Notes.

These notes are, as regards historical matter, chiefly taken from Spanish official documents drawn up as a result of juridical proceedings against certain individuals accused of treason.

Although not directed at that particular “school of scandal”, this pastoral was interpreted by all those concerned, as well as by the public in general, as a severe lesson for Sr. Lunas and those who had gathered in the government house to dance the can-can or to take pleasure therein. Hence Sr. Luna and his party considered themselves offended, and did not hesitate to take revenge when an opportunity occurred, upon the aged and infirm Archbishop who did all he had done, in defense of the morals of his flock.

From this event sprung the seed which gave rise, later on, to the famous, or rather infamous manifestation of ’88: an insensate campaign inspired against the Religious Orders by these offended ones and their followers (See note 30).

In recapitulation; there were 810 signatures; of these 85 did not declare on examination, 56 were unknown, 39 were minors, 22 did not recognize their signatures and 16 had died previous to the drawing up of the document (Feb. 20th 1888). This brings the 810 down to 592. Of these 592 signatures 208 were of laborers, 50 of fishermen, 31 of carpenters, 7 washermen and 5 barbers: a total of 301 persons whose occupations called for no particular amount of education, and whose interest and concern in such a movement as this may be judged from their social standing. Deducting these 301 from the remaining 592 we have 291 left for further analysis. Of these 25 were of tailors, 4 singers (!) and 3 school masters; 58 escribientes whose occupation it is to make clean copies of documents and other manuscript, the most that can be said of the majority of them being that they can write well, not an uncommon thing anyhow for a filipino; 11 of musicians, men who lead the life of crickets, enjoying hunger by day and noise by night; 9 type-setters, men who after having set a dozen columns of material could not tell you anything of the subject they were composing, in other words, men who like the escribientes reproduce mechanically without knowing what they are reproducing; this gives us 107 of another grade leaving 184 to be divided among the many odds and ends of occupations followed by the native to earn his “fish and rice”. No less than 384 of the number did not understand Spanish and 13 could not write. In the matter of races: ONE was a Spaniard, Enrique Rodriguez de los Palacios who called himself a merchant and was domiciled in Binondo. Upon investigation it turned out that he also had been fooled and that he had signed the protest because he had been told that other Spaniards had also signed it; as to its contents he affirmed that he knew nothing. One was a Spanish mestizo, 66 were Chinese half-castes and 524 were indians. So much for the famous manifestation which resulted in giving a most decisive blow to the moral and social standing of those who prepared and those who signed it. Those concerned therein learned the bitter lesson that “they who dig pits for their neighbors are apt to fall therein themselves.”

The common opinion has always been that the document in question was drawn up by Doroteo Cortés (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. José 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.

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.

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 Sastrón 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.”

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

It must be noted that this is the opinion of a Spanish patriot, for a patriot Sastrón 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 Sastrón 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 Español 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 Español. 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:

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 García 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.

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 Nación Filipina).”

III. In his declaration made before Col. Olive y García, 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, Cortés, and others who were inspired by Morayta, the Grand Master of the Gran Oriente Español.

“... 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.”

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.

Another statement however, from the pen of Sr. Nicolas Diaz y Pérez 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 Torrejón 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 Pérez 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 £80,000 stg., and that of Hong-Kong more than £200,000 in Panay and Negros.... The French freemasons at the petition of brother Paraiso, went to aid also the escape of the deported in Marianas.”

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 españolized, 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 Cortés and José 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. España, 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 Malacañang 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 España 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.—José 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.

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.

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:—

What Spain did for the Filipino brought forth fruit in only a few of the people who fell under her beneficent christian influence. The Lunas were among the few. They, like so many other ungrateful children, repaid their benefactors by becoming leaders of the insensate and inexcusable revolt against them: a revolt, the first act of which was to be the brutal murder of all Spaniards irrespective of parentage or other claims of consideration. Both the brothers suffered arrest by the Spanish authorities for rebellion and sedition, but in spite of the degree to which they were complicated, they remained practically free from punishment, and ever at the right hand of the imbecile General Blanco, himself a freemason, and friend of the enemies of his country. Eventually the two brothers left the ante-chamber of the Governor to enter the security of the military prison.

Both brothers eventually retracted their errors only to fall into them again as soon as the lying protests of repentance had fallen from their lips.

Juan died in Hong-Kong; Antonio, after a career of militarism succumbed to the same unprincipled ambition which carried Andrés Bonifacio to an untimely grave.

Morayta was at one time Gr∴ Master of the Gr∴ Or∴ de España, but was later on expelled therefrom, according to a masonic publication. In 1888 he founded the Gr∴ Or∴ Español, the mother of the Katipunan. In 1890 he took over the proprietorship of La Solidaridad then published by Marcelo del Pilar for separatist ends. Morayta was the idol of the Filipino students who sought education in the Peninsula. Using him as a means towards an end they aimed at, they banquetted him and thus assiduously attacking his stomach they finally captured him.

Going back to ancient times the probability is that the original Malay first became modified by its crossing with the inhabitants proper of the archipelago—the Negritos—marks of which mixture are still discernible in many of the Tagalogs.

A second modification came through the mixture between the Malay-Negrito and the Indonesian, traces of which are seen in the light color of the skin in a portion, although small, of the Tagalogs. Another modification, the most marked, originated from the crossing of the Malay-Negrito-Indonesian with the Chinee, the Chinee being marked by the increase in stature, the elevation of the skull and other minor marks.

