elder brother. He lived with the keeper of a sinauiay store in which his mother was a partner thru furnishing the capital, and seems first to have been examined in San Juan de Letran College but not to have attended there. This was in June, 187 1, and of the rest of that school year there is no record, but college mates say that once in Spain he spoke f having been in the Jesuit Normal and laughed aver the recollection of his first struggles with Spanish. His Ateneo record shows credit for arithmetic but evidently given for examination on entrance, which was June 15, 1872, and learning Spanish would certainly have been enough work for one year. The first year in Manila was important in Dr. Rizal’s education tho the knowledge was not gained in school. On January 20, 1872, the liberal ideas that had been rapidly gaining ground in the Philippines received a terrible set back thru an insurrection in Cavite which was of sleight- of -liaiid tricks ade the pretext for removing the progressive leaders tho their guilt was never established and the people bePaciano kept his brother posted on lieved them innocent. the conditions nor did Mrs. Rizal conceal from her sons her interest in the situation and belief that injustice was being done^ “To the memory of the priests, Don MARIANO GOMEZ (aged 86 years) DoD JOSE BURGOS (aged 30 years )» and Don JACINTO Executed ZAMORA on (aged 35 years) Bagumbayan Field February, 1872. “The Church, by refusing to unfrock you, has placed in doubt the crime which has been charged against you; the State, by enveloping your trial in ystery and uncertainty, caused belief in an error committed in a fatal moment; and the Philippines, by venerating your memory and calling you martyrs, does not recognize in any way your guilt. ” {The dedication of the novel “El Filibustensmo. ^^) JO With the following year, when he entered the Ateneo Municipal, his real schooling began. This school, whose semi-centennial is to be celebrated in 1909 and which has educated the greater part of the leading men of the Philippines of today, had been founded by the Jesuits upon their return to the Islands after nearly a century of banishment.

In methods of instruction it was in 187’2 the only modern school in Manila, but it was particularly because Filipinos were given the same treatment there as Spaniards that the school was so popular. Hundreds were going as day scholars awaiting a vacancy in the dormitory that they might enjoy the advantages of a boarder. It was not until his fourth year that Jose’s opportunity came. The Ateneo Municipal On March 14, 1877, he received his bachelor’s degree in Arts with highest honors, having been first in his class in both deportmtent and scholarship thruout the course and having won most of the prizes offered by the school.

The next year he did double work, taking the first year in philosophy in the University of Santo Tomas and studying agriculture in. the Ateneo. This latter course was also completed with highest honors but because h^ was not yet of the legal age his credentials as “agricultural expert and surveyor” were not issued until two years later. 11 Hig second, third and fourth years in the Manila university were in medicine and were combined with outside studies in painting, and sculpture, and interest in two societies established by the Jesuits, the Academy of Spanish Literature, of which he was president, and the

Academy of Physical Sciences, in which he held the position of secretary. Modelling liad come from making masks, or false faces, from clay for which Jose used to go out to a cousin’s brick yard at San Pedro Macati, and when younger his play with wax in Kalamba had been to fashion rude birds. Drawings of men with arms like X’s on the margins ot his Abbe Sabatier, for which his mother had scolded him, had been followed by daubings in color. One festival day, when an important banner had been lost just before Bust, Rizal, by modelled of Padre Dr. Guerrico, one of his Ateneo instruc-‘ received tors. medal t (190’4) 12 It Exposition. the St. a gold Louis the procession in which it was to be used, young Rizal hastily painted a substitute that the deh’ghted municipal captain said was every bit as good as the original which had come from Manila. From a Spanish translation of the Latin Vulgate his mother had read to him the poetry of the Bible as well as the stories usually told to children and its rich imagery had made an impression. Then she had encouraged his efforts at rhyming, which were inspired by the simple verses in Abbe Sabatier’s ”Children’s Friend”, and at eight a Tagalog comedy of his had een bought by the municipal captain of Paet for as much as a farm laborer earned in half a month. Verses to Magellan, to El Cano, on Education, a French ode, and a dozen other efforts had given practice and each was better than its predecessor. At eighteen competition held by the “Liceo Artispoem “Al Juventud Filipina” (To the Filipino Youth) he won the special prize for ”imliaths’ in a tico Literario” with the and mestizos. The next year the same lyceum in a contest in honor of Cervantes allowed Spaniards, mestizos and imUans ail to enter the same competition. The first prize for prose as awarded Jose Rizal’s “Consejo de los dioses (Council of the Gods)” and the jury gave it another special prize as the best critical appreciation of the author of “Don Quixote. ” At the public meeting in the old Variadades theatre, Governor General Primo de Rivera presented to the young student the gold ring bearing a bust of Cervantes which had been won by him as “one who had honored Spain in this distant land”, to quote from the newspaper account. Everybody had expected this prize to be won by Friar Evaristo Arias, one of the most brilliant literary men the CFniversity of Santo Tomas had ever had on its faculty, nd there was astonishment and disappointment among his many friends who were present to applaud his triumph when the award of the jury and the opening of the envelopes reveafed the success of an unknown medical student. Naturally, as the Jesuits and Dominicans were rivals in school work, there was corresponding elation in the Ateneo and among its friends for, tho Rizal was a student 13 THE The use of the PRIZE FOR “AL word Spain in JUVENTIJD FILIPINA” the translation makes the meaninxi vnmistakable bid the reference ivas not obscure in the originoh Prosperity once for an era in this land held reign.

