RIZAL Philippine Nationalist and Martyr The Author In 1950, being at the time Assistant Colonial Secretary in Hongkong, ‘Austin Coates made a study of Rizal's 1891-92 stay in the colony, interviewing people who had known Rizal or had memories of him. The author was a guest of the Philippine Government at the International Congress on Rizal, held at Manila in 1961. This biog- raphy was written during 1964-67. Born in London in 1922, son of the composer Eric Coates, he combined the early part of his writing career with work as an administrator, diplomat, and advisor on Chinese affairs, leaving government service in 1962. He is a Knight Grand Officer of the Order of Rizal, Philippines, and a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, London.José Rizal Madsid 0, RIZAL Philippine Nationalist and Martyr BY AUSTIN COATES SOLIDARIDAD PUBLISHING HOUSE 531 Padre Faura Ermita, Manilap-65460 Reprinted and Exclusively Distributed by Solidaridad Publishing House 531 Padre Faura Ermita, Manila Philippine Copyright, 1992 Solidaridad Publishing House Copyright © 1992 by Solidaridad Publishing House ‘This reprint has been authorized by Oxford University Press for sale in the Philippines only and not for export therefrom © Oxford University Press 1968 ISBN 971-536-1323, Contents List of Illustrations Page Inteoduction i I YOUTH IN MEDIEVAL TWILIGHT 1861-1882 Childhood in Calamba ‘The Frailocracy Student of the Jesuits University of Santo Tomés Departure on a Mission Wr JOURNEY INTO LIGHT 1882-1887 ‘The Impact of the West . First Year in Madrid . ‘The Toasting Speech Final Year in Madrid Ophthalmic Studies in Paris and Heidelberg. Fulfilment in Berlin Noli Me Tangere and Departure from Europe mr THE STORM BREAKS 1887-1888 Return to the Twilight "The German Doctor’ Furore 30 40 3 65 n or 99 106 119 130 138wv STRUGGLE, DARKNESS, AND ACHIEVEMENT 1888-1891 1. Pacific Route to England 1, London—the Propaganda Movement 1 Literary Undertakings 2 Correspondence with Spain 3 Correspondence with the Philippines 4 Over the Channel uit, Paris and Morga’s Sucesos 1v, Brussels—the Anatomy of Sacrifice vy. Conflict in Madrid vi. Biarritz Interlude vu, El Filibusterismo, Resignation, and Exit v ON THE EVE 1891-1852 1. Hongkong—'the Spanish Doctor’ 1m. Visit to Sandakan ut. Preparation for Death 1v. Hero's Return, Arrest, and Deportation vI ‘THE DEFERMENT 1892-1896 1. Dapitan and the Jesuits 1. Scientific Works and School at Talisay tt Josephine Bracken vu ‘THE SIGNATURE OF DEATH 1896 1. Revolution u, Trial it, Ultimo Adiés, 29-30 December wv. The Good Opportunity y, An Aftermath of Controversy Conclusion Acknowledgments and Bibliography Index Maps East Asia, showing the position of the Philippines ‘The Philippines, showing places connected with the life of Rizal 283 294 308, 337 332 349) 363 379 The monogram on the title page was drawn by Rizal, and is reproduced by permission of the National Library, Manila.Illustrations José Rizal, Madrid, 1890 frontispiece Francisco Mercado facing p30 Teodora Alonso 30 The Mercado family home at Calamba 31 Portraits of Rizal, between 1872 and 1883 46 conor Rivera 7 6 Paciano Rizal Mercado 78 7 Narcisa Rizal-Lépez 7% Juan Luna, Rizal and Valentin Ventura in Paris ey josephine Bracken 4 Ferdinand Blumentrtt, 1888 8 Ferdinand Blumentritt, 1910 95 Rudolph Virchow 95 ‘The manuscript cover of Noli Me Tangere 158 Rizal in A Play Staged at the Ateneo de Manila 159 W. E, Retana 174 Reinhold Rost 174 Gertrude Beckett 175 Nelly Boustead 15 Rizal, Marcelo del Pilar and Mariano Ponce, Paris 1889 286 Lotter from Rizal to Blumentritt, 5 July 1890 287 Josephine Bracken 287 Rizal's cell in Fort Santiago 302 ‘The alcohol burner 302 Ultimo Adiés, the last page 303Introduction But 1am constant as the northern star, Of whose truc-fix'd and resting quality "There is no fellow in the firmament. Julius Caesar, Act i, Se. ‘Will my fate be that of water, never to be lost in nothingness? José Riza, Heidelberg, 6 August 1886‘TweRe WAS to be public execution, and consequently: the secets and buildings were bung with flags. A day of execution wos a fiesta Since first light a crowd of many thousands had been gather ing on the broad greensward facing the sea—gentlemen in poater hats and smart drill suits, with their ladies clad in their best, the hems of their long skirts dampened a little here and there by the dew which still lay on the grass. Tt seas the tropics’ apology for winter, the start of another swarm blue day, cloudless and still with at morning and evening ‘ry slight chill in the air, such as there was now. The sun had siready risen on the landward side, and as the minutes drew towards 7 am, the multitudinous voices of the crowd were hnished. The beat of an approaching drum announced the arrival of the condemned man. ‘The Europeans had the best vantage places, and being in general taller than the local people they tended to monopolize the view. Despite this disadvantage, however, a fairly large number of local people had come as well—men and women, the well-to-do, the fashionably europeanized, the prudent—to join their European masters in uttering patriotic cheers. For the death to be witnessed on this fine morning was the death of traitor, and not merely of a traitor but of the arch-traitor, described by the military judge who had tried him as ‘the principal organizer and living soul of the insurrection’. For four months the country had been gripped by revolution, It had not yet succeeded in penetrating the capital, but in the countryside there were widespread disturbances which the Europeans had hitherto been unable to suppress. With the ative in the country, his execution afforded a salutary oppor tunity of showing the natives where they stood. Today might ll prove to be a turning point, Thus the exhilarated atmos-INTRODUCTION phere, The date was 30 December 1896. The place was 8 pea, the extensive public park in the heart of Manil capital of the Spanish Philippines. The crowd was 50 dense, and there was so muck jockeyit for postion, that police arrangements broke down and prisoners ailtary escort, which should have been behind bi Pad to form fle on either side of him, forcing its way throu to the execution ground. Within the fairly wide corridor space thus created, what remained of the procession was 2 seamove through the mass of people with reasonable dignit First came the drummer. After him, flanked by two tall Spanis Jesuits in black souzanes and shovel-hats, came the lesser figut of the traitor. ‘Aged thirty-five, short and slender, pale after two months prison, he was impeccably dressed in European style, black wu Epotlessly white shirt and tie, and wearing a black derby by seitch in vogue at that time in Europe, His appearance wasalmot English in its formality and taste, But it was not tis that deg people's attention. Te was his features and expression, and Botmm dignity of his bearing. As could be seen at a glance, Seas no ordinary traitor to be jeered and howled at. AS he p There was silence, while people stared, some in surprise, other snith concern, and all with the uneasy sense of being confront by something they did not fully understand. ‘Most people have a preconceived idea of what a traitor lod like, It is natural to expect to detect features of malevoler or duplicity, o defiance, the wild stare of a misplaced visiona or the grimace of a swashbuckler who has lost out. About {itor there was nothing that could be preconceived. To beg ‘ith, his was an arrestingly interesting face. Apart from know that he was a man of the Far East, it would have been difficu} to define him racially, All that could have been said—and th ‘only by an astute observer—was that he was from one of 1 countries of South-East Asia, and bore indications of 1 part Malay, partly Chinese ancestry. Yet there was nothing hhim of the withdrawn Oriental, that character beloved of European imagination. His eyes, wide-spaced, thoughtful, ‘compelling in their truthfulness, came out to meet whomer ENTRODUCTION they looked at, as European eyes do. He bad very li Bo ee eel atte frm chin and perceptive lips, could be sensed at ance a mental finity to Europe, expressed through an Asian physique. This Gas aman who had passed far beyond diflerences of race and ution. Despite being a member of a subject race, it was the fice of a person the equal of any, expressive