During the last three centuries this hybrid Tagalog has undergone another small and gradual change by reason of a limited crossing with Spanish blood. This latter mixture however is insignificant in extent but always produces a superior type. As a people the Tagalogs number about one and a half millions, and inhabit the regions around about Manila. The traits of character of the four principal trunks from which the Tagalog of to-day is derived are, although still present in a greater or lesser degree, considerably modified by climatological and historical circumstances.

At the coming of the Spaniards the Tagalogs, like the remaining native peoples of the archipelago, were met with in the depths of the savage ages, and were to a certain extent, of cannibalistic tendencies.

Their mythology has, like their ancient character, been greatly modified in the vast majority, by the influence of the civilization implanted by Spain. This is one point in which Spain has differed from most nations in methods of civilization and colonization. However we may judge her in respect to her colonial administration in the Philippines, we cannot deny that she has been distinguished from other nations by her aim of preserving the native races of the archipelago, the destruction consequent upon the radical change undergone in everything, being limited to the savage customs and immoralities in which the native peoples were found submerged.

The masonic lodges spoken of in the text which were asked of Morayta, were established, although they were not exclusively Tagalog in their membership. As a result of the petition of the Filipino colony mentioned in the same text, the theories and practices of Masonry were carried to the Tagalogs but instead of the needy brethren being aided by the wealthy ones, they were subjected to a contribution in exchange for which they received a gaudy regalia; in other words they were bought over with strings of beads and with tinsel truck as were the indians discovered by Capt. Cook in the South Sea Islands, with the exception that Capt. Cook and those who followed him carried civilization to the natives, whilst the founders of the Katipunan carried to the Tagalogs and the other indians of the archipelago misery and demoralization.

Villaruel was the Gr∴ Oriente of filipino masonry, a deluded fanatic, a man of but scarce intellectual endowments, an instrument of those who knew more and were shrewder than he. By laying hands upon him the Spanish Authorities laid hands also upon a large number of incriminating documents which were the means of connecting many prominent business men of Manila with the bloody programme of the Katipunan. Among these was Francisco L. Roxas.

Besides these documents were a large number of loose papers written in Tagalog, in which were discovered many threatening phrases and the expression of hopes in the success of an event to take place in the near future. Masks and other masonic implements, including a heavily made and sharply pointed dagger were also discovered.

Previous to suffering the penalty of his treason he made and signed a public abjuration, for the copy of which see Appendix E.

Bonifacio was, however, very vain and quixotic. He was, too, a man of sanguinary character, and held the people over whom he attained ascendancy, in awe. His ambition was the cause of his ignominious downfall and brutal murder at the hands of another self-asserted dictator of the filipino Commune. Like most of his kind, he was a great reader, and by those who knew him best he was likened to Don Quixote, for like that worthy he passed many a night burning away oil and candles, and sacrificing needed sleep in reading, until his brain was turned and his whole mind given up to ideas of revolutions. His favorite study was the French Revolution, from the which he learned many lessons which he utilized in his projects, the principal of which was the formation of a government after the style of the French Commune. He was astute and comparatively intelligent, and spoke the Tagalog dialect well. For the carrying out of his plans he had agents in every nook and corner. No place where information might be gathered or the work of propaganda done, was over-looked. The offices of the Civil Government had their quota of his spies, as also did the Intendencia, the Maestraza de Artilleria and the other large centers. Nor were the Convents and Colleges overlooked, nor even the big business Corporations.

Bonifacio enjoyed an envied ascendancy over the lower classes and the ignorant. Like others of similar tendencies, Bonifacio knew how to exploit the “membership”. He was at one time treasurer of the Katipunan, and upon one occasion after the examination of the books by the president of the society Andrés was denounced as an exploiter, the accounts being found in a very bad condition. A series of mutual squabbles and insults passed between the president Roman Basa, and Bonifacio, the whole affair ending up in a re-election of officers, Bonifacio being chosen as president. This occurred towards the end of the year 1893.

The vanity of Bonifacio was comparable only to that of Aguinaldo. Among the number of chief workers of the Katipunan was a certain Valenzuela, a doctor who had, according to his own confession, been forced into the membership by Bonifacio, on the strength of a “love” affair; he was given the choice of membership or death. He chose the former but later on resigned. Whilst a member he enjoyed a salary of 30 pesos a month as medical officer, but only with difficulty could he collect his pay. He claimed to have been exploited by Bonifacio who, whilst merely a porter, could thus have at his command the free services of a real doctor, spurning the services of the petty physicians which abound in Manila. Nor was this all. His own (Bonifacio’s) house having been burned down, he went, on the strength of this same “love” affair, to live in the house of the said doctor (see foot-note p. 48), taking with him his paramour, the doctor paying the greater part of the expenses thus incurred.

At the time of the organization of the popular Supreme Councils, Bonifacio was chosen president of the Council of Trozo; but in consequence of internal troubles occasioned by his rebelliousness, the Supreme Council decided to dissolve the local Council. Bonifacio, true to his colors, disregarded this order and continued working on his own account, taking upon himself the faculties of the Supreme Council.

