Hong Kong
Hong-Kong, February 16, 1888
Miss Trinidad Rizal
My dear sister Trining:
From this island of Asia I am writing you in order to give you some advice, for we all need advice, beginning from the Archbishop and ending with F. Baldomero Real. I do not speak about myself, because I do not amount to anything, nor can I count myself among these great gentlemen. It would be presumptuous for me to place myself in the rank of those men of God even if I were no more than the best of them. We, Indios, do not amount to so much.
Well, then, my sister: I enjoin you to study much, learn Spanish, arithmetic, writing and above all manners and right conduct, if this is taught there as is to be expected. In this world the principal thing is not to wear a blue sash, a green sash; nor is it best to visit convents or to speak ill of, and reprimand, our inferiors with harsh and insulting words. Neither is it a main virtue to kiss the hand of the nuns and the priests. It would not be bad if besides these we do good, tell the truth, and avoid all kinds of abuses whatever they are. This is what I believe.
If you like these advices, follow them, if not, do what you please.
Your brother,
J. RIZAL
02-285 [Blumentritt V.1]
1888. 02. 16 Hong Kong
From: Jose Rizal
To: Ferdinand Blumentritt
Left the native land sick — Freed from the tyrannical censor — Rizal’s odyssey — In danger of being locked up in a dungeon — Persecuted by the friars — Denunciation of secret meetings on top of a hill — “I exile myself to save my friends from deportation.” — Received photographs from Blumentritt — Hong Kong and the Filipinos living there.
* * *
Hong Kong, 16 February 1888
Dear Friend,
At last I can write you freely! At last I can express my thoughts without fear of the censorship of the “Chief.”[1] They forced me to leave my country. Slightly sick I left my home and hastened to take a ship. Oh, dear Mr. Blumentritt, you don’t know my little odyssey. Without the help of my good friend Taviel de Andrade, the officer, what would have happened to me! Without the sympathy of our Governor, the Director of Civil Administration, and the Civil Governor, I would now be in some dungeon. All the fathers provincial and the archbishop went daily to the General[2] to complain against me. The syndic of the Dominicans wrote a denunciation to the mayor that at night they saw me holding secret meetings with men and women on top of a hill. It is true that I used to take a walk at dawn to a hill with many men, women, girls, and boys, but always in the company of the lieutenant of the civil guard who knows Tagalog. My purpose was to enjoy the coolness of the early morning. Who is the conspirator who would want to hold secret meetings outdoors among women and children? I let the denunciation reach the governor to show him what kind of enemies I have. My countrymen offered me money so that I could leave the country. They asked me to do so not only for my own good but also for their own; because I have many friends and acquaintances who would be deported with me to Balabac or [the] Mariana Islands. So that though slightly ill, I hurriedly bid my family farewell, and I return to Europe via Japan and the United States. We shall see each other again. I have so many things to tell you.
If you could translate these verses, you could guess the state of my mind:
Tatlong araw na di nagtatanaw tamà,
Sa isa katawo’y marami ang handâ.[3]
I received the photographs of the children with that of Mrs. Blumentritt; but I am not yet thanking them. I shall write them from London. They will forgive me; may they be kind enough to wait for a few days. Is it true you will, children? I say the same thing to Mrs. Blumentritt.
Hong Kong is a small but very clean commercial city. Many Portuguese, Hindus, English, Chinese, and Jews live in it. There are also some Filipinos, the majority of whom being those who had been exiled to the Mariana Islands in 1872. They are poor, gentle, and timid. Formerly they were rich merchants, industrialists, and financiers. Only one is a republican and progressive; very suspicious. They will not return to Manila; they fear the phantoms. One is very sick and will die soon. He was a rich financier, not very well educated but very rich, who married a dissolute woman. It was his fault. Now he is poor, very poor.
I shall write you from Japan.
I embrace you.
Yours,
Rizal
01-286 [Family]
[1] The lieutenant of the civil guard, José Taviel de Andrade, assigned to watch Rizal’s movements in Manila and Calamba.
[2] Emilio Terrero y Perinat, governor general from 4 April 1885 – 4 June 1888.
[3] From the dedication, “Kay Selya”, of the poem in Tagalog entitled Florante at Laura by Francisco Baltazar or Balagtas. The complete stanza (12) is as follows: Parang náririnig ang lagi mong wika: Tatlong araw na di nagtatanaw tam á, At isinagot ko ng sabing may tuw â: Sa isa katawo ’y marami ang handâ Free translation: I seem to hear you always telling me: “ For three days we haven’t seen each other;” To which gaily I would reply: “ Many vicissitudes every man encounters.”