But now it groans beneath an iron yoke, Slowly expiring from a mortal stroke Ruthlessly dealt by the grim, nnpitying hand of Spain. And yet if it should now devoutly bend tlie knee At the shrine of Patriotism, might it still be free? Alas! In the sad future, for unnumbered days, AVill come the reckoning which man repays AV’ho, putting his own before his country’s gain, Finds in his own ensuing degradation, Slave of a cruel, harsh invading nation, His rewanl; in pestilential ‘ars and endless pain. 14 Paciaiio encouraged him and so did Antonio Kivera, a distant cousin of bis mother’s in whose house he had

I5een living and to whose beautiful daughter, a few years younger than himself, be was engaged. Nor did his old professors in the Ateneo, of whom he sought advice, try to dissuade him. So, on May 5, 1882, after he had been recalled by a cipher telegram from Kalamba, where he had been staying for a short visit, he embarked for Singapore on the mail steamer ”Salvadora” and after the six days that the journey then took he transferred to a foreign passenger ship which carried him to Barcelona. There was quite a distinguished passenger list of returning officials and their families among whom Rizal figured, according to is passport, as “J^se Mercado, a native of the district Paciano furnished the funds but as soon of Santa Cruz. ” as his father learned of Jose’s going he arranged to send him money regularly thru Antonio Rivera. This roundabout way was necessary as life would not have been pleasant for any provincial family known to have sent one of its sons abroad to be educated, especially for a family like the Mercados who were tenants on an estate which was part of the university endowment. From Barcelona Rizal quickly went to Madrid and contin^jed his double course in philosophy and letters and in medicine. Besides he found time for more lessons in rawing and painting, and studied languages under special teachers. In 1884 he received the degree of Licenciate in Medicine and the following year, on his twenty-fourth birthday, the like degree in Philosophy and in Letters, and with highest honors. On the voyage to Spain or just after arrival, Rizal wrote and sent back to a Manila Tagalog daily an article on love of native land, and he continued to write for the paper during the short time it lived. The Filipino students in Spain knew Rizal by reputation, many of them had bee a schoolmates of his, and they enthusiastically welcomed him, but in their gayety he took o part. He economized in everything else to have money to spend on books and his first purchases included “Picturesque America”, “Lives of the Presidents of the United States’, “The Anglo Saxons”, “The English ! ZAL’S SHIP ; m THE SUEZ CANAL [Photograph from IHs album) THE SONG OF THE WANDERER (Translation by Arthur P. Ferguson. ) 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 tho the hopps 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 that 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. Thou must seek other pasturcis, Stranger thou art in the land of thy birth, Others may sing of their love while rejoicing; Thou once again must retra verse the eartli. Pilgrim, begone! Pilgrim, begone! Nor return more hereafter, Dry are the tears that a while for you ran, Pilgrim, begone! and forget thy affliction. Loud Uughs the world at the sorrows of man. J8 Revolution” and other indications that then, as he said later, “the free peoples interested him most. The affectation and love of display of some of his countrymen disgusted him and at the same time convinced him of a theory he later declared in regard to race This same disgust, he reasoned, is felt toward the ostentatious new rich and the braggirt self-made man, only these when they come to their senses are no longer distinguishable from the rest of the world while the man of color must suffer for the foolishness of his fellows. So he who by nature was little inclined to be self-conceited, boasting or loud came to be even more unaffected, simpler in dress and reposeful in manner as he tried to ake lymself as different as possible from a type he detested. Yet this was at no sacrifice of dignity but rather brought out more strongly his force of character. His many and close friendships with all who knew him, and that his most intimate friends were of the white race, (one of his Spanish jailers even asked to be relieved of his charge because the association was making him too prejudice. fond of his prisoner) seem to show that Dr. Rizal’s theory was right. One day, after an association aimed to help the Philippines had gone to pieces because no one seemed willing to do anything unless he were sure of all the glory, some f the students met in an effort to revive if. The effort was not successful and then Rizal proposed all joinino- in a book, illustrated by Filipino artists, to tell Spain about the real Philippines. The plan was enthusiastically received but tho there was eagerness to write about, the “The Pilipina Woman” the other subjects were neglected. Rizal was disappointed and dropped the Then he came across, in a second-hand booka French copy of “The Wandering Jew” and bought it to get practice in reading the language. The book affected him powerfully and he realized what an aid to the Philippines such a way of revealing its wrongs ould be, but he dreaded the appearance of self-conceit in announcing that he was going to write a book like subject. store, Eugene Sue’s. idea of writing So he said nothing to any one, yet the NoU Me Tangere was constantly in his 19 mind from the night in January of 1884 when he finished the French novel. During his stay in Madrid, Dr. Rizal waa made a freemason in Acacia Lodge No. 9 of the “Gran Oriente de Espaiia” at whose head was then Manuel Becerra, later Minister of Ultramar, or Colonies. Among the persons with whom he thus became acquainted were Manuel Ruiz Zorilla, Praxedes M. Sagasta, Emilio Castelar and Victor