He preserved in a case which was found in the warehouse of Messrs Fressel and Co., the organization of the “Filipino Republic” which was to be, as well as a number of regulations, codes, decrees of nominations, etc., all drawn up in Tagalog (see foot-note p. 49.)

Upon the discovery, on the 19th of August 1896, by the Augustinian Padre fray Mariano Gil, parish priest of Tondo, of the plot of the Katipuneros, Bonifacio and his immediate assistants fled from Manila to Caloocan. From that point he sent orders to the provinces of Manila, Cavite and Nueva Ecija that a general rising should take place on the 30th of that month. These orders were given out of revenge for the failure of the blood-thirsty plot whereby every Spaniard, man, woman or child should share in the sufferings which his diseased brain had concocted for those who should fall into his hands. Bonifacio issued special orders concerning the Governor General, his plan being that he and the other Spanish authorities of any importance should be taken prisoners, but not killed, it being intended to hold their persons as security for the granting of their demands. He called together the members of the Junta Superior and nominated a general-in-chief, a general of division and other officials. These however refused to step into the places he had prepared for them and Bonifacio angered thereat threatened to have the head removed from the shoulders of anyone who dared to disobey him. The general-in-chief Teodoro Plata, a cousin of Bonifacio, fled during the night following his nomination, whereupon Bonifacio issued orders for his capture, commanding his death wherever he should be found.

Sometime previous to this, about the month of May, Bonifacio sent Pio Valenzuela to Dapitan to hold a conference with Rizal concerning the convenience of immediate rebellion against Spain. Rizal would not consent to the projected revolt but opposed the idea most strenuously, being thrown into such a bad humor by the information he received of Bonifacio, that Valenzuela, who had gone to Dapitan intending to spend a month there, determined to return on the following day. On his return to Manila he recounted to Bonifacio the result of his mission. Bonifacio who knew Rizal’s influence over the people to be greater than his own, had been living in hopes of receiving Rizal’s consent which would be the surrendering to him of the whole responsibility and glory of the bloody enterprise. Bonifacio aspired to the absolute, like all the so-called leaders of the revolt; so when he realized the stand taken by Rizal, who was willing to wait patiently till the poison with which he had inoculated the people should work of itself, he flew into a rage like a spoilt child, declaring Rizal to be a coward and imposing upon Valenzuela, his messenger, implicit silence on this subject, prohibiting him from manifesting to anyone what he considered to be the bad exit of the consultation.

No methods were too underhand for Bonifacio; to gain his end he lied to the people over whom he held sway as only a Filipino can lie. On one occasion he affirmed that in Coregidor was a vessel loaded with arms and ammunition for the rebels, and by this means he animated them, a very necessary thing at that time, as they were but scantily armed with bolos and were no match against those they intended to assail.

Had Bonifacio lived he would have made a splendid acquisition to the Partido Federal, he being a man who could, like many of the self-asserted leaders of to-day, plan and follow out any double-faced policy that might be needed under the circumstances.

More mysterious than the most profound mystery of Religion, his most striking trait of character being a decided tendency to retrogression, the Malay stands out among the numerous divisions of the human family as a man with a marked propensity to the mysterious, to the prodigious. He is accustomed to give a blind obedience to his superiors and more so to his own caciques, he is docile as a general rule, and shows but little resentment to abusive language, although he will sometimes carefully guard the remembrance of some insignificant insult or blow, and take a cruel revenge, a thousand times greater than the injury he received, after a period, at times, of years. Other peculiarities of the native are his delight in gambling and cockfighting, his aversion to manual labor, his infantile but excessive vanity, his lack of the power of thought in matters of moment, his well developed imagination, his instability from all points of view and his liability to complete and radical changes. The average indian is to-day virtuous, honest and grateful for favors received, tomorrow he is vicious, thieving and shows an ingratitude not to be found even in the brute creation. This very marked trait of character may be found in many of the Filipinos who have held and still hold some of the highest official positions in the islands.

To sum up the Filipino indian in a few words: he is inexplicable. There have been those who have spent their lives in the study of the indian, but in spite of all that man can do to study man, the problem remains unsolved. Only those “globe trotters” who have studied the native from the muchacho who waited upon them at the hotel at which they stayed during their few days visit, and the cochero who had the honor of conducting such savants to and from the Luneta, have so far been able to demonstrate what is this character which has puzzled men of common sense and lifelong experience, for centuries.

Being by nature credulous, ignorant and superstitious, the indian fell an easy victim to the mysteries of freemasonry, which served him as are introduction to the semi-savage methods of the “Liga Filipina” and the barbarous practices of the Katipunan, the pacto-de-sangre of which, carried him back to the savage times of his remote ancestors who were drawn from their mountain and forest lairs and domesticated by the Religious Orders.

In the office of this bi-monthly paper was established a freemason lodge bearing the same name as the paper; all the members of the Association Hispano-Filipina became members of the lodge. Being the organ of masonry as well as of separatism it was introduced into the Archipelago and secured a free circulation in all parts of the principal islands where its calumnies against the Religious Orders had the effect of producing a decided effect upon the maintenance of public order.

The “friar” so much slandered by those who wish to overthrow his beneficent influence, ever carried the banner of his country enlaced with the Cross of the Redeemer. He came to the Archipelago as a messenger of peace and order, and was the strongest supporter of the sovereignty of his nation. The “friar” was hated because he was the one who best knew and understood the indian, and from his intimate knowledge of his parishioners, could the more easily detect anything on their part which tended to the detriment of the integrity of the Spanish sovereignty.

