Note 10 — Chapter XV · THE KATIPUNAN

All this time he was maintaining his correspondence with his friends, the European scientists, and particularly with Dr. Blumentritt,10 the closest and most sympathetic of his intellectual allies. Early in 1896 a letter from Dr. Blumentritt told him of the sad condition of the hospitals in Cuba. Yellow fever was raging in the Island, and there were not nearly enough physicians to meet the emergency. No such report could be made to Rizal without awakening in him his sympathy and instinctive impulse to help whomsoever might be in distress. He wrote to the governor-general offering to go to Cuba as a volunteer physician in the government hospitals. There was a new governor-general now; Despujol had ended his clouded career and gone home. Governor-General Blanco accepted Rizal’s offer, and on August 1, 1896, the exile sailed from Dapitan for Manila. With him went Mrs. Rizal and his little niece.