“I declare myself Catholic and in this religion in which I was born and educated I wish to live and die. I retract with all my heart all my words, writings and actions that have been contrary to my condition as a son of the Catholic Church. I believe and profess whatever She teaches and I submit to whatever She demands. I abominate masonry as an enemy of the Church and as a society condemned by the Church.“The diocesan prelate, as superior ecclesiastical authority, may make public this spontaneous manifestation, to make reparation for the scandals which may have been caused by my works, and that God and my fellow-men may pardon me.”“Manila 29th December 1896.—José Rizal.—Witnesses: Juan del Fresno, Chief of Picket.—Eloy Maure, Adjutant.”He also entered the holy bonds of matrimony with the young woman with whom he had been living for some time in Mindanao. On the way to the place of hisexecution he remarked to one of the Fathers who accompanied him.Father, it is my pride that has brought me here.”Of the political error committed by the Spanish Authorities in the execution of Rizal, I do not hold myself up as a judge. All governments, like human beings, commit mistakes and at times grave ones. The Spanish authorities, feeling themselves justified in so doing, ordered the execution of theprisonerwho was responsible for one of the most bloody revolts since the time of the French revolution: the pattern taken by theFilipinoleaders, for the means of the foundation of theFilipinorepublic. Rizal was executed on the Luneta. To assert that he was offered up as a victim to gratify the wishes of the Religious Orders is but a crude and vicious argument worthy of its inventors and propagators. Nothing, absolutely nothing, can be brought forward to prove such an assertion, but on the contrary, those members of the Religious Orders who concerned themselves in the stirring affairs of the revolution were, as a very general rule, opposed to harsh and extreme measures being taken; and among these was the Illustrious Archbishop of Manila,Sr. Nozaleda, a noble, tenderhearted and compassionate prelate,a prelate who has been dubbed by Foreman as “the blood-thirsty Archbishop”.Had the friars held the reins of government as they are stated to have done, history would not have to record the names of so many, many people whowereexecuted: people who were scarcely to be held as guilty, in as much as they were but sheep whothoughtlesslyfollowed their shepherds without even looking to see where the road they trod would lead them.In politics Rizal had his party composed of a number of insignificant petty-lawyers, petty-doctors and others possessing academic titles and a semi-formed cerebral power. These were backed by a mass of the people of Calamba, Rizal’s birthplace. In their eyes he was a “Messiah”,a “Mahdi”, their prophet and redeemer. As an individual he was bright and intelligent, and had he not been led astray by those who made a “cat’s paw” of him, and who cruelly deserted him in his hour of need, he would doubtless have been one of the foremostFilipinosof to-day in that sphere of life in which God had placed him.A Spanish proverb says:“In blind man’s land the one eyed man is a king.” Rizal was aking.Note 9.Marcelo Hilario del Pilar y Gatmaytan was a native of Bulacan. He was, by profession, a lawyer, and had been enabled to complete his studies in that direction through the good offices of the Augustinian Fathers of Manila, who had given him the money necessary to matriculate and to pay the cost of his title of “abogado.”9Pilar left Manila for thepeninsulaabout the end of ’88 for fear of deportation: a punishment at that time staring him in the face. He was one of the earliest workers on the “La Solidaridad”, the official organ ofFilipinofreemasonry in all its sections. He later on became its director.Pilar was another of the many malays whose ways were beyond human comprehension. Spaniards who have lived a life-time among the indians and studied them carefully from all points of view agree that the deeper one studies the native character the more incomprehensible it becomes. That is, the study of the average filipino: Pilar was one of the average. He was not gifted with the education enjoyed by Rizal, nor was he such a stupid visionary as Pedro Paterno; he possessed touches of the character of both.Like so many of thoseFilipinoswho fed at the hands of the Religious Orders, he eventually turned to bite the hand that fed him. As in the case of the others who had done the like, he did so, not because he had cause to, but because he fell, as did they, under the evil influence of those who utilized them to work out their schemes of treachery.Pilar was sent to Spain as a delegate of the Committee of propaganda. Owing to this position of chief of the delegation in Madrid, and by reason of his intimate friendship with Morayta, he occupied a position from which neither Rizal nor even the whole of theprogressiveindians combined, could drive him. He held, for some time, high office in the Gr∴ Or∴ Esp∴ as will be seen from the following clipping taken from page 107 of the Annual of that Orient for the year 1894–95.“GRAN CONS∴ DE LA ORDEN1894–1895Muy Ven. Gran Maestre PresidenteVen. H. Miguel Morayta y Sagrario, Gr∴ 33...................................Ven. Gran Orador AdjuntoV. Marcelo H. del Pilar Gr∴ 33” (h∴ Kupang)It was Pilar who conceived the plan ofthe Katipunan; and yet after all it was not his conception, for the scheme he formed was at the best, a piece of patch work made up of the plans worked out in the various revolutions which had taken place in some part of the world.What Pilar’s ambition was, it is hard to say; from his actions and writings one is almost driven to the supposition that he had none in particular, but was led to the separatist labors he performed by force of compromise.When the time was ripe for action Pilar determined to leave Madrid and make his way to Japan. He commenced the journey arriving at Barcelona, from whence he was to make his way east. There, however, he was taken suddenly ill, and died on the 4th of June 1896, in the Hospital of that city.In many things Pilar was superior to Rizal. Unlike that agitator, Pilar was not a sneaking, skulking petty-politician; he was straight-forward and had the courage of his opinions. What Pilar would have done if placed in the same circumstances as Rizal it is hard to say, but we may be assured that he would not have acted the coward as did Rizal.Note 10.Antonio and Juan Luna were two of four brothers. The former was abacteriologist, the latter an artist who at one time, whilst he followed the instruction, and remained under the guidance of his master, showed no little talent. Antonio went to Spain in ’88, and later on passed to Paris where he lived with his brother Juan who supported him. There he devoted himself to the study which made him famous; this he did in thelaboratoryof Dr. Roux. He became an assistant editor of theSolidaridad, the official organ of filipino freemasonry, and wrote many vicious articles in its columns over the pseudonym of Taga-Ilog.As a member of the freemason fraternity he was known as Gay Lussac.On his return to Manila he established, for a livelihood, a school of fencing, and like the vain, insensate “magpie in borrowed plumes” that he was, he once sent his seconds to a Spanish officer, inviting him to a duel!During the second half of the rebellion of ’96, Aguinaldo offered Antonio the position of director of the War Department with the grade of General of Brigade. This honor, however, he declined. TheIndependenciaspeaking on this incident, says:—“The military knowledge of Sr. Luna, acquired during his captivity (sic) in the prisons of thepeninsula(Spain), is to be found condensed in two small works, one concerning the organization of the army, having as its base the idea of obligatory service in which hedemonstratesthat Luzon might put on a war footing250,000to400,000men, and the whole archipelago as many as from800,000to900,000. The other work is a practical course in field fortifications as adopted by the French and German armies.”10Juan, from childhood, was of an artisticturn of mind and found among his many protectors those who sent him to Spain to study art. In Spain he met with Sr. Alejo Vera, a noteworthy artist, under whom he studied, receiving an exceptional education both in art and in morals, Sr. Vera being aChristiangentleman. Later on he went to Rome, and there formed part of the Spanish artistic colony. After some two or three years of study there he sent to Spain his first painting11. Being an artistic production of aFilipinoindian it was receivedwith open hands and given a reception greater than it really deserved, as a result of the influence of Luna’s friends. From Rome he went to Paris. It was in that city that he committed the fiendish double murder which so startled and shocked his friends and acquaintances, his victims being his wife and his mother-in-law, sister and mother of a prominent political aspirant of modern Manila. The result of the trial was that the courts of Justice of Paris absolved him. He then returned to Madrid, and soon after, to Manila.What Spain did for the Filipino broughtforth fruit in only a few of the people who fell under her beneficent christian influence. The Lunas were among the few. They, like so many other ungrateful children, repaid their benefactors by becoming leaders of the insensate and inexcusable revolt against them: a revolt, the first act of which was to be the brutal murder of all Spaniards irrespective of parentage or other claims of consideration. Both the brothers suffered arrest by the Spanish authorities for rebellionandsedition, but in spite of the degree to which they were complicated, they remained practically free from punishment, and ever at the right hand of the imbecile General Blanco, himself a freemason, and friend of the enemies of his country. Eventually the two brothers left theante-chamberof the Governor to enter the security of the military prison.Both brothers eventually retracted their errors only to fall into them again as soon as the lying protests of repentance had fallen from their lips.Juan died in Hong-Kong; Antonio, after a career of militarismsuccumbedto the same unprincipled ambition which carried Andrés Bonifacio to an untimely grave.Note 11.DoroteoCortés was banished by Governor Despujol in the year 1893, to the province of La Union where he founded in San Fernando, the Capital, aided by Arturo Dancel, the lodge “Rousseau” and two others in the pueblos of San Juan and Agoó. He was a lawyer and became the president of the committee of Propaganda which was formed with the idea of gathering pecuniaryresourcesfor covering the expense of the distribution of all classes of pamphletsandanti-Religious proclamations. He was at one time the president of the Superior Supreme Council of the Katipunan12, and received the funds collected for the payment of the expenses of the political commission sent to Japan to seek the aid and protection of that power. Cortés was a co-worker with Andrés Bonifacio and whilst the former devoted his efforts to the enlistment of people for the general rising throughout the country, thelatter continued his negotiations with Japan to the end of forcing some international struggle between Spain and that Power13. By order of the Superior Council Cortés went to Japan to join Ramos and aid in the purchase of arms.Shortly after his arrival he communicated by letter with Ambrosio Bautista informing him that he had seen and spoken on the subject with the Japanese ministers of State and of Foreign Affairs14, and that the said ministers “demanded guarantees” of the probable success of the undertaking before entering into the scheme. According to a statement ofIsabelo de los Reyes, Cortés was “the first person of means and position who came to the decision of attacking, in the Philippines, the Religious Corporations. He was the soul of the manifestation of ’88.” (SeeappendixB.) At the time of the American occupation of the Archipelago the Cortés family showed themselves friendly to the new sovereignty and aided in many ways the establishment of good feeling between the two peoples.Note 12.Pedro Serrano, symbolic name Panday-Pira, was a 24th degree mason. He was a school-master of the municipal school of Quiapo. After having done considerable work of propaganda in masonry he abjured it. He was the cause of the entry into the lodges of hundreds of indian and half-caste clerks, laborers, employees, petty merchants and others of all classes and employments. He was accused by hisfellowmasons of exploiting the society15and oftreason, of frequenting the Palace of the Archbishop and the College of San Juan de Letran, and of many things unbecoming a mason. In a document dated the 31st of March 1894, dispatched by the G∴ Cons∴ Reg∴ ofFilipinomasonry to the lodgeModestia,Serrano was denounced, and all masons were urged to flee from him. In the said document, a translation of which will be found in Appendix C, is poured forth the complaint of the president of the Gr∴ Cons∴ (h∴ Muza) of a leakage somewhere in the treasury in which were stored up the secrets of the treasonable labors being carried out in theFilipinolodges. By way of specific charges the president denouncesPanday-Pirabecause he had the courage to give vent to his opinions concerning the doings of theFilipinolodges, to a foreign mason; because he was known to have, for some reasonorother, visited the Archbishop’s palace and Dominican College; that he had demanded the possession of certain documents, threatening the possessors if they did not give them up, etc. etc. On this account he was denounced as a traitor and dubbed “reptile”, the pot calling the kettle black.Note 13.Morayta, the famous Don Miguel, the “papa” of the rebelliousFilipinos! It is an almost world-wide belief that the number 13 is an unlucky number.If this be so, thenMiguel Moraytawell deserves his name, for in it there arethirteenletters; the first letter of each word commences with thethirteenthletter of the alphabet and it happens also that this miserable individual falls to note 13. I will therefore complete the coincidence by saying all I have to say of this person in thirteen lines.Morayta was at one time Gr∴ Master of the Gr∴ Or∴ de España, but was later on expelled therefrom,according to a masonic publication. In 1888 he founded the Gr∴ Or∴ Español, the mother of the Katipunan. In 1890 he took over the proprietorship ofLa Solidaridadthen published by Marcelo del Pilar for separatist ends. Morayta was the idol of theFilipinostudents whosoughteducation in the Peninsula. Using him as a means towards an end they aimed at, they banquetted him and thus assiduously attacking his stomach they finally captured him.Note 14.Tagalog: The Tagalogs are a branch of the Malay family which, in former times, dominated from Madagascar to the ends of the Pacific. They form part of what we might call the Malay-Chinee race, i. e. the cross between the female on the Malay side and the Chinee on the side of the male. This cross has been taking place from time immemorial, commencing long before the islands were discovered by the Spanish explorers. The present Tagalog indian enjoys more of the characteristics of the Chinee than of the Malay on account of the potency of theChineeblood over theMalay.Going back to ancient times the probability is that the original Malay first became modified by its crossing with the inhabitants proper of the archipelago—theNegritos—marks of which mixture are stilldiscernibleinmanyof the Tagalogs.A second modification came through the mixture between the Malay-Negrito and the Indonesian, traces of which are seen in the light color of the skin in a portion, although small, of the Tagalogs. Another modification, the most marked, originated from the crossing of the Malay-Negrito-Indonesianwith the Chinee, theChineebeing marked by the increase in stature, the elevation of the skull and other minor marks.During the last three centuries this hybrid Tagalog has undergone another small and gradual change by reason of a limited crossing with Spanish blood. This latter mixture however is insignificant in extent but always produces a superior type. As a people the Tagalogs number about one and a half millions, and inhabit the regions around about Manila. The traits of character of the four principal trunks from which theTagalogof to-day is derived are, although still present in a greater or lesser degree, considerably modified by climatological and historical circumstances.At the coming of the Spaniards the Tagalogs, like the remaining native peoples of the archipelago, were met with in the depths of the savage ages, and were to a certain extent, of cannibalistic tendencies.TheaverageTagalog is not wanting in courage, a fact he has often displayed, but this courage is never seen to advantage except when the indian is under the leadership of a person of exceptional valor or a strict disciplinarian. Like most peoplesderived from the Malay stock, the Tagalog indian is subject to strange fits of mental aberration, the fits taking different forms, generally innocent ones, the worst being a homicide under theinfluenceof a “hot head”. At least that is what might have been said of him 8 or 10 years ago, previous to the time in which he became fanaticised by freemasonry.He is not even yet apt to runamokas is usual among the Malays and this is undoubtedly due to the civilizing religious influence which has been brought to bear upon him during the three centuries of Spanish rule in the Archipelago. It is a noteworthy fact that in the same degree as the influence of religion, of the Religious Orders if you will, becamelesser, in exactly equal degree did crime increase. Explain this as you will the fact remains that during the four years or so that the indian has been under the care and protection of a government indifferent to all religion, crime has increased a hundred fold, perhaps arithmetically so also, and crimes unheard of in days gone by, have become so common as scarcely to merit mention in the columnsofManila’s yellow journalism. What the Tagalogindian is equal to when free from the restraint of the Catholic religion, has been seen from the fearful crimes and barbarities committed against Spaniards and against Americans during the insurrection. The brutalitiescommittedupon the unfortunate prisoners who fell into their hands were unheard of even among the savageArabhordesof the Soudan, nor have the records of the ferocity of theChineseboxersyet told us of things equal to the fearful events which took place in the province of Cavite and elsewhere. And for all this the Tagalog indian is responsible: the Tagalog for whom Pedro Paterno claims a pre-Spanish civilization on the plan of the Aztec and ancient Peruvian indians. Like all oriental peoples the Tagalog is superstitious and loves demonstration, symbolism and things grotesque. About the only thing left to him of his ancientcivilizationas Paterno calls it,barbarismwe generally say, is his mythology. In it everything is more or less connected with spirits. Their faith in what they call theiranting anting16is unbreakable. Rizal was supposed tobe under the protection of theanting-antingbut the leadenmissileswhich took away his life carried away theanting-antingalso: and yet there are thousands upon thousands of indians, some of them men of enlightenment, who still cling to the belief that Rizal still lives, thanks to the influence of his protecting amulet. Nor didanting antingavail Aguinaldo who now probably believes far more in the protection of his American prison than in that offered by hisanting antingcharms.Their mythology has, like their ancient character, been greatly modified in the vast majority, by the influence of the civilization implanted by Spain. This is one point in which Spain has differed from most nations in methods of civilization and colonization. However we may judge her in respect to her colonial administration in the Philippines, we cannot deny that she has been distinguished from other nations by her aim of preserving the native races of the archipelago, the destruction consequent upon the radical change undergone in everything, being limited to the savage customs and immoralities in which the native peoples were found submerged.The masonic lodges spoken of in the text which were asked of Morayta, wereestablished, although they were not exclusively Tagalog in their membership. As a result of the petition of theFilipinocolony mentioned in the same text, the theories and practices of Masonry were carried to the Tagalogs but instead of the needy brethren being aided by the wealthy ones, they were subjected to a contribution inexchangefor which they received a gaudy regalia; in other words they were bought over with strings of beads and with tinsel truck as were the indians discovered by Capt. Cook in the South Sea Islands, with the exception that Capt. Cook and those who followed him carried civilization to the natives, whilst the founders of the Katipunan carried to the Tagalogs and the other indians of the archipelago misery and demoralization.Note 15.Faustino Villaruel Gomarawas a Spanish half-caste, a native of Pandaran, living in Binondo. He was the founder of the lodge “La Patria” of which he was also the Ven∴ Gr∴ Master with grade 18. He also founded a lodge of female freemasons, for the foundation of which hecommitted the nefarious crime of prostituting his daughter, handing her over, in the period of her innocence andcandor, to the ridiculous workings and practices of freemasonry. Rosario Villaruel (Minerva), thus sacrificed by her father, was initiated in Hong-Kong and made venerable of the first lodge of female masons in Manila, drawing in after her a large number of her half-caste friends, young folk of bare instruction. This lodge was known as “La Semilla”. Its composition was: Sisters: Carlota Zamora, of Calle Crespo; María Teresa Bordas, of Tabaco, province of Albay; Fabiana Robledo, wife of Sixto Celis; Lorenza Nepomuceno, of Calle San José, Trozo; Angelica Lopez, Calle Jolo; Narcisa Rizal; María Dizon, Calle Trozo, and other fanatic females.Villaruel was the Gr∴ Oriente of filipino masonry, a deluded fanatic, a man of but scarce intellectual endowments, an instrument of those who knew more and were shrewder than he. By laying hands upon him the Spanish Authorities laid hands also upon a large number of incriminating documents which were the means of connecting many prominent business men of Manila with thebloody programme of the Katipunan. Among these was Francisco L. Roxas.Besides these documents were a large number of loose papers writteninTagalog, in which were discovered many threatening phrases and the expression of hopes in the success of an event to take place in the near future. Masks and other masonic implements, including a heavily made and sharply pointed dagger were also discovered.Previous to suffering thepenaltyof his treason he made and signed a public abjuration, for the copy of which see Appendix E.Note 16.Andrés Bonifacio was the soul of the Katipunan movement; he was the President of the “Council of Ministers of the Supreme Popular Council.” His social condition was of a low grade, that grade from which many of the most fanatical pseudo-reformers have come; he was a warehouseman, a porter. In this capacity he was employed in the establishment of Messrs Fressel and Co., and was one of the humblest of the employees.Bonifacio was, however, very vain and quixotic. He was, too, a man of sanguinary character, and held the people over whomhe attained ascendancy, in awe. His ambition was the cause of his ignominious downfall and brutal murder at the hands of another self-asserted dictator of the filipino Commune. Like most of his kind, he was a great reader, and by those who knew him best he was likened to Don Quixote, for like that worthy he passed many a night burning away oil and candles, and sacrificing needed sleep in reading, until his brain was turned and his whole mind given up to ideas of revolutions. His favorite study was the French Revolution, from the which he learned many lessons which he utilized in his projects, the principal of which was the formation of a government after the style of the French Commune. He was astute and comparatively intelligent, and spoke theTagalogdialect well. For the carrying out of his plans he had agents in every nook and corner. No placewhereinformation might be gathered or the work of propaganda done, was over-looked. The offices of the Civil Government had their quota of his spies, as also did theIntendencia, theMaestraza de Artilleriaand the other large centers. Nor were the Convents and Colleges overlooked, nor eventhe big business Corporations.Bonifacio enjoyed an envied ascendancy over the lower classes and the ignorant. Like others of similar tendencies, Bonifacio knew how to exploit the “membership”. He was at one time treasurer of the Katipunan, and upon one occasion after the examination of the books by the president of the society Andrés was denounced as an exploiter, the accounts being found in a very bad condition. A series of mutual squabbles and insults passed between the president Roman Basa, and Bonifacio, the whole affair ending up in a re-election of officers, Bonifacio being chosen as president. This occurred towards the end of the year 1893.The vanity of Bonifacio was comparable only to that of Aguinaldo. Among the number of chief workers of the Katipunan was a certain Valenzuela, a doctor who had, according to his own confession, been forced into the membership by Bonifacio, on the strength of a “love” affair; he was given the choice of membership or death. He chose theformerbut later on resigned. Whilst a member he enjoyed a salary of 30 pesos a month as medical officer, but only with difficulty could he collect his pay. He claimedto have been