The campaign against the Religious Orders was the attack of the battering-rams against the city to be captured. By piercing the wall the entry into the city could be the easier made; and this the separatist element well knew, hence all their efforts were directed against the stout wall which defended from its assaults the treasure of the metropolis.

For three hundred years the Philippines remained submitted to Spain exclusively by reason of the moral influence of the Clergy. Whilst the banner of Spain, floated over the Archipelago, the Religious formed the strongest guard for its protection; when it fell, strung by the ingratitude and treachery of those who had sworn to defend it to the last drop of their blood, and lay dishonored in the dust, it was the Religious who bowed his head in the deepest grief and who shed the bitterest tears. When the flag of the conquerer was hauled up to the height from which once gloriously floated the symbol of Spanish authority, the Religious, obedient to the commands of his superiors, withdrew to the solicitude of his convent, to await in patience, the passing of the storm. He looks out upon the clouded political horizon, as Noah looked out from the window of the ark upon the vast sea of waters which hid from his view the fearful destruction which had overcome the world, patiently awaiting the time when he should, at God’s will, go forth to commence again the work of reconstruction.

Often have I heard the opinion expressed that the Government’s worst enemy is the “friar”, that it is the “friar” who keeps alive the spirit of rebellion. Let those who think thus, ponder over one small thought: what has the friar to gain in sustaining a rebellion which has caused him more moral and material damage, than has been caused to any other entity in the Philippines? To those who are able and willing to utilize the power of thought with which God has endowed them, it is sufficiently clear that the Religious has nothing to gain by such tactics, but, on the contrary, all to lose.

In Spanish times the native enemies of the Religious Orders were the enemies of Spain and in these days, the enemy of the friar is by no means a real friend, whatever he may claim to be, of the Government of of the U. S. The Spanish masons and the Filipino separatists found the friar to be the greatest obstacle to be encountered. “The friar,” wrote Governor D. Francisco Borrero, to Sr. Canovas, in a memoir concerning the Archipelago, “knowing the language, spirit, and tendencies of the natives, is considered as the principal obstacle for the realization of the filibuster idea, and hence arises their aspiration (that of the enemies of Spain) that the Religious Orders should be eliminated, because such a step being taken, they believe they will have travelled half the journey....”

The propaganda of Universal freemasonry, of Filipino freemasonry, of the Liga Filipina, of the Compromisarios, was aimed principally at the Religious Orders, but the results attained were but introductory to the real work of the Katipunan, which, finding itself cornered by the discovery of the plot it had concocted against the Government, showed its hand. Its aim was anti-Spanish and not merely anti-friar, as is sufficiently clear from the fact that in all the documents of the diabolical association it is death to all the Spaniards, and not to this or that class. Moreover in many cases the same Katipuneros saved their parish priests from a sure death whilst they dealt out anything but kind treatment to those of the Civil Guard (Filipinos) and the Spanish troops who fell into their hands. The friars who were murdered by the rebels were not murdered for being friars but because they were Spaniards. The documents captured, the result of the trials held in judgement of persons guilty of treason, show clearly that the revolution was for the purpose of gaining the independence of the country from Spain, and not merely to bring about the expulsion of the Religious Orders. Aguinaldo, the leader of the Katipunan hordes, desired to send the friars who fell prisoners into his hands, over to Hong-Kong, where they would be at liberty to return to their own country; but this merciful desire of his was overruled by his advisers, among whom were numbered Mabini his right hand man, Pardo de Tavera, Legarda and Buencamino, all three of them traitors to the cause of independence. To-day they stand in positions of honor, honor which they have done nothing to deserve, whilst Aguinaldo who was the tool of political schemers, their play-thing, is cast into disgrace and kept in the background, a scape-goat for the sins and shortcomings of men whose names disgrace the darkest pages of Philippine history.

According to the testimony of Antonio Salazar (fol. 1,118 to 1,129) “In 1892 Pedro Serrano came from Spain and in union with José Ramos joined a lodge of peninsular Spaniards, and commenced the propaganda of masonry exclusively among Filipinos, in a short time establishing the mother lodge known as the Nilad ... the number of members becoming excessive, other lodges were established in the suburbs....”

Into this lodge Nilad or the lodges formed therefrom, passed all the members of the committee of propaganda and of the local delegations, the work of the propaganda of masonry and that of separatism being carried on in the same lodge room. The plea that masonry had no connection with the Katipunan fails to stand good in face of this testimony, added to which may be mentioned letters of M. del Pilar to La Modestia concerning the organization and labors of separatism; as well as other letters, rich in masonic jargon, to the lodges and to individuals connected with the double work of propagating masonry and spreading among the people ideas of the basest of ingratitude.

To the lodge Nilad, the Gr∴ Sec∴ of the Gr∴ Or∴ Esp∴ wrote from Madrid, June 8th 1892:

AL∴ G∴ D∴ G∴ A∴ D∴ U∴ Liberty.—Equality.—Fraternity. Universal Freemasonry. Spanish Family.

The Resp∴ Log∴ Nilad, No. 144 of A∴ L∴ and A∴ masons of the Philippines regularly constituted in the Federation of the Gr∴ Or∴ Español (seat in Madrid).

