26 August 1891

Barcelona

On the alleged conflict between Selo and Rizal – The members of the Hermada de San Patricio regret the incident – Selo’s letter which twists the facts – Lopez Jaena and Moises Salvador defend Rizal – Meeting of Basilio Teodoro and Jaena – “Nothing from Spain” – To obtain redemption – Proposal to Rizal – Basa’s explanations – People not paying for their copies of Rizal’s Morga – Jaena with P40 allowance – His impressions of the propaganda Committee – Order for his arrest – They want Jaena to write a book – Committee sent Rizal money back in June – Atmosphere of fear in the Philippines – Jaena in favor of the publication of a revolutionary newspaper, El Baguio – Only through revolution – He is studying English.

* * *

Barcelona, 26 August 1891

MR. JOSE RIZAL

Ghent

DEAR RIZAL,

I received your letter of the 20th instant. I am answering it to explain the purpose of the conference.

The conflict between you and Marcelo has caused deep sensation in Manila and within the committee of the Hermandad de S. Patricio it was regretted. They asked me for the cause and motive of the conflict, but, as I did not know it, I could only tell them conjectures and what I have heard from others. The majority in the committee, being influenced by Marcelo, blamed you. I defended you. In Marilao, at the Doroteo Jose’s daughter-in-law, where I attended a meeting to which I was invited, a very long letter of Marcelo addressed to the committee was read. It gave an account of the origin of the displeasures that arose between you and him and the Filipino colony of Madrid. The facts were so twisted by him in his favor that my companion at the meeting, Moises Salvador, intervened and defended you warmly.

But this was not the only object of the meeting.

On the one of my four unlucky days’ stay in Manila, Mr. Basilio Teodoro requested a secret interview with me and for that purpose we went in a vehicle to the Luneta at night. There he asked me what I thought of the attitude of the Spanish Government toward the Philippines. I answered him that nothing can be expected from Spain or from its government, that if the Philippines wishes to enjoy rights and liberties, she herself must work for her redemption. And speaking about you, he entreated me to explain to you to the following proposition:

For you to stay in Europe and America traveling to find out the opinion of the governments of other nations on the Philippines and their idea of her.

For this they will give you two hundred pesos monthly in addition to your traveling expenses.

Such was the purpose of the interview. If you are agreeable, write Basilio Teodoro secretly, for this gentleman says that he is doing this at his own and some friends’ initiative and not in behalf of the committee.

Another thing.

Basa asked me to tell you his relation to this new committee. The old committee took form him all the copies of Morga you sent him and the new committee seems to evade their payment. Until now Mr. Basa has not received a cent for the Morgas in spite of the many letters he has sent the committee asking it for accounting. It replied that it will investigative the matter and all will send him the money as soon as it can collect from a gentleman, former member of the committee, now out of it, in whose possession is the money from the Morgas.

He also requested me to tell you the idea of the telegram sent you at the beginning of June and drafted by me: That for the printing expenses of the second part of the Noli you may get money from a commercial firm of Brussels which has relations with one in Hong Kong and charge it against him. He did not send you a draft because he had the impression that you would immediately be on the way home.

The committee, without my request, is giving me an allowance of P40 monthly. It is little, very little, for the work I am engaged in, politics, because you know very well that to move among distinguished personages and to be in politics entail much expense. This allowance is also uncertain, for to tell you the truth, I distrust greatly that committee as it has neither base nor foundation; it is moreover as a whole, the image of Marcelo and considering Basa’s experience with it. If I accepted this modest allowance, it was because, while at Manila, it was the first offered to me and in order to get out as soon as possible from that life of perils and sudden assaults in which I was found. Within 24 hours of my stay in Manila, everybody knew about my presence and despite my precautions, the members of the same committee who hid me and tried to conceal me were the same ones who told their friends sotto voce that I had arrived so that it was an open secret, and everybody wanted to see me, greet me, and shake my hand. While still in Manila, I was sought extra-officially by the Government and hardly had I left, an order for my arrest was issued.

If I could have stayed a couple of weeks at Manila, and had not the committee spontaneously made the offer to me, I could have obtained a little more for the father of Moises, Capitan Ambrosio, while other friends planned to give me an allowance. I am still negotiating so that Capitan Ambrosio and other friends may carry out the plan, because I foresee that the committee would fail to fulfill its commitments with me. Already I have observed its first failure. While I was at Manila, it promised to send me funds at Hong Kong or traveling expenses from Marseille to Brussels to see you confer with you and from Brussels to Madrid to see Marcelo in order to pacify both of you. And it has not fulfilled it and other things besides; for this reason, I am uneasy about my future.

And those people want me to write a book, but they do not understand that without tranquility and without freedom, one cannot produce a meritorious work. I do not know what is their idea of writing a book; they fancy that writing a book is their drinking a glass of water. So that, if you can convince them that I need more than the allowance in order to travel and to search libraries and to write a book.

Captain Beltran of the steamer Don Juan whose boat I boarded wrapped up, sends you regards and embraces. He tells me that he remembers you very well. Thanks to this good tao[1] I escaped the danger.

The committee, in its letter to Basa, says that in its letter of June it sent you four or five hundred pesos which Marcelo will deliver to you and it will continue giving you one hundred pesos provided you do not go to Hong Kong or Japan. I do not know if you have received the money.

With regard to the Philippines, I observe that there is more fear there than anything else. The friars are emboldened before such timorous attitude of those who are said to be the guides of the future of the Philippines. A proof by the side: I requested the committee to send three or four of its members to Hong Kong for a conference of notables in order to guide the campaign and put a base to that committee, and they did not dare do it for fear. Chairman Cortes[2] was the first to be filled with fear.

With regard to what I think, I have proposed to Basa that he negotiate with the rich in Manila, outside of the committee, about the maintenance of a newspaper that I plan to establish here or abroad[3] with the name El Baguio under the auspices of the revolutionary party, because, according to my criterion, the Philippines cannot get anything except through revolution.

Also I have noted that our names and above all yours are being exploited by some, since they have told Basa, Olaguivel, Lozada, and others that those of Batangas are giving you much money in Manila but those sums do not appear. Basa will tell you about it when you get to Hong Kong.

If you can, before you leave, pass through Barcelona. If I can, I will bid you farewell at Marseille.

I beg you to keep secret all that I have written. Let it be only for guidance, so that I will not be discredited before the eyes of the committee.

Moises has asked me to tell you that the Morgas are in the Civil Government and he will write you.

I am now studying English, for if things go badly with me here, perhaps I may return to Hong Kong.

Basa with the entire colony in Hong Kong and also Lecaroz send you regards. Answer me.

Yours,

GRACIANO

03-647 [Reformists]