Paris
Mr. Jose Rizal y Mercado
London
Dear Friend Pepe,
Many thanks for the 20 pounds which I received this morning. I have taken advantage of your offer by sending you a telegram, because precisely I did not receive funds by the mail that arrived here on Thursday, and according to my cousin, in charge of sending them to me, I shall not receive any until the next mail.
Today is a bad day in Paris because the third payment to the landlords is due today.
I shall not be able to pay you these five hundred francs until after twenty days. However, tell me frankly if you need them before that, because in this case, we shall resort to extraordinary means. What a nice return trip you have made, and now, more than ever I regret not having made it with you. But my friend, with my brother’s composure nothing can be planned. All that we did in four months and a half could have been done in one month.
I can tell you very little about Manila, because neither do they write me much. It is known that General Molto’s temporary administration of one month had been fatal for us. The curate of Binondo was replaced; the question of burial is back to what it was before the decree—prohibiting the entry of corpses in the churches.
Much is expected of the governor general,[1] but I fear that all hopes may be dashed, for he has made the trip with a bishop and naturally the latter would have wasted his time.
The fellow countrymen who came with me is from my province, Eusebio Panlilio, third-year law student, who is going to Barcelona to finish his studies.
With regard to news about you, I can only tell you that there was much talk about the farewell tendered you, each one commenting on it in his own way, our people favorably, and the others trying to discredit you and divest the event of importance.
By what I have heard, your trip has not been useless for, according to a mutual friend of ours, there is a radical change in the families you used to visit with [in] Manila, some of whom would not even like to hear Mass now. What do you think?
When you come, we shall talk about many things which should not be written down.
Affectionate regards from Elisa and you receive a close embrace of your friend,
Valentin Ventura
I have not yet received the letter you said you have written me: tell me to where you addressed it.
03-314 [Reformists]
[1888.07.21] [London]
From: Jose Rizal
To: Mariano Ponce
The Mother Country ought to be satisfied because she has sons who love her – Who is Plaridel? – Fr. Font’s letter brings gladness.
* * *
[London, 21 July 1888][2]
Mr. Mariano Ponce
2-3o Rambla de Canaletas
Barcelona, Spain
Dear Friend,
I received the Publicidad[3] that you sent me as well as Larra’s big book. I am very grateful to you for this and for that of Piping Dilat.[4] Our country ought to rejoice because her sons who know how to love her are beginning to appear. Who is Plaridel?[5] I am very grateful to him also. Fr. Font’s letter has gladdened me; I should like to include it in the new edition of my book. Could you send me other issues of Publicidad, because I am going to send to Blumentritt this issue that you have sent me? Many thanks. Later I am going to write longer. Greet all for me.
Laong Laan (Jose Rizal)
02-315 [Blumentritt V.1]
[1] Valeriano Weyler, governor general (1888-1891).
[2] This is a postal card without a date, but the post office stamp says: London, N. W.—12—July 21—88 [Ed. Of the Epistolario Rizalino ]
[3] Publicidad was a periodical published by Prof. Miguel Morayta at Barcelona, which was pro-Filipino.
[4] Pseudonym of Marcelo H. del Pilar (1850-1896), Filipino lawyer, writer, and reformist.
[5] Del Pilar’s more well-known pseudonym: “Plaridel” is an anagram of “del Pilar.”