Dapitan
He offers to serve in the Cuban campaign as physician in the Spanish Army
* * *
Most Excellent Sir
The Governor General of the Philippines
MOST EXCELLENT SIR,
Mr. Jose Rizal Mercado y Alonzo, Licentiate in Medicine and Surgery by the Faculty of San Carlos of Madrid, 34 years of age, respectfully expounds to Your Excellency:
Having been informed of the scarcity of medical men in the army operating in Cuba and of the issue of some royal decrees providing for various positions open to those who will apply for them who are less than 45 years old, the exponent, possessing the qualifications required by the said decrees, requests Your Excellency to please accept his offer to fill a position of Provisional Physician on the Island of Cuba for the duration of the campaign.
It is a grace that he has no doubt he will obtain from Your Excellency whose life God keep many years.
Dapitan, 17 December 1895
JOSE RIZAL MERCADO
01-880 [Family]