Chapter II: Part 2

The common opinion has always been that the document in question was drawn up by Doroteo Cortes (see note 11) who had on several occasions been under police vigilance; had been expelled from Navotas and compelled to reside within the walled city, later on pardoned, but still kept under police surveillance. But however that may be, the document was infamous in the extreme, and was the precursor of the modern campaign against the Religious Orders. From that time to this present, this campaign has continued to spread, and is still being fostered by the Federal Party.

Another of the advanced ideas which saw the light of day during the interim governorship of D. Jose Centeno y Garcia, a 33rd degree freemason and a stout republican, was the toleration, for the first time in the history of the Archipelago, of houses of prostitution. Centeno was a governor who, having erred considerably during his governorship, attempted some years later to regain public confidence by the publication of an insulting pamphlet against the Religious Orders. This novelty of semi-official houses of ill-fame was, for Manila, a most genuine expression of modern democracy. Scandals until then unheard of or undreamed of in Manila, became the order of the day. White girls imported or inveigled, were hired out by their mistresses to pander to the sensual appetites of blacks, merely because the said black-skinned sensualists were wealthy enough to pay the price demanded. What edification! Fundicion street became a centre in which the scandals daily increased in number and importance. The native weaned after many long years of careful training at the hands of the Religious Orders, from the vices in which he was found submerged at the time of the Spanish Conquest, was brought face to face with the same scandalous surroundings, introduced by people of the same white race which had removed his forefathers therefrom. Gradually but surely this leaven of corruption has eaten its way into the customs of the people, and to-day we are witnesses of its terrible effects. A comparison of the public morals of to-day with those of 20 years or so ago, would reveal facts which would astound many of those who are at a loss to account for the reason of the existence of the "querida" evil among so many of the Filipinos of modern Manila. A quarter of a century ago Manila was a paradise to what it is to-day, crimes so common in these days that they are scarcely worth recording, were unheard of; and even drunkenness was almost entirely confined to foreign sailors. What Manila is to-day it owes to the advanced and anti religious ideas introduced by freemasonry and modern democracy.

Note 3. Separatism, vulgarly called filibusterism, has always, in the Philippines, been marked by essential characteristics. It was always, under the circumstances by which it was surrounded, necessarily anti-patriotic. One thing which helped to give it the robust life it enjoyed among the middle class of people, was the supposition of the existence of a Tagalog civilization anterior to the discovery of the archipelago by the famous Magallanes. This fantastic doctrine was preached and propagated principally by two of the more prominent Filipinos, Pedro Paterno and Jose Rizal. The former, much less cultured than Rizal, was the one to whom the most insensate ideas on this subject were owing, and this because although Rizal upheld the idea, he was led to do so by his perverse character rather than by his belief; whilst Paterno really believes in this pre-Spanish civilization, and that to such a degree that many of his own country-men call him a fool and ridicule him. Another essential mark was the enmity demonstrated against the Religious Orders. But few, if any at all of the propagators of the doctrines of separatism labored outside of the four walls of the masonic lodge room. In other words they were freemasons. Masonry was to them a medium through which they might carry on their conspiracies; it was an excuse for the creation of the spirit of association, till then unknown in the Philippines.

The aims of separatism may be classed as direct and indirect. The indirect aim was the independence of the country from the yoke of Spain. At the best this idea of independence was but second hand, a lesson learned by heart by a scholar whose power of thought was insufficient to enable him to grasp the true meaning of the words of the lesson. The average Filipino lacks the sentiment of nationality; hence in the minds of the majority of the people independence is but the enjoyment of the unbridled liberty to do as they please, in fact to revert to the times of their ancestors when everyone who could exert an authority was a king, a prince or a ruler of some description. To the Filipino it is of little importance whether his sovereign or his supreme ruler be the King of Spain or the President of the U. S. of America, as long as he is protected from his "friends" and from his own country-men and may enjoy his cock-fighting and have the necessary supply of rice and fish for his daily sustenance.

The direct aims of the separatists were those they sought in public, viz: representation in the Spanish Cortes, the expulsion of the Religious Orders, etc., etc. The result of representation in the Cortes would have been a veritable comedy; that of the expulsion of the Friars a decided tragedy for Spain, in as much as the Religious was ever the backbone of the administration of the colony. The consequences of the independence of the country would have been equally disastrous. There would have been the tremendous preponderance of the black over the white and eventually inter-tribal disputes and even armed struggles for the mastery. This would entail the complete stagnation of the moral and material progress of the people, who would gradually but surely drift back into the savage ways of their ancestors. And at last, who knows but that Japan or perhaps China would have to step in to save the inhabitants from becoming cannibals.

This doctrine of separatism was the doctrine disseminated by Filipino masonry, a daughter of Spanish freemasonry. Filipino freemasonry however, was to a great extent addicted to views not held or sustained by the Gr. Or. Espanol, and hence did not make common cause with Universal Freemasonry, although it used its ritual, its signs and its name, to shield from public view those of its labors which could not be allowed to see the light of day. Hence the diving into the subject of Universal Freemasonry is somewhat irrelevant to our present study, suffice it to say that the brotherhood, universal as it is, suffers no other division than that into families. Its aim is one; its methods one; its doctrine one [16]; it is the worldly imitation of the unparalleled Catholic unity of divine foundation.