of intellectual honesty and insight, both in unusual measure. As the Madrid newspaper reports of the oceasion show, there were few Span- fbnds present that day who, once they had seen him, remained tinaware of these qualities, disconcerting as they found them. The umpression the pale young man conveyed was inescapable. The escort forced a way through to the cleared rectangle of cas, lined by troops, which was to be the place of execution, When the traitor had been conducted to the seaward end, in which direction the shot was to be fied, there was some discussion inaudible to bystanders, ‘Then those nearest to the trator drew back, the preparatory commands were barked out, tnd in the second of silence before the final order to fire, while people excitedly eraned over the shoulders of others fora glimpse ole scene, the ton fly audible sid in de, xy ois, ‘Contemerton ef? wie t The command, ‘The shot. People being pushed forward upon others in the surge to view the body. A curious silenee. ‘The orgunized cheer ofthe troops. The lead given tothe release of motion, And following this, the public cheers, the cheers, the "The living soul of the insurrection was dead As so often happens in the case of public cheering they were cheers illtimed. The shot which that crowd had just heard was, the shot which br anish empire it th sex which brought the Spanish expire in the Philipines The situation in the Philippines on 30 December 1896 was ‘catively simple, The insurgents had few ams and no source of ammunition. The Spaniards hed adequate military and naval forces to deal with the insurrection provided the government continued to enjoy a certain measure of Filipino public support.pxTRODUCTION ‘This last was important for mainly geographical reasons. TI Philippines, a complex archipelago of more than seven thousan islands, with in those days only very limited inter-island com: munications, presented singular obstacles to an_outrightl rnilitary control." Each well-populated island, even today, isi a sense a small country on its own, requiring a complete appa: ‘atus of government distinct from its neighbours. At that tim outright military control offered a commander the choi between a dispersal of his forces so extensive and disconnecte that in effect they ceased to be a unitary army, or concentratior of force in various population centres, lesser islands being left in the balance of popular goodwill. In December 1896 the Spanish military administration was in the process of regroupi from the former to the latter. Nor was goodwill entirely lacking—the goodwill, or possibly just the prudence, of such as came to witness the execution a cheer. But within days of 30 December on Luzon, the mai northern and ‘capital’ island, and within weeks throughout t entire Philippines, this situation changed, Ds. José Rizal, dl young ophthalmic surgeon who had been executed that day ‘was regarded by educated Filipinos as a genius, the architect an embodiment of theit country's aspirations. By the unedueat ‘he was regarded more simply as a kind of demi-god. By all ‘was recognized as the greatest Filipino who had ever liv He was also, ironically, the most understanding, patient, an influential friend Spain possessed in the Islands. Day after day following 30 December other victims wer brought forth from the torture chambers of Fort Santiago to b ‘executed in public. It was the dry season; stains were ‘washed away by rain, From end to end the grass of the Lune ‘was brown with dried human blood. But all these deaths, terrible as they were, did not make t same impact as did the execution of the young surgeon. Fort Spain had killed him, of all people, showed to every Filip from one end of the country to the other that Spain was bli to their needs, deaf to their pleas, and contemptuous of th “The length ofthe archipelago from north to south s equivalent to sistas to Morence Sram, or om London to angie. xviii INTRODUCTION claim to be treated as the equal of other human beings, gp pallet cere ice acces a a as though they themselves had been unforgivably insulted; and 3 produced revulsion against the tnmentor It was ¢naion- wide reaction which words could not express, deeply and Secretly fei le vee ten ple pes vital to the maintenance of the Spanish position, fell away. Even the prudent who had turned up to cheer found there was prudence in not being pro-Spanish, to be so having become in effect treasonable in « Filipino. From that moment Spanish rule was doomed. The death agony took another eighteen months, but in effect on 30 Decem- ber 1896, by a single shot, Spain erected her own sepulchre in advance of the demise A scant shaft of hope might have remained, though it would probably have dane no more than prolong the death agony, could further substantial military reinforcements have been obtained. But these were not forthcoming. Spain at this time ‘vas simultaneously endeavouring to suppress two insurrections on different sides of the globe, one in the Philippines, the other in Cuba. Because of greater Spanish public interest in Cuba, because of the island’s closeness to the United States, and because of the aggressive trend of American public opinion, strongly reflected in Congress, toward the continued Spanish presence in the Caribbean, Spain, when torn between the equally urgent demands of two of her overseas ‘province’, decided that the suppression of the Cuban revolt must be given priority. Besides which, the Spanish Government underestimated the ‘capacity of the Filipinos to wage rebellion with any measure of success. Spain in fact tended to underestimate the Filipinos in coehing. This was basally wat the Plppine rel was When the Governor and Captain-General ofthe Philippines (Geviaal Cath rruvige: tied tat le easel eee ments were virtually ignored, he resigned his command in April 1897. Under his successor, General Primo de Rivera, the Tebela were at last forced into reteat. But here the SpanishINTRODUCTION successes were partly due to dissension among the Filipino leaders. “The actual organizer and first leader of the rebellion was Andres Bonifaeio, a young, cool and determined idealist, capable ‘of inspiring men to follow him, yet who, as rebellion spread from town to town, found that not every tovin loyal to his cause accepted his leadership. Furthermore, boldly attempting objec- tives which were beyond the capacity of his forces, he suffered inital reverses, thereby incurring the criticism of being inade- {quate a8 a military commander, In this capacity the outstanding man thrown into prominence by the events of revolution was Emilio Aguinaldo, who, operating from bases in Cavite province, ‘obtained numerous military successes against the Spaniards ‘At a meeting of the revolutionary leaders in March 1897 ‘Aguinaldo was elected to direct the struggle in succession t0 Bonifacio, without whom there would have been no revolt Bonifacio, bitterly disillusioned by the perfidy of those whom be had regarded as his colleagues, cut loose with a number of men still loyal to him, refusing to acknowledge Aguinalda’s leadership. “The Spaniards were quick to take advantage ofthis favourable situation. As factionalism spread among the Filipino people, some loyal to Bonifacio, others to Aguinaldo, the rebel position became desperate, On 10 May 1897 Bonifacio, on Aguinaldo’s orders, was tracked down and shot. But this scarcely improved ‘matters; the rebels continued to retreat. By this time they had litde or no arms and ammunition; most of them fought with knives and staves; but they proved themselves able guerrilla fighters and had the great advantage of enjoying the support of the population. At the end of the year it was recognized on both 2 Jone Alejandrino, sevclutionary general and a balanced observer of events supported this questiontble action Ina letter tb Fesdinand Blumen {St dited 11 My 8p, be wrotes Agunaldo snot only good army man but slsos good ruler 4s he succonded, despite the seri diaension® that Broke atthe rank off vn ie aout the ny af fhe diferent elements of whicn te Hverators of the Palippunes ae comporcd Sometimes he made use of penceful means, while in other instances be esoTed to cnefgetic measures when circumstances warranted theit Use” ‘Glad Jose Alejandrino, La Souda del Sacre; trans. Jose M. Alejand- fine, The Price of