Chapter 15: Rizal’s Second Sojourn

in Paris and the Universal

Exposition of 1889

Report by: Joana Marie V. Caras

Annotated Edition of Morga Published
Rizal’s outstanding achievement
in Paris was the publicity in 1890
of his annotated edition of
Morga’s Sucesos, which he wrote
in the British Museum. It was
printed by Garnier Freres. The
Prologue was written by
Professor Blumentritt, upon the
request of Rizal.
 Rizal’s errors in his annotation:
1. Commits the error in appraising the history
of the past in the light of the present standard
2. Rizal’s attacks of the church were unfair and
unjustified because the abuses should not be
construed to mean the Catholic is bad.
The high estimation of your notes (Rizal annotations), does
not prevent me from confessing that more than once, I
observed that you participate in the error of many modern
historians, who judge events of centuring past, in the light
of concepts that correspond to contemporary ideas. This
should not be. The historian should not impute in the men
of the 16th century the wide horizon of ideas that move the
19th century.
The second point with which I am not in agreement
has to do with some of your fulminations against
Catholicism. I believe that not in religion but in the
cruel method and abuses of many priests should we
look for the origin of many events lamentable for
religion, for Spain, and for the good name of the
European race.
 TO THE FILIPINO
In the Noli Me Tangere, I started to
sketch the present date of our
Fatherland, the effect which my attempt
produced made me realize, before
proceeding to develop before your eyes
other pictures to follow, the necessary
of first giving an understanding of the
past in order the better to judge the
present and measure the path traversed
during the three centuries
Born and reared in ignorance of our past like
almost all of you, without voice nor authority to
speak of what we have not seen not studied I
deemed it necessary to invoke the testimony of
an illustrious Spaniard who controlled the
destinies or the Philippines at the beginning of
its new ear and personally witnessed the last
days of our ancient nationality.
It is, therefore, the shadow of our ancestors
civilization which the author now shall call before
you. I transmit to you faithfully his words without
changing them not mutilating them, adapting, only
in so far as possible, to modern orthography and
introducing greater clearness in the rather
defective punctuations of the original to facilitate
it’s reading.
The office, the nationality, and the virtues of Morga,
together with that date and testimonies of his
contemporaries, Spaniards for the most part, commend
to work to your serious consideration. In the book
succeeds in awakening in you, the consciousness of
your past blotted from memory, and in rectifying what
has been falsified and culminated then I shall not have
labored in vain and with this basis slight though it be,
we can all devote ourselves to the study of the future.
Comment on Morga’s Publication Date
The title page of Rizal’s annotated
edition of Morga reads. “Paris, Libreria
de Garnier Hermanos,1890”. From this
printed date, all biographers of Rizal
came to assert that his edition of Morga
was published in 1890. However, there
is documentary evidence to show that
Rizal’s edition of Morga must have come
off the press in 1889 not 1899. On
October 12, 1889, Blumentritt wrote to
Rizal’s from Leitmeritz, saying:“ I have
just received your magnificent edition of
Morga.
This edition with your erudite notes will glorify your
name. Rizal himself, in his letter to Dr. Baldomero
Roxas from Paris, December 28, 1889, stated: “
Today I sent to Lipa four copies of Morga. Later I
will send some more” From Barcelona, Mariano
Ponce wrote to Rizal on December 31, 1889,
saying: “ I received the book Sucesos. Many thanks.
I have read only Blumentritt prologue. Truly
excellent. Please send me immediately about ten
copies that I can send to the Philippines by the first
mail that is going there.” The three letters cited
above, from Blumentritt, B. Roxas, and M. Ponce
are incontrovertible proofs that Morga’s Sucesos by
Rizal actually came off the press in 1889.
 RIZAL AS HISTORIAN
Rizal’s research studies in
the British Museum (London)
and in the Bibliotheque
Nationale (Paris) enriched his
historical knowledge. His
splendid annotations to
Morga’s book showed his
familiarity with the basic
principles of historiography.
Other works of Rizal which qualify
him to be a real historian:
1. Ma- yi (London, December 6,
1888)
2. Tawalisi of Ibn Batuta (January 7,
1889)
3. Filipinas Dentro de Cien Anos
(published in La Solidaridad in five
issues1890)
4. La Politica Colonial on Filipinas
5. Historia de la Familia Rizal de
Calamba
6. Los Pueblos del Archipelago
Indico
The Philippines Within a Century
In this article Rizal expressed his views
on the Spanish colonization in the
Philippines and predicted with amazing
accuracy the tragic end of Spain’s
sovereignty in Asia. He portrayed at the
beginning of his article the glorious past
of the Filipino people, then described
their glorious past of the Filipino people,
then described their economic stagnation
and unhappiness under the harsh and
bungling Spanish rule.
Toward the last paragraphs of the article, he peered into the future
and warned Spain of what would happen to her colonial empire in
Asia if she would not adopt a more liberal and enlightened policy
toward the Philippines. Otherwise, if an attempt is made to see in the
Islands a lode to be exploited, a resources to satisfy ambitions
shutting it’s ears to all cries of reason, then however great may be
the loyalty of the Filipinos, it will be impossible to hinder the
operation of the inexorable laws of history. Colonies established to
subserve the policy and commerce of the sovereign century all
eventually become independent.
If the Philippines secure their independence after heroic
and stubborn conflict they can rest assured that neither
England nor Germany, nor France and still less Holland
will dare to take up what Spain has been unable to hold.
Perhaps the great American. Republic, whose interests
lie in the Pacific and who had no hand in the spoliation
of Africa may some day dream of foreign possession.
This is not impossible for the example is contagious
covetousness and ambition are among the strong vices.
Very likely, the Philippines will defend with inexpressible
valor the liberty secured at the price of so much blood
and sacrifice. With the new men that will spring from
their soil and with the recollection of their past, they will
perhaps strive the enter freely upon the wide road of
progress and all will labor together to strengthen their
fatherland. Then the mines will be made to give up their
gold relieving distress, iron for weapons, copper, lead,
and coal.