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The letter goes on to speak of the new foundation and the number of initiations.

“It pleases us much,” says the Gr∴ Sec∴ “to see the activity and zeal which you employ in the labors, and for it we greet you. Nevertheless, we must remind you always of the greatest care in the election of the laborers. Not all men, although they profess our ideas and doctrines, serve for good masons,...”

Morayta, writing on the 12th of June 1892 to bro∴ Panday Pira, says: “... But do not forget an advice which I believe Ruiz gave you also: be very careful; do not open your arms to any except they be of full confidence.... Remember that, even though things have changed there (in the Philippines) you run all the danger consequent upon the domination (sic) of the friar and of the General.” The general was Despujols, an upright, honest and sincere man who was too apt to measure other people’s corn by his own bushel. The filibusters took advantage of the fact, and by their lying protests of love for Spain, captivated him and fooled him out and out for a time.

Isabelo de los Reyes writes of him: “The savant (sic) Blumentritt the brother of the Filipinos, has always served us with disinterest (except in what concerned his pocket) and opportuneness. He was the first who did us justice by publishing many valuable articles to demonstrate, under all points of view, the superiority of the Filipino (Isabelo does not say over what) and defending our cause against the ambition of the imperialists (that is the Spaniards).”

Instead of serving to keep together the subjects and their rulers in a bond of peace and tranquility, and helping them to come to a mutual understanding, in which state the progress and advancement of the islands and their inhabitants could be the easier and the better accomplished, the separatist element, by their propaganda, caused more and more strife by attacking national institutions and by casting slurs upon national honor. The discontent stirred up against the Spanish authorities was identical to that which, until the passing of the law of sedition and even since that time, was stirred up against the American sovereignty. In its propaganda against the Religious Orders, inciting the native clergy against the lawful authority of their Bishops, it was the precursor of modern Manila’s American press. History tells us what was the result of the lessening of the moral influence of the Religious Orders in the days of Spanish rule, and to-day History repeats itself. The inciting of the native clergy against their Bishops is encouraging the natives, as a whole, to resist lawful authority. The cry to-day is “down with the friar,” tomorrow it will be “down with the American.” In 1888 it was down with the Religious Orders, in 1896 it had become “death to all Spaniards”. In 1898 the American was blessed as a deliverer from oppression, in 1899 cursed as an intruder. To-day...? Who knows the opinion of the people? Who but a few ignorantes trust the great men of the late revolution?

In Spain the work of the separatists produced no effect upon the people; a few here and there of the least patriotic of the scum of Barcelona and Madrid aided them but apart from these and the Bible Societies, no one interested themselves in their cause.

“A few days afterwards, the Spanish citizen ... disembarked with his sister in Manila....” (See also note 8.) Extracts from the Decree of Deportation issued against Rizal by Governor Despujols, 7th July 1892.

“In May or June 1892 José Rizal reached Manila; and encharged by him, Paez and Serrano invited a large number of persons to gather on a certain day ... in the house of Doroteo Ongjungco where Rizal manifested to those present, among whom was the witness, that it was necessary to form an association which should be called the “Liga Filipina”, the object and of which should be the attainment of the separation of these islands from Spain.” Moises Salvador y Francisco (fols. 1,296–1,299).

“The reunion was called by Rizal, and the witness was invited by Timoteo Paez, who conducted him to the house of Doroteo Ongjungco.... That José Rizal addressed those present, manifesting the convenience of establishing an association under the name of the “Liga Filipina” with the object of collecting funds by different means, to the end of securing opportunely the independence of these islands”.... Testimony of Domingo Franco y Tuason (fols. 1299–1303).

“In fulfillment of the high duties which devolve upon me as your General and Vice Royal Patron ... I decree the following:...”

“1st: that José Rizal shall be deported to one of the islands of the south....”

“Manila, 7th July 1892.—Despujols.

Pio Valenzuela in recounting the forms and ceremonies practiced upon his initiation, said:

Another member of the Katipunan in his declaration made on the 22nd of September 1896, stated that during the month of February 1893, one Sunday morning, a certain Estanislao Legaspi entered his store, telling him to accompany him in a calesa. He listened to tirades against the Spanish Government till their arrival at the house of a certain Tranquilino Torres, in calle Elcano. Here “his eyes were bandaged by Legaspi and he was handed over to the care of another individual who conducted him to the upper story of the house and made him sit down; he then heard a person whom he knew to be Legaspi by his voice speak, saying several things against the Spanish Government, demanding of him an oath of blind obedience, and a defense of the Philippines till the shedding of the last drop of his blood, threatening him with fearful punishments if he should turn traitor. This ceremony being terminated, his eyes were unbound and he saw, on a table, a skull which they made him kiss, and Legaspi handed him a lance commanding him to wound himself in the arm; but he felt a feeling of faintheartedness come over him, and manifested to those present that he had not courage enough to wound himself and wished that the oath he had taken be enough; he was dispensed from the operation. When the bandage was removed the eight individuals composing the junta were masked with black hoods, but after he kissed the skull and attempted to wound himself they removed the hoods and he then recognized Estanislao Legaspi who presided, Mariano de Vera, Teodoro Plata and Juan de la Cruz who was a clerk of the Tabacalera, and who had led him upstairs; he did not know the other three. The witness paid two pesos as entrance fee promising to pay 50 cents monthly. He asked Legaspi what association it was, and he replied that it was the Liga Filipina.”

