lic Church, called upon my Philippine friend to urge
him to take an interest in their projected evangelical work in the
Islands. They even proposed to establish a new Church there and appoint
a hierarchy--an extremely risky venture indeed. My friend was asked
to nominate some Filipino for the archbishopric. It was put before
Rizal, but he declined the honour on the ground that the acceptance
of such an office would sorely offend his mother. Finally, in 1893,
a Pampanga Filipino, named C----, came on the scene and proposed to
furnish Rizal with ample funds for the establishment of a Philippine
college in Hong-Kong. Rizal accepted the offer and set out for that
colony, where he waited in vain for the money. For a while he hesitated
between following the medical profession in Hong-Kong and returning
to Manila. Mutual friends of ours urged him not to risk a re-entry
into the Islands; nevertheless, communications passed between him
and the Gov.-General through the Spanish Consul, and nothing could
induce him to keep out of the lion's mouth. Rizal avowed that he had
been given to understand that he could return to the Islands without
fear for his personal safety and liberty. He arrived in Manila and was
arrested. His luggage was searched in the Custom-house, and a number
of those seditious proclamations referred to at p. 204 were found,
it was alleged, in his trunks. It is contrary to all common sense to
conceive that a sane man, who had entertained the least doubt as to
his personal liberty, would bring with him, into a public department of
scrutiny, documentary evidence of his own culpability. He was arraigned
before the supreme authority, in whose presence he defended himself
right nobly. The clerical party wanted his blood, but Gov.-General
Despujols would not yield. Rizal was either guilty or innocent,
and should have been fully acquitted or condemned; but to meet the
matter half way he was banished to Dapitan, a town on the north shore
of Mindanao Island. I saw the bungalow, situated at the extremity of
a pretty little horse-shoe bay, where he lived nearly four years in
bondage. His bright intelligence, his sociability, and his scientific
attainments had won him the respect and admiration of both the civil
and religious local authorities. He had such a well-justified good
repute as an oculist that many travelled across the seas to seek his
aid. The Cuban insurrection being in full operation, it opened the
way for a new a