e left arm or left breast. This was one
form of the famous "blood compact," which, if history reads aright,
played so important a part in the assumption of sovereignty over the
Philippines by Legazpi in the name of Philip II.

Rizal was made the honorary president of the association, his
portrait hung in all the meeting-halls, and the magic of his name
used to attract the easily deluded masses, who were in a state of
agitated ignorance and growing unrest, ripe for any movement that
looked anti-governmental, and especially anti-Spanish. Soon after
the organization had been perfected, collections began to be taken
up--those collections were never overlooked--for the purpose of
chartering a steamer to rescue him from Dapitan and transport him to
Singapore, whence he might direct the general uprising, the day and
the hour for which were fixed by Bonifacio for August twenty-sixth,
1896, at six o'clock sharp in the evening, since lack of precision
in his magnificent programs was never a fault of that bold patriot,
his logic being as severe as that of the Filipino policeman who put
the flag at half-mast on Good Friday.

Of all this Rizal himself was, of course, entirely ignorant, until
in May, 1896, a Filipino doctor named Pio Valenzuela, a creature of
Bonifacio's, was despatched to Dapitan, taking along a blind man as a
pretext for the visit to the famous oculist, to lay the plans before
him for his consent and approval. Rizal expostulated with Valenzuela
for a time over such a mad and hopeless venture, which would only bring
ruin and misery upon the masses, and then is said to have very humanly
lost his patience, ending the interview "in so bad a humor and with
words so offensive that the deponent, who had gone with the intention
of remaining there a month, took the steamer on the following day, for
return to Manila." [12] He reported secretly to Bonifacio, who bestowed
several choice Tagalog epithets on Rizal, and charged his envoy to
say nothing about the failure of his mission, but rather to give the
impression that he had been successful. Rizal's name continued to be
used as the shibboleth of the insurrection, and the masses were made
to believe that he would appear as their leader at the appointed hour.

Vague reports from police officers, to the effect that something
unusual in the nature of secret societies was going on among the
people, began to reach the government, but no great attention was
paid to them, until