The Spanish family was founded in 1811 by the Count de Grasse-Tilley. On the 21st of February 1804 the Supreme Council of Charleston issued a circular to the Count in which it said among other things which demonstrate the aim of the foundation: "Above the idea of country is the idea of humanity"; "frontiers are capricious demarcations imposed by the use of force." And others of the same nature.

When the Count set forth to found the Spanish Supreme Council he was armed with a letters patent issued by the Supreme Council of Charleston containing this sentence: "the masonic solidity will never be effective whilst the brethren do not recognize one only power, as is one only the earth we inhabit, and one also the horizon we contemplate.... To unify, therefore, the masonic labors we all journey to the one end to which the work of this Supreme Council is directed, and hence what we have pointed out to Spain as one of the points in which is more necessary than elsewhere the one direction to which we refer."

In 1882 Spanish freemasons were divided into different Orientes each of which claimed continuity with the institution of Grasse-Tilley; the matter was finally settled by the Supreme Council of Charleston.

Opinion is divided on the question of the responsibility of the Spanish freemason lodges or rather the ruling "Oriente" for the beliefs and practices of their filipino brethren. That they were indirectly responsible is more than certain; and oft-times they were so indirectly. D. Manuel Sastron ex-Deputy to the Spanish Cortes, ex-Civil Governor of the Philippines, speaking on this subject says: "It is not possible for us on any account to fall in line with these suspicious reasonings: never have we had a disposition to form a part of such a sect, because we are old time Christians; but we repeat that we cannot believe nor do we imagine that any masonic centre composed of peninsular Spaniards could tolerate, and much less foment consciously, the propagation of doctrines which, whatever masonry brought about in the Philippines, could have given origin to the congregation of separatist elements."

"Nevertheless side by side with this firm conviction we repeat what we tersely maintained, viz: that freemasonry has been the medium which marshalled the element which generalled the Filipino insurrection. Filibusterism knew how to exploit it to a fine point."

"We do not find it inconvenient to affirm, but just the opposite, we repeat with pleasure and absolute belief that Spanish freemasonry was ignorant of the true ends of the Filipino masons. But it is proved to our way of thinking, to the point of evidence, that Filipino masonry pursued no other ends than the independence of those islands (the Philippines.)" [17]

It must be noted that this is the opinion of a Spanish patriot, for a patriot Sastron certainly was, and what is more natural than that a true patriot should doubt the possibility of his own countrymen mixing themselves up in anti-patriotic movements: Yet while Sastron and other writers would redeem their fellow countrymen from such a stain as that of treason, I am inclined to believe that the asserted ignorance of the Spanish freemason was too often official, that is to say it was not genuine, but limited to the members of the society who enjoyed the privileges of the lower degrees.

There are two sides to every question, however, and that the "other side" may be given a fair hearing, I will quote a declaration of Antonio Luna on this subject. Luna, among the many statements made before the Lieut. Col. in command of the Cuartel de Caballeria, on the 8th of October 1896, confessed that "in the year 1890 or 91, of his own free-will, he formed a masonic project based on Spanish masonry: a project which might, at its proper time be applied to filibuster conspiracy. This project was discussed and approved by the Oriente Espanol in Madrid; but that center did not know the secondary ends to which it would be applied.... Of his own free-will he manifested that his ideas were, when he formed the project, anti-Spanish...."

With rare exceptions the Filipinos who left their native soil to finish their education in the Spanish peninsula, were those to whom the real work of separatism is owing. The Filipino at home who has fallen into line with his foreign educated brother is but a blind worker. And the Filipino who went to Spain was as a rule, a very general rule, taken under the sheltering care of Miguel Morayta (see note 13). The responsibility therefore for the ideas inculcated into the minds of those "students" lies, and that heavily, upon Morayta, the chief of that family of freemasonry which claims ignorance of the aims of its filipino membership. The only logical excuse that can be brought forwards is that filipino freemasonry degenerated. When once it took root in the Archipelago it spread with wonderful rapidity. The adepts were for the most part Chinese half-castes; and little by little that strange train of thought of the native, whether he be full blooded or mixed, a train of thought which, like the filipino pony is accustomed to walk backwards when it should go forwards, or like the patient carabao which too often lies down just at the moment when its services are the most needed to drag a load over a mud hole, carried the would-be citizens of an independent country to the verge of political insanity. Certain it is that as the idea of separation became more and more developed the Spanish masons who were member of the Filipino lodges severed their connection therewith. But yet it does not appear within the limits of common sense to believe that the Spanish masons were ignorant; the greater probability is that they were too indulgent, too confiding. To hold too fast to the excuse of ignorance is to profess oneself very ignorant. But whether it was ignorance or the wanting of even that species of patriotism which one expects to find in beasts of burden (for every horse knows his own stables) the black fact still remains that Spanish masonry gave birth to, and fostered, Filipino freemasonry or in other words, the katipunan.

However, be the degree of ignorance what it may, we cannot overlook the fact that the actions of the Tagalog freemasons, the katipunan if you will, for the one and the other are the same thing under different names, were the cause of no little surprise to the Grand Oriente Espanol. The filipino mason was a traitor to the mother which gave him being and nourished him into activity: a traitor who used the cover of the freemason lodge only that he might the easier and safer hatch out his plot to gain, by the most brutal means imaginable, the independence of his country.

