of the population, only to find itself sold out and deserted by its leaders, dying away for a time; but later, under changed conditions, it reappeared in strange metamorphosis as the rallying-center for the largest number of Filipinos who have ever gathered together for a common purpose, and then finally went down before those thin grim lines in khaki with sharp and sharpest shot clearing away the wreck of the old, blazing the way for the new: the broadening sweep of "Democracy announcing, in rifle-volleys death-winged, under her Star Banner, to the tune of Yankee-doodle-do, that she is born, and, whirlwind-like, will envelop the whole world!"MANILA, December 1, 1909 [li]
1 Quoted by Macaulay: Essay on the Succession in Spain.
2 The ruins of the Fuerza de Playa Honda, o Real de Paynaven, are still to be seen in the present municipality of Botolan, Zambales. The walls are overgrown with rank vegetation, but are well preserved, [viiin]with the exception of a portion looking toward the Bankal River, which has been undermined by the currents and has fallen intact into the stream.
3Relation of the Zambals, by Domingo Perez, O.P.; manuscript dated 1680. The excerpts are taken from the translation in Blair and
Robertson, The Philippine Islands, Vol. XLVII, by courtesy of the Arthur H. Clark Company, Cleveland, Ohio.
4"Estadismo de las Islas Filipinas, o Mis Viages por Este Pais, por Fray Joaquin Martinez de Zuniga, Agustino calzado." Padre Zu-
niga was a parish priest in several towns and later Provincial of his Order. He wrote a history of the conquest, and in 1800 accompanied Alava, the General de Marina, on his tours of investigation looking toward preparations for the defense of the islands against another attack of the British, with whom war threatened. The Estadismo, which is a record of these journeys, with some account of the rest of the islands, remained in manuscript until 1893, when it was published in Madrid.
5 Secular, as distinguished from the regulars, i.e., members of the monastic orders.
6 Sinibaldo de Mas, Informe sobre el estado de las Islas Filipinas en 1842, translated in Blair and Robertson's The Philippine Islands, Vol. XXVIII, p. 254.
7Sic. St. John xx, 17.
8 This letter in the original French in which it was written is reproduced in the Vida y Escritos del Dr. Jose Rizal, by W. E. Retana
(Madrid, 1907).
9Filipinas dentro de Cien Anos, published in the organ of the Filipinos in Spain, La Solidaridad, in 1889-90. This is the most studied of Rizal's purely political writings, and the completest exposition of his views concerning the Philippines.
10 An English version of El Filibusterismo, under the title The Reign of Greed, has been prepared to accompany the present work.
11 "Que todo el monte era oregano." W.E. Retana, in the appendix to Fray Martinez de Zuniga's Estadismo, Madrid, 1893, where the
18
decree is quoted. The rest of this comment of Retana's deserves quotation as an estimate of the living man by a Spanish publicist who was at the time in the employ of the friars and contemptuously hostile to Rizal, but who has since 1898 been giving quite a spectacular demonstration of waving a red light after the wreck, having become his most enthusiastic, almost hysterical, biographer: "Rizal is what is commonly called a character, but he has repeatedly demonstrated very great inexperience in the affairs of life. I believe him to be now about thirty-two years old. He is the Indian of most ability among those who have written."
12 From Valenzuela's deposition before the military tribunal, September sixth, 1896.
13Capilla: the Spanish practise is to place a condemned person for the twenty-four hours preceding his execution in a chapel, or a cell fitted up as such, where he may devote himself to religious exercises and receive the final ministrations of the Church.
14 But even this conclusion is open to doubt: there is no proof beyond the unsupported statement of the Jesuits that he made a written retraction, which was later destroyed, though why a document so interesting, and so important in support of their own point of view, should not have been preserved furnishes an illuminating commentary on the whole confused affair. The only unofficial witness present was the condemned man's sister, and her declaration, that she was at the time in such a state of excitement and distress that she is unable to affirm positively that there was a real marriage ceremony performed, can readily be accepted. It must
be remembered that the Jesuits were themselves under the official and popular ban for the part they had played in Rizal's education
and development and that they were seeking to set themselves right in order to maintain their prestige. Add to this the persistent and systematic effort made to destroy every scrap [xlviin]of record relating to the man--the sole gleam of shame evidenced in the impolitic, idiotic, and pusillanimous treatment of him--and the whole question becomes such a puzzle that it may just as well be left in darkness, with a throb of pity for the unfortunate victim caught in such a maelstrom of panic-stricken passion and selfish intrigue. [Contents]
What? Does no Caesar, does no Achilles, appear on your stage now? Not an Andromache e'en, not an Orestes, my friend?
No! there is nought to be seen there but parsons, and syndics of commerce, Secretaries perchance, ensigns and majors of horse.
But, my good friend, pray tell, what can such people e'er meet with That can be truly call'd great?--what that is great can they do? SCHILLER: Shakespeare's Ghost.
(Bowring's translation.) [liii] [Contents]
Contents
Author's Dedication
I A Social Gathering II Crisostomo Ibarra III The Dinner
IV Heretic and Filibuster V A Star in a Dark Night VI Capitan Tiago
VII An Idyl on an Azotea
VIII Recollections IX Local Affairs X The Town
XI The Rulers
XII All Saints
XIII Signs of Storm
XIV Tasio: Lunatic or Sage
IV The Sacristans
XVI Sisa
XVII Basilio
XVIII Souls In Torment
XIX A Schoolmaster's Difficulties XX The Meeting in the Town Hall XXI The Story of a Mother[liv] XXII Lights and Shadows
XXIII Fishing
XXIV In the Wood
XXV In the House of the Sage
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XXVI The Eve of the Fiesta XXVII In the Twilight XXVIII Correspondence XXIX The Morning
XXX In the Church XXXI The Sermon XXXII The Derrick XXXIII Free Thought XXXIV The Dinner XXXV Comments XXXVI The First Cloud XXXVII His Excellency XXXVIII The Procession
XXXIX Dona Consolacion XL Right and Might XLI Two Visits
XLII The Espadanas
XLIII Plans
XLIV An Examination of Conscience