Freedom, +945, INTRODUCTION des that it was stalemate, the Filipinos unable to prevail, the Spaniards unable to suppress them. Primo de Rivera and wainaldo signed a truce, the latter going into voluntary exile jn Hongkong. "The truce settled nothing, Rebel outbreaks continued, sporadically and becoming increasingly serious; and thus it ould undoubtedly have continued for years had not an extra- yrcous event lifted the struggle from being a remote colonial ifr, suddenly placing it on the stage of world history In February 1898 the United States battleship Maine blew up in Havana harbour. The explosion was almost certainly accidental, but the American public, going through a most 1! period of warmongering sentiment, inflamed by public ation over events in Cuba, was in no mood to treat it as, h. In stentorian terms the disaster was condemned as an Of Spanish treachery. On 19 April resolutions were intro- duced into Congeess demanding the independence of Cuba and the despatch of American forces to aid the Cuban rebels. Unwsisely Spain, instead of temporizing, accepted the challenge, and made a fatal declaration of war on the United States Tt was what Washington had been waiting for. With almost unseemly speed orders were sent to American naval commanders to attack Spain at her two most sensitive points, Cuba and the Philippines. On 1 May 1898 an American squadron under the command of Commodore George Dewey entered Manila Bay, and without the loss of a man destroyed the entire Spanish fleet off Cavite. A similar disaster overtook the Spanish flet in Cuba, Dewey then had to await the arrival of land forces to complete the Spanish defeat. With his agreement Aguinaldo returned to the Philippines, the Americans giving every outward indication of their intention that the country should become independent. With this encouragement, on 12 June 1898 the Filipinos declared their independence, Emilio Aguinaldo becoming President of \what is now known as the First Philippine Republic. One of the frst acts of the Republic was to declare 30 December a day of rest and reflexion in memory of Rizal, a commemoration hich despite every vicissitude hes been observed ever since xxiINTRODUCTION In the military ficld mopping-up operations proceeded swifll under Aguinaldo's direction. Within @ matter of wecks 1 only Spanish forces left in Luzon were penned in Manila at ‘Cavite, the two towns being cut off from one another. As reinforcement of American troops, Aguinaldo hoped, and country would be totally free. ‘Tt was a miscalculation, In July the land forces Dewey need began to arrive, and the Americans moved to the accomplis ‘ment of their real design, which had nothing whatever to do wit Philippine independence. For the United States had caught tl prevailing great power disease, and had resolved to embark up empire. Secret negotiations were entered into between Dewey a the Spanish authorities, and on 13 August, an agreed date, aft a face-saving exchange of fire, American forces entered Manil from the citadel of which the colours of Spain were lowered fa ever. The Filipino forces, waiting for a signal to enter the cit swere ordered by the Americans to remain outside. Only then di ‘Aguinaldo realize that he and his men had been dupes in aw game and by no means a simple one, since had the America not taken Manila, the Germans, with the requisite forces poi and afloat in the China Sea, would certainly have done so inst ‘At the time of the peace negotiations, held in Paris, Aguinal made despairing efforts to obtain international recognition Philippine independence; his representatives were not titted to the conference room. It is at this point that can seen at its clearest the significance of that execution two y carfier, and the importance of the complete psychologi estrangement of the Filipinos from Spain which it produc Had Rizal been alive in 1898 he would unquestionably: ha rallied Philippine sympathy for defeated Spain, thus placing exceedingly complex obstacle to the realization of America imperial ambitions. The United States would doubtless, int ‘mood of that time, have acquired some form of favoured posit ‘or tutelage in the Philippines, but it could never have been i the extreme form it actually took, As it was, the Filipis friends of neither the United States nor Spain, found themselv diplomatically isolated, their leader reduced in international ey‘ to the status of a bandit chief. INTRODUCTION In December 1898, by the Treaty of Paris, the Philippines were declared to be American territory. For two years Aguinaldo commanded a military struggle against American forces in the Jslands, but one by one his principal officers were captured, and in March 1901 he himself was taken, bringing his Republic to an end. On 4 July that year, with the inauguration of American Civil government, the Philippines became, in effect if not in raine, a colony of the United States of America. ‘The Americans, quick to discover the political and literary ‘works of Rizal, and to appreciate the immense esteem in which the as held by his countrymen, recognized in him an invaluable link between the Spanish period end their own that had sueceed- cd it. To many Americans it seemed that Rizal’s aims and their ‘own were one, On 7 April 1903 President Theodore Roosevelt, speaking at Fargo, North Dakota, went so far as to say In the Philippine Islands the American government has tried, and is ing, to carry out exactly what the greatest genius and most revered ot ever known in the Philippines, José Rizal, steadfastly ade ocated. With the coming of the Americans twentieth-century ait blew into the Islands. ‘The new rulers quickly rid the country of the Catholic ecclesiastical rule under which it had suffered solong, Successive changes of President in Washington, coupled With the lack of an equivalent to the British India Office or Colonial Office as a means of ensuring continuity of policy, rendcred the complete fulfilment of Theodore Roosevelt's aim {ess impressive than its enunciation; but in a leisurely way, and With increased momentum between the two world wars, the Americans introduced various measures of internal self-govern- ‘ment which would almost surely have led to complete independ- ence, This leisurely trend of affairs was brought to an abrupt fend in December 1941, when Japan, as part of her aim to ‘stablish a Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, invaded the Philippines and subjected the country to a rule of tyranny 2nd barbarism arousing universal detestation. In the last months ref C84 by Austin Cra, Lineage, Life and Labors of José Rival, Manila,INTRODUCTION of hostilities, in 1944-5) the Japanese mounted a desperate Struggle against the returning Americans, and Manila was fought steect by stcet. Asa result t was a war-ravaged country swith much of its eapital city in ruins which on 4 July 1946 was Jecorded independence by the United States, an unsatisfactory independence, but onc on which both sides at that time were determined | The ceremony took place on the Luuneta; and as President Truman's special emissary read the deed of independence, ihe did so before the statue of Rizal, which that day witnessed, ton behalf of the man himself che fulfilment of one of the main purposes of his life's work. Outside his own country Rizal is chiefly known forthe poem hho wrote in the death cell on the eve of his exceution, and which vray smuggled out of Fort Santiago hidden in an alechel burner. "The poctn was written on small slip of paper and it was nether titled, nor dated, nor signed. It has come to be knovin as the Citimo Adiés, and holds an assured plac: inthe Spanish literature ofthe period, It istobefound in numerous anthologiesof Spanish Verse ond—in Spanish or in translation—in every anthology Of the poetry of patriotism worthy of the name. The poem, feven in translation, gave its author international recognition ‘he a poem of patriotism it is distinguished by a complete absence of jingoism, or scorn for enemies, or the appeals to glory Svhich too often make this kind of verse tedious; and in that it fells the exact circumstances in which it was witten, it has a powerful human appeal, Here is a man condemned to die for fhe cause of his country, and in the final hours before dawn, twhen he will beled forth to execution, writing his last farewell to country, family