In his declaration made in the presence of Colonel Francisco Olive y Garcia and others on the 23rd of September 1896, Moises Salvador Francisco, of Quiapo (Manila) stated that "in April 1891 he came to Manila bringing with him a copy of the agreements arrived at by the Junta of Madrid, and these he handed over to Timoteo Paez to see if masonic lodges could be established as a commencement of the work. In the following year of 1892 Pedro Serrano arrived from Spain and then Masonry (native) was introduced into the Philippines, the first lodge instituted being the Nilad."

To give some idea of the separatist aims which gave life and nourishment to the Tagalog revolt, I will quote a few extracts taken from masonic documents, and from the declarations, made by persons complicated in the conspiracy. These declarations were made in the presence of the appointed judge, Col. D. Francisco Olive y Garcia, and others, and are of capital interest in the study of the rise and fall of the filipino "commune".

The citations are as follows:

I. In an act of Session of the Katipunan Sur at the commencement of the year 1896, the session being opened, the president don Agustin Tantoko, a native priest [18], invited the membership present to express its opinion concerning the questions proposed, viz: how ought we to act towards society; towards ourselves; and how ought we to act in case of surprise. Mariano Kalisan considered, dealing with the first question, that "as their principal object was not to leave alive any Spaniard in all the future Filipino republic" they should procure to make friends with them as much as possible in order to be able to carry out their plans with more surety when the time should arrive to give the cry of independence. D. Gabino Tantoko, brother of the president, considered that the said principle should be carried out especially in dealing with the members of the Religious Orders. Both propositions were accepted.

As regards the second question, Epifanio Ramos proposed that meetings should be held as seldom as possible "in order to avoid scandals".

In case of surprise, Hermenegildo Garcia considered that "the strongest fort lay in denial." The brothers Tantoko remarked that such surprise was almost impossible seeing that they had determined "not to leave alive any of those who might surprise them." The president moreover remarked that, from that time forward, in case of danger, "they should destroy all the papers they held in their power, such as acts, receipts, letters, plans and especially the arms they held, in case the blow they were to deal in Manila should not succeed." This was accepted unanimously.

In reply to a question, the president affirmed that "all the sections of Katipunan existing in the future Filipino republic pursued the same end: viz: the independence of the Filipino people, the release from the yoke of the step-mother [19] Spain."

II. In a document dated the 12th of June 1896 and giving instructions to those who should carry out the proposed slaughter of all the Spaniards in Manila, we read:

"2nd. Once the signal is given every bro. shall fulfill the duty imposed upon him by this Gr. Reg. Log. without considerations of any kind, neither of parentage, friendship nor of gratitude, etc."

"4th. The blow having been struck at the Captain General and the other Spanish Authorities, the loyals shall attack the convents and shall behead their infamous inhabitants, respecting the wealth contained in the said convents; this shall be gathered ... etc."

"6th. On the following day the bbro. designated shall bury all the bodies of their hateful oppressors in the field of Bagumbayan together with their wives and children, and on the site shall later on be raised a monument commemorative of the independence of the G. N. F. (Gran Nacion Filipina)."

"7th. The bodies of the members of the Religious Orders shall not be buried, but burned in just payment for the felonies (sic) which they committed during life against the Filipino nation during the three hundred years of their nefarious domination." [20]

This infamous document is signed by the president of the executive commission by the Gr. Mast. adj. Giordano Bruno, and the Gr. Sec. Galileo. [21]

III. In his declaration made before Col. Olive y Garcia, the second Lieutenant D. Benedicto Nijaga y Polonis, a native of Carbeyeng, province of Samar, stated that the conspiracy was entered into for the purpose of securing from Spain, by peaceful means, or by the process of revolution, the independence of the country. He affirmed moreover that, in the case of revolution, the aid of Japan was to be sought and that the co-operation of the native troops was expected: and that the plan of campaign of the rebels who were in San Mateo, was to "fall upon Manila", the native infantry sent out to meet the attack to pass over to the rebel ranks.

IV. In his declaration made in Manila before the same judge, Pio Valenzuela y Alejandrino stated that he was one of the members of the Interior Supreme Council of the Katipunan, the aim of which was to collect a large amount of money and promote a general rising in order to declare the independence of the islands under the protectorate of the Empire of Japan. Further on he stated that the rising was to have taken place at 7 o'clock p. m. on the 29th of August, entry being made into Manila and its suburbs, the rebels "killing the Spaniards, and the natives and Chinese who did not wish to follow them, and then devoting themselves to the sacking of the town, to robbery and incendiarism and the violation of women."

V. Romualdo de J., sculptor of Sta. Cruz, Manila, declared that he had founded the Katipunan in 1888, the year in which the manifestation against the Archbishop was made; he defined the aim of the society to be "the killing of all the Spaniards and the taking possession of the islands."

VI. In his declaration made in Cavite, September 3, 1896, Alfonso Ocampo affirmed that according to the plans formulated, they were "to make the assault, killing and robbing all the peninsular Spaniards." And moreover, that "the rebellion had for its object the assassination of all the peninsular Spaniards, the violation and beheading afterwards of their wives and of their children even to the youngest."

