Lineage, Life and Labors of José Rizal, Philippine Patriot
remained were needed for breeding purposes and Mercado was obliged
to refuse him. In a rage the agent insisted, and when that proved
unavailing, threats followed.
But Francisco Mercado was not a man to be moved by threats, and
when the next rent day came round he was notified that his rent had
been doubled. This was paid without protest, for the tenants were
entirely at the mercy of the landlords, no fixed rate appearing
either in contracts or receipts. Then the rent-raising was kept on
till Mercado was driven to seek the protection of the courts. Part
of his case led to exactly the same situation as that of the Binan
tenantry in his grandfather's time, when the landlords were compelled
to produce their title-deeds, and these proved that land of others
had been illegally included in the estate. Other tenants, emboldened
by Mercado's example also refused to pay the exorbitant rent increases.
The justice of the peace of Kalamba, before whom the case first came,
was threatened by the provincial governor for taking time to hear the
testimony, and the case was turned over to the auxiliary justice, who
promptly decided in the manner desired by the authorities. Mercado at
once took an appeal, but the venal Weyler moved a force of artillery
to Kalamba and quartered it upon the town as if rebellion openly
existed there. Then the court representatives evicted the people
from their homes and directed them to remove all their buildings
from the estate lands within twenty-four hours. In answer to the
plea that they had appealed to the Supreme Court the tenants were
told their houses could be brought back again if they won their
appeal. Of course this was impossible and some 150,000 pesos' worth
of property was consequently destroyed by the court agents, who were
worthy estate employees. Twenty or more families were made homeless
and the other tenants were forbidden to shelter them under pain of
their own eviction. This is the proceeding in which Retana suggests
that the governor-general and the landlords were legally within their
rights. If so, Spanish law was a disgrace to the nation. Fortunately
the Rizal-Mercado family had another piece of property at Los Banos,
and there they made their home.
Weyler's motives in this matter do not have to be surmised, for
among the (formerly) secret records of the government there exists
a letter which he wrote when he first denied the petition of the
Kalamba residents. It is marked "confidential" and is addressed to the
landlords, expressing the pleasure which this action gave him. Then
the official adds that it cannot have escaped their notice that the
times demand diplomacy in handling the situation but that, should
occasion arise, he will act with energy. Just as Weyler had favored
the landlords at first so he kept on and when he had a chance to do
something for them he did it.
Finally, when Weyler left the Islands an investigation was ordered into
his administration, owing to rumors of extensive and systematic frauds
on the government, but nothing more came of the case than that Retana,
later Rizal's biographer, wrote a book in the General's defense,
"extensively documented," and also abusively anti-Filipino. It has been
urged (not by Retana, however) that the Weyler regime was unusually
efficient, because he would allow no one but himself to make profits
out of the public, and therefore, while his gains were greater than
those of his predecessors, the Islands really received more attention
from him.
During the Kalamba discussion in Spain, Retana, until 1899 always
scurrilously anti-Filipino, made the mistake of his life, for he
charged Rizal's family with not paying their rent, which was not
true. While Rizal believed that duelling was murder, to judge from a
pair of pictures preserved in his album, he evidently considered that
homicide of one like Retana was justifiable. After the Spanish custom,
his seconds immediately called upon the author of the libel. Retana
notes in his "Vida del Dr. Rizal" that the incident closed in a way
honorable to both Rizal and himself--he, Retana, published an explicit
retraction and abject apology in the Madrid papers. Another time,
in Madrid, Rizal risked a duel when he challenged Antonio Luna,
later the General, because of a slighting allusion to a lady at a
public banquet. He had a nicer sense of honor in such matters than
prevailed in Madrid, and Luna promptly saw the matter from Rizal's
point of view and withdrew the offensive remark. This second incident
complements the first, for it shows that Rizal was as willing to risk a
duel with his superior in arms as with one not so skilled as he. Rizal
was an exceptional pistol shot and a fair swordsman, while Retana was
inferior with either sword or pistol, but Luna, who would have had the
choice of weapons, was immeasurably Rizal's superior with the sword.
Owing to a schism a rival arose against the old Masonry and finally
the original organization succumbed to the offshoot. Doctor Miguel
Morayta, Professor of History in the Central University at Madrid, was
the head of the new institution and it had grown to be very popular
among students. Doctor Morayta was friendly to the Filipinos and a
lodge of the same name as their paper was organized among them. For
their outside work they had a society named the Hispano-Filipino
Association, of which Morayta was president, with convenient clubrooms
and a membership practically the same as the Lodge La Solidaridad.
Just before Christmas of 1890, this Hispano-Filipino Association
gave a largely attended banquet at which there were many prominent
speakers. Rizal stayed away, not because of growing pessimism,
as Retana suggests, but because one of the speakers was the same
Becerra who had feared to act when the outrage against the body of
Rizal's brother-in-law had been reported to him. Now out of office,
the ex-minister was again bold in words, but Rizal for one was not
again to be deceived by them.
The propaganda carried on by his countrymen in the Peninsula did not
seem to Rizal effective, and he found his suggestions were not well
received by those at its head. The story of Rizal's separation from
La Solidaridad, however, is really not material, but the following
quotation from a letter written to Carlos Oliver, speaking of the
opposition of the Madrid committee of Filipinos to himself, is
interesting as showing Rizal's attitude of mind:
"I regret exceedingly that they war against me, attempting to discredit
me in the Philippines, but I shall be content provided only that my
successor keeps on with the work. I ask only of those who say that
I created discord among the Filipinos: Was there any effective union
before I entered political life? Was there any chief whose authority
I wanted to oppose? It is a pity that in our slavery we should have
rivalries over leadership."
And in Rizal's letter from Hongkong, May 24, 1892, to Zulueta,
commenting on an article by Leyte in La Solidaridad, he says:
"Again I repeat, I do not understand the reason of the attack, since
now I have dedicated myself to preparing for our countrymen a safe
refuge in case of persecution and to writing some books, championing
our cause, which shortly will appear. Besides, the article is impolitic
in the extreme and prejudicial to the Philippines. Why say that the
first thing we need is to have money? A wiser man would be silent
and not wash soiled linen in public."
Early in '91 Rizal went to Paris, visiting Mr. Baustead's villa in
Biarritz en route, and he was again a guest of his hospitable friend
when, after the winter season was over, the family returned to their
home in Brussels.
During most of the year Rizal's residence was in Ghent, where he had
gathered around him a number of Filipinos. Doctor Blumentritt suggested
that he should devote himself to the study of Malay-Polynesian
languages, and as it appeared that thus he could earn a living in
Holland he thought to make his permanent home there. But his parents
were old and reluctant to leave their native land to pass their last
years in a strange country, and that plan failed.
He now occupied himself in finishing the sequel to "Noli Me Tangere,"
the novel "El Filibusterismo," which he had begun in October of 1887
while on his visit to the Philippines. The bolder painting of the
evil effects of the Spanish culture upon the Filipinos may well have
been inspired by his unfortunate experiences with his countrymen in
Madrid who had not seen anything of Europe outside of Spain. On the
other hand, the confidence of the author in those of his countrymen
who had not been contaminated by the so-called Spanish civilization,
is even more noticeable than in "Noli Me Tangere."
Rizal had now done all that he could for his country; he had shown
them by Morga what they were when Spain found them; through "Noli Me
Tangere" he had painted their condition after three hundred years of
Spanish influence; and in "El Filibusterismo" he had pictured what
their future must be if better counsels did not prevail in the colony.
These works were for the instruction of his countrymen, the fulfilment
of the task he set for himself when he first read Doctor Jagor's
criticism fifteen years before; time only was now needed for them to
accomplish their work and for education to bring forth its fruits.
CHAPTER VIII
Despujol's Duplicity
As soon as he had set in motion what influence he possessed in Europe
for the relief of his relatives, Rizal hurried to Hongkong and from
there wrote to his parents asking their permission to join them. Some
time before, his brother-in-law, Manuel Hidalgo, had been deported
upon the recommendation of the governor of La Laguna, "to prove to
the Filipinos that they were mistaken in thinking that the new Civil
Code gave them any rights" in cases where the governor-general agreed
with his subordinate's reason for asking for the deportation as well
as in its desirability. The offense was having buried a child, who
had died of cholera, without church ceremonies. The law prescribed
and public health demanded it. But the law was a dead letter and the
public health was never considered when these cut into church revenues,
as Hidalgo ought to have known.
Upon Rizal's arrival in Hongkong, in the fall of 1891, he received
notice that his brother Paciano had been returned from exile in
Mindoro, but that three of his sisters had been summoned, with the
probability of deportation.
A trap to get Rizal into the hands of the government by playing
upon his affection for his mother was planned at this time, but it
failed. Mrs. Rizal and one of her daughters were arrested in Manila
for "falsification of cedula" because they no longer used the name
Realonda, which the mother had dropped fifteen years before. Then,
though there were frequently boats running to Kalamba, the two women
were ordered to be taken there for trial on foot. As when Mrs. Rizal
had been a prisoner before, the humane guards disobeyed their orders
and the elderly lady was carried in a hammock. The family understood
the plans of their persecutors, and Rizal was told by his parents
not to come to Manila. Then the persecution of the mother and the
sister dropped.
In Hongkong, Rizal was already acquainted with most of the Filipino
colony, including Jose M. Basa, a '72 exile of great energy, for whom
he had the greatest respect. The old man was an unceasing enemy of all
the religious orders and was constantly getting out "proclamations,"
as the handbills common in the old-time controversies were called. One
of these, against the Jesuits, figures in the case against Rizal
and bears some minor corrections in his handwriting. Nevertheless,
his participation in it was probably no more than this proofreading