and friends. Like all poems, it suffers in ‘translation. In Spanish the compulsion of its message and the flow of the lines, some af which are of exceptional felicity and sonority, combine to make it, in its genre, a poem of particular distinction, This is to treat it in its Spanish contest, In its ‘feian context—and itis after all an Asian poemm—it is unique in quality and in the nobleness of its expression. Among all the ExTRODUCTION corse in whatever language inspired by the Asian independence Jovements there is nothing that can be compared with it. In his own country Rizal is revered as a national hero, and js known for a mass of other writings, in particular for his two ovis of contemporary Philippine life, Noli Me Tangere and bl Filibusteriomo, which are taught in all colleges. His place in his country’s history has also been fully assessed. He was the tan who single-handed awakened the Philippine people to tutional and politcal consciousness, an extraordinary achieve- trent which will he examined in what follows Yt im the panorama of Asian history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries his position is less clear, and in need of definition At the time of his birth, European power and influence in Asin had been growing and spreading for more than three hhsdeed years; but forthe most part his was a slow, haphazard « its principal motivation being trade. The Indian Mutiny 4:57 matks the end of this long epoch in Europe's relations ‘sith Asia, From 1858 onwards a new determination and energy infused European activity in the East, and with this came a new principle, the territorial acquisition of empire, still principally {or purposes of trade, but also with the aim of bringing Western forms of government and education to peoples whom the West considered to be either barbarous or decadent, or both. During this period, from 1838 to 19e0—almost the exact period of Rizal’s life;—Britain consolidated her power throughout the Indian sub-continent, added Burma to her empire, and by means of protectorates extended her influence to embrace Malays, Sarawak and Sabah (North Borneo). Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia were absorbed by France, Japan was drawn out of her long seclusion, and Thailand signed her first treaties with Western nations. Ceylon was already ruled by Britain, Indonesia by the Netherlands, and the Philippines by Spain, China, rent by internal rebellion and misruled by the tottering Manchu dynasty, managed to maintain a semblance of independence; bu by 1898 every port of any usefulness on the China coast was funcr European control. The last decade of the nineteenth Jesmsury dawned on an Orient which had become a suburb ofINTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION and nations must be regarded by Europe as equals, an idea whch tthe Europe colonial power of that tins was in Vusying degrees pretentious, preposterous, or abhorrent. “The Philippine Revolution of 1896, which Rizal's works inspired but which he was in fact opposed to, knowing it to be premature and inadequately organized, was the frst genuinely ational revolt by an Asian people against a colonial power. ‘That it was genuinely national in character was due entirely to Rizal, the first exponent of Asian nationalism, - ‘His execution was reported in newspapers throughout the ‘world, In most countries the fact that Spain had felt obliged to execute, as leader of the rebellion, a 35-year-old doctor, a rman of peace and evidently a person of some local distinction, shoséed simply that there was something rorten in the state of the Spanish Philippines. But this came as no surprise. It was ‘what most intelligent readers would have assured In Asia reaction was more acute. Since the establishment of Buropean power, the sentient minority in each country of the East had become absorbed in a phase of critical self-examination, which atthe yearn, pac Deame, ineningly widepread The power and efficiency of Europe had at this time induced state of affairs in which everything from the West was assumed tobe superior. In the last two decades of the nineteenth century contrary voices were heard, challenging this assumption, In Ind che of ie exist ene ef change overs Behe Absningranath Tagore rok company with dhe Indian atts wo for more than fifty yeas had been uninspiredlyéitating uropean styles, and launched out into a distinetive style of his own, inspired by Indian sources. In China the first modera scolars had the temerity to desare thatthe philosophy and aod ais of China were every whit as valableas thos of Europe inaugurating the ra later tobe personified philsophy by iu Shik and in painting by Ch’i Pai-shih, both of whom invested old forms with a new vitality. qbatin the poi field there was hesitancy. The East which 1 Europeans had overpowered had been a world of kings Burope, The real capitals of East Asia were London, Pari ‘Amowrdam, and Madrid. In the entire vast area lying bet Guluchistan’ and the islands of the Pacific, only Japan Thailand precariously maintained a status independent oft direct or indirect European control prevailing everywhere el Ti was precisely this same period which gave birth to the who by their lives and works were to render it impossible f wetonialisin and Western exploitation to take a long lease on 1 Orient, OF these men four great individuals stand pre-emine Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, St ‘Yat-sen, and José Rizal. All four were born within a few jf cach other; Rizal and Tagore were born in the same ye4 $6r, Sun Yat-sen in 1866, and Gandhi in 1869. All fo Tpeovbed deeply the new learning of the West, and broug! Wenternctrained intellect to bear upon the problems of Asi IAll four challenged and questioned the West in the West's o jerme, a process which invigorated a largely supine contin« tea ultimately-—because the West could understand what t said, and it hurt—sapped the self-confidence of the colons powers, who tll then had believed in the supreme rightness their misson, Between them these four men, aided and emulat by others, created a new climate of thought in Asia tending the inevitable attrition of colonialism, 2 movement to which colonial powers themselves inadvertently contributed by 1 jnvasions of 1941. When the Japanese were finally thrust ba into their own islands, the climate of thougbt the four men ‘created dominated Asia completely, and the colonial pow self-confidence, despite their victory, had evaporated. (Of the four men Rizal, though the least known, is in ways the most remarkable. OF an. extreme sensibility, political ideas matured at an unusually early age. Long Tagore was anything other than a critical acceptant of Brit rule in India, when Sun Yat-sen was a student and G: just a schoolboy, Rizal was enunciating clearly, in sper ‘published articles and letters, the eoncepts, entirely his ‘Of a new and completely different relationship between Bur ‘and Asia—the relationship of today—in which Asian p " Absnindracath ‘Tagore (1874-1981), nephew ofthe poet RebindramthINTRODUCTION whose subjects had been their feudal property, to be elevat chastened, or conseribed for war at w ‘come new ideas, of nationhood and individual rights, but wi ‘caste, clan and regional differences to be reckoned with ‘was difficult to see what application these new ideas co have in Asia, The word nation had entered many vocabulari there was a desire among the sentient that theie countries become nations in the Western sense. But few were certain such desires were not academic dreams, so remote from achi ment did they seem in the social context of the Bast. T! hesitancy is exemplified in India in the degree to which country’s earliest political institutions owed their origin British initiative and their membership to British support. ‘Alone among Asian countries, Japan after the Meiji Resto tion of 1868 had transformed herself into a nation on Euroy lines, above all armed with European weapons, which the ¥« before Rizal's death had been used with effect in the Si Japanese War. But an aggressive nationhood such as Japan ‘was not exactly what the rest of Asia sought. Furthermore Jap: hhad for many centuries been a country unified under one gover ‘ment; the transposition from the feudal to the modern was this extent less complex than in countries such as