Many others might be cited; with these six samples an idea may be gathered of the progressive idea advocated or fostered by Rizal, Pilar, Lopez, Ponce, the Lunas, Rosario, Cortes, and others who were inspired by Morayta, the Grand Master of the Gran Oriente Espanol.

Note 4. The then Civil Governor of Manila, in a report to the Colonial Minister concerning what was taking place in Manila says, speaking of this Corps:

"... this Corps of Vigilance which, although composed of no more than 45 persons including the inspectors of the same ... renders a service (to the Government in secret service work) which should be confided to 100 persons, considering the nature and the amount of the work undertaken and performed daily, from the day of the formation of the Corps to this day: a period of about a year. The interesting body of police which under my orders has performed such valuable services, is that which has attained greatest success in the fruitful labor of making clear the vandalistic events we have been experiencing."

Note 5. Filibusters: more properly called separatists. Noah Webster describes a filibuster as a "lawless military adventurer, especially one in quest of plunder; a free-booter, a pirate." Hence, taken in its true meaning, the word does not apply to the separatists of the Philippines. Retana classifies the filibuster in three groups: the first: he who, thinking little or nothing of the independence of his country, showed more or less aversion to the peninsular Spaniards. 2. He who, under the pretext or without it, of illustrating his countrymen, inculcated into their minds political ideas which, without meriting the qualification of subversive, tended to incite them against supposed oppressions of the Spaniards; against all things which appeared behind the times, hence according to their way of arguing, against the Religious Corporations, to which they owed everything except their anti-Spaniardism. As a rule those belonging to this group professed great love for the mother-country and did not preach ideas of independence; they held the belief that theirs was the duty to prepare the way for the emancipation which should be attained by their grandchildren. And 3. Those whose aim was to attain the emancipation of their country as soon as possible. This latter group were the true separatists. It is however difficult to distinguish between the filibuster so called, and the true separatist; perhaps the only admissible distinction is that the separatist is a man of peaceful methods whilst the filibuster is a man of struggles. Rizal was more or less a separatist, Andres Bonifacio a veritable filibuster.

Note 6. Sr. Olive was a gentleman who well deserved the respect and honor paid to him by his nation, and the hatred of those whose plans of treachery he thwarted and who, in spiteful revenge, have gone so far as to accuse him of using torture and other forcible means of extorting confessions, many of which they claim to have been false. Sr. Olive was too kind-hearted a man to stoop to such methods even had the circumstances demanded the use of moderate physical persuasion.

At one time Sr. Olive was the Governor of the Marianas Islands concerning the which he wrote and published a very interesting memoir. He was at that time Lieut. Colonel.

Later on he was made Colonel and as such was placed at the head of one of the sections of the Guardia Civil of Manila. He was secretary of the sub-inspection of arms of the Philippines. When a state of war was declared, the charges which were at that time being prepared in connection with the insurrection, were handed over to Sr. Olive, who with a zeal worthy of praise, and an energy too seldom exerted, commenced to deal out strict justice to the enemies of their country. About a year and a half ago Sr. Olive was made General of Brigade.

Note 7. According to a pamphlet written by a pseudonymous freemason and printed in Paris in 1896, the first lodge founded in the Philippines was that established in Cavite about 1860 under the name of Luz Filipina and subject to the Gr. Or. Lusitian, enjoying immediate correspondence with the Portuguese lodges of Macao and Hong-Kong which served as intermediaries between that lodge and those of other neighboring countries.

Another statement however, from the pen of Sr. Nicolas Diaz y Perez who formed his data from the original documents of the lodges, places the first foundation at the end of the year 1834. At this time, says Sr. Diaz, D. Mariano Marti, who died twenty-seven years later, whilst on his return to Spain, founded, together with others, lodges in various parts of the Archipelago, but they did not prosper and soon dissolved. The epoch of intrigues which produced so much disquietude and perversion of moral customs and ideas, more especially in the Tagal provinces, commenced about 1868. The masonic activity at that time was owing greatly to the political intriguers who were deported from Spain to this archipelago, where their influence was felt in no small degree, to the detriment of public morals.

About 1872, during the interim government of Gen. Blanco Valderrama, a lodge was founded in Sampaloc, subject to the Gr. Or. Esp., and composed entirely of peninsular Spaniards with the exclusion of natives.

In the same year D. Rufino Pascual Torrejon reached Manila and united his efforts to those of Marti, founding lodges purely Spanish.

On the first of March 1874 was created the lodge "Luz de Oriente" under the obedience of the Gr. Or. de Esp., the Gr. Comend. being D. Juan de la Somera. This was really the first successful establishment of masonry in the Philippines. The cited Sr. Diaz y Perez says on this point; "It may be said that freemasonry regularly constituted in the Philippines, dates from the 1st. of March 1874, with the creation of the lodge Luz de Oriente...."

On the 1st of March 1875 was installed the Gr. L. Departmental, D. Rufino Pascual Torrejon being the Gr. President.