In the daily report of the secret police department made to General Blanco on the 30th of June 1896, is the following notice:

“Herewith is given translated most faithfully from Tagalog, the result of an interview held with a well-to-do indian who belonged to the most popular of the masonic lodges, who tried to draw into it a friend. Questioned upon certain affairs, he said: “In the masonic lodges of San Juan del Monte and of Pandacan, the whole pueblo, rich and poor, is inscribed.”

“In the reunions the brethren attend blind-folded, and the chiefs with the face covered.”

“The person who desires to enter the lodge is obliged to have his face covered and his eyes bandaged in sign of blind obedience; the proofs are carried out and signature made as follows. The person receiving the initiated takes a dagger and gives it to him saying to him: do you swear to be steel like that which you hold in your hand and not to bend in the exigencies which oppress and vex us, and to labor in pro of the independence of your enslaved country? I swear answers the person to be initiated. Do you swear not to have father, mother, wife, child nor any relative but the revenging arm which shall sleep and live with you? I swear. They then surround him with arms of all classes and say to him: here is thy family, thy only work, and may it give thee thy life and open thy eyes for thy good of the country. They then make a small incision in the form of a cross in the right arm near the shoulder.”

“At present our meetings are held at night and in the most lonely fields, with the object of not being surprised.”

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

“It is well known among us masons that Rizal is attributed with the faculty of being able to translate his person instantaneously from one point to another.”

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

On the 22nd of June 1892 the secretary of the Gr∴ Or∴ Esp∴ wrote to the same explaining how “in a few meetings, a couple of banquets and a few presents made at the right time” much could be accomplished.

Upon its re-establishment the Liga counted among its members several who aimed at the leadership. The absence of Rizal, deported to Dapitan, left open the door for unbridled ambition. Everyone wanted to be the head. This together with money troubles brought about considerable ill feeling between the absent founder and those continuing the work of the association. Rizal had so far kept up a continual secret communication with the Liga, thanks to the liberty allowed him by his keepers in Mindanao, who guarded him with scandalous carelessness; and thanks also to the emissaries sent to him from Manila in search of instructions and advice. The result of the ill-feeling thus brought about was the rupture in official relations between the Liga and its founder.

“In as much as Sr. D. Francisco Roxas, honorary councillor of the Administration is found under process in the courts of law: in the use of the faculties in me invested, I decree that he cease from the exercise of his functions etc., etc.”

And on the 30th of September the following:

“In as much as the Excellent Sr. D. Pedro P. Roxas, honorary councillor of the Administration has been found under process in the courts of law, for rebellion; in the use of my faculties, etc., etc.”

Moises Salvador y Francisco testified (fols. 1138–1143) that “among the persons who sympathised with the cause and who aided it with their means for its realization, he remembered D. Pedro Roxas and D. Francisco Roxas ... (and others); and there existed in the provinces others whose names he could not remember.”

Domingo Franco y Tuason testified on the 30th of September 1896 (fols. 1332–1337) that “in another of the several interviews he had with Francisco L. Roxas, he asked him if in the circle of his relations (with the association) he counted with persons who had offered to aid the objects and ends of the Liga. Sr. Roxas replied: Yes. And in proof thereof he drew from a drawer in his desk a record which he read, and among the names he read the witness remembered those of don P. Roxas and others.”

When Francisco Roxas found himself in danger of arrest, he attempted to flee to Hong-Kong, but was captured on board the ship which was to carry him there. From the ship he was conducted under arrest to the Comendancia of the Veterana where he remained several days, at the end of which he was transferred to the Fort of Santiago.

On the eve of his execution for treason Francisco penned the following abjuration:

“I, Francisco L. Roxas, on the eve of my death, in reparation for what in my words and actions may have offended my neighbor; for warning of others of my person and in order to satisfy my conscience, to the end that no one, and especially my children, fall into the net of freemasonry, or of any other secret society, all of which I detest and curse, and be not in a day to come ungrateful sons of our Mother Spain, beg pardon for all my faults and bad example.”

“I die in the Holy Roman Catholic Apostolic faith in which I was born and educated in a christian manner. I admit all that she admits and condemn all that she condemns.”

“This I sign with my own hand with entire liberty.”

Jany. 10th 1897 in Manila, Royal Fort of Santiago.—F. L. Roxas:—Witnesses: Antonio Pardo and Felix García.

On January 11th Gov. Gen. Polavieja telegraphed to Madrid as follows:

“Sentenced by council of War, to-day there have been executed (shot) twelve persons guilty of treason ... among them Francisco Roxas, Councillor of Administration; Nijaga, Lieut. of native infantry; Villaroel, Villareal, Moises Salvador and others.”

Pedro Roxas was also a millionaire who inherited a good fortune, which, under the shelter of official protection multiplied considerably. Spain honored him with the grand cross of Isabela la Católica. Like Francisco he was a Councillor of Administration. He possessed a large estate in Nasugbu which, when the revolt broke out, became an insurgent hornet’s nest. There the rebels had a cannon, three falconettes and a large number of arms.

“The conduct of Sr. Roxas results satisfactorily cleared, so that no doubt remains in respect to his complete disconnection with the revolt.”