India, unifi by a colonizing power but traditionally divided. ‘The Philippines on the other hand, prior to the Spani occupation, had had a background more related to that of I and South-East Asia, Historical research suggested that Islands had once been part of Further India, with rajas, Hind style courts, and Sanskritic writing. It was thus presumed to ‘a country with problems of national adaptation similar to tho of India, the largest and most significant of the Asian natiot subject to European rule. In India, which was awakening politically in advance of neighbours, it was the national aspect of the Philippine rebellio an aspect which Rizal as a Western-trained doctor seemed aptly to typify rebellion were remote, the Philippines being separated from rest of Asia by the twin barriers of distance and the Spani language. But Rizal's death gave the revolt dramatic public . With the West hi the nineteenth century, perhaps of any A Brapher can scarcely be accused of exaggeration in saying that thece are times when it seems as if everything his subject ever ‘83, id, wrote or thought in his shor life hus been recorded which attracted attention. The events of 1 INTRODUCTION and the message it conveyed was clear. ‘Those few in each subjected country who had dared to dream of a future day when European power would be overthrown saw that they were not alone. There were others. They might speak other languages, and {nliabit countries little known; but in their reactions to colonial rule they were kin, For the radical it became possible cautiously to believe, for the first time, that to entertain the idea of putting an end t0 European supremacy was to be in tune with one of those movements that inexplicably sweep across continents, Abore all, the national character of the Philippine revolt, a character which the unsuccessful struggle for independence against the Americans between 1898 and 1901 served to confirm, signalized what till then had been regarded by many Asian intellectuals with doubt: that the East's feudal kingdoms and principalities, expunged or emasculated by the colonial powers, \were capable of reshaping themselves as modern nations under their own national leaders. The revolt failed. The colonial epoch moved unconcernedly oon, But it was not forgotten, and among the discerning, neither was Rizal or what he stood for. To Asia's growing number of nationalists the events of 1896 in the Philippines became a land- tmark, a conclusion held increasingly as, under the Americans, the Philippines switched from Spanish to English, and more information became available concerning the rebellion and its nature. Gandhi spoke of Rizal asa forerunner and asa martyr in the cause of freedom, and Nehru, in his prison letters to his daughter Indira, recognized the significance of the growth of Philippine nationalism and, if inaccurately, Rizal’s part in it. Though the revolt failed, the idea of modern nationhood as a Practical possibility in Asia had been born. This was due to Rizal, and constitutes his place in history. Rizal's is the most highly documented life of any Asian of ever. His bio-INTRODUCTION ‘Rizal was himself responsible for this, such being the singul attraction of his personality and the aura of destiny which s rounded him, and of which his European friends were as scious as were his own countrymen. People kept his lett however unimportant their subject matter, in the belief they would one day be of interest and significance. People fact had a tendency to kecp anything he gave them, no mat how trivial. Even letters describing him or referring to him we equally carefully treasured by Filipinos, and much of ‘material has survived. As a result he can be seen at almost his life from many angles and with unusual clarity himself was a prolific letter-writer and a fairly regular diar and he early formed the habit of keeping people's letters ¢! interested him, adding still further to knowledge of the recipies All of this is of course of assistance to a biographer, but also presents problems. Quite apart from the fact that Riz conducted his daily coreespondence in six languages! and that ‘write about him accurately requires being familiar with prevale conditions in at least ten different countries on three continent there is the engaging difficulty that much of his writings are strictly speaking irrelevant in an account of his political lif are highly attractive and of great intrinsic interest—in particul the travel diaries, with their fascinating account of the reac ‘of a young Filipino seeing for the first time the great cities the modern world as they were in those days. Some of which they have surrounded him. In a biography of this le space does not permit more than a few fleeting extracts f these subsidiary writings, but it is hoped that what little quoted will serve to give an impression of the whole, Li Rabindranath ‘Tagore, whom in the multfariousness of self-expression he closely resembled, Rizal was a consum artist, able to create things of beauty out of almost anything, litle statue made of a piece of wood someone else had thro 1 Spanish, German, English, French, Tazalos, Habis, INTRODUCTION away, @ pencil sketch in the margin of a letter, or two lines in a diary completely evoking a situation and an atmosphere. Although the first truly notable political figure of modern Asia, ihe dealt in polities only out of necessity; at heart he was a scholar and artist, To readers unfamiliar with the Philippines two explanati are du. In what fellows quite a numberof ceferenes wll be found to Filipinos whose names are virtually unknown outside their own country, and who in these pages will be found living obscurely—as Rizal himself did—in various European capitals, a situation which initially suggests that they were persons of no importance. Actually, as Filipinos today freely ximit, this particular generation of men was perhaps the most gifted their country has ever produced, and nearly every one of those who will be mentioned here holds an honourable place in his country’s history. ‘The extraordinary fact is that during this period any Filipino of merit or distinction was virally obliged to live abroad. In the Philippines under Spanish rule hhe was not wanted and could achieve nothing. It was even worse than this. A Filipino of merit was an object of fear to many Spaniards. ‘The second point is that, particularly in the early chapters, the reader may feel disconcerted to find so little to suggest an (Giclee 1 wl ee alent mx in somes somewhere in Europe. Here it must be remembered that the Philippines, at this time, had been a Christian and considerably ‘uropeanized country—hispanicized is a more accurate word— for the best part of three hundred years: and nowhere was this more noticeable than inthe upper classes of Filipino society to wihich the Rizal family belonged. Their reactions and thoughts, {isis manners and way of life, were far more European than Piette. Their clothes, the long skirts for women and trousers Set were basally European, with various minor adapra- ns deriving largely from China. Their houses and furniture ere very European inde often v it Wog.2e0% European indeed and often very comfortable, with ar] instead of glass for window panes. Their cuisine Owed a great deal to the Chinese cuisine of Fukien province,INTRODUCTION and, Chinese style, all dishes except sweets were served taneously; but in an upper-class family spoons, knives and for were used, and etiquette was European. ‘Perhaps the simplest way to envisuatize the scene is to thi of a tropical Europe, its people golden-skinned and with slight Oriental features, living in houses in which the most import thing is to keep cool, a land of flowers and music, where peo are hot-tempered and romantic, where manual labour is tremendous strain and life simply must move rather slow ‘where every window looks out upon lush vegetation, and wh is nearly always extremely humid and extremely hot But beyond the vivid green of huge banana leaves the chur bells ring; when all the Oriental faces of the family are gather at table, Father says a Latin grace; and later at night, when’ is still hot, all good children go to bed when they are told I Youth in Medieval Twilight 1861-82 «TL wguld give aaything to get over noha deat Rizal, 1879: Memorias de un estudiante de ManilaI