• In the early part of 1896 Rizal was extremely happy because Josephine

was expecting a baby. Unfortunately, he played a prank on her, frightening

her so that she prematurely gave birth to an eight- month baby boy, who
lived only for three hours.
• This lost son of Rizal was named “Francisco” in honor of Don Francisco
(the Hero’s Father) and was buried in Dapitan.
• RIZAL AND THE KATIPUNAN
• When Rizal was mourning the lost of his son, ominous clouds of revolution
gradually darkened the Philippine skies.
• Andres Bonifacio, the “Great Plebeian”, was sowing the seeds of an armed
uprising. The secret evolutionary society, called Katipunan, which he founded on
July 7, 1892, was gaining more and more adherents.
• In a secret meeting of the Katipunan at a little river called Bitukang
Manok, near the town of Pasig, on May 1896, Dr. Pio Valenzuela was
named emissary to Dapitan, in order to inform Rizal of the plan of the
Katipunan to launch a revolution for freedom’s sake.
• On June 15, Dr. Valenzuela left Manila on board the steamer “Venus”. To
camouflage his real mission, he brought with him a blind man named
Raymundo Mata
• Dr. Valenzuela arrived in Dapitan in the evening of June 21, 1896.
Valenzuela told Rizal about the Katipunan’s plan and the necessity of his
support.
• Rizal objected to Bonifacio’s audacious project to plunge the country in
bloody revolution. He was of the sincere belief that it was premature, for
two reasons:
• The people are not ready for a revolution.
• Arms and funds must first be collected before raising the cry of
revolution.
• He also disapproved of other plan of the Katipunan to rescue him because
he had given his word of honor to the Spanish authorities and he did not
want to break it.
• VOLUNTEERS AS MILITARY DOCTOR IN CUBA
• Months before the Katipunan contacted him, Rizal had offered his services as
military doctor in Cuba, which was then in the throes of a revolution and a raging
yellow fever epidemic.
• There was a shortage of physicians to minister to the needs of the Spanish
 troops and the Cuban people. It was Blumentritt who told him of the
deplorable health situation in war- ridden Cuba and advised him to
volunteer as army physician there.
• Acting upon Blumentritt’s advice, Rizal wrote to Governor General
Ramon Blanco, Despujol’s successor, on December 17, 1895 offering his
services as military doctor in Cuba. He gave up that his humanitarian offer
would ever receive government approval.
• When he least expected it, a letter from Government Blanco dated July 1,
1896 arrived in Dapitan. This letter which reached him on July 30 th, also
stated that the politico-military commander of Dapitan.

• THE SONG OF THE TRAVELER

• Great was Rizal’s joy in receiving the gladsome news from Malacañang. At last,
he was free!
• He was going to travel --- to Europe and then to Cuba.
• It was with the joyous thought of resuming his travels that he wrote his
heart-warming poem. “El Canto del Viajero” (The Song of the Traveller).
• ADIOS DAPITAN
• On July 31, 1896, Rizal’s hour-year exile in Dapitan came to an end. At midnight
of that date, he embarked on board steamer “España”. He was accompanied by
Josephine, Narcisa, Angelica (Narcisa’s daughter), his three nephews and six
pupils.
• Almost all Dapitan folks, young and old, were at the shore to bid him
goodbye. Many wept as the steamer sailed away especially the other
pupils who were too.
• As farewell music the town brass band strangely played the dolorous
Funeral March of Chopin. Rizal must have felt it deeply, for with his
presentiment of death, it seemed an obsequy or requiem.
• As the steamer pushed out into the sea, Rizal gazed for the last time on
Dapitan with his hands waving in farewell salute to its kind and hospitable
folks and with crying heart filled with tears of nostalgic memories.
• When he could no longer see the dim shoreline, he sadly went to his cabin
and wrote in his diary:
“I have been in that distinct for 4 years, thirteen days, and a few hours.”
 CHAPTER 22: LAST TRIP ABROAD, 1896
• INTRODUCTION
• Rizal’s four-year exile in Dapitan came to an end
• July 31, 1896
• He left for Dapitan on board the steamer Espana for Manila with delightful
stopovers such as the following:
• Dumaguete
• Cebu
• Iloilo
• Capiz and
• Romblon
• August 26, 1896
• Rizal arrived in Manila
• Rizal misses ship going to Spain regular steamer Isla de Luzon which sailed to
Spain the day before he arrived in Manila Bay
• He was transferred to another Spanish cruiser Castilla, where he stayed for almost
a month, pending the availability of a vessel bound for Spain by the order of
Ramon Blanco. He was treated not a prisoner, but a guest detained on board.
• CRY OF BALINTAWAK (PUGADLAWIN)
• August 26, 1896
• Andres Bonifacio and the Katipunan raised the cry of revolution in the
hills of Balintawak, a few miles north of Manila
• Rizal, worried about the raging hostilities, left for Spain on the steamer
Isla de Panay
• September 3, 1896
• It was his last trip abroad
• FROM DAPITAN TO MANILA
• Leaving Dapitan at midnight, July 31, 1896, the Spaña with Rizal and party on
board, sailed northward.
• At dawn the next day
• it anchored at Dumaguete, capital of Negros Oriental, wrote Rizal his
Travel diary