Paris
2 December 1889
[Mr. Mariano Ponce]
DEAR FRIEND,
I am dropping in the mail together with this two copies of Pardo de Tavera’s book. They are my gift to you, for I owe you so many favors. Do not regard this as payment; rather it is just the interest on the debt I owe you. They are delayed because I have plenty of work. It is very necessary that you go to Madrid. Before you leave, please tell me how many more copies of Noli me tangere I have there. Please send to Hamburg, to C. Boysen, Buchhandlung 32, Grosse Bleichen, some twenty-five copies, because he is asking for many to fill the orders of many foreigners. Put the price at eight francs each, including the cost of remittance. Send them not as printed matter but as parcel post so that they would not cost much. Ask first an agent how much it would cost. Please send me 4 or 5.
Your friend,
LAONG LAAN.
02-473 [Blumentritt V.1]