Childhood in Calamba + of country and family—early talents—phyrca dicipln a |G ian Pa eain pe ‘Tue Puttirprve IsLANos, as ruled by Spain, have been described. ss 4 missionaries’ empire, Not so completely as Paraguay, yet in chat direction, the archipelago was a kingdom of God—the God who, as the Emperor Charles V intimated to posterity, spoke Spanish, The Islands were regarded as an integral part of Spain. In order to define Spain itself it was necessary to say Peninsular Spain, or simply the Peninsula. National loyalty meant loyalty to Spain; but His Most Catholic Majesty being closely connected with the Church—sometimes one would have thought with God even,—loyalty in the Philippines was not national in the usually accepted sense, Theoretically this was a society of children of God. Loyalty expressed itself a8 loyalty to the Church and its priests; disloyalty was assessed in relation to disobedience or indifference tothe Church and its priests. Love of country, even to a brown-skinned Filipino deprived of any chance of learning Spanish, meant love of Spain. As oppor- ‘unites for Filipinos to travel to Spain—or indeed anywhere— Were virtually non-existent, love of country was a subject of more than usually academic flavour, Like national loyalty, it as 2 concept devoid of practical application to the Filipino inhabitants of the Islands. For the greater part of the three hundred years of Spanish tule no outside influence penetrated the country. There was hardly any foreign trade. Once a year a galleon came from “Mexico bearing gold to finance the civil government; it returned ‘sully with a eargo of products from China, The Chinese of Manila traded by junk with their native and, but their position 3YOUTH IN MEDIEVAL TWILIGHT was insecure. Frowned on by the Church as usurers a devil-worshippers, and by the civil government as a disafl ity incipiently plotting revolt, they were subjeet severe restrictions, and were not infrequently massacred. ‘The Spanish empire in the Philippines, founded by 1 systematie Spanish occupation of the Islands begun in had developed on the basis of ideas prevalent in Spain at t epoch, ideas which in many respects were even then antique comparison with those parts of Europe that experienced 1 Reformation. No foreign or up-to-date influences had be allowed to reach the Islands, the most remote of Spain’s ove seas possessions, and Spanish rule there had continued much it had begun. The country had been largely christianized, a to some extent hispanicized, but as one writer has put it withot undue exaggeration:! ‘The Filipinos in the last half of the nineteenth century were Orientals but medieval Europeans—to the credit of the at Castilians but t0 the discredit of the later Spaniards, ‘The Filipinos af the rcmoter Christian barrioe . . were i customs, beliefs and advancement substantially what the descendant fof Legaspi's followers might have been had these been shipwreck fon the sparsely inlabited islands of the Archipelago and had th settlement remained shut off from the rest of the world No country in the East, it could with reason be said, was; more improbable arena to be the birthplace ofthe first expon of nationalism in Asia; and the observer of history is at onc compelled to wonder What childhood influences—for his i matured when he was very young—could have induced evolution of such ideas, of which the first and most fundament was the concept of a Philippine patriotism. From various shi pices of carly writing, from his memoirs written as an unde graduate (published posthumously), and from one or f articles and letters in which he reminisced about his earl days,» fairly elear impression of his childhood thinking emerg Against such an intellectual void of a background it possesses special interest » Craig, op, eit CHILDHOOD IN CALAMBA José Rizal was born on 19 June 1861 at Calarba in the Philip- pine province of Laguna, about ten hours by pony-trap south- ward from Manila, Calamba, then a town of between three and four thousand inhabitants, lay in the heart of a region of agricul- ‘ural prosperity, the flat lands around it producing sugar and rice, its orchards being stocked with a rich variety of tropical fruits, The region forms part of what is called ‘the rice basket’ ‘of the Philippines, the most productive area in the country. Calamba’s landmark in the plain is Mount Makiling, which rises in lonely grandeur, its shape as pronounced as that of a solcano, just south of the town. The rear windows of the Rizal house faced Mount Makiling, which, depending on the ibility, at times seemed so imminently near as to be almost {ing the house, and at all times compelled attention to the wonders of nature, which is where the boy's constructive thinking started. Ac the end of the town lies another natural phenomenon, the inland lake Laguna de Bay, with its ish traps and catamarans, an aquatic life markedly at odds with that of the fertile fields about the town, With its unusual distances—in places itis so Wide that water stretches 10 the horizon—and its waves which when the wind blows are almost like those ofthe sea, it attracted the boy froman early age. One of his political articles, written years later, contains a sentence relating to this time:? ‘On the fine sand along the shores of the lake of Bay we spent Jong hours of our childhood thinking and dreaming about what might be bbevond, on the other side of the waves ‘The writing is in the polemical style of Spanish politics which he felt obliged to adopt in Spain, but the content is plain, His student memoirs show that at an early age his love of ‘ature became discriminating. In the rear compound of his parents’ house were some fruit trees. These he quickly learned the names of, treating each tree as if it were a personal friend, leeds, pond in Le Sader, Jems sg. Bue here cthermtac’ cated all tanalations inthis vie arte biographer a, the languages of the orginal 3‘YOUTH IN MEDIEVAL TWILIGHT He admired with a discernment which contained the rudiment ‘of both an artistic and a scientific appreciation the differes attributes and special qualities of each trec, and the same of wide variety of birds coming to nest in the trees at evenin Everything in the animal and plant world pleased and intrigue him, giving him a sense of homeliness; and it is from here, these loves of a child’s life, growing into a love of the count side in general, that evolved the love of country which was bbe the impelling mark of the man, From the same simple begi rings he developed an interest in botany and zoology whi endured throughout his life, and which in his years of exi became an occupation and a solace. By all accounts he was an attractive little boy, with his wid spaced eyes and frank, open expression beneath a mop of bla hair which insisted on growing out straight in all dicectic But perhaps because he was very frail he was never a child other children arc; he was quiet and thoughtful, always observer than participant; and almost as soon as be could us his hands he began to create things. Had he been born in Euro} people would have said he was almost certainly destined for career in the arts. In the Spanish Philippines no such ca existed, thus no one could sty what he would do, His father, Francisco Mercado," was a prosperous s planter and land-holder whose house—large and strong, wit cearthquake-proof foundations, and built by himself—was best in the town. Situated on the central of Calamba's the parallel streets, the house stood next to the parish church: massive and imposing, as were most of the churches in. Philippines—beyond which were the municipal offices, sturd (CHILDHOOD IN CALAMBA «rected in stone in the enduring but intimidating style which the Spaniards had brought with them from their mother country. ‘The whole town was part of an estate owned by the Dominicans ‘who, here as in many other parts of the Islands, derived much of their wealth from rent. Like many Filipino families, the Rizals were of mixed racial origin. In the direct male line their earliest known ancestor was a Chinese who migrated to the Philippines from the Fukien city of Changchow around 1690 and became a Christian, marry- jing a well-to-do Chinese Christian girl of Manila. Subsequent generations, resident at Bifian, a Laguna town some miles north fof Calamba, married Chinese mestizas—persons