Up to the year 1884 the lodges of the Philippines did not admit to their membership either indians or half-castes; but since that time, and upon the initiative of the Gr. Mast. of the Gr. Or. Esp. the doors of the lodges were opened to all indians and half-castes who could read or write. Later on purely native lodges were founded and from that time Spain lost, little by little but surely, her hold upon the people, with the result that she eventually lost her colony. What masonry has accomplished in other parts of the world it also accomplished here very effectually. It laid the foundation for the undermining of society, bringing forth a generation of traitors and building up a kingdom for anti-Christ.

As has been proved over and over again by the many masonic documents which have been discovered, freemasonry was ever anti-Catholic in the Philippines; but it was not until it had degenerated into filibusterism that the anti-Spanish spirit really took shape. Year by year this spirit spread and more, especially among the natives and half-castes of less intellectual capacity. Among this element, separatist ideas spread with marvelous rapidity owing to the peculiarity of the character of the native and of the half-caste, more especially the Chinese half-caste. (See note 19).

Up to 1890, even Filipino masonry enjoyed but insignificant development. By 1892, however, it had spread widely, and in the following year Manila was gifted with a female lodge founded on the 18th of July of that year, under the name of "La Semilla", of which Rosario Villareal, the daughter of Faustino Villareal, was declared the Ven. Gr. Mistress.

From this time the element of politico-social decomposition gained ground among the native and half-caste population. New ideas continually gave place to the old and as the aims and purposes of the lodges degenerated, these centers of anti-catholic propaganda became more and more anti-Spanish.

Isabelo de los Reyes, in an attempted defense of his "friends", makes the important confession that "Filipino freemasonry was not so inoffensive as it was believed.... The "Liga" at least was a school of conspiracy, and in truth, the Filipinos did not turn out bad pupils."

Another demonstration of the inoffensiveness of freemasonry is the following series of facts taken from a pamphlet published in 1896 in Paris by Antonio Regidor under the pseudonym of Francisco Engracio Vergara. Regidor was a distinguished figure in the attempted revolt of 1872, and hence may justly be supposed to know something of the matter of which he speaks. He says:

"By reason of the rising of Cavite many Filipinos characterized as progressives were deported to Marianas.... To the masons of Hong-Kong was owing the flight of several Filipinos...."

"The foreign masons distributed arms in Negros, Mindanao and Jolo. The official bank of Singapore distributed in Cebu, Leyte and Bohol over L80,000 stg., and that of Hong-Kong more than L200,000 in Panay and Negros.... The French freemasons at the petition of brother Paraiso, went to aid also the escape of the deported in Marianas."

Note 8. Rizal and others: Of this group Rizal, Pilar, the Lunas and Cortes, formed the more guilty part, they being men of superior education and more enlightened minds. Rizal was the center upon which almost everything connected with the revolt turned. During his younger days he lived with his parents in Calamba, where they occupied a stretch of land owned by the Dominican Corporation. The Rizal family was one of those most favored by the Dominicans [22], and one of those ungrateful ones too, which commenced law-suit against the said Corporation to unjustly possess themselves of the land they held at rent.

Rizal received his secondary education at the Ateneo Municipal conducted by the Jesuit Fathers, and was always a bright attentive and successful pupil. At that time he was secretary of the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin and Promoter of the Apostleship of Prayer. Whilst he remained true to the traditions of Catholic Spain, he was an upright pious youth. Much of his time he spent in carving wooden images of the Blessed Virgin and of the Sacred Heart, and in writing compositions, some of them remarkable for their beauty, in which were reflected a pure love for Spain.

Having attained the degree of Bachelor he left the Ateneo and passed to the University of Manila, continuing his studies under the Dominican Fathers. There he studied medicine with great success for some years, and at length went to Europe to terminate his career and take his degrees.

Rizal left school like so many other filipino students, overloaded with science he was unable to direct, full of pride because of his accomplishments, and very ambitious. He terminated his studies in Madrid and Germany, in both of which places he fell in with a class of people who utilized him as a tool to accomplish an end at that time unknown to him. They filled his head with new and false ideas, making him vain promises which appealed to his pride, and by their dark arts made of him a separatist. He also studied English and German, his studies in this latter language making him enthusiastic in the things of Germany and, in an extraordinary degree, with those of protestantism.

Among his own people he was the possessor of an exceptional intelligence and talent but outside his own circle his most famous accomplishments are but poor to the student of Literature. His sadly famous Noli me tangere and El Filibusterismo cannot pass for more than very second-hand for their ingenuity and literary taste, but they possess the quality of being a mirror in which is reflected the inclinations, character and perverse moral sense of their author. In them he is reflected as a restless spirit anxious for human glory, haughty and above all, anti-Spanish and ungrateful in the extreme.

It was in Berlin that he published his Noli in 1886. That this novel was written by Rizal there in no doubt, but that the ideas therein expressed came directly from his own head is more than doubtful. Like the vast majority of Filipino productions, it is but a copy taken from models which had struck the fancy of the author. The pictures he draws therein of the disadvantages suffered by the Filipinos who have become espanolized, are but reproductions prepared in his own coarse and crude way of thinking, of the most scurrilous anti-Spanish and anti-Catholic works of propaganda produced by the Bible Societies and spread abroad throughout the world as gospel truth. Taking away the insults hurled against the Church and the Religious Orders, and against Spain, there is absolutely nothing new in the novel. Its object was to attack the friars and the chiefs of the Guardia Civil, both of which the author well knew to be the sustainment and guarantee of peace and order in the Archipelago and consequently the strongest support of the Spanish sovereignty in the Philippines, a sovereignty he wished to overthrow. To a reader whose library consists of a half a dozen books of insignificant literary value, the noli of Rizal is a masterpiece; but to the reader who has seen a book with a cover, who has had some experience of that portion of the world which lies outside the limits of the town of his birth, and who is gifted with more or less ability to think for himself, and sift the wheat from the straw in a literary composition, noli me tangere is but a half-tone picture cut from a newspaper and colored with water-colors by a ... school-boy.

