9 March 1884

Manila

Sta. Cruz, Manila, 9 March 1884

MR. JOSE RIZAL Y MERCADO

MY DEAR COMRADE, BABYLONIAN PRESIDENT, DISTINGUISHED NAMESAKE, AND ESTEEMED FRIEND,

I have just received at this moment (between eleven and twelve noon) your awaited letter of the 29th January last in which you complain, or better said, you regret the interruption of our relations so well described by you as pleasant for one who tries to tighten them with his humble pen.

I am going to relate to you succinctly the sickness I had. In the first days of the month of November last I had a fever more rebellious than all I have had since I came to this vale of tears, for it did not abandon me until after two months and a half. That fever began in a very bad way leaving me dead for a period of ten minutes, but at last friend Zamora succeeded to drive it out of my poor body.

One or two weeks before I fell ill I answered a letter of yours addressing my reply to Sauco Street. By the time that has elapsed, and your letter that I have the pleasure to answer, I am now convinced that it had been lost, as you make no reference to it whatever.

In that letter were news of girls we know as well as of our boy friends.

Before relating to you various news, gathered in my memory for some time, I am going to offer you above all my new little house, on Trinidad Street, where I have been living with my parents since 1st December. I do not believe you have forgotten this street or alley through which we often passed at night when you were here in the city to go to the little corner of the house of Mentang and therefore I will only tell you that I live near the house of this young lady and nearer still that of Orang, ever winsome and amiable. She continues giving pains to the souls in Purgatory and it seems to me that no star shines in the firmament of her love. Your presumed father-in-law V. . . , each time we meet, asks me how you are getting along in that city. I immediately satisfy him by telling him that you are well.

I must advise you that for some time I have not been at the house of this amiable lass in order not to give the neighbors reason to talk, who ignore my mission of proxy apud acta, that I am after the money of that folk, but I see them on the street, in the church, and at the window. Do you know that until now your sisters-in-law M…, T…, and O… believe that you are the fiancé of O… I, your energetic proxy? One night, at the house of M…, whom I frequently see and treat, she told me, after I had teased her about her absent fiancé, that if I should talk to O… in that way in your name, then I fulfill my mission well. I do not dare describe the phrases I addressed to her as honeyed or not. Do you remember what she said that because her house was small I did not want to go there on the day of Our Lady of the Pillar and instead I went to the house of Manuel Locsin, who is presently in Molo where he has opened a school? Well, in order to make up for that I dined at her house on the day of the feast of the Virgin [October]. M… asks me very seriously how are your love affairs with O… to which I replied that as to its height, I do not know, but as its lowness, I do know.

I take the liberty of recommending to you a friend whom you know, having been your classmate in metaphysics, whose name is Ceferino de Leon, who is going to that city to finish his law course. This young man is one of the enthusiastic admirers of your literary works. It is enough to tell you that he has taken all your writings that are in my possession to read them at home and he is determined to live beside you in order to learn how to write.

Probably he will depart from here in April next. This young man calls you doubly Leonor and I will tell you why. He wanted to court the little landlady[1] but knowing that you are her fiancé, because it is said so everywhere, he abstained from declaring to her his love. One evening, however, I made him go with me to the Tomasina House and I told the little landlady about the amorous intention of the fellow. He would not believe that the little landlady is free. After a few days he thought of O…[2] also. Then I told him that if he went there, he would hear there that she is your fiancée. And my friend says to me, “Well! That or this? Then Mr. Rizal is a man of double system Leonor.”

I gave Mentang your new address so that she can send you the letter which has been ready for a long time in reply to the one in which you condoled with her.

Compadre Rosauro has sent you a letter to Sauco Street also and has not received a reply until now.

Mr. Alejandro Roces is going there this coming month, April.

One evening on a visit to the house of the little landlady (5 Letran) she told me, replying to her mother, that you are mistaken in saying that you did not know that women know how to love, for she says, “Precisely we are the ones who know how to feel that sentiment,” because the mother related that you are surprised that C… V…, now with a child, should love Pichon so much.

Your mother and two sisters, one evening when they supped at Compadre Teong’s house, according to what he said to me, talked about the sad life of the little landlady, saying that she is a foolish girl to suffer so much for you, and that they do not know if she had anything to gain by marrying you as you have many sisters she will serve or she has to consider. The truth is, dear Namesake, this young woman is sick of fever every week and as you can very well understand, this is the effect of the ardent passion she feels towards you.

M… lives in a house on Elcano Street, Binondo, decently furnished and frequented by Spanish Filipinos, as they are called here, and as European Spaniards, and according to what they say she attends dances frequently. I believe that she has a liking for that folk.

Cousin Miciano is very much tied to the skirt of M…

Pololeng is still single but pursued by European admirers.

Meri has married a Spanish employee who is in a distant province and there beside him lives our American girl.

The lame man from Pagsanghan continues tied to T…; M… continues loving her absent fiancé who tried to come to get married but was not permitted to do so by his chief; and O…, they say, continues loving secretly Juanito whose father does not allow him to come having known his amorous relations with the young lady, but they write to each other.

We had here a student orchestra and your cousin Leon was one of the first violinists, and Vicente and Galicano first flutists. They were all the rage and they won the sympathy of the young women. Ceferino was one of the solicitors. They say that they collected some ₱5,000.

I interrupt this letter to continue it tonight after coming from a visit to the family of Dr. Jugo. I have returned from the house of these amiable young women who asked me to tell you that they are now well and by this same mail they are writing to Mr. Pi. Days ago they had a little fever.

I end here and until the next mail. Receive the regards of compadres, friends, and my parents and brother and know that you are esteemed by your affectionate friend who embraces you,

JOSE M. CECILIO

04-100 [Misc.]