exploited by Bonifacio who, whilst merely a porter, could thus have at his command the free services of a real doctor, spurning the services of the petty physicians which abound in Manila. Nor was this all. His own (Bonifacio’s) house having been burned down, he went, on the strength of this same “love” affair, to live in the house of the said doctor (see foot-note p. 48), taking with him his paramour, the doctor paying the greater part of the expenses thus incurred.At the time of the organization of the popular Supreme Councils, Bonifacio was chosen president of the Council of Trozo; but in consequence of internal troubles occasioned by his rebelliousness, the Supreme Council decided to dissolve the local Council. Bonifacio, true to his colors, disregarded this order and continued working on his own account, taking upon himself the faculties of the Supreme Council.He preserved in a case which was found in the warehouse of Messrs Fressel and Co., the organization of the “Filipino Republic” which was to be, as well as a number of regulations, codes, decrees of nominations, etc., all drawn up in Tagalog (see foot-note p. 49.)Upon the discovery, on the 19th of August 1896, by the Augustinian Padre fray Mariano Gil, parish priest of Tondo, of the plot of theKatipuneros, Bonifacio and his immediate assistants fled from Manila to Caloocan. From that point he sent orders to the provinces of Manila, Cavite and Nueva Ecija that a general rising should take place on the 30th of that month. These orders were given out of revenge for the failure of the blood-thirsty plot whereby every Spaniard, man, woman or child should share in the sufferings which his diseased brain had concocted for those who should fall into his hands. Bonifacio issued special orders concerning the Governor General, his plan being that he and the other Spanish authorities of any importance should be taken prisoners, but not killed, it being intended to hold their persons as security for the granting of their demands. He called together the members of the Junta Superior and nominated a general-in-chief, a general of division and other officials. These however refused to step into the places he had prepared for them and Bonifacio angered thereat threatened to have the head removed from the shoulders of anyone who dared to disobey him.The general-in-chief Teodoro Plata, a cousin of Bonifacio, fled during the night following his nomination, whereupon Bonifacio issued orders for his capture, commanding his death wherever he should be found.Sometime previous to this, about the month of May, Bonifacio sent Pio Valenzuela to Dapitan to hold a conference with Rizal concerning the convenience of immediate rebellion against Spain. Rizal would not consent to the projected revolt but opposed the idea most strenuously, being thrown into such a bad humor by the information he received of Bonifacio, that Valenzuela, who had gone to Dapitan intending to spend a month there, determined to return on the following day. On his return to Manila he recounted to Bonifacio the result of his mission. Bonifacio who knew Rizal’s influence over the people to be greater than his own, had been living in hopes of receiving Rizal’s consent which would be the surrendering to him of the whole responsibility and glory of the bloody enterprise. Bonifacio aspired to the absolute, like all the so-called leaders of the revolt; so when he realized the stand taken by Rizal, who was willing to wait patiently till the poison with which he had inoculatedthe people should work of itself, he flew into a rage like a spoilt child, declaring Rizal to be a coward and imposing upon Valenzuela, his messenger, implicit silence on this subject, prohibiting him from manifesting to anyone what he considered to be the bad exit of the consultation.No methods were too underhand for Bonifacio; to gain his end he lied to the people over whom he held sway as only aFilipinocan lie. On one occasion he affirmed that in Coregidor was a vessel loaded with arms and ammunition for the rebels, and by this means he animated them, a very necessary thing at that time, as they were but scantily armed with bolos and were no match against those they intended to assail.Taking him all in all, Bonifacio was a first class organizer for such an enterprise as that aimed at by the Katipunan, and upon his shoulders lies the weight of the greater part of the iniquities of the diabolical society. He ordered the outbreak and in askillfulmanner pulled the strings which worked the figures which formed the performers in the marionette revolution. He had rivals in the field however, the most powerful being Aguinaldo, the would bepresident of the mushroom republic. After the encounter at San Juan del Monte in which the insurgents suffered the loss of 95 killed and 42 taken prisoners in the first instance, and shortly afterwards of 200 more, Bonifacio escaped, carrying with him the funds of the Katipunan, some 20,000 pfs.17He was supposed to be in hiding in the mostinaccessibleparts of the mountains of San Mateo, in as much as he had told Pio Valenzuela that in case the movement were unsuccessful he had determined to retire to that point to devote himself to highway robbery18, to foot-padding, an idea gottenfrom some modern French novel probably. He worked his way eventually into Cavite, and, according to information gotten from Pedro Gonzalez, he fell into the disfavor of Aguinaldo who saw his own superiority in danger of being supplanted; thegeneralisimotherefore put a price upon his head19. A party was sent in search for the runaway and upon his capture he was subjected to most brutal treatment, and at last fell a victim to the unprincipled ambition of the Dictator.Had Bonifacio lived he would have made a splendid acquisition to the Partido Federal, he being a man who could, like many of the self-asserted leaders of to-day, plan and follow out any double-faced policy that might be needed under the circumstances.Note 17.This note not being ready at the time of the printing of the pages of this section, it has been reserved for note101, which see.Note 18.Domingo Franco y Tuason was a native of Mambusao, Province of Capiz. He was the president of the firstjuntacalled by Rizal in 1892 for the formation of the “Liga Filipina”. Till that time he was like many others of the same class almost unknown.Note 19.The character of the native: this is a subject upon which one might write many volumes without conveying to the minds of his readers more than a faint idea of what that strange character is.More mysterious than the most profound mystery of Religion, his most striking trait of character being a decidedtendencyto retrogression, the Malay stands out among the numerous divisions of the human family as a man with a marked propensity to the mysterious, to the prodigious. He is accustomed to give a blind obedience to his superiors and more so to his own caciques, he is docile as a general rule, and shows butlittle resentment to abusive language, although he will sometimes carefully guard theremembranceof some insignificant insult or blow, and take a cruel revenge, a thousand times greater than the injury he received, after a period, at times, of years. Other peculiarities of the native are his delight in gambling and cockfighting, his aversion to manual labor, his infantile but excessive vanity, his lack of the power of thought in matters of moment, his well developed imagination, his instability from all points of view and his liability to complete and radical changes. The average indian is to-day virtuous, honest and grateful for favors received, tomorrow he is vicious,thievingand shows an ingratitude not to be found even in the brute creation. This very marked trait of character may be found in many of theFilipinoswho have held and still hold some of the highest official positions in the islands.To sum up theFilipinoindian in a few words: he is inexplicable. There have been those who have spent their lives in the study of the indian, but in spite of all that man can do to study man, the problem remains unsolved. Only those “globe trotters”who have studied the native from themuchachowho waited upon them at the hotel at which they stayed during their few days visit, and thecocherowho had the honor of conducting suchsavantsto and from the Luneta, have so far been able to demonstrate what is this character which has puzzled men of common sense and lifelong experience, for centuries.Being by nature credulous, ignorant and superstitious, the indian fell an easy victim to the mysteries of freemasonry, which served him as are introduction to the semi-savage methods of the “Liga Filipina” and the barbarous practices of the Katipunan, thepacto-de-sangreof which, carried him back to the savage times of his remote ancestors who were drawn from their mountain and forest lairs and domesticated by the Religious Orders.Notes 20,21,22.The initiations, proofs, oaths etc., of Universal freemasonry were utilized by theFilipinolodges to serve as a ceremonial, a very essential thing to the success of any association among orientals. Nothing suited the taste of theFilipinobetter than the awe inspiring solemnity of his initiation.These ceremonies however fell into abuse, and by the time they becameutilizedby the Katipunan they had reached the verge of the grossest superstition andabsurdity.Note 23.The G∴ Cons∴ Reg∴ was installed in 1893. A masonic document bearing a seal “Gr∴ Consejo Regional de Filipinas. G∴ Secretaria”, and purporting to be a copy of two paragraphs from a letter of the illustrious bro∴ Kupang (Marcelo H. del Pilar) dated from Madrid on the 17th December 1894, says: “D. Miguel (Morayta) has a very poor opinion of the Reg∴ (Regional Council).... He says that this Council continues working well for some few months, at the end of which all the enthusiasm of the founders vanishes and.... Oh, if we could only by our acts give the lie to this pessimism. Morayta was the founder of the Council.Note 24.La Solidaridad was the official organ ofFilipinofreemasonry in all its branches. Although it was published in the peninsula its circulation was intended for the Philippines. Its editors were the leaders of the disaffection against the metropolisand stout advocates, indirectly, of an impossible independence. The chief aim of the paper was to mortify everything Spanish, and to this end its columns were continually full of seditious articles aimed, not merely at individuals but at the State. Its diatribes against the Government of the Metropolis were of the bitterest nature, and therefore but little publicity was given to the sheet in Madrid, where it was printed. It enjoyed no exchange with the periodicals of importance of the city, had no street sales, nor was it exposed for sale publicly. The libraries did not carry it on their tables and it never reached the hands of the public authorities. In fact the people of the official element know nothing of its existence.In the office of this bi-monthly paper was established a freemason lodge bearing the same name as the paper; all the members of the Association Hispano-Filipina became members of the lodge. Being the organ of masonry as well as of separatism it was introduced into the Archipelago and secured a free circulation in all parts of the principal islands where its calumnies against the Religious Orders had the effect of producing a decided effect upon the maintenanceof public order.The statement that the bi-monthly was founded by Pilar is erroneous; it was first published by Lopez Jaena in Barcelona where it enjoyed its enforced life till it reached its number 18, of October 1889, when it suddenly ceased publication on account of the seizure by the authorities of a number of incriminating documents and pamphlets. It recommenced publication in Madrid on the 15th of November of the same year. It was later on acquired by Pilar and Morayta.It was in reality a vent for the spleen of its writers against Spain and things Spanish; it was a precursor of theIndependencia20the official organ of the Revolution against the U. S., and of theLa Democraciaits daughter, the official organ of the Federal Party, the dregs of the old revolutionary government of Malolos.21Note 25.One of the first propagators ofFilipinomasonry was Sr. Centeno, Civil Governor of Manila, a man of anything but happy memory for this country22. Centeno and Quiroga Ballesteros worked hard to undermine the beneficial influence of the Clergy, an influence which was the safe-guard of law and order. Their most famous piece of work was the manifestation of ’88 against Archbishop Payo (See note2). In that manifestation was conceived the cry of sedition which was later on to ring throughout the archipelago and tear down the banner of the fatherland to replace it with the red flag of anarchy; a flag which well nigh brought the people of a would be independent country to the verge of political and moral destruction.Note 26.No sooner had Almighty God consummated the grand work of the creation, the culmination of which was the breathing into man of an immortal soul, than the devil, the father of evil, jealousofthe attributes given by God to man, made his bold attempt to destroy God’s immortal work. From that moment to this present thespirits of evil have carried on anunceasingwarfare against what has been for the glory of God. The Monastic Orders ever sincethedays of their birth have had to contend against these powers of evil; and there is therefore little necessity for surprise that those who were employed in such work as were the unscrupulous persons who came to the archipelago to sow ruin in the consciences of the people and scandal in society, should carry on a bitter campaign against the Religious Orders to whom was owing every jot and tittle of the civilization and culture enjoyed by theFilipinos. The Monastic Orders have ever been the bulwark of Christianity, and as such have had to bear the brunt of the battle. Europe owes the solid foundation of its political, social and religious life to the Religious Orders, which, during the ages in which the Huns, Goths and other barbarians overran and devastated those lands, hoarded up in the nooks and corners of their monastic dwellings the seed which, when afterwards sown, was to become the stout tree of civilization which should spread its sheltering branches to the four corners of the earth. One of these branches drawing itsfullnessof lifeandvigordirectly from the trunk, extended to these far off islands and, casting its shade over the embruted mankind here existing at that time, wrought a change over it no less marked than that wrought over the European peoples. From the day in which Father Urdaneta, that intrepid Augustinian, set foot upon Philippine soil,till the day upon which the hydra-headed Katipunan appeared in the land, the Monastic Orders have been the one great source of all that was really useful and beneficial to the inhabitants of the archipelago, although at times the moral interests of the people were not the commercial interests of the country.The “friar” so much slandered by those who wish to overthrow hisbeneficentinfluence, ever carried the banner of his country enlaced with the Cross of the Redeemer. He came to the Archipelago as a messenger of peace and order, and was the strongest supporter of the sovereignty of his nation. The “friar” was hated because he was the one who best knew and understood the indian, and from his intimate knowledge of hisparishioners, could the more easily detect anything on their part which tended to the detriment of theintegrityofthe Spanish sovereignty.Thecampaignagainst the Religious Orders was the attack of the battering-rams against the city to be captured. By piercing the wall the entry into the city could be the easier made; and this the separatist element well knew, hence all their efforts were directed against the stout wall which defended from its assaults the treasureofthe metropolis.For three hundred years the Philippines remained submitted to Spain exclusively by reason of the moral influence of the Clergy. Whilst the banner of Spain, floated over the Archipelago, the Religious formed the strongest guard for its protection; when it fell, strung by the ingratitude and treachery of those who had sworn to defend it to the last drop of their blood, and lay dishonored in the dust, it was the Religious who bowed his head in the deepest grief and who shed the bitterest tears. When the flag of the conquerer was hauled up to the height from which once gloriously floated the symbol of Spanish authority, the Religious, obedient to the commands of his superiors, withdrew to the solicitude of his convent, to await in patience, thepassing of the storm. He looks out upon the clouded political horizon, as Noah looked out from the window of the ark upon the vast sea of waters which hid from his view the fearfuldestructionwhich had overcome the world, patiently awaiting the time when he should, at God’s will, go forth to commence again the work of reconstruction.Often have I heard the opinion expressed that the Government’s worst enemy is the “friar”, that it is the “friar” who keeps alive the spirit of rebellion. Let thosewhothink thus, ponder over one small thought: what has the friar to gain in sustaining a rebellion which has caused him more moral and material damage, than has been caused to any other entity in the Philippines? To those who are able and willing to utilize the power of thought with which God has endowed them, it is sufficiently clear that the Religious has nothing to gain by such tactics, but, on the contrary, all to lose.In Spanish times the native enemies of the Religious Orders were the enemies of Spain and in these days, the enemy of the friar is by no means a real friend, whatever he may claim to be, of the Government ofof the U. S. The Spanish masons and theFilipinoseparatists found the friar to be the greatest obstacle to be encountered.“The friar,” wrote Governor D. Francisco Borrero, to Sr. Canovas, in a memoir concerning the Archipelago, “knowing the language, spirit, andtendenciesof the natives, is considered as the principal obstacle for the realization of the filibuster idea, and hence arises their aspiration (that of the enemies of Spain) that the Religious Orders should be eliminated, because such a step being taken, they believe they will have travelled half the journey....”The propaganda of Universal freemasonry, ofFilipinofreemasonry, of the Liga Filipina, of the Compromisarios, was aimed principally at the Religious Orders, but the results attained were but introductory to the real work of the Katipunan, which, finding itself cornered by the discovery of the plot it had concocted against the Government, showed its hand. Its aim was anti-Spanish and not merely anti-friar, as is sufficiently clear from the fact that in all the documents of the diabolical association it is death toall the Spaniards, and not to this or that class. Moreover in many cases the sameKatipuneros saved their parish priests from a sure death whilst they dealt out anything but kind treatment to those of the Civil Guard (Filipinos) and the Spanish troops who fell into their hands. The friars who were murdered by the rebels were not murdered for being friars but because they were Spaniards. The documents captured, the result of the trials held in judgement of persons guilty of treason, show clearly that the revolution was for the purpose of gaining the independence of the country from Spain, and not merely to bring about the expulsion of the Religious Orders. Aguinaldo, the leader of the Katipunanhordes, desired to send the friars who fell prisoners into his hands, over toHong-Kong, where they would be at liberty to return to their own country; but this merciful desire of his was overruled by his advisers, among whom were numbered Mabini his right hand man, Pardo de Tavera, Legarda and Buencamino, all three of them traitors to the cause of independence. To-day they stand in positions of honor, honor which they have done nothing to deserve, whilst Aguinaldo who was the tool of political schemers, their play-thing, is cast into disgrace and kept in thebackground, a scape-goat for the sins and shortcomings of men whose names disgrace the darkest pages of Philippine history.Note 27.Vast numbers of these documents were later on destroyed in the hope that certain affairs of an anti-patriotic nature might be hushed up, and many persons of a high official standing saved from scandal. Padre Mariano Gil, O. S. A., who made known to the public authorities the fearful plot of the Katipunan in time to prevent the brutal murder of hundreds of Spaniards, was granted certified copies of a large number (all the principal ones) of the documents and these have been since preserved with the greatest care, and remain to-day as a standing proof of the duplicity of many persons who live in ignorance of the fact of the existence of the said certified copies.Note 28.The element here spoken of was theFilipinocolony (all of themseparatists) and Morayta the “papa” of the saidFilipinosofseparatisttendencies.Note 29.This committee, although not exclusively masonic, wasessentiallyrevolutionary, and had for its duty the distribution of works of propaganda. Its delegate in Europe was Marcelo H. del Pilar.Note 30.See note26. The campaign at this present carried on by some of the filipino and Spanish papers, and, in contradiction to the fundamental principles of Americanism, by the local American press also, is but a sequel to the work of this committee of propaganda. The calumnies which are literally crammed into the columns of Manila’s English speaking daily and weekly press are but a poor reproduction of the vicious publications distributed throughout the archipelago since the year 1888. For fourteen years have these calumnies been published, but in spite of countless challenges, never have the statements brought forward been backed up with even the shadow of proof. When almighty God completed his creation by the making of man and woman, he led them to Eden, placing them under his law. Then it was that the devil beguiled them with lying words: “For God doth know that in that day that you shall eat thereof(of the forbidden fruit) your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as Gods knowing good and evil.” From that day to this, this same argument that the devil used to try to prove that God was withholding from the people what was to their benefit, is being to-day used by certain of the offspring of that evil spirit against the element of good, against the Religious Orders, the servants of God, claiming that they held from the people of this Archipelago that which was for their good and advancement. Adam and Eve found to their bitter cost that the devil lied: those who are to-day being misled by anti-friar calumny will make the same discovery in due time.Note 31.This statement is erroneous. The opinion of the author was formed from statements made by those charged with treason. Many of those under this charge gave false testimony, as was later on proved, and in that testimony implicated honorableFilipinoswho had never harbored such ideas in their hearts as those they wereaccusedof. Many of the wealthy element of Luzon and other islands of the group, were forced by threats and compromises into position they had nodesire to occupy. Of these the great majority were either insular Spaniards, that is sons of Spanish parents, but born in the Philippines, or they were Spanish mestizos or indians. Some 90% of the wealthy revolutionists wereChinesehalf-castes.Note 32.And at what a cost! Think of the thousands of hard earned dollars which went to swell the funds gathered to feed and clothe and to satisfy the fads and fancies of those exploiters. And what has the poor indian who provided the money gained in the deal? Four or five years of bloodshed and disaster he has surely gained; but what is of more importance to him is that he barely escaped falling into the hands of his own countrymen! He fell out of the frying-pan and almost fell into the fire!Note 33.The aspirations of the association were, to say the least, anti-patriotic; they were always underhand; they were the aspirations of the “Liga”, of the “Compromisarios” and of the Katipunan.Note 34.“In the following year, Pedro Serrano arrived from Spain and then was masonry introduced into the Philippines, the first lodge instituted being the “Nilad”23its first Venerable being José Ramos.” Testimony of Moises Salvador y Francisco (fol.1,138to1,143).According to the testimony of Antonio Salazar (fol.1,118to1,129) “In 1892 Pedro Serrano came from Spain and in union with José Ramos joined a lodge of peninsular Spaniards, and commenced the propaganda of masonry exclusively amongFilipinos, in a short time establishing the mother lodge known as theNilad... the number of members becoming excessive, other lodges were established in the suburbs....”Into this lodgeNilador the lodges formed therefrom, passed all the members of the committee of propaganda and of the local delegations, the work of the propaganda of masonry and that of separatism being carried on in the same lodge room. The plea that masonry had no connection with the Katipunan fails to stand good in face of thistestimony, added to which may be mentioned letters of M. del Pilar toLa Modestiaconcerning the organization and labors of separatism; as well as other letters, rich in masonic jargon, to the lodges and to individuals connected with the double work of propagating masonry and spreading among the people ideas of the basest of ingratitude.To the lodgeNilad, the Gr∴ Sec∴ of the Gr∴ Or∴ Esp∴ wrote from Madrid, June 8th 1892:
“I declare myself Catholic and in this religion in which I was born and educated I wish to live and die. I retract with all my heart all my words, writings and actions that have been contrary to my condition as a son of the Catholic Church. I believe and profess whatever She teaches and I submit to whatever She demands. I abominate masonry as an enemy of the Church and as a society condemned by the Church.“The diocesan prelate, as superior ecclesiastical authority, may make public this spontaneous manifestation, to make reparation for the scandals which may have been caused by my works, and that God and my fellow-men may pardon me.”“Manila 29th December 1896.—José Rizal.—Witnesses: Juan del Fresno, Chief of Picket.—Eloy Maure, Adjutant.”He also entered the holy bonds of matrimony with the young woman with whom he had been living for some time in Mindanao. On the way to the place of hisexecution he remarked to one of the Fathers who accompanied him.Father, it is my pride that has brought me here.”Of the political error committed by the Spanish Authorities in the execution of Rizal, I do not hold myself up as a judge. All governments, like human beings, commit mistakes and at times grave ones. The Spanish authorities, feeling themselves justified in so doing, ordered the execution of theprisonerwho was responsible for one of the most bloody revolts since the time of the French revolution: the pattern taken by theFilipinoleaders, for the means of the foundation of theFilipinorepublic. Rizal was executed on the Luneta. To assert that he was offered up as a victim to gratify the wishes of the Religious Orders is but a crude and vicious argument worthy of its inventors and propagators. Nothing, absolutely nothing, can be brought forward to prove such an assertion, but on the contrary, those members of the Religious Orders who concerned themselves in the stirring affairs of the revolution were, as a very general rule, opposed to harsh and extreme measures being taken; and among these was the Illustrious Archbishop of Manila,Sr. Nozaleda, a noble, tenderhearted and compassionate prelate,a prelate who has been dubbed by Foreman as “the blood-thirsty Archbishop”.Had the friars held the reins of government as they are stated to have done, history would not have to record the names of so many, many people whowereexecuted: people who were scarcely to be held as guilty, in as much as they were but sheep whothoughtlesslyfollowed their shepherds without even looking to see where the road they trod would lead them.In politics Rizal had his party composed of a number of insignificant petty-lawyers, petty-doctors and others possessing academic titles and a semi-formed cerebral power. These were backed by a mass of the people of Calamba, Rizal’s birthplace. In their eyes he was a “Messiah”,a “Mahdi”, their prophet and redeemer. As an individual he was bright and intelligent, and had he not been led astray by those who made a “cat’s paw” of him, and who cruelly deserted him in his hour of need, he would doubtless have been one of the foremostFilipinosof to-day in that sphere of life in which God had placed him.A Spanish proverb says:“In blind man’s land the one eyed man is a king.” Rizal was aking.Note 9.Marcelo Hilario del Pilar y Gatmaytan was a native of Bulacan. He was, by profession, a lawyer, and had been enabled to complete his studies in that direction through the good offices of the Augustinian Fathers of Manila, who had given him the money necessary to matriculate and to pay the cost of his title of “abogado.”9Pilar left Manila for thepeninsulaabout the end of ’88 for fear of deportation: a punishment at that time staring him in the face. He was one of the earliest workers on the “La Solidaridad”, the official organ ofFilipinofreemasonry in all its sections. He later on became its director.Pilar was another of the many malays whose ways were beyond human comprehension. Spaniards who have lived a life-time among the indians and studied them carefully from all points of view agree that the deeper one studies the native character the more incomprehensible it becomes. That is, the study of the average filipino: Pilar was one of the average. He was not gifted with the education enjoyed by Rizal, nor was he such a stupid visionary as Pedro Paterno; he possessed touches of the character of both.Like so many of thoseFilipinoswho fed at the hands of the Religious Orders, he eventually turned to bite the hand that fed him. As in the case of the others who had done the like, he did so, not because he had cause to, but because he fell, as did they, under the evil influence of those who utilized them to work out their schemes of treachery.Pilar was sent to Spain as a delegate of the Committee of propaganda. Owing to this position of chief of the delegation in Madrid, and by reason of his intimate friendship with Morayta, he occupied a position from which neither Rizal nor even the whole of theprogressiveindians combined, could drive him. He held, for some time, high office in the Gr∴ Or∴ Esp∴ as will be seen from the following clipping taken from page 107 of the Annual of that Orient for the year 1894–95.“GRAN CONS∴ DE LA ORDEN1894–1895Muy Ven. Gran Maestre PresidenteVen. H. Miguel Morayta y Sagrario, Gr∴ 33...................................Ven. Gran Orador AdjuntoV. Marcelo H. del Pilar Gr∴ 33” (h∴ Kupang)It was Pilar who conceived the plan ofthe Katipunan; and yet after all it was not his conception, for the scheme he formed was at the best, a piece of patch work made up of the plans worked out in the various revolutions which had taken place in some part of the world.What Pilar’s ambition was, it is hard to say; from his actions and writings one is almost driven to the supposition that he had none in particular, but was led to the separatist labors he performed by force of compromise.When the time was ripe for action Pilar determined to leave Madrid and make his way to Japan. He commenced the journey arriving at Barcelona, from whence he was to make his way east. There, however, he was taken suddenly ill, and died on the 4th of June 1896, in the Hospital of that city.In many things Pilar was superior to Rizal. Unlike that agitator, Pilar was not a sneaking, skulking petty-politician; he was straight-forward and had the courage of his opinions. What Pilar would have done if placed in the same circumstances as Rizal it is hard to say, but we may be assured that he would not have acted the coward as did Rizal.Note 10.Antonio and Juan Luna were two of four brothers. The former was abacteriologist, the latter an artist who at one time, whilst he followed the instruction, and remained under the guidance of his master, showed no little talent. Antonio went to Spain in ’88, and later on passed to Paris where he lived with his brother Juan who supported him. There he devoted himself to the study which made him famous; this he did in thelaboratoryof Dr. Roux. He became an assistant editor of theSolidaridad, the official organ of filipino freemasonry, and wrote many vicious articles in its columns over the pseudonym of Taga-Ilog.As a member of the freemason fraternity he was known as Gay Lussac.On his return to Manila he established, for a livelihood, a school of fencing, and like the vain, insensate “magpie in borrowed plumes” that he was, he once sent his seconds to a Spanish officer, inviting him to a duel!During the second half of the rebellion of ’96, Aguinaldo offered Antonio the position of director of the War Department with the grade of General of Brigade. This honor, however, he declined. TheIndependenciaspeaking on this incident, says:—“The military knowledge of Sr. Luna, acquired during his captivity (sic) in the prisons of thepeninsula(Spain), is to be found condensed in two small works, one concerning the organization of the army, having as its base the idea of obligatory service in which hedemonstratesthat Luzon might put on a war footing250,000to400,000men, and the whole archipelago as many as from800,000to900,000. The other work is a practical course in field fortifications as adopted by the French and German armies.”10Juan, from childhood, was of an artisticturn of mind and found among his many protectors those who sent him to Spain to study art. In Spain he met with Sr. Alejo Vera, a noteworthy artist, under whom he studied, receiving an exceptional education both in art and in morals, Sr. Vera being aChristiangentleman. Later on he went to Rome, and there formed part of the Spanish artistic colony. After some two or three years of study there he sent to Spain his first painting11. Being an artistic production of aFilipinoindian it was receivedwith open hands and given a reception greater than it really deserved, as a result of the influence of Luna’s friends. From Rome he went to Paris. It was in that city that he committed the fiendish double murder which so startled and shocked his friends and acquaintances, his victims being his wife and his mother-in-law, sister and mother of a prominent political aspirant of modern Manila. The result of the trial was that the courts of Justice of Paris absolved him. He then returned to Madrid, and soon after, to Manila.What Spain did for the Filipino broughtforth fruit in only a few of the people who fell under her beneficent christian influence. The Lunas were among the few. They, like so many other ungrateful children, repaid their benefactors by becoming leaders of the insensate and inexcusable revolt against them: a revolt, the first act of which was to be the brutal murder of all Spaniards irrespective of parentage or other claims of consideration. Both the brothers suffered arrest by the Spanish authorities for rebellionandsedition, but in spite of the degree to which they were complicated, they remained practically free from punishment, and ever at the right hand of the imbecile General Blanco, himself a freemason, and friend of the enemies of his country. Eventually the two brothers left theante-chamberof the Governor to enter the security of the military prison.Both brothers eventually retracted their errors only to fall into them again as soon as the lying protests of repentance had fallen from their lips.Juan died in Hong-Kong; Antonio, after a career of militarismsuccumbedto the same unprincipled ambition which carried Andrés Bonifacio to an untimely grave.Note 11.DoroteoCortés was banished by Governor Despujol in the year 1893, to the province of La Union where he founded in San Fernando, the Capital, aided by Arturo Dancel, the lodge “Rousseau” and two others in the pueblos of San Juan and Agoó. He was a lawyer and became the president of the committee of Propaganda which was formed with the idea of gathering pecuniaryresourcesfor covering the expense of the distribution of all classes of pamphletsandanti-Religious proclamations. He was at one time the president of the Superior Supreme Council of the Katipunan12, and received the funds collected for the payment of the expenses of the political commission sent to Japan to seek the aid and protection of that power. Cortés was a co-worker with Andrés Bonifacio and whilst the former devoted his efforts to the enlistment of people for the general rising throughout the country, thelatter continued his negotiations with Japan to the end of forcing some international struggle between Spain and that Power13. By order of the Superior Council Cortés went to Japan to join Ramos and aid in the purchase of arms.Shortly after his arrival he communicated by letter with Ambrosio Bautista informing him that he had seen and spoken on the subject with the Japanese ministers of State and of Foreign Affairs14, and that the said ministers “demanded guarantees” of the probable success of the undertaking before entering into the scheme. According to a statement ofIsabelo de los Reyes, Cortés was “the first person of means and position who came to the decision of attacking, in the Philippines, the Religious Corporations. He was the soul of the manifestation of ’88.” (SeeappendixB.) At the time of the American occupation of the Archipelago the Cortés family showed themselves friendly to the new sovereignty and aided in many ways the establishment of good feeling between the two peoples.Note 12.Pedro Serrano, symbolic name Panday-Pira, was a 24th degree mason. He was a school-master of the municipal school of Quiapo. After having done considerable work of propaganda in masonry he abjured it. He was the cause of the entry into the lodges of hundreds of indian and half-caste clerks, laborers, employees, petty merchants and others of all classes and employments. He was accused by hisfellowmasons of exploiting the society15and oftreason, of frequenting the Palace of the Archbishop and the College of San Juan de Letran, and of many things unbecoming a mason. In a document dated the 31st of March 1894, dispatched by the G∴ Cons∴ Reg∴ ofFilipinomasonry to the lodgeModestia,Serrano was denounced, and all masons were urged to flee from him. In the said document, a translation of which will be found in Appendix C, is poured forth the complaint of the president of the Gr∴ Cons∴ (h∴ Muza) of a leakage somewhere in the treasury in which were stored up the secrets of the treasonable labors being carried out in theFilipinolodges. By way of specific charges the president denouncesPanday-Pirabecause he had the courage to give vent to his opinions concerning the doings of theFilipinolodges, to a foreign mason; because he was known to have, for some reasonorother, visited the Archbishop’s palace and Dominican College; that he had demanded the possession of certain documents, threatening the possessors if they did not give them up, etc. etc. On this account he was denounced as a traitor and dubbed “reptile”, the pot calling the kettle black.Note 13.Morayta, the famous Don Miguel, the “papa” of the rebelliousFilipinos! It is an almost world-wide belief that the number 13 is an unlucky number.If this be so, thenMiguel Moraytawell deserves his name, for in it there arethirteenletters; the first letter of each word commences with thethirteenthletter of the alphabet and it happens also that this miserable individual falls to note 13. I will therefore complete the coincidence by saying all I have to say of this person in thirteen lines.Morayta was at one time Gr∴ Master of the Gr∴ Or∴ de España, but was later on expelled therefrom,according to a masonic publication. In 1888 he founded the Gr∴ Or∴ Español, the mother of the Katipunan. In 1890 he took over the proprietorship ofLa Solidaridadthen published by Marcelo del Pilar for separatist ends. Morayta was the idol of theFilipinostudents whosoughteducation in the Peninsula. Using him as a means towards an end they aimed at, they banquetted him and thus assiduously attacking his stomach they finally captured him.Note 14.Tagalog: The Tagalogs are a branch of the Malay family which, in former times, dominated from Madagascar to the ends of the Pacific. They form part of what we might call the Malay-Chinee race, i. e. the cross between the female on the Malay side and the Chinee on the side of the male. This cross has been taking place from time immemorial, commencing long before the islands were discovered by the Spanish explorers. The present Tagalog indian enjoys more of the characteristics of the Chinee than of the Malay on account of the potency of theChineeblood over theMalay.Going back to ancient times the probability is that the original Malay first became modified by its crossing with the inhabitants proper of the archipelago—theNegritos—marks of which mixture are stilldiscernibleinmanyof the Tagalogs.A second modification came through the mixture between the Malay-Negrito and the Indonesian, traces of which are seen in the light color of the skin in a portion, although small, of the Tagalogs. Another modification, the most marked, originated from the crossing of the Malay-Negrito-Indonesianwith the Chinee, theChineebeing marked by the increase in stature, the elevation of the skull and other minor marks.During the last three centuries this hybrid Tagalog has undergone another small and gradual change by reason of a limited crossing with Spanish blood. This latter mixture however is insignificant in extent but always produces a superior type. As a people the Tagalogs number about one and a half millions, and inhabit the regions around about Manila. The traits of character of the four principal trunks from which theTagalogof to-day is derived are, although still present in a greater or lesser degree, considerably modified by climatological and historical circumstances.At the coming of the Spaniards the Tagalogs, like the remaining native peoples of the archipelago, were met with in the depths of the savage ages, and were to a certain extent, of cannibalistic tendencies.TheaverageTagalog is not wanting in courage, a fact he has often displayed, but this courage is never seen to advantage except when the indian is under the leadership of a person of exceptional valor or a strict disciplinarian. Like most peoplesderived from the Malay stock, the Tagalog indian is subject to strange fits of mental aberration, the fits taking different forms, generally innocent ones, the worst being a homicide under theinfluenceof a “hot head”. At least that is what might have been said of him 8 or 10 years ago, previous to the time in which he became fanaticised by freemasonry.He is not even yet apt to runamokas is usual among the Malays and this is undoubtedly due to the civilizing religious influence which has been brought to bear upon him during the three centuries of Spanish rule in the Archipelago. It is a noteworthy fact that in the same degree as the influence of religion, of the Religious Orders if you will, becamelesser, in exactly equal degree did crime increase. Explain this as you will the fact remains that during the four years or so that the indian has been under the care and protection of a government indifferent to all religion, crime has increased a hundred fold, perhaps arithmetically so also, and crimes unheard of in days gone by, have become so common as scarcely to merit mention in the columnsofManila’s yellow journalism. What the Tagalogindian is equal to when free from the restraint of the Catholic religion, has been seen from the fearful crimes and barbarities committed against Spaniards and against Americans during the insurrection. The brutalitiescommittedupon the unfortunate prisoners who fell into their hands were unheard of even among the savageArabhordesof the Soudan, nor have the records of the ferocity of theChineseboxersyet told us of things equal to the fearful events which took place in the province of Cavite and elsewhere. And for all this the Tagalog indian is responsible: the Tagalog for whom Pedro Paterno claims a pre-Spanish civilization on the plan of the Aztec and ancient Peruvian indians. Like all oriental peoples the Tagalog is superstitious and loves demonstration, symbolism and things grotesque. About the only thing left to him of his ancientcivilizationas Paterno calls it,barbarismwe generally say, is his mythology. In it everything is more or less connected with spirits. Their faith in what they call theiranting anting16is unbreakable. Rizal was supposed tobe under the protection of theanting-antingbut the leadenmissileswhich took away his life carried away theanting-antingalso: and yet there are thousands upon thousands of indians, some of them men of enlightenment, who still cling to the belief that Rizal still lives, thanks to the influence of his protecting amulet. Nor didanting antingavail Aguinaldo who now probably believes far more in the protection of his American prison than in that offered by hisanting antingcharms.Their mythology has, like their ancient character, been greatly modified in the vast majority, by the influence of the civilization implanted by Spain. This is one point in which Spain has differed from most nations in methods of civilization and colonization. However we may judge her in respect to her colonial administration in the Philippines, we cannot deny that she has been distinguished from other nations by her aim of preserving the native races of the archipelago, the destruction consequent upon the radical change undergone in everything, being limited to the savage customs and immoralities in which the native peoples were found submerged.The masonic lodges spoken of in the text which were asked of Morayta, wereestablished, although they were not exclusively Tagalog in their membership. As a result of the petition of theFilipinocolony mentioned in the same text, the theories and practices of Masonry were carried to the Tagalogs but instead of the needy brethren being aided by the wealthy ones, they were subjected to a contribution inexchangefor which they received a gaudy regalia; in other words they were bought over with strings of beads and with tinsel truck as were the indians discovered by Capt. Cook in the South Sea Islands, with the exception that Capt. Cook and those who followed him carried civilization to the natives, whilst the founders of the Katipunan carried to the Tagalogs and the other indians of the archipelago misery and demoralization.Note 15.Faustino Villaruel Gomarawas a Spanish half-caste, a native of Pandaran, living in Binondo. He was the founder of the lodge “La Patria” of which he was also the Ven∴ Gr∴ Master with grade 18. He also founded a lodge of female freemasons, for the foundation of which hecommitted the nefarious crime of prostituting his daughter, handing her over, in the period of her innocence andcandor, to the ridiculous workings and practices of freemasonry. Rosario Villaruel (Minerva), thus sacrificed by her father, was initiated in Hong-Kong and made venerable of the first lodge of female masons in Manila, drawing in after her a large number of her half-caste friends, young folk of bare instruction. This lodge was known as “La Semilla”. Its composition was: Sisters: Carlota Zamora, of Calle Crespo; María Teresa Bordas, of Tabaco, province of Albay; Fabiana Robledo, wife of Sixto Celis; Lorenza Nepomuceno, of Calle San José, Trozo; Angelica Lopez, Calle Jolo; Narcisa Rizal; María Dizon, Calle Trozo, and other fanatic females.Villaruel was the Gr∴ Oriente of filipino masonry, a deluded fanatic, a man of but scarce intellectual endowments, an instrument of those who knew more and were shrewder than he. By laying hands upon him the Spanish Authorities laid hands also upon a large number of incriminating documents which were the means of connecting many prominent business men of Manila with thebloody programme of the Katipunan. Among these was Francisco L. Roxas.Besides these documents were a large number of loose papers writteninTagalog, in which were discovered many threatening phrases and the expression of hopes in the success of an event to take place in the near future. Masks and other masonic implements, including a heavily made and sharply pointed dagger were also discovered.Previous to suffering thepenaltyof his treason he made and signed a public abjuration, for the copy of which see Appendix E.Note 16.Andrés Bonifacio was the soul of the Katipunan movement; he was the President of the “Council of Ministers of the Supreme Popular Council.” His social condition was of a low grade, that grade from which many of the most fanatical pseudo-reformers have come; he was a warehouseman, a porter. In this capacity he was employed in the establishment of Messrs Fressel and Co., and was one of the humblest of the employees.Bonifacio was, however, very vain and quixotic. He was, too, a man of sanguinary character, and held the people over whomhe attained ascendancy, in awe. His ambition was the cause of his ignominious downfall and brutal murder at the hands of another self-asserted dictator of the filipino Commune. Like most of his kind, he was a great reader, and by those who knew him best he was likened to Don Quixote, for like that worthy he passed many a night burning away oil and candles, and sacrificing needed sleep in reading, until his brain was turned and his whole mind given up to ideas of revolutions. His favorite study was the French Revolution, from the which he learned many lessons which he utilized in his projects, the principal of which was the formation of a government after the style of the French Commune. He was astute and comparatively intelligent, and spoke theTagalogdialect well. For the carrying out of his plans he had agents in every nook and corner. No placewhereinformation might be gathered or the work of propaganda done, was over-looked. The offices of the Civil Government had their quota of his spies, as also did theIntendencia, theMaestraza de Artilleriaand the other large centers. Nor were the Convents and Colleges overlooked, nor eventhe big business Corporations.Bonifacio enjoyed an envied ascendancy over the lower classes and the ignorant. Like others of similar tendencies, Bonifacio knew how to exploit the “membership”. He was at one time treasurer of the Katipunan, and upon one occasion after the examination of the books by the president of the society Andrés was denounced as an exploiter, the accounts being found in a very bad condition. A series of mutual squabbles and insults passed between the president Roman Basa, and Bonifacio, the whole affair ending up in a re-election of officers, Bonifacio being chosen as president. This occurred towards the end of the year 1893.The vanity of Bonifacio was comparable only to that of Aguinaldo. Among the number of chief workers of the Katipunan was a certain Valenzuela, a doctor who had, according to his own confession, been forced into the membership by Bonifacio, on the strength of a “love” affair; he was given the choice of membership or death. He chose theformerbut later on resigned. Whilst a member he enjoyed a salary of 30 pesos a month as medical officer, but only with difficulty could he collect his pay. He claimedto have been exploited by Bonifacio who, whilst merely a porter, could thus have at his command the free services of a real doctor, spurning the services of the petty physicians which abound in Manila. Nor was this all. His own (Bonifacio’s) house having been