Jagor's Prophecy
RIZAL'S first home in Manila was in a nipa house with Manuel
Hidalgo, later to be his brother-in-law, in Calle Espeleta, a street
named for a former Filipino priest who had risen to be bishop and
governor-general. This spot is now marked with a tablet which gives
the date of his coming as the latter part of February, 1872.
Rizal's own recollections speak of June as being the date of the
formal beginning of his studies in Manila. First he went to San Juan
de Letran and took an examination in the Catechism. Then he went back
to Kalamba and in July passed into the Ateneo, possibly because of
the more favorable conditions under which the pupils were admitted,
receiving credit for work in arithmetic, which in the other school,
it is said, he would have had to restudy. This perhaps accounts for
the credit shown in the scholastic year 1871-72. Until his fourth
year Rizal was an externe, as those residing outside of the school
dormitory were then called. The Ateneo was very popular and so great
was the eagerness to enter it that the waiting list was long and two
or three years' delay was not at all uncommon.
There is a little uncertainty about this period; some writers have
gone so far as to give recollections of childhood incidents of which
Rizal was the hero while he lived in the house of Doctor Burgos,
but the family deny that he was ever in this home, and say that he
has been confused with his brother Paciano.
The greatest influence upon Rizal during this period was the sense of
Spanish judicial injustice in the legal persecutions of his mother,
who, though innocent, for two years was treated as a criminal and
held in prison.
Much of the story is not necessary for this narrative, but the mother's
troubles had their beginning in the attempted revenge of a lieutenant
of the Civil Guard, one of a body of Spaniards who were no credit
to the mother country and whom Rizal never lost opportunity in his
writings of painting in their true colors. This official had been in
the habit of having his horse fed at the Mercado home when he visited
their town from his station in Binan, but once there was a scarcity
of fodder and Mr. Mercado insisted that his own stock was entitled
to care before he could extend hospitality to strangers. This the
official bitterly resented. His opportunity for revenge soon came, and
was not overlooked. A disagreement between Jose Alberto, the mother's
brother in Binan, and his wife, also his cousin, to whom he had been
married when they were both quite young, led to sensational charges
which a discreet officer would have investigated and would assuredly
have then realized to be unfounded. Instead the lieutenant accepted
the most ridiculous statements, brought charges of attempted murder
against Alberto and his sister, Mrs. Rizal, and evidently figured
that he would be able to extort money from the rich man and gratify
his revenge at the same time.
Now comes a disgruntled judge, who had not received the attention at
the Mercado home which he thought his dignity demanded. Out of revenge
he ordered Mrs. Rizal to be conducted at once to the provincial prison,
not in the usual way by boat, but, to cause her greater annoyance,
afoot around the lake. It was a long journey from Kalamba to Santa
Cruz, and the first evening the guard and his prisoner came to
a village where there was a festival in progress. Mrs. Rizal was
well known and was welcomed in the home of one of the prominent
families. The festivities were at their height when the judge, who
had been on horseback and so had reached the town earlier, heard that
the prisoner, instead of being in the village calaboose, was a guest
of honor and apparently not suffering the annoyance to which he had
intended to subject her. He strode to the house, and, not content to
knock, broke in the door, splintered his cane on the poor constable's
head, and then exhausted himself beating the owner of the house.
These proceedings were revealed in a charge of prejudice which
Mrs. Rizal's lawyers urged against the judge who at the same time
was the one who decided the case and also the prosecutor. The Supreme
Court agreed that her contention was correct and directed that she be
discharged from custody. To this order the judge paid due respect and
ordered her release, but he said that the accusation of unfairness
against him was contempt of court, and gave her a longer sentence
under this charge than the previous one from which she had just been
absolved. After some delay the Supreme Court heard of this affair and
decided that the judge was right. But, because Mrs. Rizal had been
longer in prison awaiting trial than the sentence, they dated back
her imprisonment, and again ordered her release. Here the record
gets a little confused because it is concerned with a story that
her brother had sixteen thousand pesos concealed in his cell, and
everybody, from the Supreme Court down, seemed interested in trying
to locate the money.
