London
London 17 September 1888
My dear Friend,
One week has elapsed and I have not received a letter from you; I hope you are not sick.
Day after tomorrow I shall finish copying the Morga and immediately I shall begin annotating it. I have already read Pigafetta and Chirino; but I lack Navarette which I cannot find in the British catalogue. I do not know the subject matter of Rada’s book; neither is it in the catalogues. I need also the Viaje de Van Noort. Naturally, I shall also consult your works.
Morga is an excellent book. It could be said that Morga is a learned explorer. He has nothing of the superficiality and exaggeration so peculiar to the Spaniards of today. He writes very simply, but in reading him one must know how to read between the lines, because he had been governor general of the Philippines and the later justice of the Inquisition.
I find Chirino too pro-friar and at times too childish. He tells fairy stories, believing that religion would be better and stronger with these stories which are entirely out of place over there [the Philippines].
Noli me tángere is officially banned in the Philippines! But the prisoners have been acquitted.
Greetings to the family!
How is Dr. Czepelack?
Yours,
Rizal
03-330 [Reformists]