Towards the end of 1887, Rizal returned to the Archipelago, remaining about two months, during the which he made active propaganda of the ideas and fancies he had picked up in Europe: ideas which he himself could not really understand.

In February 1888 he left Manila for Japan, from whence he returned to Europe, living for a while in Paris and later on in London.

In 1892 Rizal, relying upon the generous character of D. Eulogio Despujols, the then Governor General of the Archipelago, decided to return to Manila. From Hong-Kong where he was then residing, he wrote to the governor, asking permission to return to his home; the Governor replied by means of the Spanish Consul at Hong-Kong, that he had no reason to prohibit him from returning, and that he could do so when it so pleased him, providing he came with no intention to disturb the peace then reigning in the Islands.

This Rizal lost no time in doing; he arrived together with his sister. The baggage of both was carefully examined and in one of the trunks was discovered a bundle of leaflets in the form of anti-friar proclamations which indicated the bad faith of a traitor. These were handed over to Despujols unknown to Rizal. The Governor preserved them in his desk for future reference. In an interview with the Governor, Rizal begged pardon for his father who was under sentence of deportation for certain events which had taken place in Calamba; this was granted him without reserve.

Our hero soon forgot the aims he professed to the Governor; instead of thinking about his folks and making his arrangements for the colonizing scheme he professed to have worked out in Borneo, he set to work to stir up disrespect towards the authorities, and the spirit of political unrest. He together with Doroteo Cortes and Jose Basa were the objects of careful vigilance on the part of the secret police.

After a few days a prolonged conference took place between the Governor General and Rizal. During this conference the latter made patent his political feelings, at the same time making protestations of respect for Spain. His political programme however was not in keeping with his protestations of patriotism, and this fact so angered Despujols, who now saw that Rizal's idea was to fool him, that he took from his drawer the proclamations discovered in the agitator's baggage and thrusting them under the nose of the traitor, said:

--And these proclamations; what are they, what do they mean?

Rizal taken by surprise and confounded, cowardly declared that they were the property of his sister, a declaration which only enraged the General the more, and he ordered his detention in Fort Santiago; on the following day he decreed his deportation to Dapitan.

Whilst in exile his opinion and advice were sought concerning the advisability of immediate armed rebellion. But he, crafty, more or less far seeing and, above all, jealous of Bonifacio's increasing ascendancy over the people, refused to countenance the idea. Granting the unselfish desire he professed of seeking merely the independence of his country, Rizal's jealousy was justified. Bonifacio's one great idea was the presidency; Rizal's: the honor and glory of having prepared the way for, and eventually, by his labors accomplishing his country's deliverance from what he was pleased to call the oppression of the Spanish Government. Had such oppression existed, Rizal's idea would have been worthy of classifying as noble. George Washington well deserved the name of the "Father of his Country," for he, laying aside all selfish aims and desires, led a handful of men against a horde of mercenaries sent by a cruel monarch who oppressed his people, not only in the colonies but in the mother-country also. Washington was a man who deserved and received the respect of those against whom he fought, for he fought for a principle. Such an honor never has, and never can be received by Rizal from his own countrymen. The campaign Rizal fought was inspired by and worked out in the freemason lodges which used our "hero" as a willing tool. Rizal was a Filipino Garibaldi, never a Filipino Washington, and hence the honors paid to his memory as a "patriot" must emanate from the lodge rooms which made him what he was, and not from the people of his country.

In Dapitan the Filipino agitator was not inactive. On one occasion he directed a letter (which never reached its destination on account of its having fallen into the hands of Spanish authorities) to the Capitan Municipal of the province of Batangas, giving him information of the work of filibusterism which was at that time being carried on.

Rizal, tiring of his position in Dapitan, eventually asked permission of the Governor General, Gen. Blanco, to be sent to Cuba as physician to the Spanish forces there. Blanco agreed to the proposition and ordered his return to Manila in preparation for the voyage to Spain, where he was to be sent and placed at the disposition of the Minister of War.

From Spain came word, however, that the petition could not be accepted; and for a very good reason. Rizal's idea of becoming an army surgeon, was a manifest pretence, his real aim was to aid the separatist movement there, if he ever got there, but primarily to make his escape at an intermediate port, Singapore probably, if opportunity occurred. Moreover, it having come to the ears of the authorities that certain people of Pampanga and Bulacan were preparing a reception for the agitator, the Governor ordered that he should not be allowed to leave Dapitan, and that should he have left there, he should not be allowed to land in Manila on his arrival, but be transferred to another ship which should carry him back to Mindanao. It happened that he had left Dapitan on board the S. S. Espana, and in due time he arrived at Manila. At 11 a. m. on the 6th of August the ship on which he came anchored in the bay and everyone landed except Rizal. A lieutenant of the Veterana went aboard and took possession of the person of Rizal, holding him as a prisoner till 7:30 p. m., at which time, through an error in the delivery of an order, he was allowed to disembark. This he did in company with his sister Narcisa, and they made their way to the office of the Captain of the Port and later on to the Comandancia of the Veterana. His sister not having been under sentence of deportation, was allowed to go to the home of her relatives.