burned down, he went, on the strength of this same “love” affair, to live in the house of the said doctor (see foot-note p. 48), taking with him his paramour, the doctor paying the greater part of the expenses thus incurred.At the time of the organization of the popular Supreme Councils, Bonifacio was chosen president of the Council of Trozo; but in consequence of internal troubles occasioned by his rebelliousness, the Supreme Council decided to dissolve the local Council. Bonifacio, true to his colors, disregarded this order and continued working on his own account, taking upon himself the faculties of the Supreme Council.He preserved in a case which was found in the warehouse of Messrs Fressel and Co., the organization of the “Filipino Republic” which was to be, as well as a number of regulations, codes, decrees of nominations, etc., all drawn up in Tagalog (see foot-note p. 49.)Upon the discovery, on the 19th of August 1896, by the Augustinian Padre fray Mariano Gil, parish priest of Tondo, of the plot of theKatipuneros, Bonifacio and his immediate assistants fled from Manila to Caloocan. From that point he sent orders to the provinces of Manila, Cavite and Nueva Ecija that a general rising should take place on the 30th of that month. These orders were given out of revenge for the failure of the blood-thirsty plot whereby every Spaniard, man, woman or child should share in the sufferings which his diseased brain had concocted for those who should fall into his hands. Bonifacio issued special orders concerning the Governor General, his plan being that he and the other Spanish authorities of any importance should be taken prisoners, but not killed, it being intended to hold their persons as security for the granting of their demands. He called together the members of the Junta Superior and nominated a general-in-chief, a general of division and other officials. These however refused to step into the places he had prepared for them and Bonifacio angered thereat threatened to have the head removed from the shoulders of anyone who dared to disobey him.The general-in-chief Teodoro Plata, a cousin of Bonifacio, fled during the night following his nomination, whereupon Bonifacio issued orders for his capture, commanding his death wherever he should be found.Sometime previous to this, about the month of May, Bonifacio sent Pio Valenzuela to Dapitan to hold a conference with Rizal concerning the convenience of immediate rebellion against Spain. Rizal would not consent to the projected revolt but opposed the idea most strenuously, being thrown into such a bad humor by the information he received of Bonifacio, that Valenzuela, who had gone to Dapitan intending to spend a month there, determined to return on the following day. On his return to Manila he recounted to Bonifacio the result of his mission. Bonifacio who knew Rizal’s influence over the people to be greater than his own, had been living in hopes of receiving Rizal’s consent which would be the surrendering to him of the whole responsibility and glory of the bloody enterprise. Bonifacio aspired to the absolute, like all the so-called leaders of the revolt; so when he realized the stand taken by Rizal, who was willing to wait patiently till the poison with which he had inoculatedthe people should work of itself, he flew into a rage like a spoilt child, declaring Rizal to be a coward and imposing upon Valenzuela, his messenger, implicit silence on this subject, prohibiting him from manifesting to anyone what he considered to be the bad exit of the consultation.No methods were too underhand for Bonifacio; to gain his end he lied to the people over whom he held sway as only aFilipinocan lie. On one occasion he affirmed that in Coregidor was a vessel loaded with arms and ammunition for the rebels, and by this means he animated them, a very necessary thing at that time, as they were but scantily armed with bolos and were no match against those they intended to assail.Taking him all in all, Bonifacio was a first class organizer for such an enterprise as that aimed at by the Katipunan, and upon his shoulders lies the weight of the greater part of the iniquities of the diabolical society. He ordered the outbreak and in askillfulmanner pulled the strings which worked the figures which formed the performers in the marionette revolution. He had rivals in the field however, the most powerful being Aguinaldo, the would bepresident of the mushroom republic. After the encounter at San Juan del Monte in which the insurgents suffered the loss of 95 killed and 42 taken prisoners in the first instance, and shortly afterwards of 200 more, Bonifacio escaped, carrying with him the funds of the Katipunan, some 20,000 pfs.17He was supposed to be in hiding in the mostinaccessibleparts of the mountains of San Mateo, in as much as he had told Pio Valenzuela that in case the movement were unsuccessful he had determined to retire to that point to devote himself to highway robbery18, to foot-padding, an idea gottenfrom some modern French novel probably. He worked his way eventually into Cavite, and, according to information gotten from Pedro Gonzalez, he fell into the disfavor of Aguinaldo who saw his own superiority in danger of being supplanted; thegeneralisimotherefore put a price upon his head19. A party was sent in search for the runaway and upon his capture he was subjected to most brutal treatment, and at last fell a victim to the unprincipled ambition of the Dictator.Had Bonifacio lived he would have made a splendid acquisition to the Partido Federal, he being a man who could, like many of the self-asserted leaders of to-day, plan and follow out any double-faced policy that might be needed under the circumstances.Note 17.This note not being ready at the time of the printing of the pages of this section, it has been reserved for note101, which see.Note 18.Domingo Franco y Tuason was a native of Mambusao, Province of Capiz. He was the president of the firstjuntacalled by Rizal in 1892 for the formation of the “Liga Filipina”. Till that time he was like many others of the same class almost unknown.Note 19.The character of the native: this is a subject upon which one might write many volumes without conveying to the minds of his readers more than a faint idea of what that strange character is.More mysterious than the most profound mystery of Religion, his most striking trait of character being a decidedtendencyto retrogression, the Malay stands out among the numerous divisions of the human family as a man with a marked propensity to the mysterious, to the prodigious. He is accustomed to give a blind obedience to his superiors and more so to his own caciques, he is docile as a general rule, and shows butlittle resentment to abusive language, although he will sometimes carefully guard theremembranceof some insignificant insult or blow, and take a cruel revenge, a thousand times greater than the injury he received, after a period, at times, of years. Other peculiarities of the native are his delight in gambling and cockfighting, his aversion to manual labor, his infantile but excessive vanity, his lack of the power of thought in matters of moment, his well developed imagination, his instability from all points of view and his liability to complete and radical changes. The average indian is to-day virtuous, honest and grateful for favors received, tomorrow he is vicious,thievingand shows an ingratitude not to be found even in the brute creation. This very marked trait of character may be found in many of theFilipinoswho have held and still hold some of the highest official positions in the islands.To sum up theFilipinoindian in a few words: he is inexplicable. There have been those who have spent their lives in the study of the indian, but in spite of all that man can do to study man, the problem remains unsolved. Only those “globe trotters”who have studied the native from themuchachowho waited upon them at the hotel at which they stayed during their few days visit, and thecocherowho had the honor of conducting suchsavantsto and from the Luneta, have so far been able to demonstrate what is this character which has puzzled men of common sense and lifelong experience, for centuries.Being by nature credulous, ignorant and superstitious, the indian fell an easy victim to the mysteries of freemasonry, which served him as are introduction to the semi-savage methods of the “Liga Filipina” and the barbarous practices of the Katipunan, thepacto-de-sangreof which, carried him back to the savage times of his remote ancestors who were drawn from their mountain and forest lairs and domesticated by the Religious Orders.Notes 20,21,22.The initiations, proofs, oaths etc., of Universal freemasonry were utilized by theFilipinolodges to serve as a ceremonial, a very essential thing to the success of any association among orientals. Nothing suited the taste of theFilipinobetter than the awe inspiring solemnity of his initiation.These ceremonies however fell into abuse, and by the time they becameutilizedby the Katipunan they had reached the verge of the grossest superstition andabsurdity.Note 23.The G∴ Cons∴ Reg∴ was installed in 1893. A masonic document bearing a seal “Gr∴ Consejo Regional de Filipinas. G∴ Secretaria”, and purporting to be a copy of two paragraphs from a letter of the illustrious bro∴ Kupang (Marcelo H. del Pilar) dated from Madrid on the 17th December 1894, says: “D. Miguel (Morayta) has a very poor opinion of the Reg∴ (Regional Council).... He says that this Council continues working well for some few months, at the end of which all the enthusiasm of the founders vanishes and.... Oh, if we could only by our acts give the lie to this pessimism. Morayta was the founder of the Council.Note 24.La Solidaridad was the official organ ofFilipinofreemasonry in all its branches. Although it was published in the peninsula its circulation was intended for the Philippines. Its editors were the leaders of the disaffection against the metropolisand stout advocates, indirectly, of an impossible independence. The chief aim of the paper was to mortify everything Spanish, and to this end its columns were continually full of seditious articles aimed, not merely at individuals but at the State. Its diatribes against the Government of the Metropolis were of the bitterest nature, and therefore but little publicity was given to the sheet in Madrid, where it was printed. It enjoyed no exchange with the periodicals of importance of the city, had no street sales, nor was it exposed for sale publicly. The libraries did not carry it on their tables and it never reached the hands of the public authorities. In fact the people of the official element know nothing of its existence.In the office of this bi-monthly paper was established a freemason lodge bearing the same name as the paper; all the members of the Association Hispano-Filipina became members of the lodge. Being the organ of masonry as well as of separatism it was introduced into the Archipelago and secured a free circulation in all parts of the principal islands where its calumnies against the Religious Orders had the effect of producing a decided effect upon the maintenanceof public order.The statement that the bi-monthly was founded by Pilar is erroneous; it was first published by Lopez Jaena in Barcelona where it enjoyed its enforced life till it reached its number 18, of October 1889, when it suddenly ceased publication on account of the seizure by the authorities of a number of incriminating documents and pamphlets. It recommenced publication in Madrid on the 15th of November of the same year. It was later on acquired by Pilar and Morayta.It was in reality a vent for the spleen of its writers against Spain and things Spanish; it was a precursor of theIndependencia20the official organ of the Revolution against the U. S., and of theLa Democraciaits daughter, the official organ of the Federal Party, the dregs of the old revolutionary government of Malolos.21Note 25.One of the first propagators ofFilipinomasonry was Sr. Centeno, Civil Governor of Manila, a man of anything but happy memory for this country22. Centeno and Quiroga Ballesteros worked hard to undermine the beneficial influence of the Clergy, an influence which was the safe-guard of law and order. Their most famous piece of work was the manifestation of ’88 against Archbishop Payo (See note2). In that manifestation was conceived the cry of sedition which was later on to ring throughout the archipelago and tear down the banner of the fatherland to replace it with the red flag of anarchy; a flag which well nigh brought the people of a would be independent country to the verge of political and moral destruction.Note 26.No sooner had Almighty God consummated the grand work of the creation, the culmination of which was the breathing into man of an immortal soul, than the devil, the father of evil, jealousofthe attributes given by God to man, made his bold attempt to destroy God’s immortal work. From that moment to this present thespirits of evil have carried on anunceasingwarfare against what has been for the glory of God. The Monastic Orders ever sincethedays of their birth have had to contend against these powers of evil; and there is therefore little necessity for surprise that those who were employed in such work as were the unscrupulous persons who came to the archipelago to sow ruin in the consciences of the people and scandal in society, should carry on a bitter campaign against the Religious Orders to whom was owing every jot and tittle of the civilization and culture enjoyed by theFilipinos. The Monastic Orders have ever been the bulwark of Christianity, and as such have had to bear the brunt of the battle. Europe owes the solid foundation of its political, social and religious life to the Religious Orders, which, during the ages in which the Huns, Goths and other barbarians overran and devastated those lands, hoarded up in the nooks and corners of their monastic dwellings the seed which, when afterwards sown, was to become the stout tree of civilization which should spread its sheltering branches to the four corners of the earth. One of these branches drawing itsfullnessof lifeandvigordirectly from the trunk, extended to these far off islands and, casting its shade over the embruted mankind here existing at that time, wrought a change over it no less marked than that wrought over the European peoples. From the day in which Father Urdaneta, that intrepid Augustinian, set foot upon Philippine soil,till the day upon which the hydra-headed Katipunan appeared in the land, the Monastic Orders have been the one great source of all that was really useful and beneficial to the inhabitants of the archipelago, although at times the moral interests of the people were not the commercial interests of the country.The “friar” so much slandered by those who wish to overthrow hisbeneficentinfluence, ever carried the banner of his country enlaced with the Cross of the Redeemer. He came to the Archipelago as a messenger of peace and order, and was the strongest supporter of the sovereignty of his nation. The “friar” was hated because he was the one who best knew and understood the indian, and from his intimate knowledge of hisparishioners, could the more easily detect anything on their part which tended to the detriment of theintegrityofthe Spanish sovereignty.Thecampaignagainst the Religious Orders was the attack of the battering-rams against the city to be captured. By piercing the wall the entry into the city could be the easier made; and this the separatist element well knew, hence all their efforts were directed against the stout wall which defended from its assaults the treasureofthe metropolis.For three hundred years the Philippines remained submitted to Spain exclusively by reason of the moral influence of the Clergy. Whilst the banner of Spain, floated over the Archipelago, the Religious formed the strongest guard for its protection; when it fell, strung by the ingratitude and treachery of those who had sworn to defend it to the last drop of their blood, and lay dishonored in the dust, it was the Religious who bowed his head in the deepest grief and who shed the bitterest tears. When the flag of the conquerer was hauled up to the height from which once gloriously floated the symbol of Spanish authority, the Religious, obedient to the commands of his superiors, withdrew to the solicitude of his convent, to await in patience, thepassing of the storm. He looks out upon the clouded political horizon, as Noah looked out from the window of the ark upon the vast sea of waters which hid from his view the fearfuldestructionwhich had overcome the world, patiently awaiting the time when he should, at God’s will, go forth to commence again the work of reconstruction.Often have I heard the opinion expressed that the Government’s worst enemy is the “friar”, that it is the “friar” who keeps alive the spirit of rebellion. Let thosewhothink thus, ponder over one small thought: what has the friar to gain in sustaining a rebellion which has caused him more moral and material damage, than has been caused to any other entity in the Philippines? To those who are able and willing to utilize the power of thought with which God has endowed them, it is sufficiently clear that the Religious has nothing to gain by such tactics, but, on the contrary, all to lose.In Spanish times the native enemies of the Religious Orders were the enemies of Spain and in these days, the enemy of the friar is by no means a real friend, whatever he may claim to be, of the Government ofof the U. S. The Spanish masons and theFilipinoseparatists found the friar to be the greatest obstacle to be encountered.“The friar,” wrote Governor D. Francisco Borrero, to Sr. Canovas, in a memoir concerning the Archipelago, “knowing the language, spirit, andtendenciesof the natives, is considered as the principal obstacle for the realization of the filibuster idea, and hence arises their aspiration (that of the enemies of Spain) that the Religious Orders should be eliminated, because such a step being taken, they believe they will have travelled half the journey....”The propaganda of Universal freemasonry, ofFilipinofreemasonry, of the Liga Filipina, of the Compromisarios, was aimed principally at the Religious Orders, but the results attained were but introductory to the real work of the Katipunan, which, finding itself cornered by the discovery of the plot it had concocted against the Government, showed its hand. Its aim was anti-Spanish and not merely anti-friar, as is sufficiently clear from the fact that in all the documents of the diabolical association it is death toall the Spaniards, and not to this or that class. Moreover in many cases the sameKatipuneros saved their parish priests from a sure death whilst they dealt out anything but kind treatment to those of the Civil Guard (Filipinos) and the Spanish troops who fell into their hands. The friars who were murdered by the rebels were not murdered for being friars but because they were Spaniards. The documents captured, the result of the trials held in judgement of persons guilty of treason, show clearly that the revolution was for the purpose of gaining the independence of the country from Spain, and not merely to bring about the expulsion of the Religious Orders. Aguinaldo, the leader of the Katipunanhordes, desired to send the friars who fell prisoners into his hands, over toHong-Kong, where they would be at liberty to return to their own country; but this merciful desire of his was overruled by his advisers, among whom were numbered Mabini his right hand man, Pardo de Tavera, Legarda and Buencamino, all three of them traitors to the cause of independence. To-day they stand in positions of honor, honor which they have done nothing to deserve, whilst Aguinaldo who was the tool of political schemers, their play-thing, is cast into disgrace and kept in thebackground, a scape-goat for the sins and shortcomings of men whose names disgrace the darkest pages of Philippine history.Note 27.Vast numbers of these documents were later on destroyed in the hope that certain affairs of an anti-patriotic nature might be hushed up, and many persons of a high official standing saved from scandal. Padre Mariano Gil, O. S. A., who made known to the public authorities the fearful plot of the Katipunan in time to prevent the brutal murder of hundreds of Spaniards, was granted certified copies of a large number (all the principal ones) of the documents and these have been since preserved with the greatest care, and remain to-day as a standing proof of the duplicity of many persons who live in ignorance of the fact of the existence of the said certified copies.Note 28.The element here spoken of was theFilipinocolony (all of themseparatists) and Morayta the “papa” of the saidFilipinosofseparatisttendencies.Note 29.This committee, although not exclusively masonic, wasessentiallyrevolutionary, and had for its duty the distribution of works of propaganda. Its delegate in Europe was Marcelo H. del Pilar.Note 30.See note26. The campaign at this present carried on by some of the filipino and Spanish papers, and, in contradiction to the fundamental principles of Americanism, by the local American press also, is but a sequel to the work of this committee of propaganda. The calumnies which are literally crammed into the columns of Manila’s English speaking daily and weekly press are but a poor reproduction of the vicious publications distributed throughout the archipelago since the year 1888. For fourteen years have these calumnies been published, but in spite of countless challenges, never have the statements brought forward been backed up with even the shadow of proof. When almighty God completed his creation by the making of man and woman, he led them to Eden, placing them under his law. Then it was that the devil beguiled them with lying words: “For God doth know that in that day that you shall eat thereof(of the forbidden fruit) your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as Gods knowing good and evil.” From that day to this, this same argument that the devil used to try to prove that God was withholding from the people what was to their benefit, is being to-day used by certain of the offspring of that evil spirit against the element of good, against the Religious Orders, the servants of God, claiming that they held from the people of this Archipelago that which was for their good and advancement. Adam and Eve found to their bitter cost that the devil lied: those who are to-day being misled by anti-friar calumny will make the same discovery in due time.Note 31.This statement is erroneous. The opinion of the author was formed from statements made by those charged with treason. Many of those under this charge gave false testimony, as was later on proved, and in that testimony implicated honorableFilipinoswho had never harbored such ideas in their hearts as those they wereaccusedof. Many of the wealthy element of Luzon and other islands of the group, were forced by threats and compromises into position they had nodesire to occupy. Of these the great majority were either insular Spaniards, that is sons of Spanish parents, but born in the Philippines, or they were Spanish mestizos or indians. Some 90% of the wealthy revolutionists wereChinesehalf-castes.Note 32.And at what a cost! Think of the thousands of hard earned dollars which went to swell the funds gathered to feed and clothe and to satisfy the fads and fancies of those exploiters. And what has the poor indian who provided the money gained in the deal? Four or five years of bloodshed and disaster he has surely gained; but what is of more importance to him is that he barely escaped falling into the hands of his own countrymen! He fell out of the frying-pan and almost fell into the fire!Note 33.The aspirations of the association were, to say the least, anti-patriotic; they were always underhand; they were the aspirations of the “Liga”, of the “Compromisarios” and of the Katipunan.Note 34.“In the following year, Pedro Serrano arrived from Spain and then was masonry introduced into the Philippines, the first lodge instituted being the “Nilad”23its first Venerable being José Ramos.” Testimony of Moises Salvador y Francisco (fol.1,138to1,143).According to the testimony of Antonio Salazar (fol.1,118to1,129) “In 1892 Pedro Serrano came from Spain and in union with José Ramos joined a lodge of peninsular Spaniards, and commenced the propaganda of masonry exclusively amongFilipinos, in a short time establishing the mother lodge known as theNilad... the number of members becoming excessive, other lodges were established in the suburbs....”Into this lodgeNilador the lodges formed therefrom, passed all the members of the committee of propaganda and of the local delegations, the work of the propaganda of masonry and that of separatism being carried on in the same lodge room. The plea that masonry had no connection with the Katipunan fails to stand good in face of thistestimony, added to which may be mentioned letters of M. del Pilar toLa Modestiaconcerning the organization and labors of separatism; as well as other letters, rich in masonic jargon, to the lodges and to individuals connected with the double work of propagating masonry and spreading among the people ideas of the basest of ingratitude.To the lodgeNilad, the Gr∴ Sec∴ of the Gr∴ Or∴ Esp∴ wrote from Madrid, June 8th 1892:
“I declare myself Catholic and in this religion in which I was born and educated I wish to live and die. I retract with all my heart all my words, writings and actions that have been contrary to my condition as a son of the Catholic Church. I believe and profess whatever She teaches and I submit to whatever She demands. I abominate masonry as an enemy of the Church and as a society condemned by the Church.“The diocesan prelate, as superior ecclesiastical authority, may make public this spontaneous manifestation, to make reparation for the scandals which may have been caused by my works, and that God and my fellow-men may pardon me.”“Manila 29th December 1896.—José Rizal.—Witnesses: Juan del Fresno, Chief of Picket.—Eloy Maure, Adjutant.”He also entered the holy bonds of matrimony with the young woman with whom he had been living for some time in Mindanao. On the way to the place of hisexecution he remarked to one of the Fathers who accompanied him.Father, it is my pride that has brought me here.”Of the political error committed by the Spanish Authorities in the execution of Rizal, I do not hold myself up as a judge. All governments, like human beings, commit mistakes and at times grave ones. The Spanish authorities, feeling themselves justified in so doing, ordered the execution of theprisonerwho was responsible for one of the most bloody revolts since the time of the French revolution: the pattern taken by theFilipinoleaders, for the means of the foundation of theFilipinorepublic. Rizal was executed on the Luneta. To assert that he was offered up as a victim to gratify the wishes of the Religious Orders is but a crude and vicious argument worthy of its inventors and propagators. Nothing, absolutely nothing, can be brought forward to prove such an assertion, but on the contrary, those members of the Religious Orders who concerned themselves in the stirring affairs of the revolution were, as a very general rule, opposed to harsh and extreme measures being taken; and among these was the Illustrious Archbishop of Manila,Sr. Nozaleda, a noble, tenderhearted and compassionate prelate,a prelate who has been dubbed by Foreman as “the blood-thirsty Archbishop”.Had the friars held the reins of government as they are stated to have done, history would not have to record the names of so many, many people whowereexecuted: people who were scarcely to be held as guilty, in as much as they were but sheep whothoughtlesslyfollowed their shepherds without even looking to see where the road they trod would lead them.In politics Rizal had his party composed of a number of insignificant petty-lawyers, petty-doctors and others possessing academic titles and a semi-formed cerebral power. These were backed by a mass of the people of Calamba, Rizal’s birthplace. In their eyes he was a “Messiah”,a “Mahdi”, their prophet and redeemer. As an individual he was bright and intelligent, and had he not been led astray by those who made a “cat’s paw” of him, and who cruelly deserted him in his hour of need, he would doubtless have been one of the foremostFilipinosof to-day in that sphere of life in which God had placed him.A Spanish proverb says:“In blind man’s land the one eyed man is a king.” Rizal was aking.Note 9.Marcelo Hilario del Pilar y Gatmaytan was a native of Bulacan. He was, by profession, a lawyer, and had been enabled to complete his studies in that direction through the good offices of the Augustinian Fathers of Manila, who had given him the money necessary to matriculate and to pay the cost of his title of “abogado.”9Pilar left Manila for thepeninsulaabout the end of ’88 for fear of deportation: a punishment at that time staring him in the face. He was one of the earliest workers on the “La Solidaridad”, the official organ ofFilipinofreemasonry in all its sections. He later on became its director.Pilar was another of the many malays whose ways were beyond human comprehension. Spaniards who have lived a life-time among the indians and studied them carefully from all points of view agree that the deeper one studies the native character the more incomprehensible it becomes. That is, the study of the average filipino: Pilar was one of the average. He was not gifted with the education enjoyed by Rizal, nor was he such a stupid visionary as Pedro Paterno; he possessed touches of the character of both.Like so many of thoseFilipinoswho fed at the hands of the Religious Orders, he eventually turned to bite the hand that fed him. As in the case of the others who had done the like, he did so, not because he had cause to, but because he fell, as did they, under the evil influence of those who utilized them to work out their schemes of treachery.Pilar was sent to Spain as a delegate of the Committee of propaganda. Owing to this position of chief of the delegation in Madrid, and by reason of his intimate friendship with Morayta, he occupied a position from which neither Rizal nor even the whole of theprogressiveindians combined, could drive him. He held, for some time, high office in the Gr∴ Or∴ Esp∴ as will be seen from the following clipping taken from page 107 of the Annual of that Orient for the year 1894–95.“GRAN CONS∴ DE LA ORDEN1894–1895Muy Ven. Gran Maestre PresidenteVen. H. Miguel Morayta y Sagrario, Gr∴ 33...................................Ven. Gran Orador AdjuntoV. Marcelo H. del Pilar Gr∴ 33” (h∴ Kupang)It was Pilar who conceived the plan ofthe Katipunan; and yet after all it was not his conception, for the scheme he formed was at the best, a piece of patch work made up of the plans worked out in the various revolutions which had taken place in some part of the world.What Pilar’s ambition was, it is hard to say; from his actions and writings one is almost driven to the supposition that he had none in particular, but was led to the separatist labors he performed by force of compromise.When the time was ripe for action Pilar determined to leave Madrid and make his way to Japan. He commenced the journey arriving at Barcelona, from whence he was to make his way east. There, however, he was taken suddenly ill, and died on the 4th of June 1896, in the Hospital of that city.In many things Pilar was superior to Rizal. Unlike that agitator, Pilar was not a sneaking, skulking petty-politician; he was straight-forward and had the courage of his opinions. What Pilar would have done if placed in the same circumstances as Rizal it is hard to say, but we may be assured that he would not have acted the coward as did Rizal.Note 10.Antonio and Juan Luna were two of four brothers. The former was abacteriologist, the latter an artist who at one time, whilst he followed the instruction, and remained under the guidance of his master, showed no little talent. Antonio went to Spain in ’88, and later on passed to Paris where he lived with his brother Juan who supported him. There he devoted himself to the study which made him famous; this he did in thelaboratoryof Dr. Roux. He became an assistant editor of theSolidaridad, the official organ of filipino freemasonry, and wrote many vicious articles in its columns over the pseudonym of Taga-Ilog.As a member of the freemason fraternity he was known as Gay Lussac.On his return to Manila he established, for a livelihood, a school of fencing, and like the vain, insensate “magpie in borrowed plumes” that he was, he once sent his seconds to a Spanish officer, inviting him to a duel!During the second half of the rebellion of ’96, Aguinaldo offered Antonio the position of director of the War Department with the grade of General of Brigade. This honor, however, he declined. TheIndependenciaspeaking on this incident, says:—“The military knowledge of Sr. Luna, acquired during his captivity (sic) in the prisons of thepeninsula(Spain), is to be found condensed in two small works, one concerning the organization of the army, having as its base the idea of obligatory service in which hedemonstratesthat Luzon might put on a war footing250,000to400,000men, and the whole archipelago as many as from800,000to900,000. The other work is a practical course in field fortifications as adopted by the French and German armies.”10Juan, from childhood, was of an artisticturn of mind and found among his many protectors those who sent him to Spain to study art. In Spain he met with Sr. Alejo Vera, a noteworthy artist, under whom he studied, receiving an exceptional education both in art and in morals, Sr. Vera being aChristiangentleman. Later on he went to Rome, and there formed part of the Spanish artistic colony. After some two or three years of study there he sent to Spain his first painting11. Being an artistic production of aFilipinoindian it was receivedwith open hands and given a reception greater than it really deserved, as a result of the influence of Luna’s friends. From Rome he went to Paris. It was in that city that he committed the fiendish double murder which so startled and shocked his friends and acquaintances, his victims being his wife and his mother-in-law, sister and mother of a prominent political aspirant of modern Manila. The result of the trial was that the courts of Justice of Paris absolved him. He then returned to Madrid, and soon after, to Manila.What Spain did for the Filipino broughtforth fruit in only a few of the people who fell under her beneficent christian influence. The Lunas were among the few. They, like so many other ungrateful children, repaid their benefactors by becoming leaders of the insensate and inexcusable revolt against them: a revolt, the first act of which was to be the brutal murder of all Spaniards irrespective of parentage or other claims of consideration. Both the brothers suffered arrest by the Spanish authorities for rebellionandsedition, but in spite of the degree to which they were complicated, they remained practically free from punishment, and ever at the right hand of the imbecile General Blanco, himself a freemason, and friend of the enemies of his country. Eventually the two brothers left theante-chamberof the Governor to enter the security of the military prison.Both brothers eventually retracted their errors only to fall into them again as soon as the lying protests of repentance had fallen from their lips.Juan died in Hong-Kong; Antonio, after a career of militarismsuccumbedto the same unprincipled ambition which carried Andrés Bonifacio to an untimely grave.Note 11.DoroteoCortés was banished by Governor Despujol in the year 1893, to the province of La Union where he founded in San Fernando, the Capital, aided by Arturo Dancel, the lodge “Rousseau” and two others in the pueblos of San Juan and Agoó. He was a lawyer and became the president of the committee of Propaganda which was formed with the idea of gathering pecuniaryresourcesfor covering the expense of the distribution of all classes of pamphletsandanti-Religious proclamations. He was at one time the president of the Superior Supreme Council of the Katipunan12, and received the funds collected for the payment of the expenses of the political commission sent to Japan to seek the aid and protection of that power. Cortés was a co-worker with Andrés Bonifacio and whilst the former devoted his efforts to the enlistment of people for the general rising throughout the country, thelatter continued his negotiations with Japan to the end of forcing some international struggle between Spain and that Power13. By order of the Superior Council Cortés went to Japan to join Ramos and aid in the purchase of arms.Shortly after his arrival he communicated by letter with Ambrosio Bautista informing him that he had seen and spoken on the subject with the Japanese ministers of State and of Foreign Affairs14, and that the said ministers “demanded guarantees” of the probable success of the undertaking before entering into the scheme. According to a statement ofIsabelo de los Reyes, Cortés was “the first person of means and position who came to the decision of attacking, in the Philippines, the Religious Corporations. He was the soul of the manifestation of ’88.” (SeeappendixB.) At the time of the American occupation of the Archipelago the Cortés family showed themselves friendly to the new sovereignty and aided in many ways the establishment of good feeling between the two peoples.Note 12.Pedro Serrano, symbolic name Panday-Pira, was a 24th degree mason. He was a school-master of the municipal school of Quiapo. After having done considerable work of propaganda in masonry he abjured it. He was the cause of the entry into the lodges of hundreds of indian and half-caste clerks, laborers, employees, petty merchants and others of all classes and employments. He was accused by hisfellowmasons of exploiting the society15and oftreason, of frequenting the Palace of the Archbishop and the College of San Juan de Letran, and of many things unbecoming a mason. In a document dated the 31st of March 1894, dispatched by the G∴ Cons∴ Reg∴ ofFilipinomasonry to the lodgeModestia,Serrano was denounced, and all masons were urged to flee from him. In the said document, a translation of which will be found in Appendix C, is poured forth the complaint of the president of the Gr∴ Cons∴ (h∴ Muza) of a leakage somewhere in the treasury in which were stored up the secrets of the treasonable labors being carried out in theFilipinolodges. By way of specific charges the president denouncesPanday-Pirabecause he had the courage to give vent to his opinions concerning the doings of theFilipinolodges, to a foreign mason; because he was known to have, for some reasonorother, visited the Archbishop’s palace and Dominican College; that he had demanded the possession of certain documents, threatening the possessors if they did not give them up, etc. etc. On this account he was denounced as a traitor and dubbed “reptile”, the pot calling the kettle black.Note 13.Morayta, the famous Don Miguel, the “papa” of the rebelliousFilipinos! It is an almost world-wide belief that the number 13 is an unlucky number.If this be so, thenMiguel Moraytawell deserves his name, for in it there arethirteenletters; the first letter of each word commences with thethirteenthletter of the alphabet and it happens also that this miserable individual falls to note 13. I will therefore complete the coincidence by saying all I have to say of this person in thirteen lines.Morayta was at one time Gr∴ Master of the Gr∴ Or∴ de España, but was later on expelled therefrom,according to a masonic publication. In 1888 he founded the Gr∴ Or∴ Español, the mother of the Katipunan. In 1890 he took over the proprietorship ofLa Solidaridadthen published by Marcelo del Pilar for separatist ends. Morayta was the idol of theFilipinostudents whosoughteducation in the Peninsula. Using him as a means towards an end they aimed at, they banquetted him and thus assiduously attacking his stomach they finally captured him.Note 14.Tagalog: The Tagalogs are a branch of the Malay family which, in former times, dominated from Madagascar to the ends of the Pacific. They form part of what we might call the Malay-Chinee race, i. e. the cross between the female on the Malay side and the Chinee on the side of the male. This cross has been taking place from time immemorial, commencing long before the islands were discovered by the Spanish explorers. The present Tagalog indian enjoys more of the characteristics of the Chinee than of the Malay on account of the potency of theChineeblood over theMalay.Going back to ancient times the probability is that the original Malay first became modified by its crossing with the inhabitants proper of the archipelago—theNegritos—marks of which mixture are stilldiscernibleinmanyof the Tagalogs.A second modification came through the mixture between the Malay-Negrito and the Indonesian, traces of which are seen in the light color of the skin in a portion, although small, of the Tagalogs. Another modification, the most marked, originated from the crossing of the Malay-Negrito-Indonesianwith the Chinee, theChineebeing marked by the increase in stature, the elevation of the skull and other minor marks.During the last three centuries this hybrid Tagalog has undergone another small and gradual change by reason of a limited crossing with Spanish blood. This latter mixture however is insignificant in extent but always produces a superior type. As a people the Tagalogs number about one and a half millions, and inhabit the regions around about Manila. The traits of character of the four principal trunks from which theTagalogof to-day is derived are, although still present in a greater or lesser degree, considerably modified by climatological and historical circumstances.At the coming of the Spaniards the Tagalogs, like the remaining native peoples of the archipelago, were met with in the depths of the savage ages, and were to a certain extent, of cannibalistic tendencies.TheaverageTagalog is not wanting in courage, a fact he has often displayed, but this courage is never seen to advantage except when the indian is under the leadership of a person of exceptional valor or a strict disciplinarian. Like most peoplesderived from the Malay stock, the Tagalog indian is subject to strange fits of mental aberration, the fits taking different forms, generally innocent ones, the worst being a homicide under theinfluenceof a “hot head”. At least that is what might have been said of him 8 or 10 years ago, previous to the time in which he became fanaticised by freemasonry.He is not even yet apt to runamokas is usual among the Malays and this is undoubtedly due to the civilizing religious influence which has been brought to bear upon him during the three centuries of Spanish rule in the Archipelago. It is a noteworthy fact that in the same degree as the influence of religion, of the Religious Orders if you will, becamelesser, in exactly equal degree did crime increase. Explain this as you will the fact remains that during the four years or so that the indian has been under the care and protection of a government indifferent to all religion, crime has increased a hundred fold, perhaps arithmetically so also, and crimes unheard of in days gone by, have become so common as scarcely to merit mention in the columnsofManila’s yellow journalism. What the Tagalogindian is equal to when free from the restraint of the Catholic religion, has been seen from the fearful crimes and barbarities committed against Spaniards and against Americans during the insurrection. The brutalitiescommittedupon the unfortunate prisoners who fell into their hands were unheard of even among the savageArabhordesof the Soudan, nor have the records of the ferocity of theChineseboxersyet told us of things equal to the fearful events which took place in the province of Cavite and elsewhere. And for all this the Tagalog indian is responsible: the Tagalog for whom Pedro Paterno claims a pre-Spanish civilization on the plan of the Aztec and ancient Peruvian indians. Like all oriental peoples the Tagalog is superstitious and loves demonstration, symbolism and things grotesque. About the only thing left to him of his ancientcivilizationas Paterno calls it,barbarismwe generally say, is his mythology. In it everything is more or less connected with spirits. Their faith in what they call theiranting anting16is unbreakable. Rizal was supposed tobe under the protection of theanting-antingbut the leadenmissileswhich took away his life carried away theanting-antingalso: and yet there are thousands upon thousands of indians, some of them men of enlightenment, who still cling to the belief that Rizal still lives, thanks to the influence of his protecting amulet. Nor didanting antingavail Aguinaldo who now probably believes far more in the protection of his American prison than in that offered by hisanting antingcharms.Their mythology has, like their ancient character, been greatly modified in the vast majority, by the influence of the civilization implanted by Spain. This is one point in which Spain has differed from most nations in methods of civilization and colonization. However we may judge her in respect to her colonial administration in the Philippines, we cannot deny that she has been distinguished from other nations by her aim of preserving the native races of the archipelago, the destruction consequent upon the radical change undergone in everything, being limited to the savage customs and immoralities in which the native peoples were found submerged.The masonic lodges spoken of in the text which were asked of Morayta, wereestablished, although they were not exclusively Tagalog in their membership. As a result of the petition of theFilipinocolony mentioned in the same text, the theories and practices of Masonry were carried to the Tagalogs but instead of the needy brethren being aided by the wealthy ones, they were subjected to a contribution inexchangefor which they received a gaudy regalia; in other words they were bought over with strings of beads and with tinsel truck as were the indians discovered by Capt. Cook in the South Sea Islands, with the exception that Capt. Cook and those who followed him carried civilization to the natives, whilst the founders of the Katipunan carried to the Tagalogs and the other indians of the archipelago misery and demoralization.Note 15.Faustino Villaruel Gomarawas a Spanish half-caste, a native of Pandaran, living in Binondo. He was the founder of the lodge “La Patria” of which he was also the Ven∴ Gr∴ Master with grade 18. He also founded a lodge of female freemasons, for the foundation of which hecommitted the nefarious crime of prostituting his daughter, handing her over, in the period of her innocence andcandor, to the ridiculous workings and practices of freemasonry. Rosario Villaruel (Minerva), thus sacrificed by her father, was initiated in Hong-Kong and made venerable of the first lodge of female masons in Manila, drawing in after her a large number of her half-caste friends, young folk of bare instruction. This lodge was known as “La Semilla”. Its composition was: Sisters: Carlota Zamora, of Calle Crespo; María Teresa Bordas, of Tabaco, province of Albay; Fabiana Robledo, wife of Sixto Celis; Lorenza Nepomuceno, of Calle San José, Trozo; Angelica Lopez, Calle Jolo; Narcisa Rizal; María Dizon, Calle Trozo, and other fanatic females.Villaruel was the Gr∴ Oriente of filipino masonry, a deluded fanatic, a man of but scarce intellectual endowments, an instrument of those who knew more and were shrewder than he. By laying hands upon him the Spanish Authorities laid hands also upon a large number of incriminating documents which were the means of connecting many prominent business men of Manila with thebloody programme of the Katipunan. Among these was Francisco L. Roxas.Besides these documents were a large number of loose papers writteninTagalog, in which were discovered many threatening phrases and the expression of hopes in the success of an event to take place in the near future. Masks and other masonic implements, including a heavily made and sharply pointed dagger were also discovered.Previous to suffering thepenaltyof his treason he made and signed a public abjuration, for the copy of which see Appendix E.Note 16.Andrés Bonifacio was the soul of the Katipunan movement; he was the President of the “Council of Ministers of the Supreme Popular Council.” His social condition was of a low grade, that grade from which many of the most fanatical pseudo-reformers have come; he was a warehouseman, a porter. In this capacity he was employed in the establishment of Messrs Fressel and Co., and was one of the humblest of the employees.Bonifacio was, however, very vain and quixotic. He was, too, a man of sanguinary character, and held the people over whomhe attained ascendancy, in awe. His ambition was the cause of his ignominious downfall and brutal murder at the hands of another self-asserted dictator of the filipino Commune. Like most of his kind, he was a great reader, and by those who knew him best he was likened to Don Quixote, for like that worthy he passed many a night burning away oil and candles, and sacrificing needed sleep in reading, until his brain was turned and his whole mind given up to ideas of revolutions. His favorite study was the French Revolution, from the which he learned many lessons which he utilized in his projects, the principal of which was the formation of a government after the style of the French Commune. He was astute and comparatively intelligent, and spoke theTagalogdialect well. For the carrying out of his plans he had agents in every nook and corner. No placewhereinformation might be gathered or the work of propaganda done, was over-looked. The offices of the Civil Government had their quota of his spies, as also did theIntendencia, theMaestraza de Artilleriaand the other large centers. Nor were the Convents and Colleges overlooked, nor eventhe big business Corporations.Bonifacio enjoyed an envied ascendancy over the lower classes and the ignorant. Like others of similar tendencies, Bonifacio knew how to exploit the “membership”. He was at one time treasurer of the Katipunan, and upon one occasion after the examination of the books by the president of the society Andrés was denounced as an exploiter, the accounts being found in a very bad condition. A series of mutual squabbles and insults passed between the president Roman Basa, and Bonifacio, the whole affair ending up in a re-election of officers, Bonifacio being chosen as president. This occurred towards the end of the year 1893.The vanity of Bonifacio was comparable only to that of Aguinaldo. Among the number of chief workers of the Katipunan was a certain Valenzuela, a doctor who had, according to his own confession, been forced into the membership by Bonifacio, on the strength of a “love” affair; he was given the choice of membership or death. He chose theformerbut later on resigned. Whilst a member he enjoyed a salary of 30 pesos a month as medical officer, but only with difficulty could he collect his pay. He claimedto have been exploited by Bonifacio who, whilst merely a porter, could thus have at his command the free services of a real doctor, spurning the services of the petty physicians which abound in Manila. Nor was this all. His own (Bonifacio’s) house having been burned down, he went, on the strength of this same “love” affair, to live in the house of the said doctor (see foot-note p. 48), taking with him his paramour, the doctor paying the greater part of the expenses thus incurred.At the time of the organization