of mixed Filipino and Chinese ancestry. On his mother's side Rizal had Spanish, Chinese and Filipino blood, with even a line of Japanese ancestry. The Spanish authorities, with a European taste for legal niceties which did not always equate with Philip. pine actuality, described the Rizals as a Chinese mestizo family, but in fact in 1861 they were completely Filipino, and had been for a hundred years or more? Francisco Mercado was the first member of the family to setile at Calamba. A younger son, he had left his native Biflan, here there was not enough land for each son to make a good livelihood, and had come to Calamba, where by steady industry he had worked his way up to being the foremost figure in the community. He was a quiet, dignified, serious-minded man, hospitable and much respected. His father and his grandfather before him had served as chief town official—eapitén—of Biftan, being appointed to the post by the Spanish authorities; and with this background of proven integrity and loyalty to the Spanish administration, Francisco was one of those mch 1 The family surname was Mercado. In 1850, when the use of sur sess ade compuizoy fp the Phtnpaes, Frcaco Meade ba The opportuni of establishing is name as Real, orginally Ric, mes The green of sos growth, of the green of renewal, which as farmer Considered more apgeapriste than the name Mercado, meaning « mark flnce which his father and grandfater had used, Hix rues wa tl Ey the Spanish authonten, wh allocated surnames ag they chose rea ‘ving rediculous naines to such a8 they Wwisbed to humiliate In this {fhe Mercato family continued to use the name Rizal but a subsidia ‘The family geadualy came tobe knowe ao the Rizal family because oft tons fame, sid for convenience they wil be referred to throughout are Se el eee ea een liees ee oe eee ee ee on ee ee Ear ee aes ae aT nae meee ae eee Sionsibrpant Stns tote ory cepa ce pire af mee weenie alee othe Tas Space Soe agian SS ae cat mt ir ead 6‘YOUTH IN MEDIEVAL TWILIGHT rare in a colonial society who mixed with Spaniards adi trators, friars, and army officers—almost as an equal, as father and grandfather had done. Spanish officials passit through and obliged to spend the night at Calamba would st at Francisco's house, and the family consistently kept on terms with the local alealde mayor (usually a mestiz0) the alférest of the Civil Guard, who, as the immediate repe sentatives of Spanish rule, were frequent visitors to the ho ‘The Rizal family thus enjoyed locally a privileged positia ‘being little exposed to the caprice and arrogance which for m: Filipinos were the distinguishing marks of Spanish officialdo A practical man of few words, Franciseo Mercado had hi reasonably good education, starting at the local Latin sche at Bifian and going on to the College of San José in Manila. the time of the birth of his second son he was forty-three hhad been married for thirteen years. His wife was a remarkal ‘woman, one of the best-educated Filipinas of the day, who addition to bearing eleven children had the reputation of bei ‘one of the best business brains in Calamba ‘Teodora Alonso was born of a nationally prominent family also from Bifan, of which her father’ was municipal capi when the Philippines were accorded any political representati was a décoré of the Spanish Crown.* Unusual in an age wh 2 Lieutenant "Ordinary Filipinos in their dealings with Spaniards, whether cleric lay, were alsn expoact fp numerous petty Farman of ical Fee Pl spoke Spans, there beng mo f ‘ort of those who cauld speak a the Spaniards afected to conser an insult spoke't'= Spaniard in Spanish the later would vary reply na nage, or else wld coneempttanuay repeat the Filipine’s wort, im ing his accent When two Spars were present on such an ocction ‘would comerimes engage in ridiculous conversations of mimicry uned Ihombled Fibpino reverted to his native tongve He entertained che scholarly and erudite Sic John Bowring. to, f Hongkong, wireed the Philips ‘and through @ triumphal arch Wwe reached heen ofa rich masta, whoen we Found decorated with Spanish ved ‘which ha been gcunted to is father hofore him. Fle spoke Enalish, havi cHTLDHOOD IN CALAN surents did not trouble much about girls’ education, Veodora ad been seat to the Dominican College of Santa Rosa in Sleanila, and again unusual in that age, spoke excellent Spanish, Speaking of his schooldays, Rizal later wrote of his mother’s caried talents: And she is nevertheless no ordinary woman; she is acquainted with fezature, and speaks Spanish etter than I'do; she used to correct tis poems and gave me wice advice when I was studying rhetoric; She 18 a mathemtaticiaa, and las read a great many books, As well as running the house smoothly and giving her children jncir first lessons, she helped Francisco with his land-holdings snd was in business in her own right, cunning a small lour-mill, curing hams, dyeing cloth, and managing a medicine and sgencral goods store. At the time, the birth of José, her seventh child and second son, was remarkable only for the fact that he was a difficult birth and turned out to be a pale and sickly child with an under- seed body and unusually large head. Later—much later—an vation made at his baptism at the parish church came to membered, ‘The priest—a Filipino and a family friend— roticing the unusual size of the child’s head, warned ‘Teodora Monso to be careful lest the child fall down or hit his head against anything. “Take good care of this child,” he said. ‘Some day he will be a great man.’ Teodora did not pay much equally, and like many fond clined to believe that any of ob attention. She loved her children and sensible mothers was disin- them had special virtues. It was most vers lange one—gave alfondant ars of dete dutention, The spokes were ail nod taste, and the sreeablencss. Cieat Fee educated at Calcutta, upd his Niger dat he ad sued cemitare, the bey she tables, the languid, rosy-cheeked, with such an enchanting and provocative sinile that revealed some very lovely teeth, a sylphelike air, an alluring je ne sais quoi emanating from her entire being. ‘Thus he described her four years later, when he had recovered. Tt was a very litle idyll. Filipino society, when it came to young ladies receiving the attentions of gentlemen admirers, ‘was as strictly proper as the society of Victorian England. No Filipino family could have been stricter than the Rizals, and added to this young José was developing as person of artistically sensitive restraint. Tt was a situation that did not make for adventures. Central to the idyll was the young lady's presentation to José of an artificial rose which she pretended someone else had made when really she herself had made it specially for him. IV University of Santo Tomas Segunda Catigbac—decision to teary axon Bond betcen Real and his ohare ‘Two Mowris later, far fom finding the world waiting for at what was then the Philippines’ sole institution of lensing. the Dominican University of Santo Tomas, is mother had been strongly in sty farther. If sbe had ear been uneling t coteode tear was anything special about her younger son, his tiurapho at, ‘Aenco had obliged her to recognize that she had prod here a child of extraordinary intellectual gifts; and like wise mother in such circumstances in the Philippines of days, she was afraid. If José continued to stady he would in tnd fall into the trap of rising too high for the flay” li AAs was privately but widely said in the countey at that ‘was the well-educated who were the fist to be regarded enemies, and who ran the greatest risk of ending the+ lives, Bagumbayan Field before a fring squad os DoU send him to Manta” Tetora sid dexperstely, en on to re, itv aoe oes on to lean more, it will lad to And this was one of the best-edueated women in the cou Speaking. Something in the way she sad it made ve scent him like a prophecy. He asked himself later whether porta mathe’ hear has double vison’Then in his own word er Rept silent, but my brother ied me to Ma despite my mothers tears? He arrived a somewhat unwilling student, sil un Tia he wanted to doin life, and thus undecided what subj " * esYOUTH IN MEDIEVAL TWILIGHT ‘It was the signal of love, and like every first love it made an. pervading impression. For weeks he could think of little but Segunda, Though arrangements were already