During the evening of the same day Gen. Blanco gave a reception at Malacanang at which were present the Archbishop of Manila, the Illust. Sr. Bernardino Nozaleda; Sr. Echaluce; Sr. Fernandez Victorio, President of Audiencia; Sr. Bores Romero, the Civil Director and others. During the reception Gen. Blanco received a telegram from the Governor of the province of Batangas stating that in the pueblo of Taal, in the house of the brother of the filibuster Felipe Agoncillo, had been discovered a quantity of arms and ammunition, among other things being 10 revolvers, 10 winchesters, 10 other guns, a case of explosive bullets, a quantity of dynamite, a Japanese flag, another composed of red and blue with a representation of the sun in the center surrounded by seven stars--the flag of the future Filipino republic. Blanco realizing the importance of the news, formed a committee from among those present, choosing those who were members of the Junta of Authorities, to take steps in the matter. Orders were immediately given that Rizal should be placed on board the cruiser Castilla which was stationed at Cavite; this was carried out, the start from Manila being made at 11 p. m. the same night. This action was considered necessary, in as much as the news of the landing of Rizal spread fast and caused no little stir among his followers.

Whilst Rizal was on board the cruiser Castilla which was awaiting orders, the Katipunan revolt broke out in Manila and the suburbs. Very soon afterwards his voyage Spainwards was commenced on board the S. S. Colon, the insurrection becoming more and more wide-spread daily. On finding to what an extent Rizal was complicated in the work of the revolution, his return to the Archipelago, as a prisoner, was demanded, and so our "hero" returned to be judged as were so many of his fellow agitators, for the crimes for which he was morally and physically responsible.

A council of war was constituted under the presidency of Lieut. Col. Tabares, Capt. Tavil de Andrade taking charge of the defense of the prisoner. The accusation preferred against him was that he was the chief organizer of the revolution. The trial took place in the hall of the Cuartel de Espana in the presence of a large audience among whom were his sister and the woman with whom he had been living in Dapitan. The charge having been read out, several declarations were made by Rizal, some before his voyage to Spain and others since his return were also read. During his trial Rizal denied the knowledge of several persons who were his intimate friends and co-workers; among them Maximo Inocencio and Mariano Linjap, and others with whom he had been in almost continual communication. He denied knowledge of the "Liga Filipina" stating that not only did he not found it, but that he was not aware of its existence. He affirmed ignorance of who Valenzuela was, and almost immediately afterwards stated that he had held an interview with him in Dapitan when that individual had been sent there by Bonifacio to consult him on the subject of armed rebellion. Throughout the whole trial he pursued the same tactics, proving that, of himself, he was but an ordinary Filipino indian who, when left to himself to stand on his own merits, gave no signs of particular judgement or power of thought. The Filipino on trial, even for some significant affair, cannot tell a lie to advantage: Rizal was no exception even in this. The trial being ended he was condemned to execution.

Previous to meeting his death he confessed and received the Holy Communion from the hands of the Jesuit Fathers having after long consideration, made the following retraction of his errors:

"I declare myself Catholic and in this religion in which I was born
and educated I wish to live and die. I retract with all my heart
all my words, writings and actions that have been contrary to my
condition as a son of the Catholic Church. I believe and profess
whatever She teaches and I submit to whatever She demands. I
abominate masonry as an enemy of the Church and as a society
condemned by the Church.

"The diocesan prelate, as superior ecclesiastical authority, may
make public this spontaneous manifestation, to make reparation
for the scandals which may have been caused by my works, and that
God and my fellow-men may pardon me."

"Manila 29th December 1896.--Jose Rizal.--Witnesses: Juan del
Fresno, Chief of Picket.--Eloy Maure, Adjutant."

He also entered the holy bonds of matrimony with the young woman with whom he had been living for some time in Mindanao. On the way to the place of his execution he remarked to one of the Fathers who accompanied him. Father, it is my pride that has brought me here."

Of the political error committed by the Spanish Authorities in the execution of Rizal, I do not hold myself up as a judge. All governments, like human beings, commit mistakes and at times grave ones. The Spanish authorities, feeling themselves justified in so doing, ordered the execution of the prisoner who was responsible for one of the most bloody revolts since the time of the French revolution: the pattern taken by the Filipino leaders, for the means of the foundation of the Filipino republic. Rizal was executed on the Luneta. To assert that he was offered up as a victim to gratify the wishes of the Religious Orders is but a crude and vicious argument worthy of its inventors and propagators. Nothing, absolutely nothing, can be brought forward to prove such an assertion, but on the contrary, those members of the Religious Orders who concerned themselves in the stirring affairs of the revolution were, as a very general rule, opposed to harsh and extreme measures being taken; and among these was the Illustrious Archbishop of Manila, Sr. Nozaleda, a noble, tenderhearted and compassionate prelate, a prelate who has been dubbed by Foreman as "the blood-thirsty Archbishop". Had the friars held the reins of government as they are stated to have done, history would not have to record the names of so many, many people who were executed: people who were scarcely to be held as guilty, in as much as they were but sheep who thoughtlessly followed their shepherds without even looking to see where the road they trod would lead them.

