death.

This man, of almost pure Tagalo race, was born in 1861, at Calamba,
in the island of Luzon, on the southern shore of the Laguna de Bay,
where he grew up in his father's home, under the tutorage of a wise
and learned native priest, Leontio.

The child's fine nature, expanding in the troublous latter days
of a long race bondage, was touched early with the fire of genuine
patriotism. He was eleven when the tragic consequences of the Cavite
insurrection destroyed any lingering illusions of his people, and
stirred in them a spirit that has not yet been allayed.

The rising at Cavite, like many others in the islands, was a protest
against the holding of benefices by friars--a thing forbidden by a
decree of the Council of Trent, but authorized in the Philippines, by
papal bulls, until such time as there should be a sufficiency of native
priests. This time never came. As the friars held the best agricultural
lands, and had a voice--and that the most authoritative--in civil
affairs, there developed in the rural districts a veritable feudal
system, bringing in its train the arrogance and tyranny that like
conditions develop. It became impossible for the civil authorities
to carry out measures in opposition to the friars. "The Government
is an arm, the head is the convent," says the old philosopher of
Rizal's story.

The rising at Cavite miscarried, and vengeance fell. Dr. Joseph Burgos,
a saintly old priest, was put to death, and three other native priests
with him, while many prominent native families were banished. Never
had the better class of Filipinos been so outraged and aroused, and
from this time on their purpose was fixed, not to free themselves
from Spain, not to secede from the church they loved, but to agitate
ceaselessly for reforms which none of them longer believed could be
realized without the expulsion of the friars. In the school of this
purpose, and with the belief on the part of his father and Leontio that
he was destined to use his life and talents in its behalf, Jose was
trained, until he left his home to study in Manila. At the College of
the Jesuits he carried off all the honors, with special distinction
in literary work. He wrote a number of odes; and a melodrama in
verse, the work of his thirteenth year, was successfully played at
Manila. But he had to wear his honors as an Indian among white men,
and they made life hard for him. He specially aroused the dislike of
his Spanish college mates