Chapter 23

Last Trip Abroad, (1896)

- No longer an exile, Rizal had a pleasant

trip from
Dapitan to Manila with delightful stopovers in
Dumaguete, Cebu, Iloilo, Capiz, and
Romblon.
- He missedthe regular steamerIsla de
Luzon which
sailed toSpain the day before
he arrived in Manila Bay while waiting
for
the next ship for Spain, he was kept as a
guest onboard the Spanish cruiserCastilla.

August 26, 1896, Andres

Bonifacio and the Katipunan
raised the cry of revolution in the
hills of Balintawak a few miles
north of Manila. Rizal, worried
about the raging hostilities, left for
Spain on the steamerIsla de
Panay.
September 3, 1896. It was his
last trip abroad.

From Dapitan to Manila.

Leaving Dapitan at midnight, July 31, 1896, the
Spaa with Rizal and party on board, sailed northward.
At dawn the next day(Saturday, August 1)
it anchored at Dumaguete, capital of Negros
Oriental,Dumaguete wrote Rizal his Travel diary
Spreads out on the beach. There are big houses,
some with galvanized iron roofing. Outstanding
are the house of a lady, whose name I forgotten,
which is occupied by the government and another
one just begun with ipil posts.
In Dumaguete, Rizal visited a friend and former
classmate, Herrero Regidor, and Rufina family.
- In the afternoon he operated on a Spanish captain of
the Guardia civil.

The Espaa left Dumaguete about

1:00 p.m and reached Cebu of the
following morning. Rizal was
fascinated by the entrance to Cebu
which he considered beautiful.
- At the house of Attorney Mateos.
He met an old couple whom he had
known in Madrid
- In Cebu. He wrote in his diary, I
did two operations of strabotomy,
one operation on the ears, and
another of tumor.
-

- In the morning of Monday August 3, Rizal

left Cebu going
to Iloilo.
The voyage was fine. At the right we saw
Mactan an island famous for what
happened to Magellan. The whole
afternoon was magnificent . . . We saw
many islands along ourway . . . The next
day, in the morning, we entered Iloilo
. . .Rizal landed at Iloilo, went shopping
in the city, and visited Molo

- Of the Molo church he commented:

The church is pretty outside and the
interior is not bad, considering that it
had been painted by a lad. The
paintings are mostly copies of biblical
scenes by Gustave Dore.

- From Iloilo, Rizals ship sailed to

Capiz
- After a brief stopover, it proceeded
towards
Manila via Romblon

Rizal Misses Ship Going to Spain

(Espaa)
- Arrived in Manila Bay early in August
6, 1896
- Unfortunately, Rizal was not able to
catch the mail ship Isla de Luzon for
Spain because it had departed
the
previous day at 5:00 p.m. . He was greatly
disappointed, but he took this unlucky
incidence with abiding resignation.

Isla de Panay at Port

Said, 1898

Governor Ramon Blanco

-Writing to Bluementritt later, Rizal mentioned this

episode,

Unfortunately, I did not catch the mail ship for Spain, and fearing
that my stay in Manila formonth might bring me troubles I made
known to the governor general, while remaining on the board the
ship (Espaa) of my wish to be isolated from everybody, except
my family.

Near midnight of the same day. August 6

Rizal was transferred to the Spanish cruiserCastilla

by order
of Governor General Ramon Blanco. Rizal
stayed on the
cruiser for about a month, from
August 6 to September 2,1869, pending the availability
of Spain-bound steamer.

-Outbreak of Philippine Revolution

While Rizal was patiently waiting on the

cruiserCastilla for the
next steamer to
take him to Spain, portentous events
occurred, presaging the downfall of Spanish
power in Asia.
August 19, 1896
The Katipunan plot to overthrow
Spanish rule by means of
revolution
was discovered by Fray Mariano Gil
Augustinian
cura of
Tondo

- This startling incident stuck terror

into the hearts of the Spanish
officials
and residents, producing a
hysteria of vindictive retaliation
against the
Filipino patriots
August 26,1896
Cry of Balintawak which was raised
by Bonifacio and his valiant
Katipuneros in PugadLawin.

At sunrise of August 30
The revolution led by Bonifacio and Jacinto attacked
San Juan near the city of Manila, but they were
repulse with heavy losses. In the afternoon, after
the Battle of San Juan, Governor General Blanco
proclaimed as tate of war in the first eight
provinces for rising in arms against Spain Manila
(as province),
Bulacan Cavite
Batangas Laguna
Pampanga
Nueva Ecija
Tarlac
Manila
Rizal learned of the eruption of the revolution and
the raging battles around Manila through the
newspaper he read the Castilla.

Rizal He was worried for

two reasons:
(1)The violent revolution
which he sincerely believed
to be premature and would
only cause much suffering
and terrible loss of human
lives and property, had
started
(2) It would arouse Spanish
vengeance against all
Filipino patriots

 August 30, 1896 (Departure for Spain)

The day when the state of war was

proclaimed in the eight provinces, Rizal
received from Governor General Blanco
two
letters of the introduction for
1. The Minister of War
2. The Minister of Colonies
with a covering letter which absolved him
from all blame for raging revolution.

