Manila
Manila, 9 August 1887
Mr. Jose Rizal
Calamba
My dear Friend Pepe,
Barely have I known of your arrival I ran out quickly without losing time to look you up; but I did not have the pleasure of finding you at your house, for, according to what they told me, you had left the same fay very early for your home town.
You can imagine the immense satisfaction that I felt when I learned of your home-coming, for it is well known that there is nothing pleasant for us who have met in those distant and unforgettable lands than to meet again in our dear country ready to serve and give everything that is within our power for the prosperity and welfare of our land which is our moral and natural duty.
I have learned a month ago that some copies of your patriotic and critical novel, Noli me tangere, had arrived, but however much I searched for it, I have not been able to give myself the real pleasure and enthusiasm that I am sure its perusal will give me. Many are the praises and favorable commentaries I have heard about it; but as everything is little compared to the reality of being able to appreciate it directly, it seems I have not yet heard anything that can give me a clear idea of it.
For this reason, receive at the same time as the welcome greetings my congratulation on your work. May it give you all that you have hoped for and very much more. Knowing your works as I do, I don’t hesitate to guarantee its results. Cervantes himself never believed nor appreciated the worth of his immortal Quijote and this work went beyond his expectations.
When you come to Manila, please let me know, for I am desirous of giving you an embrace as a fellow countryman and friend and comrade that we had been during the swift and fleeting course of six years, loving, though in different points, always in the same ideas and steeped in the beneficent currents of progress. Snatching from us the timid mask that covered us upon leaving the Philippines, that first impact showed to our eyes the life of civilized peoples.
I live very much excited, always aspiring, always desiring new emotions, variety, life, and movement; because my spirit feels as if imprisoned in not disposing of the broad sphere where at one time it fluttered freely. This manner of living, by itself monotonous and routinary, is very hard for me.
But I am going to conclude this letter which must already annoy you for its length, you who ought to feel fatigued and still crushed by the annoyances of your trip.
With nothing more then, receive the most affectionate greetings and congratulations of your friend.
F. M. Roxas
P. S.
My address:
16 Isla de Romero – entresol.
02-258 [Blumentritt V.1]