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Chapter 13: In the Trap |
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Chapter 13: In the Trap |
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The day after writing the letters to his relatives and to the Filipinos, on June 21, 1892, Rizal sailed for Manila, accompanied by his sister Lucia. He bore with him passports and assurances of safe conduct in the Philippines. The ship had barely hoisted anchor at Hong Kong when the Spanish Consul General in Hong Kong cabled to Governor General Despujol that the victim "is in the trap." The Governor General ordered an inquiry to make sure that Rizal had not become a German citizen, for to arrest a German would have caused international difficulties. (01) An accusation was at once filed against Rizal for anti-religious and anti-patriotic campaigns of education." (02) They thought they had outwitted him. They did not dream that he had left two letters behind him anticipating their treachery. When José and Lucia disembarked in Manila on Sunday, June 26, 1892, they were met at the dock by several carabineers and a major. Their baggage was searched at the customs house and then they were allowed to go without a word. But those who searched the baggage carried to the office of the Governor General a "package of seditious paper", which they said they had found in the pillowcase of Lucia. The package included copies of a tract called "The Poor Friars", a caustic attack on the Dominicans: "A bank has suspended payment; The New Oriental has just become bankrupt. . . great losses in India. . . Among those who have suffered most, we are able to mention the Reverend Corporation of the Dominicans, which lost in this catastrophe many hundreds of thousands. . . However, these hundreds of thousands lost are not theirs, they claim. How can they have this, when they take a vow of poverty? They are to be believed then, when they take a vow of poverty? They are to be believed then, when, to protect themselves, they say this money belongs to widows and orphans. Very likely some of it belongs to the widows and orphans of Calamba, and who knows if not to their murdered husbands? And the virtuous priests handle this money solely as depositions to return it to them afterwards righteously with all interest when the day to render accounts arrives! Who knows? Who better than they can take charge of collecting the few household goods while the houses burn, the orphans and widows flee without meeting hospitality, since others are prohibited from offering them shelter, while the men are made prisoners and prosecuted? Who has more bravery, more audacity, and more love for humanity than the Dominicans? "But now the devil has carried off the money of the widows and the orphans, and it is to be feared that he will carry away everything, because when the devil begins, the devil has to finish. "If things are thus, we would recommend to the Dominicans that they should exclaim as Job did: 'Naked came I from the womb of my mother (Spain) and naked will I return unto her; the devil gave and the devil took away; blessed be the name of the Lord!" Fr. Jacinto (03)
This paper was called "seditious", though one will search in vain for the slightest word against the government. In our day it would not be treasonous, but in that period, when the State and Church were united, an insult to a religious order could be construed as sedition. Besides, the religious orders in that period were the powers behind the throne, seating and unseating officials at will. "The Poor Friars" sounded as Lucia must have felt, with the memory of her father's home being burned, all her family persecuted, her brothers in exile, her own husband's bones having been refused burial in the Catholic cemetery. Rizal, in talking about the tracts in Dapitan later, is quoted as having said: "If my sister had been carrying them I would have known about it. . . Nothing would have been easier than to have put them in her bosom (camisole?) or in her stocking. If the officers had talked to my sister about them, I think they would have discovered the truth, for I firmly believe that she did not carry these papers, and if she had done so she would have deserved the title of 'fool', but my sister is not that." (04) Rizal never said that he was not the author! The customs officials did not intimate that they had discovered anything in the baggage, but allowed José and Lucia to depart without a word. José, therefore, never afterward had an opportunity to talk with Lucia. She is dead now, but her living sisters say José had written the paper, and she had carried in her bosom [camisole?] without his knowledge, but pulled it out and placed it in her pillow case because she wanted the custom's hose officials to take it to the Governor General! When two years later José learned what Lucia had done, he said, "She made a serious mistake."
To continue our story, José and Lucia left the customs house unmolested and went at once to the Hotel Oriente. That afternoon, at four, Rizal paid a formal visit upon Governor General Despujol who could see him for only three minutes, but asked him to return at seven that evening for a longer interview. Almost every day thereafter Rizal visited the Governor General, who promised him immunity from persecution for his father and the return of his brother and brothers-in law from banishment. To Rizal's keen disappointment he could not secure the approval of Despujol to his Borneo plan. The Governor General argued that the Philippines were very much under-populated and could not afford to lose its citizens.
The Regulations of La Liga Filipina by Rizal's hand The night of his arrival in Manila, Rizal met over thirty distinguished leaders, including Apolinario Mabini and Anderes Bonifacio, (05) and outlined his plan for La Liga Filipina.