procees towards her formal engagement to the man she event ‘married, she with delicate indirectness, but unmistakably, it clear to José that he was still at liberty to speak if he wis For the young man it was heady wine. ‘Yet something held him back. 1 formed the design of keping silent and, until seeing geaterps of sympathy Between us, neither subjecting myscl to her yoke Aeclaring rac t her ‘Throughout the cfosing months of 1877 the idyil contin under heavy chaperonage, until it was time to go home for Christmas vacation. Clearly Segunda hoped to leave Manilai ‘company with her admirer, the route to her home town lyi through Calamba. But when he came to say goodbye to her college it was discovered that she was leaving on the Saturday, while he had made arrangements to depart a ‘earlier. Unwilling to disappoint his parents, he said he could change his plans, but would see her when she passed thr Calamba. She said nothing, but she became pensive and raised her eyes! os e pensi cr He had made a mistake, and knew it. ‘That was the fist night and the frst time that I fele an anguish, inquietude conforming with love, if not with jealousy, perhaps: ‘cause I saw that I was separating from her, perhaps because a milli obstacles woud se between us, so that my nascent love was in ing and seemed to ‘Vigour in the struggle. From Tne char fved hese ti ny own wy tat to say, different from other loves that Uhave heard mentioned. When the Saturday came he had a white horse saddled rode out to & point where he knew the Catigbac family, who ‘come some way to meet their daughter, must pass. father, in the first of a procession of pony-traps, reco José and invited him to come with them to Lipa. José him, and ‘T was going to follow them for I was riding a pre 2 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS good horse. Then inthe next vehicle came Segunda, with her Eater and other college girls she greeted me smiling and waving her handkerchief; 1 simply Ses Fy hat and tad nothing 'A friend in the third vehicle again invited him to go with them, But in the critical moments of my life always I have acted against ‘by disposition, obedient to different purposes and to ponderous Teubte 1 spurred my horse and took another road without having ‘hosen it, exclaiming: This is ended thus. ‘The next two nights he spent, together with a friend, visiting ‘an unmarried gisl older than we were’, and who lived ina litle house of her own. She was fair, with seductive and attractive eyes. She, or we, talked shout love, but miyheart and my thought followed [Segunds] through the night to her town. If the filthiest corpse had told me that she [kewise was thinking of me, I would have kissed it out of gratitode His father found out about these nocturnal visits, and sternly prohibited any more of them. Tn his fife the idyll of Segunda Catigbac is of only very slight significance. Its intcrest lies in the fact that ofall his loves itis the only onc of which he himself has left a written deserip- tion. From this it is possible to observe at fairly close range what might otherwise seem a baffing quality in most of his relation ships with women; that in respect of love, marriage, or any kind of emotional entanglement, there was what can only be tard force that held him back, When he described his first love he was still only twenty, and was not ‘yet fully aware of the nature of this element of seff-restraint. But in what he wrote itis already visible. Tt was generated by the sense, Intentiat first and later conscious, that his life was for a purpose with which nothing must interfere, and that ofall interferences the most absorbing and the most difficult to keep in place is the love of a woman. ‘As a student he seems to have had a mass of girl friends, invariably chaperoned of course. As a man there is more than enough evidence that he was attractive to wornen, and he felt BYOUTH IN MEDIEVAL TWILIGHT at ease in their company. Particularly in his travel notebo fone observes time and again what a quick eye he had for a pre woman, and when he wished to do so he knew how to make presence felt. But apart from two or three exceptions, ‘willbe dealt with in their place, in general his relations with: ‘women to whom he felt attracted—and there were many. to emotional situations such as he experienced with Seg Catigbac, whom he described as ‘always a conqueror of heart that sill refused to surrender’. UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS jpterests, now led him to the systematic budgeting of his time tshich from henceforth became the determinant of his daily fabits. With absolute self-discipline, and in a manner which never once, $0 far as is known, provoked complaint in any who {new him, he divided his time with a view to using each minute of it to the full, Each week he allowed s0 much time for the study of each of his subjects, so much time for exeative work— poetry, sculpting and sketching—so much time for the literary and other associations he belonged to, s0 much time for sleeping and cating, physical exercise and social relaxation, and above all, so much time for reading, thinking (often accompanied by doing something manual), and correspondence, For a student who was taking medicine more as a duty than because he felt he had any real aptitude for it, and who further- more disliked much of what he saw of the way the University sas run, this self-imposed discipline was probably needed, His sears of medical study in Manila were a struggle, and he only dig. moderately well, his distinetions being achieved in philo- ‘ophy and letters, where his real interests lay But through this time of discipline and struggle the man was emerging, and so too were his ideas. From things he saw every day in his classes he came to perceive that not all the fault lay ‘in the side of the friars. Much of it lay with the Filipinos. That the mass of the population should be inert and depressed, M’ accepting injustice without criticism because it knew of no other way of life, he could accept as inevitable in the insulated conditions of Spanish rule. But when a student in class stood up to protest when a friar teacher marked him down as five times absent at roll-call when he had only been absent once (and more than fifteen absences meant dismissal), while the test of the students, instead of substantiating the student's defence, sat silent and then laughed at the teacher's quips ‘contemptuously delivered in market-place slang, José felt otherwise. The attitude of the students depressed him as much %® the behaviour of the friar. If the indios were to stand up 10 pression, the impetus to them to do so could only come from On his return to Calemba on this same occasion, when’ stood before his mother awaiting her joyful welcome, he shocked when she stared at him for quite a time without 3 of recognition, She was going blind. How much this was d to the privations she had endured in prisonrcan only be su but it seems not unlikely that the development of cataract, which she was suffering, may in some measure be attrib to this ‘A crucial moment in family life often precipitates decision, one that has perhaps lain somewhere beneath d surface, unable to find expression. The following year, his com at Santo Toms, he chose medicine as his subject. He was not specially interested in medicine. While he inten ed to study the subject as thoroughly as he could, his interest was fit with the arriere pensée of its political ‘The fact that medicine would give him a money-earning car does not seem to have come into the matter, though later he ‘often extremely glad of the money he could earn as a doct The explanation he gave for his decision was that of the th professions which were all that were then open to Filipino Priesthood, medicine, and_law—this was the one in which felt he could be of most service to the people. But undoubtes an additional motive was that by becoming a doctor he eventually be able to do something for his mother’s sight. ‘The sense of purposelessness which marked his first year the University had gone. ‘The very versatility of his talent, wide scope of his studies in addition to medicine he was philosophy and literature,—and the even wider scope of J Dilan description of what a lass at Santo Tomés was like appeare ‘9 £1 Filthsteiome, Cop. XII, dearly autobiographical 4 45