HowBalaguer, all prominent in the politics of Spain. ever slight the association, it came in the formative period of the young student’s life and turned his thoughts into He no longer constructive lines rather than destructive. thought only of getting rid of Spanish sovereignty but began to question what sort of a government was to reAt Barcelona he had seen the monument of place it. General Prim whose motto had been “More liberal today than yesterday, more liberal tomorrow than today” yet he knew how opposed the Spanish patriot had been to a Spanish republic because Spaniards were not prepared for it.

So he resolved to prepare the Filipinos and the compaign of education which he saw being waged by Spaniards in Spain Rizal thought would be no more unpatriotic or anti-Spanish if carried on by a Filipino for the Philippines. Already he had become convinced of one political truth which was to separate him from other leaders of his countrymen, that the condition of the common people and not the form of, Uie government is — the all-important thing. From Madrid, after a short trip thru the more backward provinces because these were the country regions of Spain and so more fairly to be compared with the Philippines, Dr.

Rizal in 1885 went to Paris and continued his medical studies under an eye specialist. Association with artists and seeing the treasures of the city’s rich galleries also assisted in his art education. For the political part Masonry again was responsible. The Grand Orient of France was not recognized by the Spanish Masonry of which Rizal was a member but held relations with a rival organization over which Frof. MiMoray ta presided. So in Rue Cadet 16 he was initiated into this irregular body which had been responsible for the French Revolution and, because it did not re- guel 20 Dr. Rizal’s Library hown here makes the Of the open volumes first is in German, next Site’s ‘^Wan- Attother small case with those half reinaining of his books. Goethe” s ” Wilhelni Meisttr”’ and the third a “The Lives of the rlering Jew”’ edit ion # of finely illustrated Spanish Presidents of the United St a ( EXPEDIENTK (7 ^? rother knew of the insurrection, tho the use of the thumbscrews and hanging him by the arms had taken place in Manila just after Dr. Rizal had sailed for Spain. In those days a prisoner was compelled to testify against himself, and the Doctor answered very frankly except Avhere othesrs ere concerned. The use of symbolic names among his Masonic acquaintances made jt possible for him to say in many cases that he did not know any one of such a name. At other times his memory was made the excuse for not caring to answer, but where it concerned himself there were no subterfuges. The man whose word was so sacred to him that he would not take any of the many chances to escape offered during his years in banishment disdained any attempt at deception. *^ He had said that his conscience was clear and in his trial he seemed only anxious that his real position shall be understood. In act he asked permission to address a proclamation to the rebels in the field who had been deceived into insurrection by the fraudulent use of his name, and when it was read by the prosecutor that zealous official added it as him only -by another proof of disloyalty. It urged that tbey disband now, for they were unfitted for independence and should first educate and fit themselves before they attempted to There was no cringing or denying separate from Spain. Riof responsibility but neither was there any bravado. zal’s additions to his defense were as clearly reasoned and dispassionate as tho he were debating with a friend nd not on trial for his life. No time was lost in convicting him nor in confirming the military court’s decision but he was sentenced to be shot on December 30, 1896. Just after Rizal became aware of his sentence to death but before bis transfer to the chapel he wrote the poem now f amors as “The Final Farewell. ” It