Note 8 — Chapter XIV · THE EXILE OF DAPITAN

At Dapitan were a military station, a convento, and several priests. Rizal was informed that if he would make a declaration of sympathy and admiration for Spain he could reside at the convento with the priests. Even for that privilege, dear to an intellectual man, hungry for the company of his educated fellows, he would not lay perjury on his soul.8 Strange as the temptation seems to us in these days, the tempters knew well what they had in view. With such a declaration they could nullify much of Rizal’s influence upon his countrymen and possibly allay something of the spirit of revolt that on all sides was rising in the colony.