of the popular Supreme Councils, Bonifacio was chosen president of the Council of Trozo; but in consequence of internal troubles occasioned by his rebelliousness, the Supreme Council decided to dissolve the local Council. Bonifacio, true to his colors, disregarded this order and continued working on his own account, taking upon himself the faculties of the Supreme Council.He preserved in a case which was found in the warehouse of Messrs Fressel and Co., the organization of the “Filipino Republic” which was to be, as well as a number of regulations, codes, decrees of nominations, etc., all drawn up in Tagalog (see foot-note p. 49.)Upon the discovery, on the 19th of August 1896, by the Augustinian Padre fray Mariano Gil, parish priest of Tondo, of the plot of theKatipuneros, Bonifacio and his immediate assistants fled from Manila to Caloocan. From that point he sent orders to the provinces of Manila, Cavite and Nueva Ecija that a general rising should take place on the 30th of that month. These orders were given out of revenge for the failure of the blood-thirsty plot whereby every Spaniard, man, woman or child should share in the sufferings which his diseased brain had concocted for those who should fall into his hands. Bonifacio issued special orders concerning the Governor General, his plan being that he and the other Spanish authorities of any importance should be taken prisoners, but not killed, it being intended to hold their persons as security for the granting of their demands. He called together the members of the Junta Superior and nominated a general-in-chief, a general of division and other officials. These however refused to step into the places he had prepared for them and Bonifacio angered thereat threatened to have the head removed from the shoulders of anyone who dared to disobey him.The general-in-chief Teodoro Plata, a cousin of Bonifacio, fled during the night following his nomination, whereupon Bonifacio issued orders for his capture, commanding his death wherever he should be found.Sometime previous to this, about the month of May, Bonifacio sent Pio Valenzuela to Dapitan to hold a conference with Rizal concerning the convenience of immediate rebellion against Spain. Rizal would not consent to the projected revolt but opposed the idea most strenuously, being thrown into such a bad humor by the information he received of Bonifacio, that Valenzuela, who had gone to Dapitan intending to spend a month there, determined to return on the following day. On his return to Manila he recounted to Bonifacio the result of his mission. Bonifacio who knew Rizal’s influence over the people to be greater than his own, had been living in hopes of receiving Rizal’s consent which would be the surrendering to him of the whole responsibility and glory of the bloody enterprise. Bonifacio aspired to the absolute, like all the so-called leaders of the revolt; so when he realized the stand taken by Rizal, who was willing to wait patiently till the poison with which he had inoculatedthe people should work of itself, he flew into a rage like a spoilt child, declaring Rizal to be a coward and imposing upon Valenzuela, his messenger, implicit silence on this subject, prohibiting him from manifesting to anyone what he considered to be the bad exit of the consultation.No methods were too underhand for Bonifacio; to gain his end he lied to the people over whom he held sway as only aFilipinocan lie. On one occasion he affirmed that in Coregidor was a vessel loaded with arms and ammunition for the rebels, and by this means he animated them, a very necessary thing at that time, as they were but scantily armed with bolos and were no match against those they intended to assail.Taking him all in all, Bonifacio was a first class organizer for such an enterprise as that aimed at by the Katipunan, and upon his shoulders lies the weight of the greater part of the iniquities of the diabolical society. He ordered the outbreak and in askillfulmanner pulled the strings which worked the figures which formed the performers in the marionette revolution. He had rivals in the field however, the most powerful being Aguinaldo, the would bepresident of the mushroom republic. After the encounter at San Juan del Monte in which the insurgents suffered the loss of 95 killed and 42 taken prisoners in the first instance, and shortly afterwards of 200 more, Bonifacio escaped, carrying with him the funds of the Katipunan, some 20,000 pfs.17He was supposed to be in hiding in the mostinaccessibleparts of the mountains of San Mateo, in as much as he had told Pio Valenzuela that in case the movement were unsuccessful he had determined to retire to that point to devote himself to highway robbery18, to foot-padding, an idea gottenfrom some modern French novel probably. He worked his way eventually into Cavite, and, according to information gotten from Pedro Gonzalez, he fell into the disfavor of Aguinaldo who saw his own superiority in danger of being supplanted; thegeneralisimotherefore put a price upon his head19. A party was sent in search for the runaway and upon his capture he was subjected to most brutal treatment, and at last fell a victim to the unprincipled ambition of the Dictator.Had Bonifacio lived he would have made a splendid acquisition to the Partido Federal, he being a man who could, like many of the self-asserted leaders of to-day, plan and follow out any double-faced policy that might be needed under the circumstances.Note 17.This note not being ready at the time of the printing of the pages of this section, it has been reserved for note101, which see.Note 18.Domingo Franco y Tuason was a native of Mambusao, Province of Capiz. He was the president of the firstjuntacalled by Rizal in 1892 for the formation of the “Liga Filipina”. Till that time he was like many others of the same class almost unknown.Note 19.The character of the native: this is a subject upon which one might write many volumes without conveying to the minds of his readers more than a faint idea of what that strange character is.More mysterious than the most profound mystery of Religion, his most striking trait of character being a decidedtendencyto retrogression, the Malay stands out among the numerous divisions of the human family as a man with a marked propensity to the mysterious, to the prodigious. He is accustomed to give a blind obedience to his superiors and more so to his own caciques, he is docile as a general rule, and shows butlittle resentment to abusive language, although he will sometimes carefully guard theremembranceof some insignificant insult or blow, and take a cruel revenge, a thousand times greater than the injury he received, after a period, at times, of years. Other peculiarities of the native are his delight in gambling and cockfighting, his aversion to manual labor, his infantile but excessive vanity, his lack of the power of thought in matters of moment, his well developed imagination, his instability from all points of view and his liability to complete and radical changes. The average indian is to-day virtuous, honest and grateful for favors received, tomorrow he is vicious,thievingand shows an ingratitude not to be found even in the brute creation. This very marked trait of character may be found in many of theFilipinoswho have held and still hold some of the highest official positions in the islands.To sum up theFilipinoindian in a few words: he is inexplicable. There have been those who have spent their lives in the study of the indian, but in spite of all that man can do to study man, the problem remains unsolved. Only those “globe trotters”who have studied the native from themuchachowho waited upon them at the hotel at which they stayed during their few days visit, and thecocherowho had the honor of conducting suchsavantsto and from the Luneta, have so far been able to demonstrate what is this character which has puzzled men of common sense and lifelong experience, for centuries.Being by nature credulous, ignorant and superstitious, the indian fell an easy victim to the mysteries of freemasonry, which served him as are introduction to the semi-savage methods of the “Liga Filipina” and the barbarous practices of the Katipunan, thepacto-de-sangreof which, carried him back to the savage times of his remote ancestors who were drawn from their mountain and forest lairs and domesticated by the Religious Orders.Notes 20,21,22.The initiations, proofs, oaths etc., of Universal freemasonry were utilized by theFilipinolodges to serve as a ceremonial, a very essential thing to the success of any association among orientals. Nothing suited the taste of theFilipinobetter than the awe inspiring solemnity of his initiation.These ceremonies however fell into abuse, and by the time they becameutilizedby the Katipunan they had reached the verge of the grossest superstition andabsurdity.Note 23.The G∴ Cons∴ Reg∴ was installed in 1893. A masonic document bearing a seal “Gr∴ Consejo Regional de Filipinas. G∴ Secretaria”, and purporting to be a copy of two paragraphs from a letter of the illustrious bro∴ Kupang (Marcelo H. del Pilar) dated from Madrid on the 17th December 1894, says: “D. Miguel (Morayta) has a very poor opinion of the Reg∴ (Regional Council).... He says that this Council continues working well for some few months, at the end of which all the enthusiasm of the founders vanishes and.... Oh, if we could only by our acts give the lie to this pessimism. Morayta was the founder of the Council.Note 24.La Solidaridad was the official organ ofFilipinofreemasonry in all its branches. Although it was published in the peninsula its circulation was intended for the Philippines. Its editors were the leaders of the disaffection against the metropolisand stout advocates, indirectly, of an impossible independence. The chief aim of the paper was to mortify everything Spanish, and to this end its columns were continually full of seditious articles aimed, not merely at individuals but at the State. Its diatribes against the Government of the Metropolis were of the bitterest nature, and therefore but little publicity was given to the sheet in Madrid, where it was printed. It enjoyed no exchange with the periodicals of importance of the city, had no street sales, nor was it exposed for sale publicly. The libraries did not carry it on their tables and it never reached the hands of the public authorities. In fact the people of the official element know nothing of its existence.In the office of this bi-monthly paper was established a freemason lodge bearing the same name as the paper; all the members of the Association Hispano-Filipina became members of the lodge. Being the organ of masonry as well as of separatism it was introduced into the Archipelago and secured a free circulation in all parts of the principal islands where its calumnies against the Religious Orders had the effect of producing a decided effect upon the maintenanceof public order.The statement that the bi-monthly was founded by Pilar is erroneous; it was first published by Lopez Jaena in Barcelona where it enjoyed its enforced life till it reached its number 18, of October 1889, when it suddenly ceased publication on account of the seizure by the authorities of a number of incriminating documents and pamphlets. It recommenced publication in Madrid on the 15th of November of the same year. It was later on acquired by Pilar and Morayta.It was in reality a vent for the spleen of its writers against Spain and things Spanish; it was a precursor of theIndependencia20the official organ of the Revolution against the U. S., and of theLa Democraciaits daughter, the official organ of the Federal Party, the dregs of the old revolutionary government of Malolos.21Note 25.One of the first propagators ofFilipinomasonry was Sr. Centeno, Civil Governor of Manila, a man of anything but happy memory for this country22. Centeno and Quiroga Ballesteros worked hard to undermine the beneficial influence of the Clergy, an influence which was the safe-guard of law and order. Their most famous piece of work was the manifestation of ’88 against Archbishop Payo (See note2). In that manifestation was conceived the cry of sedition which was later on to ring throughout the archipelago and tear down the banner of the fatherland to replace it with the red flag of anarchy; a flag which well nigh brought the people of a would be independent country to the verge of political and moral destruction.Note 26.No sooner had Almighty God consummated the grand work of the creation, the culmination of which was the breathing into man of an immortal soul, than the devil, the father of evil, jealousofthe attributes given by God to man, made his bold attempt to destroy God’s immortal work. From that moment to this present thespirits of evil have carried on anunceasingwarfare against what has been for the glory of God. The Monastic Orders ever sincethedays of their birth have had to contend against these powers of evil; and there is therefore little necessity for surprise that those who were employed in such work as were the unscrupulous persons who came to the archipelago to sow ruin in the consciences of the people and scandal in society, should carry on a bitter campaign against the Religious Orders to whom was owing every jot and tittle of the civilization and culture enjoyed by theFilipinos. The Monastic Orders have ever been the bulwark of Christianity, and as such have had to bear the brunt of the battle. Europe owes the solid foundation of its political, social and religious life to the Religious Orders, which, during the ages in which the Huns, Goths and other barbarians overran and devastated those lands, hoarded up in the nooks and corners of their monastic dwellings the seed which, when afterwards sown, was to become the stout tree of civilization which should spread its sheltering branches to the four corners of the earth. One of these branches drawing itsfullnessof lifeandvigordirectly from the trunk, extended to these far off islands and, casting its shade over the embruted mankind here existing at that time, wrought a change over it no less marked than that wrought over the European peoples. From the day in which Father Urdaneta, that intrepid Augustinian, set foot upon Philippine soil,till the day upon which the hydra-headed Katipunan appeared in the land, the Monastic Orders have been the one great source of all that was really useful and beneficial to the inhabitants of the archipelago, although at times the moral interests of the people were not the commercial interests of the country.The “friar” so much slandered by those who wish to overthrow hisbeneficentinfluence, ever carried the banner of his country enlaced with the Cross of the Redeemer. He came to the Archipelago as a messenger of peace and order, and was the strongest supporter of the sovereignty of his nation. The “friar” was hated because he was the one who best knew and understood the indian, and from his intimate knowledge of hisparishioners, could the more easily detect anything on their part which tended to the detriment of theintegrityofthe Spanish sovereignty.Thecampaignagainst the Religious Orders was the attack of the battering-rams against the city to be captured. By piercing the wall the entry into the city could be the easier made; and this the separatist element well knew, hence all their efforts were directed against the stout wall which defended from its assaults the treasureofthe metropolis.For three hundred years the Philippines remained submitted to Spain exclusively by reason of the moral influence of the Clergy. Whilst the banner of Spain, floated over the Archipelago, the Religious formed the strongest guard for its protection; when it fell, strung by the ingratitude and treachery of those who had sworn to defend it to the last drop of their blood, and lay dishonored in the dust, it was the Religious who bowed his head in the deepest grief and who shed the bitterest tears. When the flag of the conquerer was hauled up to the height from which once gloriously floated the symbol of Spanish authority, the Religious, obedient to the commands of his superiors, withdrew to the solicitude of his convent, to await in patience, thepassing of the storm. He looks out upon the clouded political horizon, as Noah looked out from the window of the ark upon the vast sea of waters which hid from his view the fearfuldestructionwhich had overcome the world, patiently awaiting the time when he should, at God’s will, go forth to commence again the work of reconstruction.Often have I heard the opinion expressed that the Government’s worst enemy is the “friar”, that it is the “friar” who keeps alive the spirit of rebellion. Let thosewhothink thus, ponder over one small thought: what has the friar to gain in sustaining a rebellion which has caused him more moral and material damage, than has been caused to any other entity in the Philippines? To those who are able and willing to utilize the power of thought with which God has endowed them, it is sufficiently clear that the Religious has nothing to gain by such tactics, but, on the contrary, all to lose.In Spanish times the native enemies of the Religious Orders were the enemies of Spain and in these days, the enemy of the friar is by no means a real friend, whatever he may claim to be, of the Government ofof the U. S. The Spanish masons and theFilipinoseparatists found the friar to be the greatest obstacle to be encountered.“The friar,” wrote Governor D. Francisco Borrero, to Sr. Canovas, in a memoir concerning the Archipelago, “knowing the language, spirit, andtendenciesof the natives, is considered as the principal obstacle for the realization of the filibuster idea, and hence arises their aspiration (that of the enemies of Spain) that the Religious Orders should be eliminated, because such a step being taken, they believe they will have travelled half the journey....”The propaganda of Universal freemasonry, ofFilipinofreemasonry, of the Liga Filipina, of the Compromisarios, was aimed principally at the Religious Orders, but the results attained were but introductory to the real work of the Katipunan, which, finding itself cornered by the discovery of the plot it had concocted against the Government, showed its hand. Its aim was anti-Spanish and not merely anti-friar, as is sufficiently clear from the fact that in all the documents of the diabolical association it is death toall the Spaniards, and not to this or that class. Moreover in many cases the sameKatipuneros saved their parish priests from a sure death whilst they dealt out anything but kind treatment to those of the Civil Guard (Filipinos) and the Spanish troops who fell into their hands. The friars who were murdered by the rebels were not murdered for being friars but because they were Spaniards. The documents captured, the result of the trials held in judgement of persons guilty of treason, show clearly that the revolution was for the purpose of gaining the independence of the country from Spain, and not merely to bring about the expulsion of the Religious Orders. Aguinaldo, the leader of the Katipunanhordes, desired to send the friars who fell prisoners into his hands, over toHong-Kong, where they would be at liberty to return to their own country; but this merciful desire of his was overruled by his advisers, among whom were numbered Mabini his right hand man, Pardo de Tavera, Legarda and Buencamino, all three of them traitors to the cause of independence. To-day they stand in positions of honor, honor which they have done nothing to deserve, whilst Aguinaldo who was the tool of political schemers, their play-thing, is cast into disgrace and kept in thebackground, a scape-goat for the sins and shortcomings of men whose names disgrace the darkest pages of Philippine history.Note 27.Vast numbers of these documents were later on destroyed in the hope that certain affairs of an anti-patriotic nature might be hushed up, and many persons of a high official standing saved from scandal. Padre Mariano Gil, O. S. A., who made known to the public authorities the fearful plot of the Katipunan in time to prevent the brutal murder of hundreds of Spaniards, was granted certified copies of a large number (all the principal ones) of the documents and these have been since preserved with the greatest care, and remain to-day as a standing proof of the duplicity of many persons who live in ignorance of the fact of the existence of the said certified copies.Note 28.The element here spoken of was theFilipinocolony (all of themseparatists) and Morayta the “papa” of the saidFilipinosofseparatisttendencies.Note 29.This committee, although not exclusively masonic, wasessentiallyrevolutionary, and had for its duty the distribution of works of propaganda. Its delegate in Europe was Marcelo H. del Pilar.Note 30.See note26. The campaign at this present carried on by some of the filipino and Spanish papers, and, in contradiction to the fundamental principles of Americanism, by the local American press also, is but a sequel to the work of this committee of propaganda. The calumnies which are literally crammed into the columns of Manila’s English speaking daily and weekly press are but a poor reproduction of the vicious publications distributed throughout the archipelago since the year 1888. For fourteen years have these calumnies been published, but in spite of countless challenges, never have the statements brought forward been backed up with even the shadow of proof. When almighty God completed his creation by the making of man and woman, he led them to Eden, placing them under his law. Then it was that the devil beguiled them with lying words: “For God doth know that in that day that you shall eat thereof(of the forbidden fruit) your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as Gods knowing good and evil.” From that day to this, this same argument that the devil used to try to prove that God was withholding from the people what was to their benefit, is being to-day used by certain of the offspring of that evil spirit against the element of good, against the Religious Orders, the servants of God, claiming that they held from the people of this Archipelago that which was for their good and advancement. Adam and Eve found to their bitter cost that the devil lied: those who are to-day being misled by anti-friar calumny will make the same discovery in due time.Note 31.This statement is erroneous. The opinion of the author was formed from statements made by those charged with treason. Many of those under this charge gave false testimony, as was later on proved, and in that testimony implicated honorableFilipinoswho had never harbored such ideas in their hearts as those they wereaccusedof. Many of the wealthy element of Luzon and other islands of the group, were forced by threats and compromises into position they had nodesire to occupy. Of these the great majority were either insular Spaniards, that is sons of Spanish parents, but born in the Philippines, or they were Spanish mestizos or indians. Some 90% of the wealthy revolutionists wereChinesehalf-castes.Note 32.And at what a cost! Think of the thousands of hard earned dollars which went to swell the funds gathered to feed and clothe and to satisfy the fads and fancies of those exploiters. And what has the poor indian who provided the money gained in the deal? Four or five years of bloodshed and disaster he has surely gained; but what is of more importance to him is that he barely escaped falling into the hands of his own countrymen! He fell out of the frying-pan and almost fell into the fire!Note 33.The aspirations of the association were, to say the least, anti-patriotic; they were always underhand; they were the aspirations of the “Liga”, of the “Compromisarios” and of the Katipunan.Note 34.“In the following year, Pedro Serrano arrived from Spain and then was masonry introduced into the Philippines, the first lodge instituted being the “Nilad”23its first Venerable being José Ramos.” Testimony of Moises Salvador y Francisco (fol.1,138to1,143).According to the testimony of Antonio Salazar (fol.1,118to1,129) “In 1892 Pedro Serrano came from Spain and in union with José Ramos joined a lodge of peninsular Spaniards, and commenced the propaganda of masonry exclusively amongFilipinos, in a short time establishing the mother lodge known as theNilad... the number of members becoming excessive, other lodges were established in the suburbs....”Into this lodgeNilador the lodges formed therefrom, passed all the members of the committee of propaganda and of the local delegations, the work of the propaganda of masonry and that of separatism being carried on in the same lodge room. The plea that masonry had no connection with the Katipunan fails to stand good in face of thistestimony, added to which may be mentioned letters of M. del Pilar toLa Modestiaconcerning the organization and labors of separatism; as well as other letters, rich in masonic jargon, to the lodges and to individuals connected with the double work of propagating masonry and spreading among the people ideas of the basest of ingratitude.To the lodgeNilad, the Gr∴ Sec∴ of the Gr∴ Or∴ Esp∴ wrote from Madrid, June 8th 1892:
“I declare myself Catholic and in this religion in which I was born and educated I wish to live and die. I retract with all my heart all my words, writings and actions that have been contrary to my condition as a son of the Catholic Church. I believe and profess whatever She teaches and I submit to whatever She demands. I abominate masonry as an enemy of the Church and as a society condemned by the Church.“The diocesan prelate, as superior ecclesiastical authority, may make public this spontaneous manifestation, to make reparation for the scandals which may have been caused by my works, and that God and my fellow-men may pardon me.”“Manila 29th December 1896.—José Rizal.—Witnesses: Juan del Fresno, Chief of Picket.—Eloy Maure, Adjutant.”
