29 April 1892

Ghent

Ghent, 29 April 1892

MR. JOSEPH RIZAL

Hong Kong

DEAR FRIEND,

Without any news from my family, my situation today is unbelievable. My embarrassment increases in proportion to the necessities of life. So pardon me for not being able to comply with your little request; I will do it at the first opportunity.

I have heard nothing for a long time about the happenings in the Philippines Islands, especially what concerns you. Believe me, I have a great desire to know something. What has become of the cause of our adored motherland, overwhelmed with so much ill-luck! Are the incredible vexations which she has suffered these days not yet enough to awaken her heart, asleep and brutalized during three centuries, that today they should try to amuse her like a child with vain promises and sweet words? When shall I have the happiness of admiring with eyes bathed in tears our valiant youth like true sons of the motherland, with their bosoms gasping at the gust of a sacred love, gathered together around their flag and sincerely ready to shed their blood for her, since this is the price we ought to pay for our liberty! Oh, dear friend, pardon this unbosoming of my heart!

Why don’t you make an effort to find out how many share your ideas and are moved by the impulse? I mean to say that we must give form to your thought, organizing, in defiance of the Government, a Revolutionary club whose headquarters you can establish in Hong Kong or any other place. Don’t the Separatistas in Cuba[1] have it? Don’t the Progresistas in Spain have the principal and only obstacle that you would have to overcome in such an undertaking would be the opposition of our elders and of our rich men who tremble at the thought of seeing their interests threatened by government reprisals? The rich and the powerful on our country will always be the principal tool in sowing fear and distrust in the most courageous hearts. Think of the manner of winning them. You would give a terrible blow to our enemies, which, if it would not have an immediate success, would at least alter the present situation. I should not be the one to give you this advice as you might have already thought of it. Remember what you said to us at our gatherings in your rooms at Hainaut Street: “The best and most modern policy is that which is evolved in the full light of the sun” and “Power is not in the government but in the people.”

About Ghent little can be said. It is always a dead city, just as when you left it after your sojourn, so pleasant for me. Winter is over, and spring is beginning to unfold its splendid panorama, letting us admire the charms of nature outside of the city, in the open fields. Believe me, dear friend, never have I been so impressed by nature as now, after having been accustomed to look at her sad aspect during winter. I admire it with the heart and imagination filled with faraway remembrances of the tropics and something resembling nostalgia transports my soul into reveries of the infinite in the midst of the verdure of the leaves, of the fragrance and delightful colors of the flowers. Oh, what memories make my eyes sometimes moist when I plough in a canoe the tranquil waters of the Lys, enchanting river that bathes the land of Ghent, similar to our lovable Pasig!

Many regards to your family.

Ever yours,

EDILBERTO

02-731 [Blumebtritt V.2]