01-051 [Family]
1882.11.13 Calamba, Laguna
From: Mariano Herbosa
To: José Rizal
Rizal’s new nephew — Typhoons and the Calamba River — Death of Diariong Tagalog
* * *
Calamba, 13 November 1882
MR. JOSÉ RIZAL
ESTEEMED BROTHER-IN-LAW,
This is my second letter to you. The first news that I’ll tell you is that you have a handsome nephew and if possible, find him a place there, so that even if he does not overtake you there, at least he may follow in your footsteps. That is why we call him José also. Now he is stout, strong, and not sick for he is going to travel to a faraway place.
We had two not very strong typhoons on 20 October and 5 November, but the water rose. Our houses were not damaged. Sra. Neneng’s house lost a portion of its roof, so also did Antonino’s house. Our river became very lively, its water rising so high as never before in the memory of old folks, and people rode in bancas from the talisay[1] tree to the sea. The houses on the seashore were destroyed by the water. Water entered the sugar warehouses and a lot of sugar belonging to the people of Tanawan was lost.
Very many people bathed and fished in the river. One day Turnino, son of Cabesang Bastian, Lucas, son of Cabesang Mosés Ustar… and your friend Basilio Salgado found floating in the river the body of a newly born babv boy whose umbilical cord was still uncut. What they did was to bury the body near the river without notifying the authorities. When the government learned about it, they were jailed and sent to the provincial capital. The body was exhumed and they are looking for the mother of the baby.
The cholera is now gone, though to some, there are still some isolated cases. Perhaps, according to some, the typhoons drove it away. In our town more than five hundred died, including those who were not natives of this place. I don’t know exactly the number of those who died.
This and the typhoons are given as the cause for the death of Diariong Tagalog[2]which I deeply regret. In its farewell, it said it had to fold up for lack of personnel.
I’m not going to write you about what I have heard concerning the typhoon and cholera in Manila, because you must have already been told about them, and moreover I have not been in Manila since I went there soon after your departure. It seemed that I was the only one who had the luck to see you before you left and it was because Lucía was going to have a fine baby boy. If I could only talk to God, I would ask Him not to take him away from us yet, because the work is not yet finished.
Since the cholera disappeared, Paciano and I have been staying in the mountain and we sleep there, coming down on Saturdays only and on Monday we go up again because Paciano is having a sugar mill installed. This is another reason why I could not write you. When I inquired about the mail it had already left. Great indeed is my desire to write you by every mail. In fact your letters hardly stay here, for even the curate wants to read them. While I’m writing this, Uncel Aben’s letter from Biñan came and he says that the water there rose too and the church was flooded and in front of their gate the water was knee-deep.
This is all for the present. I repeat that here you have a brother-in-law who loves you and may God grant that we meet again,
At your command,
MARIANO HERBOSA
[1] A shade tree, Terminatia catappa, L.
[2] The bilingual – Tagalog and Spanish – newspaper founded by Marcelo.