At 6:00 p.m., September 2

Rizal was transferred to the
steamerIsla de Panaywhich was
sailing for Barcelona, Spain. The next
morning, September 3,
the
steamerleft Manila Bay. At last, Rizal's
last trip to Spain began. Among his
fellow passengers onboard were Don
Pedro
Roxas (rich Manila Creole
Industrialist and his friend) and his son
named Periquin

September 7 (Rizal in
Singapore)
The Isla de Panayarrived at
Singapore . The following morning
Rizal and other passengers went
ashore forsightseeing and shopping
for souvenirs. In the travel diary,
Rizal wrote:
I have observed some
changes: There more Chinese
merchants and less Indians. . . I
bought a Chinese gown. . . Singapore
has changed much since I saw it for

Don Pedro with his son, disembarked at

Singapore. He advised Rizal to stay behind
too and take advantage of the protection
of the British law. Rizal did not heed his
advice.
Don Manuel Camus and several Filipino
residents of Singapore, urging him to
stay in Singapore to save his life. He also
ignored the appeal because he had given
his word of honor to Governor General
Blanco and he did not like to break it.

Victim of Spanish Duplicity.

- By refusing to break his word of honor in
Singapore, Rizal
sealed his own doom.
- For without his knowledge, Governor Blanco
was secretly
conspiring with the Ministers
of War and the
Colonies
(ultramar) for
his destruction
- Great hero and genius that he was, Rizal
proved to be as
gullible as Sultan Zaide,
another victim of Spanish intrigue.

For all his wonderful talents, Rizal was

afterall a mortal man who committed
mistakes. And one of his greatest mistakes
was to believe that Governor General
Blanco was a man of honor and a friend
because he allowed him to go as a free
man to Spain to become a physiciansurgeon of the Spanish army in Cuba,
where a bloody revolution was raging, and
gave him two nice letters ofintroduction
addressed to the Spanish Ministers of War
and the Colonies

Rizal Arrested Before Reaching

Barcelona
September 8, 1:00 p.m.
The Isla de Panay, with Rizal onboard, left
Singapore,unaware ofthe Spanish duplicity
particularly of Governor General Blanco's infernal
deceit, he happily continued the voyage towards
Barcelona.

September 25
He saw the steamerIsla de Luzon, leaving the
Suez Canal crammed with Spanish troops.

September 27, Sunday (Two days

later)
He heard from the passengers that a
telegram arrived from Manila reporting the
execution of Francisco Roxas Genato and
Osorio

September 28(a dayafter the

steamerhad left Port Said)
A passenger told Rizal the bad news that
he would be arrested by order of Governor
General Blanco and would be sent to
prison in Cueta (Spanish Morocco),
opposite Gibraltar.

- Shocked by the alarming news, Rizal belatedly

realized that he was duped by the unscrupulous
Spanish officials, particularly
the sly
Governor
General Blanco. With an agonizing heart, he
immediately wrote a letter to his best friend,
Blumentritt, unburdening his disgust and bitterness as
follows:

There was nothing official yet about impending arrest; it

was still merely shipboard gossip.There arepeople on
board who do nothing but slander me and invent fanciful
stories about me. I'm going to become a legendary
personage.

September 30 (at 4:00 p.m.)

He was officially notified by Captain
Alemany that he should stay in his cabin
until further orders from Manila. He
graciously compiled with the captain's
directive
September 30 (6:25 p.m. - arrival in
Barcelona as prisoner)
I saw through a tiny window. the beautiful
view of the port with its monumental and
significant castle in three levels . . .
illumined by the lingering afternoon lights.

October 3, at 10:00 o'clock in the morning

- The Isla de Panayarrived in Barcelona, with
Rizal a prisoner on board.The trip from Manila
to Barcelona lasted exactly 30
days.
- He was kept under heavy guard in his
cabin for three days. His jailorwas no longer
the ship captain but the Military
Commander of Barcelona, who happened to
be

General Eulogio Despujol

The same one who ordered his banishment to
Dapitan in July, 1892. It was one of those
coincidences in the lives of men that make
"history stranger than fiction."On his second
day in Barcelona, Rizal, although held
incommunicado in his cabin, noticed the city
celebration of the feast of St, Francis of Assisi.
He recorded it in his diary as follows:
At 12:00 o'clock I counted as many as 31
cannon shots and at6:00 there were again as
many. At night there was a concert in the dining
room which can be heard from my cabin.

On October 6 (3:00 a.m.)

- Rizal was awakened by the
guards and escorted to the grim
and infamous prison-fortress
named Monjuich.
- He spent the whole morning
in a cell.

2:00 in the afternoon

- He was taken out of prison by the guards and
brought to the
headquarters of General Despujol.
In the interview, which lasted a quarter of an
hour, the brusque
general told Rizal that he
would be shipped back to Manila on
board the
transport ship Colon which was leaving that
evening.After the Interview, Rizal was taken abroad
the Colon
which was "full ofsoldiers and officers
and their families."

October 6 (8:00 p.m.)

The ship left Barcelona, with Rizal on board S.S.
Colon

Rizal's Cell
Fort Santiago

End of Slides
Prepared by:

Mary Grace V. Mancao

IV-BSHM