30 September 1884

Sta. Cruz, Manila

Receipt of copies of the review Los Dos Mundos in which Rizal’s speech is published – Paciano, Rizal’s brother, complains of the poor mail service – News of friends in Manila – Is Rizal going to study law, now that he is already a physician? – Knowledge of law and languages important – Felipe Zamora inquires about Rizal’s books.

* * *

Sta. Cruz, Manila, 30 September 1884

Mr. Jose Rizal y Mercado

My dear Friend and distinguished Co-Babylonian,

Though I have no letter of yours to answer, I write you this now to tell you that on the 10th instant I received by the Reina Mercedes four copies of the magazine Los Dos Mundos in which your famous speech is published and in due time they were distributed to their addresses.

In reply to my letter to your esteemed brother Paciano accompanying the preceding newspapers that you sent me, dated 5th instant, among other things, he told me the following:

I have stopped writing to my brother, not because of any damned business but an accursed laziness that I have in my body. But speaking to you very seriously, I am not intending to write him so long as I don’t receive a reply to my last two letters. He has always answered punctually until this time, but I am surprised that he has not done it, my first letter being nearly four months old. Perhaps it has been lost and the same fate might befall what I write so that I abstain.

So then I transmit this to you in order that you may see that in Calamba there are also complaints about the mail and see to it that they are remedied.

All those who received periodicals send you the most sincere thanks.

Before this reaches your hands, you must already have received your Compadre Teong’s letter sent at the beginning of this month.

Our friend the pharmacist Mr. Ancacleto del Rosario is already separated from Enrique Perez, but I don’t know the cause. Del Rosario is managing the Botica de Javega on the Escolta with a salary of P120 a month. This friend does not have even half a son nor any sign, it seems, of having one; that is, while others have more than enough children, he lacks them.

On the 21st instant they celebrated Candeng’s birthday, Chengoy’s wife. According to what they say, the orchestra that attended with its singers of condiman and cundangan[1] was complimented by the boasted fiancé of Orang, D.P., a vara[2] and ¼ tall, or less, as I see. In my opinion the very sweet songs they sang that night were more than sufficient to make the old love of our P. enter through the right eye of the winsome Orang.

This poor girl is sick. She takes a walk in the morning because, according to her, she has incipient tuberculosis. I, physician by sight, see only that she is a little thin: I am afraid, Tocayo, that the cause of this is unrequited love; but sooner or later we shall find out if she will get well by marrying….

The one who is in good health now is the old girls of the Question of the Orient, which makes me suspect that she has received from you a veronica satisfactoria, as it is said in a little play whose title I don’t remember at this moment.

M….mellow, continues with Cousin Miciano. Who knows if this girl will be the “niche” of this young man.

As to the three cousins in my district, Mentang, Tentay, and Oñang, the first seems to be no longer engaged, or she wanted to be disengaged at her own accord, because of the information she has received that Mr. S. in C. has as many children as these have mothers. The second continues with her love which is not lame as I see it, though the man in which she has placed it is. The third, on account of the marriage of that Juan, is now with S. C., student of medicine, brother of Fr. Luis, and of the facetious Crisipiniana of Concordia College.

Now that you are already a physician, have you resumed the law course?

How many living and dead languages do you know at the present time? In order to be truly exalted, in my poor opinion, one must know law and languages.

By this same mail I send a letter of Ceferino who it seems lives with you, inasmuch as his first letter in which he might have told me about his whereabouts has been lost. Please tell him that Quintero, your fellow townsman, is planning to take away Anita of San Jacinto from him, for he wants to speak to her mother in order to declare his love to her. Does this seem to you idle talk? She is a girl whose sweetness stirs the enthusiasm of de Leon. By right of priority, as lawyers would say, she belongs to Quintero, for this lad had begun to wiggle for one semester. If I am not mistaken, Ceferino has not stepped yet into the house of this family. The sister of this girl, who is called Loleng, is the one who gave the very famous Ferrer the revolcon H after having received it from the question to which we give the name of Oriente that, though old, has not lost its importance.

Your kind family is well. I did not have the pleasure of speaking with your brother Paciano who was here at the house of the landlord last week, as I learned about it after he had returned to Calamba.

As one copy of the periodical Los Dos Mundos was not addressed to any one, I decided to send it to Mr. Gracio Gonzaga, lawyer, residing in Cagayan, through our friend Mr. Ramon Gonzaga. You know him for he is our good friend.

Our friend Del Rosario does not manage the drugstore of Javega as I wrote at the beginning, but he is the owner of the drugstore of Mendieta on San Fernando Street, Binondo, which he bought for P10,000 when it cost only P4,000, so that there was a premium of P6,000. May God will that this friend prosper!

Our friend Zamora inquired about your books and I told him that I knew nothing, for I have not received any letter from you since your letter in which you said to me that he would receive your books by mail.

Your Compadre Rosauro perhaps will be delayed in writing you as he is very busy and is preparing for the examinations for filling one of the newly created positions of aspirant.

This macaronic letter is getting already too long and like almost all that I send you, it has little substance. Receive, therefore, in the meantime the affectionate regards of my parents, brother, and of your Co-Babylonian friend,

Jose M. Cecilio

03-107 [Reformists]

1884.–.– Binondo, Manila

From: Felipe Zamora

To: Jose Rizal

Dr. Zamora sends a draft to Rizal to page for books, subscriptions, and music sheets [Letter is badly damaged]

* * *

Binondo,….1884

Mr. Jose Rizal y Mercado

My dear Friend,

I send you the duplicate of the draft that I sent you by mail on the 1st of this month, requesting you to collect this if you have not received that one. From that amount you can deduct what you advanced me for the Boccaccio and the pamphlet El frio en terapeutica. Likewise, I beg you to pay the bookseller Mr. Moya (8 Carretas) forty-six pesatas for two year’s subscription……………………[this part of the letter is destroyed] and the office of Siglo Medico (36 Magdalena, Room 2) for my subscription to the magazine and library that ought to begin in May of this year. I request you to send me by the first mail a copy of….and the metallotherapy by Dr….translated by M. Flores y Pla, a copy of Carmen with words, a copy of Tempestad with words, a copy of the rigadoon Boccaccio, of the polka of La Mascotte, of the fantastic mimic dance that the Excelsior shows at the Eden Theatre in Paris, and of another that La Sieva is likewise showing at the same theater.

If there is any balance left after you have made the payments and the purchases, please give it to friend Figueroa, telling him that it is….

Bad luck pursues me….fate….a comadre, mother-in-law and three children. My father and mother, my wife and only daughter that remains to me are gravely ill, except my mother.

My regards to all my friends and countrymen and you know that your friend and comrade loves you sincerely,

Felipe Zamora

01-108 [Family]