“I declare myself Catholic and in this religion in which I was born and educated I wish to live and die. I retract with all my heart all my words, writings and actions that have been contrary to my condition as a son of the Catholic Church. I believe and profess whatever She teaches and I submit to whatever She demands. I abominate masonry as an enemy of the Church and as a society condemned by the Church.
“The diocesan prelate, as superior ecclesiastical authority, may make public this spontaneous manifestation, to make reparation for the scandals which may have been caused by my works, and that God and my fellow-men may pardon me.”
“Manila 29th December 1896.—José Rizal.—Witnesses: Juan del Fresno, Chief of Picket.—Eloy Maure, Adjutant.”
He also entered the holy bonds of matrimony with the young woman with whom he had been living for some time in Mindanao. On the way to the place of hisexecution he remarked to one of the Fathers who accompanied him.Father, it is my pride that has brought me here.”
Of the political error committed by the Spanish Authorities in the execution of Rizal, I do not hold myself up as a judge. All governments, like human beings, commit mistakes and at times grave ones. The Spanish authorities, feeling themselves justified in so doing, ordered the execution of theprisonerwho was responsible for one of the most bloody revolts since the time of the French revolution: the pattern taken by theFilipinoleaders, for the means of the foundation of theFilipinorepublic. Rizal was executed on the Luneta. To assert that he was offered up as a victim to gratify the wishes of the Religious Orders is but a crude and vicious argument worthy of its inventors and propagators. Nothing, absolutely nothing, can be brought forward to prove such an assertion, but on the contrary, those members of the Religious Orders who concerned themselves in the stirring affairs of the revolution were, as a very general rule, opposed to harsh and extreme measures being taken; and among these was the Illustrious Archbishop of Manila,Sr. Nozaleda, a noble, tenderhearted and compassionate prelate,a prelate who has been dubbed by Foreman as “the blood-thirsty Archbishop”.Had the friars held the reins of government as they are stated to have done, history would not have to record the names of so many, many people whowereexecuted: people who were scarcely to be held as guilty, in as much as they were but sheep whothoughtlesslyfollowed their shepherds without even looking to see where the road they trod would lead them.
In politics Rizal had his party composed of a number of insignificant petty-lawyers, petty-doctors and others possessing academic titles and a semi-formed cerebral power. These were backed by a mass of the people of Calamba, Rizal’s birthplace. In their eyes he was a “Messiah”,a “Mahdi”, their prophet and redeemer. As an individual he was bright and intelligent, and had he not been led astray by those who made a “cat’s paw” of him, and who cruelly deserted him in his hour of need, he would doubtless have been one of the foremostFilipinosof to-day in that sphere of life in which God had placed him.
A Spanish proverb says:“In blind man’s land the one eyed man is a king.” Rizal was aking.
Note 9.Marcelo Hilario del Pilar y Gatmaytan was a native of Bulacan. He was, by profession, a lawyer, and had been enabled to complete his studies in that direction through the good offices of the Augustinian Fathers of Manila, who had given him the money necessary to matriculate and to pay the cost of his title of “abogado.”9
Pilar left Manila for thepeninsulaabout the end of ’88 for fear of deportation: a punishment at that time staring him in the face. He was one of the earliest workers on the “La Solidaridad”, the official organ ofFilipinofreemasonry in all its sections. He later on became its director.
Pilar was another of the many malays whose ways were beyond human comprehension. Spaniards who have lived a life-time among the indians and studied them carefully from all points of view agree that the deeper one studies the native character the more incomprehensible it becomes. That is, the study of the average filipino: Pilar was one of the average. He was not gifted with the education enjoyed by Rizal, nor was he such a stupid visionary as Pedro Paterno; he possessed touches of the character of both.
Like so many of thoseFilipinoswho fed at the hands of the Religious Orders, he eventually turned to bite the hand that fed him. As in the case of the others who had done the like, he did so, not because he had cause to, but because he fell, as did they, under the evil influence of those who utilized them to work out their schemes of treachery.
Pilar was sent to Spain as a delegate of the Committee of propaganda. Owing to this position of chief of the delegation in Madrid, and by reason of his intimate friendship with Morayta, he occupied a position from which neither Rizal nor even the whole of theprogressiveindians combined, could drive him. He held, for some time, high office in the Gr∴ Or∴ Esp∴ as will be seen from the following clipping taken from page 107 of the Annual of that Orient for the year 1894–95.
“GRAN CONS∴ DE LA ORDEN1894–1895Muy Ven. Gran Maestre PresidenteVen. H. Miguel Morayta y Sagrario, Gr∴ 33...................................Ven. Gran Orador AdjuntoV. Marcelo H. del Pilar Gr∴ 33” (h∴ Kupang)
“GRAN CONS∴ DE LA ORDEN1894–1895Muy Ven. Gran Maestre PresidenteVen. H. Miguel Morayta y Sagrario, Gr∴ 33...................................Ven. Gran Orador AdjuntoV. Marcelo H. del Pilar Gr∴ 33” (h∴ Kupang)
It was Pilar who conceived the plan ofthe Katipunan; and yet after all it was not his conception, for the scheme he formed was at the best, a piece of patch work made up of the plans worked out in the various revolutions which had taken place in some part of the world.
What Pilar’s ambition was, it is hard to say; from his actions and writings one is almost driven to the supposition that he had none in particular, but was led to the separatist labors he performed by force of compromise.
When the time was ripe for action Pilar determined to leave Madrid and make his way to Japan. He commenced the journey arriving at Barcelona, from whence he was to make his way east. There, however, he was taken suddenly ill, and died on the 4th of June 1896, in the Hospital of that city.
In many things Pilar was superior to Rizal. Unlike that agitator, Pilar was not a sneaking, skulking petty-politician; he was straight-forward and had the courage of his opinions. What Pilar would have done if placed in the same circumstances as Rizal it is hard to say, but we may be assured that he would not have acted the coward as did Rizal.
Note 10.Antonio and Juan Luna were two of four brothers. The former was abacteriologist, the latter an artist who at one time, whilst he followed the instruction, and remained under the guidance of his master, showed no little talent. Antonio went to Spain in ’88, and later on passed to Paris where he lived with his brother Juan who supported him. There he devoted himself to the study which made him famous; this he did in thelaboratoryof Dr. Roux. He became an assistant editor of theSolidaridad, the official organ of filipino freemasonry, and wrote many vicious articles in its columns over the pseudonym of Taga-Ilog.As a member of the freemason fraternity he was known as Gay Lussac.
On his return to Manila he established, for a livelihood, a school of fencing, and like the vain, insensate “magpie in borrowed plumes” that he was, he once sent his seconds to a Spanish officer, inviting him to a duel!
During the second half of the rebellion of ’96, Aguinaldo offered Antonio the position of director of the War Department with the grade of General of Brigade. This honor, however, he declined. TheIndependenciaspeaking on this incident, says:—
“The military knowledge of Sr. Luna, acquired during his captivity (sic) in the prisons of thepeninsula(Spain), is to be found condensed in two small works, one concerning the organization of the army, having as its base the idea of obligatory service in which hedemonstratesthat Luzon might put on a war footing250,000to400,000men, and the whole archipelago as many as from800,000to900,000. The other work is a practical course in field fortifications as adopted by the French and German armies.”10
Juan, from childhood, was of an artisticturn of mind and found among his many protectors those who sent him to Spain to study art. In Spain he met with Sr. Alejo Vera, a noteworthy artist, under whom he studied, receiving an exceptional education both in art and in morals, Sr. Vera being aChristiangentleman. Later on he went to Rome, and there formed part of the Spanish artistic colony. After some two or three years of study there he sent to Spain his first painting11. Being an artistic production of aFilipinoindian it was receivedwith open hands and given a reception greater than it really deserved, as a result of the influence of Luna’s friends. From Rome he went to Paris. It was in that city that he committed the fiendish double murder which so startled and shocked his friends and acquaintances, his victims being his wife and his mother-in-law, sister and mother of a prominent political aspirant of modern Manila. The result of the trial was that the courts of Justice of Paris absolved him. He then returned to Madrid, and soon after, to Manila.
What Spain did for the Filipino broughtforth fruit in only a few of the people who fell under her beneficent christian influence. The Lunas were among the few. They, like so many other ungrateful children, repaid their benefactors by becoming leaders of the insensate and inexcusable revolt against them: a revolt, the first act of which was to be the brutal murder of all Spaniards irrespective of parentage or other claims of consideration. Both the brothers suffered arrest by the Spanish authorities for rebellionandsedition, but in spite of the degree to which they were complicated, they remained practically free from punishment, and ever at the right hand of the imbecile General Blanco, himself a freemason, and friend of the enemies of his country. Eventually the two brothers left theante-chamberof the Governor to enter the security of the military prison.
Both brothers eventually retracted their errors only to fall into them again as soon as the lying protests of repentance had fallen from their lips.
Juan died in Hong-Kong; Antonio, after a career of militarismsuccumbedto the same unprincipled ambition which carried Andrés Bonifacio to an untimely grave.
Note 11.DoroteoCortés was banished by Governor Despujol in the year 1893, to the province of La Union where he founded in San Fernando, the Capital, aided by Arturo Dancel, the lodge “Rousseau” and two others in the pueblos of San Juan and Agoó. He was a lawyer and became the president of the committee of Propaganda which was formed with the idea of gathering pecuniaryresourcesfor covering the expense of the distribution of all classes of pamphletsandanti-Religious proclamations. He was at one time the president of the Superior Supreme Council of the Katipunan12, and received the funds collected for the payment of the expenses of the political commission sent to Japan to seek the aid and protection of that power. Cortés was a co-worker with Andrés Bonifacio and whilst the former devoted his efforts to the enlistment of people for the general rising throughout the country, thelatter continued his negotiations with Japan to the end of forcing some international struggle between Spain and that Power13. By order of the Superior Council Cortés went to Japan to join Ramos and aid in the purchase of arms.Shortly after his arrival he communicated by letter with Ambrosio Bautista informing him that he had seen and spoken on the subject with the Japanese ministers of State and of Foreign Affairs14, and that the said ministers “demanded guarantees” of the probable success of the undertaking before entering into the scheme. According to a statement ofIsabelo de los Reyes, Cortés was “the first person of means and position who came to the decision of attacking, in the Philippines, the Religious Corporations. He was the soul of the manifestation of ’88.” (SeeappendixB.) At the time of the American occupation of the Archipelago the Cortés family showed themselves friendly to the new sovereignty and aided in many ways the establishment of good feeling between the two peoples.
Note 12.Pedro Serrano, symbolic name Panday-Pira, was a 24th degree mason. He was a school-master of the municipal school of Quiapo. After having done considerable work of propaganda in masonry he abjured it. He was the cause of the entry into the lodges of hundreds of indian and half-caste clerks, laborers, employees, petty merchants and others of all classes and employments. He was accused by hisfellowmasons of exploiting the society15and oftreason, of frequenting the Palace of the Archbishop and the College of San Juan de Letran, and of many things unbecoming a mason. In a document dated the 31st of March 1894, dispatched by the G∴ Cons∴ Reg∴ ofFilipinomasonry to the lodgeModestia,Serrano was denounced, and all masons were urged to flee from him. In the said document, a translation of which will be found in Appendix C, is poured forth the complaint of the president of the Gr∴ Cons∴ (h∴ Muza) of a leakage somewhere in the treasury in which were stored up the secrets of the treasonable labors being carried out in theFilipinolodges. By way of specific charges the president denouncesPanday-Pirabecause he had the courage to give vent to his opinions concerning the doings of theFilipinolodges, to a foreign mason; because he was known to have, for some reasonorother, visited the Archbishop’s palace and Dominican College; that he had demanded the possession of certain documents, threatening the possessors if they did not give them up, etc. etc. On this account he was denounced as a traitor and dubbed “reptile”, the pot calling the kettle black.
Note 13.Morayta, the famous Don Miguel, the “papa” of the rebelliousFilipinos! It is an almost world-wide belief that the number 13 is an unlucky number.If this be so, thenMiguel Moraytawell deserves his name, for in it there arethirteenletters; the first letter of each word commences with thethirteenthletter of the alphabet and it happens also that this miserable individual falls to note 13. I will therefore complete the coincidence by saying all I have to say of this person in thirteen lines.
Morayta was at one time Gr∴ Master of the Gr∴ Or∴ de España, but was later on expelled therefrom,according to a masonic publication. In 1888 he founded the Gr∴ Or∴ Español, the mother of the Katipunan. In 1890 he took over the proprietorship ofLa Solidaridadthen published by Marcelo del Pilar for separatist ends. Morayta was the idol of theFilipinostudents whosoughteducation in the Peninsula. Using him as a means towards an end they aimed at, they banquetted him and thus assiduously attacking his stomach they finally captured him.
Note 14.Tagalog: The Tagalogs are a branch of the Malay family which, in former times, dominated from Madagascar to the ends of the Pacific. They form part of what we might call the Malay-Chinee race, i. e. the cross between the female on the Malay side and the Chinee on the side of the male. This cross has been taking place from time immemorial, commencing long before the islands were discovered by the Spanish explorers. The present Tagalog indian enjoys more of the characteristics of the Chinee than of the Malay on account of the potency of theChineeblood over theMalay.
Going back to ancient times the probability is that the original Malay first became modified by its crossing with the inhabitants proper of the archipelago—theNegritos—marks of which mixture are stilldiscernibleinmanyof the Tagalogs.
A second modification came through the mixture between the Malay-Negrito and the Indonesian, traces of which are seen in the light color of the skin in a portion, although small, of the Tagalogs. Another modification, the most marked, originated from the crossing of the Malay-Negrito-Indonesianwith the Chinee, theChineebeing marked by the increase in stature, the elevation of the skull and other minor marks.
During the last three centuries this hybrid Tagalog has undergone another small and gradual change by reason of a limited crossing with Spanish blood. This latter mixture however is insignificant in extent but always produces a superior type. As a people the Tagalogs number about one and a half millions, and inhabit the regions around about Manila. The traits of character of the four principal trunks from which theTagalogof to-day is derived are, although still present in a greater or lesser degree, considerably modified by climatological and historical circumstances.
At the coming of the Spaniards the Tagalogs, like the remaining native peoples of the archipelago, were met with in the depths of the savage ages, and were to a certain extent, of cannibalistic tendencies.
TheaverageTagalog is not wanting in courage, a fact he has often displayed, but this courage is never seen to advantage except when the indian is under the leadership of a person of exceptional valor or a strict disciplinarian. Like most peoplesderived from the Malay stock, the Tagalog indian is subject to strange fits of mental aberration, the fits taking different forms, generally innocent ones, the worst being a homicide under theinfluenceof a “hot head”. At least that is what might have been said of him 8 or 10 years ago, previous to the time in which he became fanaticised by freemasonry.He is not even yet apt to runamokas is usual among the Malays and this is undoubtedly due to the civilizing religious influence which has been brought to bear upon him during the three centuries of Spanish rule in the Archipelago. It is a noteworthy fact that in the same degree as the influence of religion, of the Religious Orders if you will, becamelesser, in exactly equal degree did crime increase. Explain this as you will the fact remains that during the four years or so that the indian has been under the care and protection of a government indifferent to all religion, crime has increased a hundred fold, perhaps arithmetically so also, and crimes unheard of in days gone by, have become so common as scarcely to merit mention in the columnsofManila’s yellow journalism. What the Tagalogindian is equal to when free from the restraint of the Catholic religion, has been seen from the fearful crimes and barbarities committed against Spaniards and against Americans during the insurrection. The brutalitiescommittedupon the unfortunate prisoners who fell into their hands were unheard of even among the savageArabhordesof the Soudan, nor have the records of the ferocity of theChineseboxersyet told us of things equal to the fearful events which took place in the province of Cavite and elsewhere. And for all this the Tagalog indian is responsible: the Tagalog for whom Pedro Paterno claims a pre-Spanish civilization on the plan of the Aztec and ancient Peruvian indians. Like all oriental peoples the Tagalog is superstitious and loves demonstration, symbolism and things grotesque. About the only thing left to him of his ancientcivilizationas Paterno calls it,barbarismwe generally say, is his mythology. In it everything is more or less connected with spirits. Their faith in what they call theiranting anting16is unbreakable. Rizal was supposed tobe under the protection of theanting-antingbut the leadenmissileswhich took away his life carried away theanting-antingalso: and yet there are thousands upon thousands of indians, some of them men of enlightenment, who still cling to the belief that Rizal still lives, thanks to the influence of his protecting amulet. Nor didanting antingavail Aguinaldo who now probably believes far more in the protection of his American prison than in that offered by hisanting antingcharms.