While the officials were looking for his sack of gold, Alberto
gave a power of attorney to an overintelligent lawyer who worded
his authority so that it gave him the right to do everything
which his principal himself could have done "personally, legally
and ecclesiastically." From some source outside, but not from the
brother, the attorney heard that Mrs. Rizal had had money belonging
to Alberto, for in the extensive sugar-purchasing business which she
carried on she handled large sums and frequently borrowed as much as
five thousand pesos from this brother. Anxious to get his hands on
money, he instituted a charge of theft against her, under his power of
attorney and acting in the name of his principal. Mrs. Rizal's attorney
demurred to such a charge being made without the man who had lent the
money being at all consulted, and held that a power of attorney did
not warrant such an action. In time the intelligent Supreme Court
heard this case and decided that it should go to trial; but later,
when the attorney, acting for his principal, wanted to testify for him
under the power of attorney, they seem to have reached their limit,
for they disapproved of that proposal.
Anyone who cares to know just how ridiculous and inconsistent the
judicial system of the Philippines then was would do well to try to
unravel the mixed details of the half dozen charges, ranging from
cruelty through theft to murder, which were made against Mrs. Rizal
without a shadow of evidence. One case was trumped up as soon as
another was finished, and possibly the affair would have dragged on
till the end of the Spanish administration had not her little daughter
danced before the Governor-General once when he was traveling through
the country, won his approval, and when he asked what favor he could do
for her, presented a petition for her mother's release. In this way,
which recalls the customs of primitive nations, Mrs. Rizal finally
was enabled to return to her home.
Doctor Rizal tells us that it was then that he first began to lose
confidence in mankind. A story of a school companion, that when
Rizal recalled this incident the red came into his eyes, probably
has about the same foundation as the frequent stories of his weeping
with emotion upon other people's shoulders when advised of momentous
changes in his life. Doctor Rizal did not have these Spanish ways,
and the narrators are merely speaking of what other Spaniards would
have done, for self-restraint and freedom from exhibitions of emotion
were among his most prominent characteristics.
Some time during Rizal's early years of school came his first success
in painting. It was the occasion of a festival in Kalamba; just at
the last moment an important banner was accidentally damaged and there
was not time to send to Manila for another. A hasty consultation was
held among the village authorities, and one councilman suggested that
Jose Rizal had shown considerable skill with the brush and possibly he
could paint something that would pass. The gobernadorcillo proceeded to
the lad's home and explained the need. Rizal promptly went to work,
under the official's direction, and speedily produced a painting
which the delighted municipal executive declared was better than the
expensive banner bought in Manila. The achievement was explained to
all the participants in the festival and young Jose was the hero of
the occasion.
During intervals of school work Rizal found time to continue his
modeling in clay which he procured from the brickyard of a cousin at
San Pedro Macati.
Rizal's uncle, Jose Alberto, had played a considerable part in his
political education. He was influential with the Regency in Spain,
which succeeded Queen Isabel when that sovereign became too malodorous
to be longer tolerated, and he was the personal friend of the Regent,
General Prim, whose motto, "More liberal today than yesterday, more
liberal tomorrow than today," he was fond of quoting. He was present in
Madrid at the time of General Prim's assassination and often told of
how this wise patriot, recognizing the unpreparedness of the Spanish
people for a republic, opposed the efforts for what would, he knew,
result in as disastrous a failure as had been France's first effort,
and how he lost his life through his desire to follow the safer
course of proceeding gradually through the preparatory stage of a
constitutional monarchy. Alberto was made by him a Knight of the Order
of Carlos III, and, after Prim's death, was created by King Amadeo a
Knight Commander, the step higher in the Order of Isabel the Catholic.
Events proved Prim's wisdom, as Alberto was careful to observe, for
King Amadeo was soon convinced of the unfitness of his people for even
a constitutional monarchy, told them so, resigned his throne, and bade
them farewell. Then came a republic marked by excesses such as even
the worst monarch had not committed; among them the dreadful massacre
of the members of the filibustering party on the steamer Virginius
in Cuba, which would have caused war with the United States had not
the Americans been deluded into the idea that they were dealing with
a sister republic. America and Switzerland had been the only nations
which had recognized Spain's new form of government. Prim sought an
alliance with America, for he claimed that Spain should be linked
with a country which would buy Spanish goods and to which Spain could
send her products. France, with whom the Bourbons wished to be allied,
was a competitor along Spain's own lines.
During the earlier disturbances in Spain a party of Carlists were
sent to the Philippine Islands; they were welcomed by the reactionary
Spaniards, for devotion to King Carlos had been their characteristic
ever since the days when Queen Isabel had taken the throne that in
their opinion belonged to the heir in the male line. Rizal frequently
makes mention of this disloyalty to the ruler of Spain on the part
of those who claimed to be most devoted Spaniards.
Along with the stories of these troubles which Rizal heard during his
school days in Manila were reports of how these exiles had established
themselves in foreign cities, Basa in Hongkong, Regidor in London,
and Tavera in Paris. At their homes in these cities they gave a warm
welcome to such Filipinos as traveled abroad and they were always ready
to act as guardians for Filipino students who wished to study in their
cities, Many availed themselves of these opportunities and it came to
be an ambition among those in the Islands to get an education which
they believed was better than that which Spain afforded. There was some
ground for such a belief, because many of the most prominent successful
men of Spanish and Philippine birth were men whose education had been
foreign. A well-known instance in Manila was the architect Roxas,
father of the present Alcalde of Manila, who learned his profession
in England and was almost the only notable builder in Manila during
his lifetime.
Paciano Rizal, Jose's elder brother, had retired from Manila on the
death of Doctor Burgos and devoted himself to farming; in some ways,
perhaps, his career suggested the character of Tasio, the philosopher
of "Noli Me Tangere." He was careful to see that his younger brother
was familiar with the liberal literature with which he had become
acquainted through Doctor Burgos.
The first foreign book read by Rizal, in a Spanish translation,
was Dumas's great novel, "The Count of Monte Cristo," and the story
of the wrongs suffered by the prisoner of the Chateau d'If recalled
the injustice done his mother. Then came the book which had greatest
influence upon the young man's career; this was a Spanish translation
of Jagor's "Travels in the Philippines," the observations of a German
naturalist who had visited the Islands some fifteen years before. This
latter book, among other comments, suggested that it was the fate of
the North American republic to develop and bring to their highest
prosperity the lands which Spain had conquered and Christianized
with sword and cross. Sooner or later, this German writer believed,
the Philippine Islands could no more escape this American influence
than had the countries on the mainland, and expressed the hope that
one day the Philippines would succumb to the same influence; he felt,
however, that it was desirable first for the Islanders to become better
able to meet the strong competition of the vigorous young people of the
New World, for under Spain the Philippines had dreamed away its past.
The exact title of the book is "Travels | in the | Philippines. |
By F. Jagor. | With numerous illustrations and a Map | London: |
Chapman and Hall, 193, Piccadilly. | 1875." The title of the Spanish
translation reads, "Viajes | por | Filipinas | de F. Jagor | Traducidos
del Aleman | por S. Vidal y Soler | Ingeniero de Montes | Edicion
illustrada con numerosos grabados | Madrid: Imprenta, Estereopidea
y Galvanoplastia de Ariban y Ca. | (Sucesores de Rivadencyra) |
Impresores de Camara de S. M. | Calle del Duque de Osuna, num 3. 1875,"
The following extract from the book will show how marvelously the
author anticipated events that have now become history:
"With the altered condition of things, however, all this has
disappeared. The colony can no longer be kept secluded from the
world. Every facility afforded for commercial intercourse is a blow
to the old system, and a great step made in the direction of broad
and liberal reforms. The more foreign capital and foreign ideas and
customs are introduced, increasing the prosperity, enlightenment,
and self-esteem of the population, the more impatiently will the
existing evils be endured.
England can and does open her possessions unconcernedly to the
world. The British colonies are united to the mother country by
the bond of mutual advantage, viz., the produce of raw material by
means of English capital, and the exchange of the same for English
manufactures. The wealth of England is so great, the organization of
her commerce with the world so complete, that nearly all the foreigners
even in the British possessions are for the most part agents for
English business houses, which would scarcely be affected, at least
to any marked extent, by a political dismemberment. It is entirely
different with Spain, which possesses the colony as an inherited
property, and without the power of turning it to any useful account.
Government monopolies rigorously maintained, insolent disregard and
neglect of the half-castes and powerful creoles, and the example
of the United States, were the chief reasons of the downfall of the
American possessions. The same causes threaten ruin to the Philippines;
but of the monopolies I have said enough.
