Note 2 — To the Brave Sons of the Philippines

By intermarriage and blood relationship Don Pedro P. Rojas is allied with several of the best Manila families. His grandfather, Don Domingo Rojas, a prominent citizen in his time, having become a victim of intrigue, was confined in the Fortress of Santiago, under sentence of death. The day prior to that fixed for his execution, he was visited by a friend, and the next morning when the executioner entered his cell, Don Domingo was found in a dying condition, apparently from the effect of poison. Don Domingo had a son José and a daughter Marguerita. On their fatherʼs death, they and Joséʼs son, the present Don Pedro P. Rojas, went to Spain, where Doña Marguerita espoused a Spaniard, Don Antonio de Ayala, and Don José obtained from the Spanish Government a declaration stating that whereas Don Domingo had been unjustly condemned to capital punishment, the Gov.-General was ordered to refund, out of his own pocket, to the Rojas family the costs of the trial. The Rojas and Ayala families then returned to the Philippines, where Don Antonio de Ayala made a considerable fortune in business and had two daughters, one of whom, Doña Cármen, married Don Pedro P. Rojas, and the other wedded Don Jacobo Zobel, an apothecary of large means and of German descent. Don Pedro P. Rojas, who was born in 1848, has two sons and two daughters. The three families belonged to the élite of Manila society, whilst the Rojas and the Ayalas acquired a just reputation both for their enterprising spirit, which largely benefited the Colony, and for their charitable philanthropy towards all classes.