Among the separatist element Pedro Roxas was known as the Emperor Pedro I.

This amnesty celebration, like most things attempted by Filipinos alone, turned but a fiasco, the speeches which were to be delivered on the occasion not being in any way in keeping with the oath of allegiance taken by the speakers. The speeches contemplated were in advocation of practically the same thing as that for which the rebels had been keeping up an armed struggle, and so, when the U. S. Commission was invited by Pedro Paterno to be present thereat, it naturally was unable to accept the invitation.

The whole celebration was an abortive attempt on the part of its organizers to antagonize the Military and Civil authorities. Mr. Taft, as president of the Commission, at first accepted the invitation extended, supposing the speeches to be given, had been censored by the proper authorities, at that time the military; but on finding that this was not so, he declined in the name of the other members of the Commission, and thus avoided the unpleasantness of being present at a banquet at which both the Military and the Civil authorities would be insulted and the Government of the U. S. defied.

On the 28th of July 1900, the day of the banquet, Mr. Taft on behalf of his fellow Commissioners, addressed a letter to Pedro Paterno on the subject. See Appendix J.

Pedro Paterno was one of those who for a considerable time refused to take the oath of allegiance; with him were others, Mabini in particular.

Maximo Paterno had received from Spain the Cross of Knight of the Royal and American Order of Isabela La Católica.

As I have already remarked in another note, many of those charged with complicity in the affairs of the revolt were latter on proved to be innocent. That considerable number of the wealthy natives and half-castes sympathised more or less with the idea of greater liberality in government, is undoubtedly true, but that they extended their sympathies to the aims of the hordes of cut-throats led by Bonifacio is absurd.

The leading Filipinos and many insular Spaniards sighed for privileges which the Government of Madrid did not deem well to concede. To bring pressure upon the Government some of these combined to support in the metropolis, some of their number who should keep up the work of agitation. This agitation however took a form displeasing to many, who thereupon ceased to lend it their aid and consent. But few of the leaders of the people, especially of the wealthy ones, desired to cut themselves adrift from Spain, and not till a few insignificant beings such as Aguinaldo, Bonifacio, Mabini, and Pilar (Pio del) and Buencamino came upon the scene did the idea of independence of the island really take form. A faint idea of such a thing as independence did exist formerly, but the enlightened Filipinos saw, only too clearly, the probable result.

The wealthy proprietors here cited, no doubt sympathised more or less with the Liga Filipina in its beginning, whilst it was under the complete control of its founder Rizal; but as the Liga lost the character given to it by Rizal, and underwent the change it did, it is only natural to suppose that many of its former supporters left it as they would a sinking ship. However the fact that they were identified with the original Liga seems to have been taken as a proof of their connection with the revolt. This is certainly the opinion expressed by Sr. Diaz.

“Among the group of the chief ones and as chief of them, stands Felipe Agoncillo, proprietor and lawyer.” He then goes on to explain how Agoncillo imposed his will upon every one in the pueblo, even upon the Municipality, no law or regulation sent even by the highest authorities going into force until it had been passed upon by him. “It would be difficult,” says he, “for me to collect any perfect proof of his anti-Spanish tendencies which are, however, self-evident to the Spanish element of this province.” This report, which was a sufficient warning of danger, was sent to the Gov. of Batangas on the 18th of September 1895. He immediately forwarded it to Gen. Blanco. About three months afterwards Blanco looked into the matter, circumstances demanding that some steps should be taken to preserve national honor; and he decided to deport six of the separatists as an example to the remainder. Of these six one was Agoncillo. This industrious filibuster had influential and watchful friends in Manila, who, upon seeing the turn things were taking, telegraphed him “Café en baja; fuera existencias.” This was warning sufficient and Agoncillo accompanied by Ramon Atienza succeeded in escaping.

On the 14th of April the Japanese Mail Steamer Hiorine left Manila. On this steamer Agoncillo fled, hidden it is said, in a coal bunk. The Heraldo de Madrid of the 16th of September 1896, in speaking of the affair says: “Agoncillo gave the captain of the ship the sum of 350 pesos as gratification and on this account had placed at his disposal upon arrival at Kobe, a ship’s boat, whilst the remaining passengers had to hire their transportation.”

On the 2nd of May 1896, the secret police of Manila reported to Gen. Blanco, as follows:

“Notice is hereby given of the sailing for Japan of Felipe Agoncillo, property-owner of the province of Batangas, who goes to put himself at the disposition of the junta magna (in Japan), carrying with him some 80,000 pesos collected in Lipa, Taal and other pueblos, for the sustainment of anti-Spanish propaganda.”

Like most of the leaders of the separatist campaign, Agoncillo was astute. He partook of that peculiar trait of the native character: a sharpness of perception, a cuteness which one not acquainted with the indian would take for intelligence. An Indian will often do something remarkable, but in spite of its appearance of being an extraordinary action, a result of a well thought out plan, it proceeds in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, from instinct rather from intelligence. Native peoples are more accustomed to use their common-sense than most of us and hence arises the fact, that frequently the Filipino has outwitted both the military and the civil authorities. England learned this lesson in dealing with the Oriental in India, Spain learned it here, and America has yet to discover the same truth.