In politics Rizal had his party composed of a number of insignificant petty-lawyers, petty-doctors and others possessing academic titles and a semi-formed cerebral power. These were backed by a mass of the people of Calamba, Rizal's birthplace. In their eyes he was a "Messiah", a "Mahdi", their prophet and redeemer. As an individual he was bright and intelligent, and had he not been led astray by those who made a "cat's paw" of him, and who cruelly deserted him in his hour of need, he would doubtless have been one of the foremost Filipinos of to-day in that sphere of life in which God had placed him.

A Spanish proverb says: "In blind man's land the one eyed man is a king." Rizal was a king.

Note 9. Marcelo Hilario del Pilar y Gatmaytan was a native of Bulacan. He was, by profession, a lawyer, and had been enabled to complete his studies in that direction through the good offices of the Augustinian Fathers of Manila, who had given him the money necessary to matriculate and to pay the cost of his title of "abogado." [23]

Pilar left Manila for the peninsula about the end of '88 for fear of deportation: a punishment at that time staring him in the face. He was one of the earliest workers on the "La Solidaridad", the official organ of Filipino freemasonry in all its sections. He later on became its director.

Pilar was another of the many malays whose ways were beyond human comprehension. Spaniards who have lived a life-time among the indians and studied them carefully from all points of view agree that the deeper one studies the native character the more incomprehensible it becomes. That is, the study of the average filipino: Pilar was one of the average. He was not gifted with the education enjoyed by Rizal, nor was he such a stupid visionary as Pedro Paterno; he possessed touches of the character of both.

Like so many of those Filipinos who fed at the hands of the Religious Orders, he eventually turned to bite the hand that fed him. As in the case of the others who had done the like, he did so, not because he had cause to, but because he fell, as did they, under the evil influence of those who utilized them to work out their schemes of treachery.

Pilar was sent to Spain as a delegate of the Committee of propaganda. Owing to this position of chief of the delegation in Madrid, and by reason of his intimate friendship with Morayta, he occupied a position from which neither Rizal nor even the whole of the progressive indians combined, could drive him. He held, for some time, high office in the Gr. Or. Esp. as will be seen from the following clipping taken from page 107 of the Annual of that Orient for the year 1894-95.

"GRAN CONS. DE LA ORDEN
1894-1895
Muy Ven. Gran Maestre Presidente
Ven. H. Miguel Morayta y Sagrario, Gr. 33
...................................
Ven. Gran Orador Adjunto
V. Marcelo H. del Pilar Gr. 33" (h. Kupang)

It was Pilar who conceived the plan of the Katipunan; and yet after all it was not his conception, for the scheme he formed was at the best, a piece of patch work made up of the plans worked out in the various revolutions which had taken place in some part of the world.

What Pilar's ambition was, it is hard to say; from his actions and writings one is almost driven to the supposition that he had none in particular, but was led to the separatist labors he performed by force of compromise.

When the time was ripe for action Pilar determined to leave Madrid and make his way to Japan. He commenced the journey arriving at Barcelona, from whence he was to make his way east. There, however, he was taken suddenly ill, and died on the 4th of June 1896, in the Hospital of that city.

In many things Pilar was superior to Rizal. Unlike that agitator, Pilar was not a sneaking, skulking petty-politician; he was straight-forward and had the courage of his opinions. What Pilar would have done if placed in the same circumstances as Rizal it is hard to say, but we may be assured that he would not have acted the coward as did Rizal.

Note 10. Antonio and Juan Luna were two of four brothers. The former was a bacteriologist, the latter an artist who at one time, whilst he followed the instruction, and remained under the guidance of his master, showed no little talent. Antonio went to Spain in '88, and later on passed to Paris where he lived with his brother Juan who supported him. There he devoted himself to the study which made him famous; this he did in the laboratory of Dr. Roux. He became an assistant editor of the Solidaridad, the official organ of filipino freemasonry, and wrote many vicious articles in its columns over the pseudonym of Taga-Ilog. As a member of the freemason fraternity he was known as Gay Lussac.

On his return to Manila he established, for a livelihood, a school of fencing, and like the vain, insensate "magpie in borrowed plumes" that he was, he once sent his seconds to a Spanish officer, inviting him to a duel!

During the second half of the rebellion of '96, Aguinaldo offered Antonio the position of director of the War Department with the grade of General of Brigade. This honor, however, he declined. The Independencia speaking on this incident, says:--

"The military knowledge of Sr. Luna, acquired during his captivity (sic) in the prisons of the peninsula (Spain), is to be found condensed in two small works, one concerning the organization of the army, having as its base the idea of obligatory service in which he demonstrates that Luzon might put on a war footing 250,000 to 400,000 men, and the whole archipelago as many as from 800,000 to 900,000. The other work is a practical course in field fortifications as adopted by the French and German armies." [24]