Printed Copy of the Constitution in Spanish Note: It was also printed in Tagalog
While still in Hong Kong, Rizal, his friend Basa, and others had prepared
the details of the plan and had had many copies sent to the Philippines for
critical study. Now that he had reached Manila, he wasted no time in
organizing the new League. Its constitution named these five purposes:
Through the League constitution contained not one seditious sentence, the
fact that it began among members of the Masonic Order in Manila and that it
was a secret organization somewhat resembling Masonry, was enough to bring
it under the suspicion of the government. It contained provisions which a
despotic government would find intolerable such as: Rizal soon became aware that he was being spied upon at every step. No sooner did he leave a house than it was thoroughly examined and every member of the household was questioned. (07) On July 3, 1892, a week after Rizal's arrival, the Liga Filipina was formally established. His friends wanted to call it "The Rizal Party" but he would not hear of it. Four days later, July 7, José was summoned to Malacañang. (08) Nothing was said at that time about the Liga Filipina, for that would have revealed the espionage which had been going on. The Governor General had another excuse. Here is Rizal's own story: "He asked me who the owner was of the roll of pillows and mats with my baggage. I said they belonged to my sister. He told me that because of them he was going to send me to Fort Santiago. Don Ramon Despujol, his nephew and aide, took me in one of the palace carriages. "At Fort Santiago, Don Enrique Villamor, the commander, received me. The room assigned to me was an ordinary chamber, with a bed, a dozen chairs, a table, a washstand, and a mirror. There were three windows: one without bars, looked out on the court; another had bars and overlooked the wall and beach; the third also served as a door and had a padlock. Two artillerymen. . . had orders to fire on anyone who tried to make signs from the beach. I could neither write nor converse with the officer of the guard. . . The commander of the fort gave me books from the liberty. . . "At 12:15 the following night, the aide arrived with the same carriage that had brought me there. They took me by way of Santa Lucia gate. Two of the Guardia Veterana were awaiting me in a boat. . . The S. S. Cebu set sail in the morning at 9 o'clock. (July 8, 1892). "We were carrying prisoners loaded with chains, among whom were a sergeant and a corporal, both Europeans. The sergeant was to be shot because he had ordered his superior officer, who had misbehaved while in Mindanao, to be tied up. The soldiers who had obeyed orders and tied the officer were given twenty years in prison; and the officer himself was dismissed from service because he had allowed them to tie him up. "We passed along the east coast of Mindoro and the West coast of Panay, reaching Dapitan on Sunday evening at seven. Captain Delgras and three artillerymen accompanied me to shore in a boat rowed by eight sailors. We made our way through a heavy sea to a very gloomy beach. We were in the dark except for a lantern which showed the roadway grown up with weeds."
Meanwhile all the newspapers in Manila published the long curious decree of
the Governor General, which is of extreme interest to the student of Rizal,
because it tells us the reason why he was sent into exile. There were three
charges: (09) It is interesting that three of the charges were religious, and only one political. In those days an insult to the clergy was a crime against the state.
When the boat bearing Rizal reached the little frontier town of Dapitan,
situated on lovely Dapitan Bay, on the north coast of the then wild island
of Mindanao, the prisoner was taken ashore. A letter had gone with his boat
from Padre Pablo Pastells, Superior of the Jesuit mission in the
Philippines, saying that Rizal might dwell in the house of Father Francisco
P. Sanchez, the Jesuit missionary, on the following conditions: (10)
The Home of Commandant Carnicero
But Rizal did not agree to these conditions and so was placed in the home of
the Commandant, D. Ricardo Carnicero. The prisoner was so manly and
straightforward that Carnicero, like many another before and after, became
deeply attached to him. Rizal was given complete freedom to go where he
might, but had to report once a week. He was very punctilious about being on
time for every meal, so that the commandant might never have a shadow of
doubt as to whether he had escaped. This friendship led Carnicero to write
repeated letters to the Governor General, assuring him that Rizal had no
part in any insurrectionary programs and that he was really a friend of the
Spanish government and desired only reform. (11) The reforms, which Rizal
told Carnicero he desired, were: "These are my reforms. Once established as described, the Philippines will be the happiest country in the world." (12) Rizal's Borneo dream had been wrecked, but he began to dream of bringing his relatives and friends to live about him in [the island of] Mindanao, (13) in the hope that his colony might become a reality there. He wrote that in Calamba and throughout Laguna Province, "there are hard working people, peaceful, but aware of their rights, and if they are given some inducements they will give new life to this district. . . If this idea comes to a head I shall not object to remaining permanently in this district." (14) Carnicero gave him every encouragement, (15) and urged the Governor General to allow those members of the family then exiled in Jolo to come to Dapitan. But he gave a strange reason! "We must touch his heart," said Carnicero's confidential letter, "with the misfortunes and miseries of his family, and for this purpose nothing is better suited than having his relatives here. . . By this means, my General, and by flattering him with the title of Provincial Doctor of this district, I am sure that in Dapitan Rizal will retract all, leaving, for a long time and perhaps forever, his friends and politics, and at the same time it may be possible to discover the true leaders of the insurrection!" (16) Here Carnicero tells us a secret. The Government and Jesuits have begun a concerted effort which is to last four long years to draw Rizal back into the fold of the Church and to loyalty to Spain. "The Jesuits," wrote Carnicero, "and in particular Father Sanchez, an intimate friend of Rizal, have informed me of their purpose, and in view of the answer which Rizal sent by this post to Father Pastells, we must not run afoul of him now." (17)
Father Pablo Pastells The letter to which Carnicero refers was the first of four letters which Rizal wrote to Father Pastells and which the Superior of the Jesuits answered in a frank but friendly debate on the Church and religion. Father Pastells began the correspondence by sending Rizal a book by Sarda, for which Rizal wrote his appreciation. (18) Father Pastells wrote Rizal that the judgment of the ages might have bestowed upon him "immortal laurels, and he would have been carried on the wings of fame before all the world; he would have been extolled for his good works, and his memory would have been blessed in succeeding generations. However, unfortunately for us, and with great harm to a good cause, this arch-saint fell, (as another has said), into the hands of the Philistines; and has not yet been able to recover. "There came a critical period in the history of his youth which led him to go abroad. He departed from the Philippines bitter and with personal resentment, for reasons and motives which I neither can nor desire to adjudge now. The thorn which he carried, driven into his heart, was an inflammation and an intoxicant to his spirit, the wounds leaving profound impressions on all his faculties, creating prejudices, and distorting memories and sentiments from their proper worth, in his injured mind. His exaggerated independence of thought, his extreme self-esteem, made it totally impossible to discriminate the large fact from inconsequential, and in Germany he took the great leap and the great fall which submerged him in the deep abysm of falsehood, separated him from the Catholic religion and from the Spanish nation, and hoisted the flag of rebellion. Indeed, the foreign enemies of our religion and of our country foresaw this, and they worked for that objective with the greatest determination and art, confounding his clear intelligence by means of reformist and separatist doctrines, inoculating in his already wounded heart and sectarian virus; and having drunk incautiously the venomous drug which they poured into the golden cup, there happened what could not but result, and what a certain Austrian professor, his very good friend, had already predicted correctly, that he was overpowered by the Protestants, and a little later by the Free Masons, the first result of this captivity being Noli Me Tangere and the second El Filibusterismo. I have here, my most beloved Pepe, explained in a few words, the original cause of your present misfortune." Rizal replied (18) that he had written half of Noli Me Tangere in Madrid, a fourth in Paris, and only a fourth in Germany, and that the only influence of Germany had been to make it milder. "As for my being a Protestant. . . If your reverence had known what I have lost by not declaring myself in conformity with Protestant ideas, you would not have said such a thing. Had I not respected religion, had I regarded it as a convenience, or an art of doing well in this life, I would today be rich, free, and covered with honor instead of being a poor exile [He refers to his proposal to Adelina Boustead {sic. i.e. Nellie Boustead, not Adelina Boustead - rly}]. Rizal, a Protestant! A laugh romps in my breast which only respect for your reverence restrains. I wish you had heard my discussions with a Protestant curate in the long afternoons, there in the solitudes of Odemvald [He lived with Pastor Ullmer three months in Heidelberg]. There in conversations, deliberate and unheated, speaking freely, we talked of our respective beliefs, of the morality of the countries and their influence on their various creeds. A great respect for the good faith of one's adversary and of ideas most divergent, such as the diversity of race, education, and age necessarily produce, brought us always to the conclusion that religions, whatever thay may be, ought not to make men enemies of one another, but brothers and good brothers. From these conferences, which were repeated almost every day for over three months, I think I took nothing, if my judgment does not deceive me, excepting a profound respect for all ideas sincerely conceived and practiced with conviction. "As for honor, fame, or fortune that I might have been able to reap. . . I do not aspire to eternal fame or eternal renown. . . I accept the cause of my country in the confidence that He who has made me a Filipino will know how to pardon the errors which I have committed, in view of our difficult situation and the