Ghent
Rizal’s books valued at P600 sent to Basa – Macao postage stamps for Blumentritt, “the one who works most for the Philippines” – Printing of El Filibusterismo advances – “But, if I do not get money, I will have to suspend it” – “With 2,500 francs a good printing press can be put up and the two of us can exploit it.”
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9 Rue de Hainaut
Ghent, 6 August 1891
MR. JOSE M. BASA
Hong Kong
MY DEAR FRIEND BASA,
Enclosed is the bill of lading of the four boxes of books I am sending there; as I have already told you the charges are payable there. If anything should happen to me, all those books become your property, in case my family does not pay you the amount I owe you. The books alone are worth more than 600 pesos.
Friend Blumentritt wishes to have some Macao postage stamps. A Filipino resident in Macao will do well to write him, sending him the stamps. Do it to please him for he is the one who works most for the Philippines.
As you will see in the enclosed clipping, the printing of the second part is advancing, and I am now on page 112. But, if I do not receive money and I owe everybody and I’m pawned, I shall have to suspend the publication and leave the work in the middle. It is a pity, because it seems to me that this second part is more important than the first, and if I do not finish it here, it will never be finished.
But the fault will not be mine or yours; the fault will be of the others. You cannot do more for me than what you have done, and I cannot write, study, and earn my living . . . My Morga did not yield me more than what you sent me and the 200 pesos from Arias Rodriguez; my Noli, nothing, and it is all the contrary. With the proceeds of this work I hoped to pay you and my other creditors.
Here are for sale printing presses for 1,800 francs which can print eight pages like the Noli and one man can operate it. The types, like these of my new work, cost 3 francs a kilo. I believe that with 2,500 francs we can put up a good printing press and the two of us can exploit it.
This is all, many regards and love to your children.
Yours,
RIZAL
03-637 [Reformists]