was copied on a small sheet of notepaper, folded lengthwise into a narrow strip and then doubled and wedged inside the tank of a little alcohol lamp on which his cooking in the cell had been done. At the farewell to his sister Trinidad while in the chapel he said: “I have nothing to give you as a ouvenir except the cooking lamp Mrs. Tavera gave me and then so the guard might not while I was ii^ Paris understand he said in a low tone, in English, “There is something inside. ” The lamp was taken with his other belongings from the fort and it was not until the night of the second day after his death that it was deemed safe to investigate. Then when the verses were found they were immediately copied and the copy without comment mailed to Hong Kong. There they were published. But Rizal had time to polish the poetry a little and thru another channel safely sent the revised poem so the morning after his death opies of it were found on the desks of prominent Filipino > ” sympathizers. He had been a prisoner in Fort Santiago, at first “incomanicado” in one of the dungeons and later in a cell on the ground floor. After his sentence he was removed to the fort chapel with troops on guard in the courtyard in The military chaplains offered services which front of it. “My own “Of all of “My own idolized Native Country, my sorrows the saddest, Philippines, “Hear now my my beloved! adieu, ray last farewell! 40 “Behold “My all for parents, thee my I am leaving, friends long beloved! “I go where no slaves are in bondage, No hangman, nor cruel oppressor, “Where faith does not justify murder, “And God is the Ruler Eternal. “Adieu, Oh my parents and brothers, “As part of my soul here remaining, “Ye friends of the years of my childhood, “And of the dear home lost forever! “Give thanks unto God, that already “I rest from the day’s toil and trouble. “Farewell unto thee, gentle stranger, “My friend “Farewell, “Oh weep and all my joy thou wert ever! ye beings beloved! not, for death *L is but resting! he courteously declined but later Jesuits came, from iiia old school, whom he warmly welcomed. These brought a ittle wooden image of the Sacred Heart which as a schoolboy he had carved with a penknife during playtime and had put up inside the door in the dormitory. During all the tweTity years it had stayed in the same place for Rizal was not only the favorite of his fellows as a student but had remained the hero of the Ateneo boys up to that time. The recollection of his happy school days brought up memories of when for his exemplary conduct he had been a leader in the Marian Congregation, and of the verses he had written in honor of the Virgin. A retraction was required by the Archbishop before he ould receive the consolations of his religion and several forms were proposed. Practically every victim of political persecution had left a retraction couched in such language that its spontaneousness was always questioned. The one dictated for Rizal was no exception and the Jesuits knew he would never sign it so they substituted a form of their own, giving what was essential for reconciliation with the Church and worded in a way that would not recall the differences Rizal had had with some of its minis- With its ideas the prisoner was satisfied but he very reasonably argued that unless in his style no one ould believe that he had changed the habit of a lifetime in its last moments. To this request the Jesuits say they agreed and the retraction was re- worded by him. Unfortunately the original has been lost and that it was ever made was disputed, at the time it was first pubNo one of his family was permitted to see it. lished. Nevertheless the attending circumstances all argue in Strongest of all is the favor of its having been made. testimony of the Jesuits who were not mixed up in the politics of that time when church and state were so interwoven that it was argued that no one could be a good Catholic who was not a good Spaniard.