Half-castes and creoles, it is true are not, as they formerly were
in America, excluded from all orificial appointments; but they feel
deeply hurt and injured through the crowds of place-hunters which
the frequent changes of Ministers send to Manilla. The influence,
also, of the American element is at least visible on the horizon,
and will be more noticeable when the relations increase between the
two countries. At present they are very slender. The trade in the
meantime follows in its old channels to England and to the Atlantic
ports of the United States. Nevertheless, whoever desires to form an
opinion upon the future history of the Philippines, must not consider
simply their relations to Spain, but must have regard to the prodigious
changes which a few decades produce on either side of our planet.
For the first time in the history of the world the mighty powers
on both sides of the ocean have commenced to enter upon a direct
intercourse with one another--Russia, which alone is larger than
any two other parts of the earth; China, which contains within its
own boundaries a third of the population of the world; and America,
with ground under cultivation nearly sufficient to feed treble the
total population of the earth. Russia's further role in the Pacific
Ocean is not to be estimated at present.
The trade between the two other great powers will therefore be
presumably all the heavier, as the rectification of the pressing need
of human labour on the one side, and of the corresponding overplus
on the other, will fall to them.
"The world of the ancients was confined to the shores of the
Mediterranean; and the Atlantic and Indian Oceans sufficed at one
time for our traffic. When first the shores of the Pacific re-echoed
with the sounds of active commerce, the trade of the world and
the history of the world may be really said to have begun. A start
in that direction has been made; whereas not so very long ago the
immense ocean was one wide waste of waters, traversed from both points
only once a year. From 1603 to 1769 scarcely a ship had ever visited
California, that wonderful country which, twenty-five years ago, with
the exception of a few places on the coast, was an unknown wilderness,
but which is now covered with flourishing and prosperous towns and
cities, divided from sea to sea by a railway, and its capital already
ranking the third of the seaports of the Union; even at this early
stage of its existence a central point of the world's commerce, and
apparently destined, by the proposed junction of the great oceans,
to play a most important part in the future.
In proportion as the navigation of the west coast of America
extends the influence of the American element over the South Sea,
the captivating, magic power which the great republic exercises over
the Spanish colonies[1] will not fail to make itself felt also in the
Philippines. The Americans are evidently destined to bring to a full
development the germs originated by the Spaniards. As conquerors of
modern times, they pursue their road to victory with the assistance
of the pioneer's axe and plough, representing an age of peace and
commercial prosperity in contrast to that bygone and chivalrous age
whose champions were upheld by the cross and protected by the sword.
A considerable portion of Spanish America already belongs to the
United States, and has since attained an importance which could not
possibly have been anticipated either under the Spanish Government
or during the anarchy which followed. With regard to permanence,
the Spanish system cannot for a moment be compared with that of
America. While each of the colonies, in order to favour a privileged
class by immediate gains, exhausted still more the already enfeebled
population of the metropolis by the withdrawal of the best of its
ability, America, on the contrary, has attracted to itself from all
countries the most energetic element, which, once on its soil and,
freed from all fetters, restlessly progressing, has extended its power
and influence still further and further. The Philippines will escape
the action of the two great neighbouring powers all the less for the
fact that neither they nor their metropolis find their condition of
a stable and well-balanced nature.
It seems to be desirable for the natives that the above-mentioned
views should not speedily become accomplished facts, because their
education and training hitherto have not been of a nature to prepare
them successfully to compete with either of the other two energetic,
creative, and progressive nations. They have, in truth, dreamed away
their best days."
This prophecy of Jagor's made a deep impression upon Rizal and
seems to furnish the explanation of his life work. Henceforth it was
his ambition to arouse his countrymen to prepare themselves for a
freer state. He dedicated himself to the work which Doctor Jagor had
indicated as necessary. It seems beyond question that Doctor Rizal,
as early as 1876, believed that America would sometime come to the
Philippines, and wished to prepare his countrymen for the changed
conditions that would then have to be met. Many little incidents
in his later life confirm this view: his eagerness to buy expensive
books on the United States, such as his early purchase in Barcelona
of two different "Lives of the Presidents of the United States"; his
study of the country in his travel across it from San Francisco to
New York; the reference in "The Philippines in a Hundred Years"; and
the studies of the English Revolution and other Anglo-Saxon influences
which culminated in the foundation of the United States of America.
Besides the interest he took in clay modeling, to which reference
has already been made, Rizal was expert in carving. When first
in the Ateneo he had carved an image of the Virgin of such grace
and beauty that one of the Fathers asked him to try an image of the
Sacred Heart. Rizal complied, and produced the carving that played so
important a part in his future life. The Jesuit Father had intended to
take the image with him to Spain, but in some way it was left behind
and the schoolboys put it up on the door of their dormitory. There it
remained for nearly twenty years, constantly reminding the many lads
who passed in and out of the one who teachers and pupils alike agreed
was the greatest of all their number, for Rizal during these years was
the schoolboy hero of the Ateneo, and from the Ateneo came the men who
were most largely concerned in making the New Philippines. The image
itself is of batikulin, an easily carved wood, and shows considerable
skill when one remembers that an ordinary pocketknife was the simple
instrument used in its manufacture. It was recalled to Rizal's memory
when he visited the Ateneo upon his first return from Spain and was
forbidden the house by the Jesuits because of his alleged apostasy,
and again in the chapel of Fort Santiago, where it played an important
part in what was called his conversion.
The proficiency he attained in the art of clay modeling is evidenced by
many of the examples illustrated in this volume. They not only indicate
an astonishing versatility, but they reveal his very characteristic
method of working--a characteristic based on his constant desire
to adapt the best things he found abroad to the conditions of his
own country. The same characteristic appears also in most of his
literary work, and in it there is no servile imitation; it is careful
and studied selection, adaptation and combination. For example, the
composition of a steel engraving in a French art journal suggested
his model in clay of a Philippine wild boar; the head of the subject
in a painting in the Luxembourg Gallery and the rest of a figure in
an engraving in a newspaper are combined in a statuette he modeled
in Brussels and sent, in May, 1890, to Valentina Ventura in place
of a letter; a clipping from a newspaper cut is also adapted for
his model of "The Vengeance of the Harem"; and as evidence of his
facility of expressing himself in this medium, his clay modeling of
a Dapitan woman may be cited. One day while in exile he saw a native
woman clearing up the street in front of her home preparatory to
a festival; the movements and the attitudes of the figure were so
thoroughly typical and so impressed themselves on his mind that he
worked out this statuette from memory.
In a literary way Rizal's first pretentious effort was a melodrama in
one act and in verse, entitled "Junta al Pasig" (Beside the Pasig),
a play in honor of the Virgin, which was given in the Ateneo to the
great edification of a considerable audience, who were enthusiastic
in their praise and hearty in their applause, but the young author
neither saw the play nor paid any attention to the manner of its
reception, for he was downstairs, intent on his own diversions and
heedless of what was going on above.
Thursday was the school holiday in those days, and Rizal usually spent
the time at the Convent of La Concordia, where his youngest sister,
Soledad, was a boarder. He was a great friend of the little one
and a welcome visitor in the Convent; he used to draw pictures for
her edification, sometimes teasing her by making her own portrait,
to which he gave exaggerated ears to indicate her curiosity. Then he
wrote short satirical skits, such as the following, which in English
doggerel quite matches its Spanish original:
"The girls of Concordia College
Go dressed in the latest of styles--
Bangs high on their foreheads for knowledge--
But hungry their grins and their smiles!"
Some of these girls made an impression upon Jose, and one of his diary
entries of this time tells of his rude awakening when a girl, some
years his elder, who had laughingly accepted his boyish adoration,
informed him that she was to marry a relative of his, and he speaks
of the heart-pang with which he watched the carromata that carried
her from his sight to her wedding.
Jose was a great reader, and the newspapers were giving much attention
to the World's Fair in Philadelphia which commemorated the first
centennial of American independence, and published numerous cuts
illustrating various interesting phases of American life. Possibly
as a reaction from the former disparagement of things American, the
sentiment in the Philippines was then very friendly. There was one
long account of the presentation of a Spanish banner to a Spanish
commission in Philadelphia, and the newspapers, in speaking of the
wonderful progress which the United States had made, recalled the
early Spanish alliance and referred to the fact that, had it not been
for the discoveries of the Spaniards, their new land would not have
been known to Europe.
Rizal during his last two years in the Ateneo was a boarder. Throughout
his entire course he had been the winner of most of the prizes. Upon
receiving his Bachelor of Arts diploma he entered the University of
Santo Tomas; in the first year he studied the course in philosophy
and in the second year began to specialize in medicine.
The Ateneo course of study was a good deal like that of our present
high school, though not so thorough nor so advanced. Still, the method
of instruction which has made Jesuit education notable in all parts
of the world carried on the good work which the mother's training
had begun. The system required the explanation of the morrow's
lesson, questioning on the lesson of the day and a review of the
previous day's work. This, with the attention given to the classics,
developed and quickened faculties which gave Rizal a remarkable power
of assimilating knowledge of all kinds for future use.
The story is told that Rizal was undecided as to his career, and wrote
to the rector of the Ateneo for advice; but the Jesuit was then in
the interior of Mindanao, and by the time the answer, suggesting that
he should devote himself to agriculture, was received, he had already
made his choice. However, Rizal did continue the study of agriculture,
besides specializing in medicine, carrying on double work as he took
the course in the Ateneo which led to the degree of land surveyor and
agricultural expert. This work was completed before he had reached
the age fixed by law, so that he could not then receive his diploma,
which was not delivered to him until he had attained the age of
twenty-one years.
In the "Life" of Rizal published in Barcelona after his death a
brilliant picture is painted of how Rizal might have followed the
advice of the rector of the Ateneo, and have lived a long, useful
and honorable life as a farmer and gobernadorcillo of his home town,
respected by the Spaniards, looked up to by his countrymen and filling
an humble but safe lot in life. Today one can hardly feel that such
a career would have been suited to the man or regret that events took
the course they did.
Poetry was highly esteemed in the Ateneo, and Rizal frequently made
essays in verse, often carrying his compositions to Kalamba for his
mother's criticisms and suggestions. The writings of the Spanish poet
Zorilla were making a deep impression upon him at this time, and while
his schoolmates seemed to have been more interested in their warlike
features, Jose appears to have gained from them an understanding of how
Zorilla sought to restore the Spanish people to their former dignity,
rousing their pride through recalling the heroic events in their past
history. Some of the passages in the melodrama, "Junta al Pasig,"
already described, were evidently influenced by his study of Zorilla;
the fierce denunciation of Spain which is there put in the mouth of
Satan expresses, no doubt, the real sentiments of Rizal.
In 1877 a society known as the Liceo Literario-Artistica (Lyceum of
Art and Literature) offered a prize for the best poem by a native. The
winner was Rizal with the following verses, "Al Juventud Filipino"
(To the Philippine Youth). The prize was a silver pen, feather-shaped
and with a gold ribbon running through it.
To the Philippine Youth
Theme: "Growth"
(Translation by Charles Derbyshire)
Hold high the brow serene,
O youth, where now you stand;
Let the bright sheen
Of your grace be seen,
Fair hope of my fatherland!
Come now, thou genius grand,
And bring down inspiration;
With thy mighty hand,
Swifter than the wind's volation,
Raise the eager mind to higher station.
Come down with pleasing light
Of art and science to the fight,
O youth, and there untie
The chains that heavy lie,
Your spirit free to blight.
See how in flaming zone
Amid the shadows thrown,
The Spaniard's holy hand
A crown's resplendent band
Proffers to this Indian land.
Thou, who now wouldst rise
On wings of rich emprise,
Seeking from Olympian skies
Songs of sweetest strain,
Softer than ambrosial rain;
Thou, whose voice divine
Rivals Philomel's refrain,
And with varied line
Through the night benign
Frees mortality from pain;
Thou, who by sharp strife
Wakest thy mind to life;
And the memory bright
Of thy genius' light
Makest immortal in its strength;
And thou, in accents clear
of Phoebus, to Apells dear;
Or by the brush's magic art
Takest from nature's store a part,
To fix it on the simple canvas' length;
Go forth, and then the sacred fire
Of thy genius to the laurel may aspire;
To spread around the fame,
And in victory acclaim,
Through wider spheres the human name.
Day, O happy day,
Fair Filipinas, for thy land!
So bless the Power today
That places in thy way
This favor and this fortune grand.
The next competition at the Liceo was in honor of the fourth centennial
of the death of Cervantes; it was open to both Filipinos and Spaniards,
and there was a dispute as to the winner of the prize. It is hard
to figure out just what really happened; the newspapers speak of
Rizal as winning the first prize, but his certificate says second,
and there seems to have been some sort of compromise by which a
Spaniard who was second was put at the head. Newspapers, of course,
were then closely censored, but the liberal La Oceania contains a
number of veiled allusions to medical poets, suggesting that for the
good of humanity they should not be permitted to waste their time in
verse-making. One reference quotes the title of Rizal's first poem in
saying that it was giving a word of advice "To the Philippine Youth,"
and there are other indications that for some considerable time the
outcome of this contest was a very live topic in the city of Manila.
Rizal's poem was an allegory, "The Council of the Gods"--"El consejo de
los Dioses." It was an exceedingly artistic appreciation of the chief
figure in Spanish literature. The rector of the Ateneo had assisted
his former student by securing for him needed books, and though
Rizal was at that time a student in Santo Tomas, the rivalries were
such that he was still ranked with the pupils of the Jesuits and his
success was a corresponding source of elation to the Ateneo pupils and
alumni. Some people have stated that Father Evaristo Arias, a notably
brilliant writer of the Dominicans, was a competitor, a version I once
published, but investigation shows that this was a mistake. However,
sentiment in the University against Rizal grew, until matters became
so unpleasant that he felt it time to follow the advice of Father
Burgos and continue his education outside of the Islands.
Just before this incident Rizal had been the victim of a brutal assault
in Kalamba; one night when he was passing the barracks of the Civil
Guard he noted in the darkness a large body, but did not recognize
who it was, and passed without any attention to it. It turned out
that the large body was a lieutenant of the Civil Guard, and, without
warning or word of any kind, he drew his sword and wounded Rizal in the
back. Rizal complained of this outrage to the authorities and tried
several times, without success, to see the Governor-General. Finally
he had to recognize that there was no redress for him. By May of 1882
Rizal had made up his mind to set sail for Europe, and his brother,
Paciano, equipped him with seven hundred pesos for the journey, while
his sister, Saturnina, intrusted to him a valuable diamond ring which
might prove a resource in time of emergency.
Jose had gone to Kalamba to attend a festival there, when Mr. Hidalgo,
from Manila, notified him that his boat was ready to sail. The
telegram, asking his immediate return to the city, was couched in
the form of advice of the condition of a patient, and the name of
the steamer, Salvadora, by a play on words, was used in the sense of
"May save her life." Rizal had previously requested of Mr. Ramirez,
of the Puerta del Sol store, letters of introduction to an Englishman,
formerly in the Philippines, who was then living in Paris. He said
nothing more of his intentions, but on his last night in the city,
with his younger sister as companion, he drove all through the walled
city and its suburbs, changing horses twice in the five hours of
his farewell. The next morning he embarked on the steamer, and there
yet remains the sketch which he made of his last view of the city,
showing its waterfront as it appeared from the departing steamer. To
leave town it was necessary to have a passport; his was in the name
of Jose Mercado, and had been secured by a distant relative of his
who lived in the Santa Cruz district.
After five days' journey the little steamer reached the English colony
of Singapore. There Rizal saw a modern city for the first time. He was
intensely interested in the improvements. Especially did the assured
position of the natives, confident in their rights and not fearful of
the authorities, arouse his admiration. Great was the contrast between
the fear of their rulers shown by the Filipinos and the confidence
which the natives of Singapore seemed to have in their government.
At Singapore, Rizal transferred to a French mail Steamer and seems to
have had an interesting time making himself understood on board. He
had studied some French in his Ateneo course, writing an ode which
gained honors, but when he attempted to speak the language he was
not successful in making Frenchmen understand him. So he resorted to
a mixed system of his own, sometimes using Latin words and making
the changes which regularly would have occurred, and when words
failed, making signs, and in extreme cases drawing pictures of what
he wanted. This versatility with the pencil, for many of his offhand
sketches had humorous touches that almost carried them into the cartoon
class, interested officers and passengers, so that the young student
had the freedom of the ship and a voyage far from tedious.
The passage of the Suez Canal, a glimpse of Egypt, Aden, where East and
West meet, and the Italian city of Naples, with its historic castle,
were the features of the trip which most impressed him.