Their mythology has, like their ancient character, been greatly modified in the vast majority, by the influence of the civilization implanted by Spain. This is one point in which Spain has differed from most nations in methods of civilization and colonization. However we may judge her in respect to her colonial administration in the Philippines, we cannot deny that she has been distinguished from other nations by her aim of preserving the native races of the archipelago, the destruction consequent upon the radical change undergone in everything, being limited to the savage customs and immoralities in which the native peoples were found submerged.
The masonic lodges spoken of in the text which were asked of Morayta, wereestablished, although they were not exclusively Tagalog in their membership. As a result of the petition of theFilipinocolony mentioned in the same text, the theories and practices of Masonry were carried to the Tagalogs but instead of the needy brethren being aided by the wealthy ones, they were subjected to a contribution inexchangefor which they received a gaudy regalia; in other words they were bought over with strings of beads and with tinsel truck as were the indians discovered by Capt. Cook in the South Sea Islands, with the exception that Capt. Cook and those who followed him carried civilization to the natives, whilst the founders of the Katipunan carried to the Tagalogs and the other indians of the archipelago misery and demoralization.
Note 15.Faustino Villaruel Gomarawas a Spanish half-caste, a native of Pandaran, living in Binondo. He was the founder of the lodge “La Patria” of which he was also the Ven∴ Gr∴ Master with grade 18. He also founded a lodge of female freemasons, for the foundation of which hecommitted the nefarious crime of prostituting his daughter, handing her over, in the period of her innocence andcandor, to the ridiculous workings and practices of freemasonry. Rosario Villaruel (Minerva), thus sacrificed by her father, was initiated in Hong-Kong and made venerable of the first lodge of female masons in Manila, drawing in after her a large number of her half-caste friends, young folk of bare instruction. This lodge was known as “La Semilla”. Its composition was: Sisters: Carlota Zamora, of Calle Crespo; María Teresa Bordas, of Tabaco, province of Albay; Fabiana Robledo, wife of Sixto Celis; Lorenza Nepomuceno, of Calle San José, Trozo; Angelica Lopez, Calle Jolo; Narcisa Rizal; María Dizon, Calle Trozo, and other fanatic females.
Villaruel was the Gr∴ Oriente of filipino masonry, a deluded fanatic, a man of but scarce intellectual endowments, an instrument of those who knew more and were shrewder than he. By laying hands upon him the Spanish Authorities laid hands also upon a large number of incriminating documents which were the means of connecting many prominent business men of Manila with thebloody programme of the Katipunan. Among these was Francisco L. Roxas.
Besides these documents were a large number of loose papers writteninTagalog, in which were discovered many threatening phrases and the expression of hopes in the success of an event to take place in the near future. Masks and other masonic implements, including a heavily made and sharply pointed dagger were also discovered.
Previous to suffering thepenaltyof his treason he made and signed a public abjuration, for the copy of which see Appendix E.
Note 16.Andrés Bonifacio was the soul of the Katipunan movement; he was the President of the “Council of Ministers of the Supreme Popular Council.” His social condition was of a low grade, that grade from which many of the most fanatical pseudo-reformers have come; he was a warehouseman, a porter. In this capacity he was employed in the establishment of Messrs Fressel and Co., and was one of the humblest of the employees.
Bonifacio was, however, very vain and quixotic. He was, too, a man of sanguinary character, and held the people over whomhe attained ascendancy, in awe. His ambition was the cause of his ignominious downfall and brutal murder at the hands of another self-asserted dictator of the filipino Commune. Like most of his kind, he was a great reader, and by those who knew him best he was likened to Don Quixote, for like that worthy he passed many a night burning away oil and candles, and sacrificing needed sleep in reading, until his brain was turned and his whole mind given up to ideas of revolutions. His favorite study was the French Revolution, from the which he learned many lessons which he utilized in his projects, the principal of which was the formation of a government after the style of the French Commune. He was astute and comparatively intelligent, and spoke theTagalogdialect well. For the carrying out of his plans he had agents in every nook and corner. No placewhereinformation might be gathered or the work of propaganda done, was over-looked. The offices of the Civil Government had their quota of his spies, as also did theIntendencia, theMaestraza de Artilleriaand the other large centers. Nor were the Convents and Colleges overlooked, nor eventhe big business Corporations.
Bonifacio enjoyed an envied ascendancy over the lower classes and the ignorant. Like others of similar tendencies, Bonifacio knew how to exploit the “membership”. He was at one time treasurer of the Katipunan, and upon one occasion after the examination of the books by the president of the society Andrés was denounced as an exploiter, the accounts being found in a very bad condition. A series of mutual squabbles and insults passed between the president Roman Basa, and Bonifacio, the whole affair ending up in a re-election of officers, Bonifacio being chosen as president. This occurred towards the end of the year 1893.
The vanity of Bonifacio was comparable only to that of Aguinaldo. Among the number of chief workers of the Katipunan was a certain Valenzuela, a doctor who had, according to his own confession, been forced into the membership by Bonifacio, on the strength of a “love” affair; he was given the choice of membership or death. He chose theformerbut later on resigned. Whilst a member he enjoyed a salary of 30 pesos a month as medical officer, but only with difficulty could he collect his pay. He claimedto have been exploited by Bonifacio who, whilst merely a porter, could thus have at his command the free services of a real doctor, spurning the services of the petty physicians which abound in Manila. Nor was this all. His own (Bonifacio’s) house having been burned down, he went, on the strength of this same “love” affair, to live in the house of the said doctor (see foot-note p. 48), taking with him his paramour, the doctor paying the greater part of the expenses thus incurred.
At the time of the organization of the popular Supreme Councils, Bonifacio was chosen president of the Council of Trozo; but in consequence of internal troubles occasioned by his rebelliousness, the Supreme Council decided to dissolve the local Council. Bonifacio, true to his colors, disregarded this order and continued working on his own account, taking upon himself the faculties of the Supreme Council.
He preserved in a case which was found in the warehouse of Messrs Fressel and Co., the organization of the “Filipino Republic” which was to be, as well as a number of regulations, codes, decrees of nominations, etc., all drawn up in Tagalog (see foot-note p. 49.)
Upon the discovery, on the 19th of August 1896, by the Augustinian Padre fray Mariano Gil, parish priest of Tondo, of the plot of theKatipuneros, Bonifacio and his immediate assistants fled from Manila to Caloocan. From that point he sent orders to the provinces of Manila, Cavite and Nueva Ecija that a general rising should take place on the 30th of that month. These orders were given out of revenge for the failure of the blood-thirsty plot whereby every Spaniard, man, woman or child should share in the sufferings which his diseased brain had concocted for those who should fall into his hands. Bonifacio issued special orders concerning the Governor General, his plan being that he and the other Spanish authorities of any importance should be taken prisoners, but not killed, it being intended to hold their persons as security for the granting of their demands. He called together the members of the Junta Superior and nominated a general-in-chief, a general of division and other officials. These however refused to step into the places he had prepared for them and Bonifacio angered thereat threatened to have the head removed from the shoulders of anyone who dared to disobey him.The general-in-chief Teodoro Plata, a cousin of Bonifacio, fled during the night following his nomination, whereupon Bonifacio issued orders for his capture, commanding his death wherever he should be found.
Sometime previous to this, about the month of May, Bonifacio sent Pio Valenzuela to Dapitan to hold a conference with Rizal concerning the convenience of immediate rebellion against Spain. Rizal would not consent to the projected revolt but opposed the idea most strenuously, being thrown into such a bad humor by the information he received of Bonifacio, that Valenzuela, who had gone to Dapitan intending to spend a month there, determined to return on the following day. On his return to Manila he recounted to Bonifacio the result of his mission. Bonifacio who knew Rizal’s influence over the people to be greater than his own, had been living in hopes of receiving Rizal’s consent which would be the surrendering to him of the whole responsibility and glory of the bloody enterprise. Bonifacio aspired to the absolute, like all the so-called leaders of the revolt; so when he realized the stand taken by Rizal, who was willing to wait patiently till the poison with which he had inoculatedthe people should work of itself, he flew into a rage like a spoilt child, declaring Rizal to be a coward and imposing upon Valenzuela, his messenger, implicit silence on this subject, prohibiting him from manifesting to anyone what he considered to be the bad exit of the consultation.
No methods were too underhand for Bonifacio; to gain his end he lied to the people over whom he held sway as only aFilipinocan lie. On one occasion he affirmed that in Coregidor was a vessel loaded with arms and ammunition for the rebels, and by this means he animated them, a very necessary thing at that time, as they were but scantily armed with bolos and were no match against those they intended to assail.
Taking him all in all, Bonifacio was a first class organizer for such an enterprise as that aimed at by the Katipunan, and upon his shoulders lies the weight of the greater part of the iniquities of the diabolical society. He ordered the outbreak and in askillfulmanner pulled the strings which worked the figures which formed the performers in the marionette revolution. He had rivals in the field however, the most powerful being Aguinaldo, the would bepresident of the mushroom republic. After the encounter at San Juan del Monte in which the insurgents suffered the loss of 95 killed and 42 taken prisoners in the first instance, and shortly afterwards of 200 more, Bonifacio escaped, carrying with him the funds of the Katipunan, some 20,000 pfs.17He was supposed to be in hiding in the mostinaccessibleparts of the mountains of San Mateo, in as much as he had told Pio Valenzuela that in case the movement were unsuccessful he had determined to retire to that point to devote himself to highway robbery18, to foot-padding, an idea gottenfrom some modern French novel probably. He worked his way eventually into Cavite, and, according to information gotten from Pedro Gonzalez, he fell into the disfavor of Aguinaldo who saw his own superiority in danger of being supplanted; thegeneralisimotherefore put a price upon his head19. A party was sent in search for the runaway and upon his capture he was subjected to most brutal treatment, and at last fell a victim to the unprincipled ambition of the Dictator.
Had Bonifacio lived he would have made a splendid acquisition to the Partido Federal, he being a man who could, like many of the self-asserted leaders of to-day, plan and follow out any double-faced policy that might be needed under the circumstances.
Note 17.This note not being ready at the time of the printing of the pages of this section, it has been reserved for note101, which see.
Note 18.Domingo Franco y Tuason was a native of Mambusao, Province of Capiz. He was the president of the firstjuntacalled by Rizal in 1892 for the formation of the “Liga Filipina”. Till that time he was like many others of the same class almost unknown.
Note 19.The character of the native: this is a subject upon which one might write many volumes without conveying to the minds of his readers more than a faint idea of what that strange character is.
More mysterious than the most profound mystery of Religion, his most striking trait of character being a decidedtendencyto retrogression, the Malay stands out among the numerous divisions of the human family as a man with a marked propensity to the mysterious, to the prodigious. He is accustomed to give a blind obedience to his superiors and more so to his own caciques, he is docile as a general rule, and shows butlittle resentment to abusive language, although he will sometimes carefully guard theremembranceof some insignificant insult or blow, and take a cruel revenge, a thousand times greater than the injury he received, after a period, at times, of years. Other peculiarities of the native are his delight in gambling and cockfighting, his aversion to manual labor, his infantile but excessive vanity, his lack of the power of thought in matters of moment, his well developed imagination, his instability from all points of view and his liability to complete and radical changes. The average indian is to-day virtuous, honest and grateful for favors received, tomorrow he is vicious,thievingand shows an ingratitude not to be found even in the brute creation. This very marked trait of character may be found in many of theFilipinoswho have held and still hold some of the highest official positions in the islands.
To sum up theFilipinoindian in a few words: he is inexplicable. There have been those who have spent their lives in the study of the indian, but in spite of all that man can do to study man, the problem remains unsolved. Only those “globe trotters”who have studied the native from themuchachowho waited upon them at the hotel at which they stayed during their few days visit, and thecocherowho had the honor of conducting suchsavantsto and from the Luneta, have so far been able to demonstrate what is this character which has puzzled men of common sense and lifelong experience, for centuries.
Being by nature credulous, ignorant and superstitious, the indian fell an easy victim to the mysteries of freemasonry, which served him as are introduction to the semi-savage methods of the “Liga Filipina” and the barbarous practices of the Katipunan, thepacto-de-sangreof which, carried him back to the savage times of his remote ancestors who were drawn from their mountain and forest lairs and domesticated by the Religious Orders.
Notes 20,21,22.The initiations, proofs, oaths etc., of Universal freemasonry were utilized by theFilipinolodges to serve as a ceremonial, a very essential thing to the success of any association among orientals. Nothing suited the taste of theFilipinobetter than the awe inspiring solemnity of his initiation.These ceremonies however fell into abuse, and by the time they becameutilizedby the Katipunan they had reached the verge of the grossest superstition andabsurdity.
Note 23.The G∴ Cons∴ Reg∴ was installed in 1893. A masonic document bearing a seal “Gr∴ Consejo Regional de Filipinas. G∴ Secretaria”, and purporting to be a copy of two paragraphs from a letter of the illustrious bro∴ Kupang (Marcelo H. del Pilar) dated from Madrid on the 17th December 1894, says: “D. Miguel (Morayta) has a very poor opinion of the Reg∴ (Regional Council).... He says that this Council continues working well for some few months, at the end of which all the enthusiasm of the founders vanishes and.... Oh, if we could only by our acts give the lie to this pessimism. Morayta was the founder of the Council.
Note 24.La Solidaridad was the official organ ofFilipinofreemasonry in all its branches. Although it was published in the peninsula its circulation was intended for the Philippines. Its editors were the leaders of the disaffection against the metropolisand stout advocates, indirectly, of an impossible independence. The chief aim of the paper was to mortify everything Spanish, and to this end its columns were continually full of seditious articles aimed, not merely at individuals but at the State. Its diatribes against the Government of the Metropolis were of the bitterest nature, and therefore but little publicity was given to the sheet in Madrid, where it was printed. It enjoyed no exchange with the periodicals of importance of the city, had no street sales, nor was it exposed for sale publicly. The libraries did not carry it on their tables and it never reached the hands of the public authorities. In fact the people of the official element know nothing of its existence.
In the office of this bi-monthly paper was established a freemason lodge bearing the same name as the paper; all the members of the Association Hispano-Filipina became members of the lodge. Being the organ of masonry as well as of separatism it was introduced into the Archipelago and secured a free circulation in all parts of the principal islands where its calumnies against the Religious Orders had the effect of producing a decided effect upon the maintenanceof public order.
The statement that the bi-monthly was founded by Pilar is erroneous; it was first published by Lopez Jaena in Barcelona where it enjoyed its enforced life till it reached its number 18, of October 1889, when it suddenly ceased publication on account of the seizure by the authorities of a number of incriminating documents and pamphlets. It recommenced publication in Madrid on the 15th of November of the same year. It was later on acquired by Pilar and Morayta.It was in reality a vent for the spleen of its writers against Spain and things Spanish; it was a precursor of theIndependencia20the official organ of the Revolution against the U. S., and of theLa Democraciaits daughter, the official organ of the Federal Party, the dregs of the old revolutionary government of Malolos.21
Note 25.One of the first propagators ofFilipinomasonry was Sr. Centeno, Civil Governor of Manila, a man of anything but happy memory for this country22. Centeno and Quiroga Ballesteros worked hard to undermine the beneficial influence of the Clergy, an influence which was the safe-guard of law and order. Their most famous piece of work was the manifestation of ’88 against Archbishop Payo (See note2). In that manifestation was conceived the cry of sedition which was later on to ring throughout the archipelago and tear down the banner of the fatherland to replace it with the red flag of anarchy; a flag which well nigh brought the people of a would be independent country to the verge of political and moral destruction.
Note 26.No sooner had Almighty God consummated the grand work of the creation, the culmination of which was the breathing into man of an immortal soul, than the devil, the father of evil, jealousofthe attributes given by God to man, made his bold attempt to destroy God’s immortal work. From that moment to this present thespirits of evil have carried on anunceasingwarfare against what has been for the glory of God. The Monastic Orders ever sincethedays of their birth have had to contend against these powers of evil; and there is therefore little necessity for surprise that those who were employed in such work as were the unscrupulous persons who came to the archipelago to sow ruin in the consciences of the people and scandal in society, should carry on a bitter campaign against the Religious Orders to whom was owing every jot and tittle of the civilization and culture enjoyed by theFilipinos. The Monastic Orders have ever been the bulwark of Christianity, and as such have had to bear the brunt of the battle. Europe owes the solid foundation of its political, social and religious life to the Religious Orders, which, during the ages in which the Huns, Goths and other barbarians overran and devastated those lands, hoarded up in the nooks and corners of their monastic dwellings the seed which, when afterwards sown, was to become the stout tree of civilization which should spread its sheltering branches to the four corners of the earth. One of these branches drawing itsfullnessof lifeandvigordirectly from the trunk, extended to these far off islands and, casting its shade over the embruted mankind here existing at that time, wrought a change over it no less marked than that wrought over the European peoples. From the day in which Father Urdaneta, that intrepid Augustinian, set foot upon Philippine soil,till the day upon which the hydra-headed Katipunan appeared in the land, the Monastic Orders have been the one great source of all that was really useful and beneficial to the inhabitants of the archipelago, although at times the moral interests of the people were not the commercial interests of the country.
The “friar” so much slandered by those who wish to overthrow hisbeneficentinfluence, ever carried the banner of his country enlaced with the Cross of the Redeemer. He came to the Archipelago as a messenger of peace and order, and was the strongest supporter of the sovereignty of his nation. The “friar” was hated because he was the one who best knew and understood the indian, and from his intimate knowledge of hisparishioners, could the more easily detect anything on their part which tended to the detriment of theintegrityofthe Spanish sovereignty.
Thecampaignagainst the Religious Orders was the attack of the battering-rams against the city to be captured. By piercing the wall the entry into the city could be the easier made; and this the separatist element well knew, hence all their efforts were directed against the stout wall which defended from its assaults the treasureofthe metropolis.
For three hundred years the Philippines remained submitted to Spain exclusively by reason of the moral influence of the Clergy. Whilst the banner of Spain, floated over the Archipelago, the Religious formed the strongest guard for its protection; when it fell, strung by the ingratitude and treachery of those who had sworn to defend it to the last drop of their blood, and lay dishonored in the dust, it was the Religious who bowed his head in the deepest grief and who shed the bitterest tears. When the flag of the conquerer was hauled up to the height from which once gloriously floated the symbol of Spanish authority, the Religious, obedient to the commands of his superiors, withdrew to the solicitude of his convent, to await in patience, thepassing of the storm. He looks out upon the clouded political horizon, as Noah looked out from the window of the ark upon the vast sea of waters which hid from his view the fearfuldestructionwhich had overcome the world, patiently awaiting the time when he should, at God’s will, go forth to commence again the work of reconstruction.
Often have I heard the opinion expressed that the Government’s worst enemy is the “friar”, that it is the “friar” who keeps alive the spirit of rebellion. Let thosewhothink thus, ponder over one small thought: what has the friar to gain in sustaining a rebellion which has caused him more moral and material damage, than has been caused to any other entity in the Philippines? To those who are able and willing to utilize the power of thought with which God has endowed them, it is sufficiently clear that the Religious has nothing to gain by such tactics, but, on the contrary, all to lose.
In Spanish times the native enemies of the Religious Orders were the enemies of Spain and in these days, the enemy of the friar is by no means a real friend, whatever he may claim to be, of the Government ofof the U. S. The Spanish masons and theFilipinoseparatists found the friar to be the greatest obstacle to be encountered.“The friar,” wrote Governor D. Francisco Borrero, to Sr. Canovas, in a memoir concerning the Archipelago, “knowing the language, spirit, andtendenciesof the natives, is considered as the principal obstacle for the realization of the filibuster idea, and hence arises their aspiration (that of the enemies of Spain) that the Religious Orders should be eliminated, because such a step being taken, they believe they will have travelled half the journey....”
The propaganda of Universal freemasonry, ofFilipinofreemasonry, of the Liga Filipina, of the Compromisarios, was aimed principally at the Religious Orders, but the results attained were but introductory to the real work of the Katipunan, which, finding itself cornered by the discovery of the plot it had concocted against the Government, showed its hand. Its aim was anti-Spanish and not merely anti-friar, as is sufficiently clear from the fact that in all the documents of the diabolical association it is death toall the Spaniards, and not to this or that class. