February 1895

Dapitan

Her dentures are fixed – Received delivery of sugar, tea, watch, shoes, etc. – Rizal’s melancholy with the absence of his mother – Caught a lizard and a bird which used to bother them – Status of the growing fruits – Rizal’s pupils – His patients – Treating the son of Arrieta, the Commandant – Financial matters.

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Dapitan, Wednesday

[February, 1895]

My very dear Mother:

We were very glad on reading your letter and knowing that your dentures have now been fixed. I thank you very much for the sugar, tea, watch, etc.

The shoes are wide and long but I do not know if I can send them back by the return trip of the boat, for I am very busy. Here we are reminded of you very much and we miss you. We always say: if Nanay were here, if they were still here, etc. Since you had gone I talk very little and I am less attentive. After supper, I do nothing but play solitaire and more solitaire. I do not have any interest for anything.

We caught the big lizard which lived above our bathroom. It was so big that it measured a meter and a half and a handbreadth wide. It fell in the small well where we take a bath. As yet we have not caught the female.

We also caught the Sikop[1] which disturbed Trining so much, but when we caught it one of its legs was already rotten and broken by the blow which I dealt him before.

The bananas are not yet mature nor are the mangoes, but they are growing well. The wild boar comes almost every night but it finds nothing to eat. The pineapple is not yet ripe.

My pupils, without including the cook, number 14 now; the sons of Gen. Laurente and Gen. Andres have come.

I have many patients and minor operations. I am always called to town by the son of Arrieta who is very ill, and the Commandant is treating him. I am being consulted, but now I cannot continue to be so, inasmuch as my ideas are a little different from those of the Commandant, because he is an homoeopathist.

By this boat I cannot send you anything, because I don’t have anybody to whom I can entrust the money. But if you need money, you can take what you like from the proceeds of the abaca which we will load today.

I will not return the shoes anymore because I can sell the ornamented ones here, and those made of canvas I am giving to Emilio. Out of the money left there, I would be grateful if you send me a pair of canvas shoes, shorter by one, and narrower by half, a finger.

With nothing more, I affectionately kiss your hand and my father’s and if you like to come we would all be much pleased here, even the boys.

Your son who loves you with all

his heart,

JOSE RIZAL

04-839 [Misc.]