8 December 1886

Calamba

Paciano is against Rizal’s immediate return — He advices him to await the verdict on his novel, Noli me Tángere — Rizal’s Tagalog translation of William Tell is not very idiomatic — Will translate Mary Stuart with the help of Capitan Marias — The new parish priest leads an exemplary life — Abuses of the civil guard.

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Calamba, Laguna

8 December 1886

In your last letter you said that you would like to come home after your work is printed. I sent you through Silvestre a sum which is perhaps insufficient for your needs. Though I wished to send you more, I would not do it on account of the present scarcity. If I’m in favor of its printing, I’m not in favor of your return at present.[1]

Remember that before you left I wanted you to go to France. You preferred Spain; I didn’t oppose your wish and I let you go. Now have me to decide your return. It is true our parents are already old. However, I suppose that love resides in the heart and not in the eyes or elsewhere. I understand since the beginning that your life there is hard on account of the smallness and irregularity of your allowance, but do consider that you arc only sharing our misery. Nevertheless, I’m not insisting on what I want. I will insist on it if we had the good luck that our sugar were sold at a good price, or if you were earning something there. Because you do not, you are master of yourself. However, it may not be bad if you would wait there for the verdict of others on your book. If it is favorable as you expect, good and you can light a candle, but if it is not, as I expect, not even a regard will be suitable for you. What is the content of this book? If it is the truth, then you are mistaken in your hopes; if it is false and contains unsuitable praises, I cannot believe it, because it is not in accordance with your nature. If this book only had the influence of the lump of earth of Virgil which is pacified Cerberus, as Dante said, I’m going to agree with you. Inasmuch as you don’t know that secret and besides we are still alive because I suppose that that lump of earth became the human body. You can say that fear of God should not be mixed with fear of valuing oneself. One who owns a little valuable thing guards it so that it can be used at the proper time and will not put in just any place where it can be stolen. Franco himself, the doctor, is desirous of speaking to Mother in order to tell her not to let you come home because it would be a great pity and he says that his advice is due to his deep affection for you. Because friends and not friends have reached the same conclusion shows that there must be some truth in it.

At Maquiling there is a threatening storm. It is only waiting for the time. This should not surprise those who know that this is the town of typhoons over which Aeolus[2] presides.

Cabangis has delivered to us the two boxes of books without accepting absolutely anything for freight, customs dues, and other expenses.

I received the atlas as well as the translation of William Tell by mail. The latter is fairly acceptable, especially since you have not used this dialect for more than four years, but for us who use no other language, it leaves much to be desired. Your version in my opinion: is not very idiomatic. There are passages that, though they are perfectly translated, are difficult to understand. As to the modification of Tagalog orthography, I don’t dare do it. Is the name of one man enough to impose it like the authority of an academy? Will it be accepted by all? I doubt it; but if this change can be introduced it is time to do it, because the Tagalog language still lacks good books. In view of this translation, I have resumed with Capitán Marias the translation of Mary Stuart, following a different method; Literal translation when this is understandable and free when literal translation is somewhat confusing, without disregarding the meaning of the text.

You ask me to tell you about the parish priest, etc. If I had a good pen, what a beautiful description could I make you of varied themes, but as unfortunately I don’t have one, be satisfied with what God has given me. In order not to scandalize you, I shall begin with the parish priest who, as I already told you in one of mv letters, is a good priest who lives quietly and alone in his convent. He practices charity towards the needy; he eats what his servants serve him, without any complaint, however poor and meager it may be. Not in favor of house visits, he goes out of the convent only to go to the church and from the church he goes back to the convent. He leads so simple a life that some days past he went to the fields with a sacristan to exorcise the cloud of locusts that were devastating our plantations. Many people assured having seen them fly away because of it, but indeed no. The stubborn locusts either did not understand Latin or perhaps they followed a force superior to exorcism, because the fact is they continued destroying in such a way that the greater part of the fields was left without seeds. He shows no enthusiasm for modern progress and science, not because of the same spirit that animates those of his kind but because he does not like…[damaged] Sometimes his patience is exhausted, but this happens only at the communion rail where he delivers sermons to those women who take communion daily who hardly open their mouths and cover themselves well with their veils. As a citizen, he does not meddle in the affairs of the town hall, much less impose his will. He does not court girls, as it is customary; in short, there you have a priest who is one of the rarest exceptions among the clergy. As to Father Domingo, it is another thing. It is true that he does not yet deviate from virtue like the rest. He likes very much to be surrounded by women members of the Dominican society, like fish in water. He promotes gatherings and dinners attended by the profane all for the laudable purpose of gaining heaven through the easiest way. He preaches perpetual virginity, like the one they observed, to his goddaughters or the confession sand if any ewe had the misfortune of straying into the woods, the devil take her for he has nothing to do with her. Every night he visits his goddaughters of the confession in order to see thon or watch over them. In this man, as I see it, everything is life movement, and youth, while in the other, age, tranquility, and aloofness.

Since the latest reform, the post of alcaldes mayores[3] [provincial chief executives] has been replaced by those of civil governor and a judge of first instance in each province. The one in this province is a gentleman of advanced age. Some say he is upright, others assert that he is not. As for me, I don’t know him. I saw him once from our window at the Hacienda building. Whether he demands a monthly subsidy from the gobernadorcillos [municipal executives] or he permits gambling [cockfight or cards] in certain houses for heavy fees is something I don’t know. As to the judge, everybody tells me that he is hardly upright, which for me is already something. As judges hardly have time to sign, they administer justice through desk officials: L’Hopital himself would commit grave injustice with such a personnel: Problematic persons who live decently on an insignificant salary.

As to the civil guard, you already know that great services rendered by this institution; little remains for me to tell you about it. Its commander is a bright man; he knows how to live. If he needs meat and other things for his table, his informs Clibano. If he has no honey or palay, he sends for them at the neighbors’ houses. If he wants chickens and eggs, he gives the guard four reales to buy them in the countryside with the instruction to bring back two dozen chickens and hundreds of eggs. If he needs something in Manila, he spies on a neighbor who has the bad luck of going there to order through him so many things and bring them gratis et amore. He needs lime, stone, tiles, bricks, etc., he finds an abundant supply in this blessed town. In short, if he needs servants to clean his house, he solves his problem easily by sending out every morning a guard to hunt for half a dozen men, whether they hold a personal cedula or not, to do the job. The servant of a neighbor who lives in front of his house was kept in his house a whole day (perhaps without food). Furious, his master requested the gobernadorcillo for a testimony of such abuse. Being his debtor, he did not deny it, but he excused himself inventing a pretext. He appealed to the senior lieutenant, but he excused himself with many pretexts. The neighbor by force had to accept peace. Abuses are perpetrated not because tyrants want to, but because the tyrannized ones allow them (Voltarie). Just as they gave to Alexander of Russia the appellation of “Blessed”, to this gobernadorcillo they give the title “Capitán, the Very Good.”[4] His true name is Luis Francés, though he has nothing of that. The senior lieutenant is Nicolás Llamas, who, though physically big, seems to me a weakling. As can be seen, the law of compensation rules even in exceptional countries.

Your brother,

PACIANO

If we get to sell the sugar, I’m going to send you the amount lacking for printing.

There is great poverty in this town; one third of the people eats only once a day.

02-186 [Blumentirtt V.1]