It gives a careful student of the subject more than passing pleasure to be able to give the lie to those who in their testimony classified as members of the infernal plot to “cut the throats of every Spaniard, without regard even to parentage”, the names of some of the most prominent Filipinos of to-day, men who although they have not grovelled in the dust before the conqueror and accepted positions under the new Government, are more truly prominent than those who assert themselves as the “leaders” of the people.

Among these honorable exceptions there were many who although they came to form part of the so-called Revolutionary Government, did so only when Spanish rule had ceased to exist, and when the accepted opinion was that a government elected by the people would be recognized by the U. S. These, however, were never traitors to the mother country; they were men who treated Spain as every honorable man should treat his country. These were not men who changed their religion as they changed their clothes: to suit the occasion. They were not men who concealed their titles to freemason degrees, at the bottom of their trunks, and exposed them with pride upon the change of sovereignty. These men were never perjurers, never traitors. Born and raised in the bosom of the Catholic faith they remained faithful to it, and faithful to the traditions of the country which gave them their political being; and it is with great pleasure that, with Sr. Diaz, I also can say, that I have great pleasure in recognizing these honorable exceptions, and in proof thereof have I dedicated this small historical sketch to them.

“In the month of October 1893, the Superior Council becoming aware that some documents pertaining, to the Liga had been handed over to the offices of the General Government, the dissolution of the society was determined.”—Testimony of Domingo Franco y Tuason. (fols. 1,299–1,303).

On the 25th of May 1896, notice was given by the secret police to Governor General Blanco, as follows:

“Notice is herewith given of the existence in Manila, of a Society named La Liga Filipina, to which are affiliated a large number of individuals....”

On another occasion the same witness testified (fols. 1,014–1,018) that certain persons whom he named were the “Compromisarios, who were in communion with Marcelo (del Pilar), and who remitted money to him.” He also stated that “on account of the bad conduct observed in Madrid by Pilar, ... some of the Compromisarios refused to send him resources.”

Domingo Franco affirmed that the outbreak of the revolt came as a great surprise to the Compromisarios.

As to the aims of the society, Moisés Salvador y Francisco is authority for the statement that: “in one of the juntas they treated of the provision of arms and other material of war; and it was agreed, moreover, to gather funds for the said expenses, and as the junta replied that it was impossible at that time, a committee was appointed, composed of José Ramos, Doroteo Cortés and Ambrosio Rianzares Bautista, to draw up a petition for the aid of Japan.”

Moisés also affirmed (fols. 1,296–1,299) that the Supreme Council of the Compromisarios was formed as follows:

President Domingo Franco.

Secretary Apolinario Mabini.

Treasurer Bonifacio Arévalo.

Vocales Numeriano Adriano.

Ambrosio Bautista.

Moisés Salvador.

Domingo Franco (fol. 1,299–1,303) testified that upon the dissolution of the Liga, and in the month of October 1894, there gathered together in a house of the witness, Numeriano Adriano, Apolinario Mabini, Isidoro Francisco, Deodato Arellano and the witness, and it was decided to constitute the association known as the Compromisarios, endeavouring to gather as many as forty members, each paying a monthly subscription of 5 pesos, for the sustainment of the La Solidaridad.

The same witness also testified (fols. 1,332–1,337) that “The Liga and the Katipunan were constituted in three groups, viz.: the Supreme Council or the aristocracy, under the presidency of Francisco L. Roxas; the Compromisarios or middle classes, divided into juntas or local councils.... The third aggregation was the Katipunan under the presidency of Andrés Bonifacio, and was composed of the lower classes.

From all this we gather that the association of Compromisarios was founded with the idea of collecting funds to continue the work commenced by masonry and the Liga. The association was, practically, a committee formed to take up the work of the Liga, but formed in such a manner as to avoid suspicion, and all compromise with the late Liga. In its formation, its duties and its methods, it differed from both the Liga and from the Katipunan, but whilst differing from them it formed a tie between them, carrying on a work which the Katipunan could not carry on of itself. The Liga died; and its mantle fell upon the Compromisarios. This society inspired, watched over and protected the labor of its successor, the Katipunan, the fighting machine of the separatist or filibuster element.

As a matter of fact the very best of the filipino politicians and other local men of fame, bright, learned and progressive though they be, would count but little side by side with the foremost sons of the Flowery Kingdom. To find in Yokohama, or even in Nagasaki or Kobe, or any other city of Japan, a hundred Rizals, a hundred Pilars (Marcelos, Pios or Gregorios), a hundred Apacibles, or Mabinis, or Aguinaldos, or Buencaminos or Taveras would be an easy task. But to find in the Philippines a Marquis Ito, a Mutsu, a Yamata or a Matsugata,—that is the question.

And why? Because at the time when Spain discovered these islands, finding the people in a state of social and moral degradation, without formal government or any social organization beyond the tribal system (and that but limited) common to almost all savage peoples, the Japanese had already counted with more than 1000 years of more or less stable government, always organized, and with a social organization and a firm national unity. The people of Japan, at that time, cultivated the arts and sciences, enjoyed the fruits of prosperous industries and of external commerce. They had a religion and a language which could be written and understood when written. Three hundred years ago, when the Filipinos were just commencing to learn the difference between man and beast, the Japanese was enjoying a relative civilization not yet attained by the Chinese, much less by the partisans of the separatist leaders of Luzon and the Visayas.