2 The ruins of the Fuerza de Playa Honda, ó Real de Paynavén, are still to be seen in the present municipality of Botolan, Zambales. The walls are overgrown with rank vegetation, but
are well preserved, [viiin]with the exception of a portion looking toward the Bankal River, which has been undermined by the currents and has fallen
intact into the stream.
3 Relation of the Zambals, by Domingo Perez, O.P.; manuscript dated 1680. The excerpts are taken from the translation in Blair and Robertson, The Philippine Islands, Vol. XLVII, by courtesy of the Arthur H. Clark Company, Cleveland, Ohio.
4 “Estadismo de las Islas Filipinas, ó Mis Viages por Este Pais, por Fray Joaquin Martinez de Zuñiga, Agustino calzado.” Padre Zuñiga was a parish priest in several towns and later Provincial
of his Order. He wrote a history of the conquest, and in 1800 accompanied Alava, the General de Marina,
on his tours of investigation looking toward preparations for the
defense of the islands against another attack of the British,
with whom war threatened. The Estadismo, which is a record of these journeys, with some account of the rest of the islands, remained in manuscript until 1893, when
it was published in Madrid.
5 Secular, as distinguished from the regulars, i.e., members of the monastic orders.
6 Sinibaldo de Mas, Informe sobre el estado de las Islas Filipinas en 1842, translated in Blair and Robertson’s The Philippine Islands, Vol. XXVIII, p. 254.
7 Sic. St. John xx, 17.
8 This letter in the original French in which it was written is reproduced in the Vida y Escritos del Dr. José Rizal, by W. E. Retana (Madrid, 1907).
9 Filipinas dentro de Cien Años, published in the organ of the Filipinos in Spain, La Solidaridad,
in 1889–90. This is the most studied of Rizal’s purely political
writings, and the completest exposition of his views concerning
the Philippines.
10 An English version of El Filibusterismo, under the title The Reign of Greed, has been prepared to accompany the present work.
11 “Que todo el monte era orégano.” W.E. Retana, in the appendix to Fray Martinez de Zuñiga’s Estadismo,
Madrid, 1893, where the decree is quoted. The rest of this comment of
Retana’s deserves quotation as an estimate of the
living man by a Spanish publicist who was at the time in the employ of
the friars and contemptuously hostile to Rizal, but
who has since 1898 been giving quite a spectacular demonstration of
waving a red light after the wreck, having become his
most enthusiastic, almost hysterical, biographer: “Rizal is what is
commonly called a character, but he has repeatedly demonstrated
very great inexperience in the affairs of life. I believe him to be now
about thirty-two years old. He is the Indian of most
ability among those who have written.”
12 From Valenzuela’s deposition before the military tribunal, September sixth, 1896.
13 Capilla: the Spanish practise is to place a condemned person for the twenty-four hours preceding his execution in a chapel, or a cell fitted up as such, where he may devote himself to religious exercises and receive the final ministrations of the
Church.
14 But even this conclusion is open to doubt: there is no proof beyond the unsupported statement of the Jesuits that he made
a written retraction, which was later destroyed, though why a document so interesting, and so important in support of their
own point of view, should not have been preserved furnishes an illuminating commentary on the whole confused affair. The only
unofficial witness present was the condemned man’s sister, and her declaration, that she was at the time in such a state of
excitement and distress that she is unable to affirm positively that there was a real marriage ceremony performed, can readily
be accepted. It must be remembered that the Jesuits were themselves under the official and popular ban for the part they had
played in Rizal’s education and development and that they were seeking to set themselves right in order to maintain their
prestige. Add to this the persistent and systematic effort made to destroy every scrap [xlviin]of record relating to the man—the sole gleam of shame evidenced in the impolitic, idiotic, and pusillanimous treatment of
him—and the whole question becomes such a puzzle that it may just as well be left in darkness, with a throb of pity for the
unfortunate victim caught in such a maelstrom of panic-stricken passion and selfish intrigue.
[Contents]
What? Does no Caesar, does no Achilles, appear on your stage now?
Not an Andromache e’en, not an Orestes, my friend?
No! there is nought to be seen there but parsons, and syndics of commerce,
Secretaries perchance, ensigns and majors of horse.
But, my good friend, pray tell, what can such people e’er meet with
That can be truly call’d great?—what that is great can they do?
(Bowring’s translation.)
