Brussels
Receives articles from Ponce – Rizal cannot understand an article of Mir Deas – Biographies of notable Filipinos that ought to be published – There are many snakes in the ranks of the enemy – Ponce ought to go to Madrid to help in the editing of La Solidaridad – Rizal gives Ponce condolences for his uncle’s death.
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38 Rue Philippe de Champagne, Brussels
16 February 1890
[Mr. Mariano Ponce]
MY DEAR NANING,
I received your postal card, the Defensa del P. G.,[1] and La Moralidad. I am grateful for your congratulation and for that of Mr Arejola[2] whom I request you to greet on my behalf. I am thinking of having the Defensa published in La Solidaridad when articles are lacking. As to the article of Mir Deas, I will tell you frankly that after having read it twice, I have not understood it. Neither do I know what that tao wants to say nor does he demonstrate anything or deduce anything – I do not understand him. The only thing that I know is that he addresses me with tu, vos, and vosostros. Neither have I any desire to answer him. Nor I can, nor I ought to, nor do I see why. I had a better idea of that man as a man and as a writer.
With regard to the biographies, I believe that you ought to publish that of Mr. Francisco de San Juan who saved 111,000 pesos in the war with the British, of Francisco Baltazar;[3] Cruz Bagay;[4] Rajah Matanda;[5] and others.
There is much perversity, much wickedness, in the rank of our enemies. I see that we have to reckon not with lions but with snakes. We have then to be armed with valor and put on gloves before catching them. There are many snakes!
I believe that you should go to Madrid as soon as possible to help in the editing of the periodical. I see that Marcelo is not enough, for Blumentritt’s article is full of mistakes in style and they have not corrected it. Number 25 satisfies me but little, on account of the carelessness of its editing.
I will continue living here in Brussels.
Regards to all.
Yours,
RIZAL
P. S.
I have just read the news about your uncle’s death. I give you my condolence. It seems that he was highly appreciated by his acquaintances because Mr. Roxas spoke well about him to me.
One good man less!
02-505 [Blumentritt V.2]
[1] Father Vicente Garcia’s defense of Rizal’s Nolie me tangere . He was a Filipino clergyman.
[2] Tomas Arejola who became a political figure in Camarines Sur. He served in the first Philippine Assembly (1907)
[3] Tagalog poet (1788-1862) author of Florante at Laura, a romance in Tagalog verse considered a classic and read religiously by Rizal
[4] Nicolas de las Cruz Bagay famous Filipino engraver of the XVIII century. He engraved Fr. Murillo Velarde’s map of the Philippines with admirable artistry.
[5] Ruler of Tondo, an independent city-state when the Spaniards arrived at Maynila (Manila to the Spaniards). Manifestly Rizal was anxious to make known to the world the notable figures in Philippine history.