defective education which we have received since birth. . . I have glimpsed a little light and believe I ought to teach my countrymen. . ." Father Pastells was not convinced. "All you have written," he replied, (19) "conforms to the Protestant doctrines, in Noli Me Tangere, in El Filibusterismo, and in your annotations to Morga. . . they always lead to the conclusion that religions, whatever they may be, ought not to make men enemies of one another but brothers and good brothers. . . This idea that diverse religions ought to fraternize. . . is entirely Protestant; for it is the consecration of man's private judgment. The moderate Protestants believe that in all the sects one can interpret and carry out the will of God and be saved." To this Rizal made no answer. Instead, in his next letter, written January 9, 1893, he gave this beautiful statement of his faith in God: "More by reason and necessity than by faith, I believe firmly in the existence of a creator. Who is He? What human tones, what syllable in my language can imprison the name of this Being, whose works overwhelm the imagination that dwells upon Him. . . We call him "Dios" but this only recalls the Latin "Deus" and the Greek "Zeus". What kind of God is He? I would attribute to him all the beautiful and holy qualities which my mind can conceive, infinite measure, if the fear of my own ignorance did not prevent me. Someone has said that each man creates his god in his own image and likeness, and if I have not forgotten it is Anacreon (20) who says that if a bull were able to imagine a god, he would imagine it with horns and able to bellow in infinite degree. Nevertheless, I believe Him to be infinitely wise, powerful, and good; my idea of the infinite is imperfect and confused, as I gaze upon the marvels of his works, the order that reigns in them, their magnificence and their dumbfounding extent, and the goodness which radiates from all. The thoughts of a worm-like man, the last being on this tiny earth, cannot offend His inconceivable majesty, no matter how foolish they may be. Thinking upon Him humbles me, makes me dizzy, and whenever my reason lifts her eyes toward this Being, it falls, stunned, dazzled, and crushed. A trembling seizes me and I would rather be silent than the bull of Anacreon. "Permeated by this vague yet irresistible sense before the inconceivable, the superhuman, the infinite, I leave the studying of Him to clearer minds. I listen in suspense to what the religious people say, and not being capable of judging what surpasses my powers, I am content to study His creatures, my brothers and sisters, and the voice of my conscience, which alone can come from Him. I seek to read and to interpret His will in my environment, and in the mysterious emotions which I feel within myself. "Can He who has provided so wisely and so like a father for his creatures of all the needs of this life, bury what we need for eternal life in the clouds of a language unknown to the rest of the world, obscured by metaphors and deeds contrary to its own laws? He who makes the same sun shine for all and the air to blow upon every place to revive the blood, would He, who gave to all intelligence and reason to live this life, hide from us what is necessary for eternal life? What would we say of a father who heaped up for his children dainties and toys and only gave one of them food, educated him alone and cared for him, and if it turned out that this one refused the food while the others died looking for it?" (21) The crux of the controversy between Rizal and Father Pastells may be stated briefly: Rizal believed that the ultimate authority in religion is reason and conscience. Pastells believed it to be the Catholic Church. Father Pastells said that this last letter of Rizal "froze my soul." (Letter of Feb. 2, 1893). "The shipwreck of your faith has been a fact," he said, "but all is not lost, for you may be brought to the port of salvation." The correspondence left each man apparently where he began. Meanwhile, good Father Sanchez, who had been a favorite professor of Rizal in the Ateneo twenty years before, now stayed in Dapitan. He raised the question of religion at every opportunity, "and tried to force his opponent back into Catholicism; but the other returned the ball without yielding the least point. The discussions only ended in these words of Rizal, as reported to Retana: "'No Father; you do not convince me; I do not believe in the Eucharist nor in the ceremonies which make up the Catholic religion.'" (22) The brilliant young prisoner was proving to be a very difficult man to win over by argument. But the Jesuits had other resources at their command. When Maria was living with José in Dapitan she heard Father Sanchez and another priest offer her brother a professorship in the University, a hundred thousand pesos, and a hacienda if he would retract what he had written. She saw José rise, run his hand across the back of his neck as he always did when angry, and stamp his food as he answered: "Father Sanchez, what my right hand did, my left hand will not deny. The two books that I have written are like a mirror. If you are doing the things I have written about, then I have written about you. If not, then you have nothing to fear. You are trying to drown me in a glass of water, but you shall not drown me even in the ocean."
Maria urged him to accept, and said, "Suppose they gave you half the
Philippines." Rizal replied, "No, not even for that!" |
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