Two copies, differing only in phraseology, have been published. Of these the one telegraphed to Madrid and published in “El Imparcial” on December 31st, 1896, seems to be more Rizal’s style and is free from those for- ters. 4;i mal church terms which he would have been likely to nothing he could not have sfgned in when he was expressing his religious views to Dapitan Father Pastells. But th^n a political recantation as well as a religious reconciliation was desired. avoid. Tliere The is in it retraction reads: I want to live and “I declare rayself a Catholic. I retract with all my heart whatdie as a Catholic. ver I have said or written or done against the Church and our Lord Jesus Christ. I give up Masonry which is an enemy of the Church. ” “The head of the diocese may publish this retrac tion, which I make of my own accord, to repair as as may be possible the scandal caused by May all men forgive writings and by my acts. for the injury which I have caused to many. ” far my me After his confession Dr. Eizal was married to Josephine Bracken, the adopted daughter of a Hong Kong retired engineer who had come to Dapitan to see if there was any cure for his lost sight. Rizal had fallen in love with he girl, who was ten years younger than himself, and had asked her to stay in Dapitan until they could be married but tho authorized by law there was no provision in the Philippines fqr civil marriage and so there was no chance for the ceremony until this reconciliation with His wife, the daughter of an Irish sergeant the church. in the British army in India and, to judge by her features, an Indian mother, was also of his faith. The belief that Mrs. Rizal was an Eurasian is^ borne out by the fact that she was educated in the Italian convent of Hong Kong which has so many of that mixed Her adopted mother, Mrs.

Taufer, from whom blood. she took her middle name of Leopoldine, was Portuguese, and thru her knowledge of that language she found Spanish easy to learn. If she had not known Rizal personally she at least ticing medicine in knew of him while Jje was prac- Hong Kong. It was now morning and after a short interval the march to the place of execution, on the Luneta, was begun, on foot and with a heavy escort of soldiers. 44 In the same place where the three priests had been 1872 and where his very- very-great-grandfather had his rice store, two centuries back, beside a bastion of the same name he had given to Kalamba in the novel or which he was dying, Jose Rizal with a pulse that beat as naturally as ever was shot by Filipino soldiers behind whom stood Spanish soldiers to see the order was unhesitatingly obeyed. The request that he might not be shot from the back because he was neither traitor to Spain nor to his own country was refused. A powerful effort of the will in falling led the victim to turn himself so as to fall with his face to the sky. So the Spanish soldiers saw hira as they filed past his dead body and the cheers for Spain and the triumphal music of the band as it played the March of Cadiz did not prevent a feeling of admiration for the brave man.

Spain’s was a brief triumph, for tho the first killed in anniversary of his death was celebrated by desecrating his grave, the second found it decorated, and each sue ceeding year has seen an increased importance given* to the day which has become the great holiday of the Philippines. The martyr’s body was put in an unmarked grave in Paco cemetery but a way was found to have a small marble stone, bearing his initials in reversed order, dropped in with the un coffined remains Within less than two years, on the first day of American occupation, the body was raised for a more decent interment and tbe marble slab rests under a cross bearing nly the date “Dec. 30, 1896”. The ashes have since been put in an urn of Philippine woods carved by the skillful hands of Dr. Rizal’s instructor in carving, and will be finally deposited in what will be by far the finest of Manila’s monuments, the P100,000 memorial which is to mark the place where he gave his life for his country. His widow joined the insurgents at Cavite, and later returned to Manila and then to Hong Kong where in 1898 she was married to a Filipine ^tudent from Cebu. She taught in the public schools of Manila in 1901, and in the following year died in Hong Kong and is buried there in

Rizal’s Execution. (Courtesy of Mr. 46 Dantas) the Catholic part of Happy Valley cemetery beside the monuirjent of her adopted father, George Taufer, the blind man, who was an American. him but a year, but his and not long ago refused a proffered pension from the Assembly with the statement that she did not believe in paid patriotism and was content that her son had done his duty. Of the numerous Rizal relatives there seem to be none in politics but all are industrious and seeking to bring Dr. Rizal’s fatlier survived mother still lives about the independence of their country in the way their istinguished kinsman recommended, working to increase its wealth and availing themselves of every opportunity for education. A new province bears Doctor Rizal’s name, his picture appears upon the most generally used values of postage stamps and paper money, every town in the Philippines has its Rizal Street or Rizal Square, Manila has a flourshing Rizal University, a Rizal Ateneo and a Rizal Business College, and his birthday is getting to be observed as well as the day of his death, but Filipinos are forget- I ;* B -i I f t f Former Grave ‘ ” of Dr. 47
• Ris&l “i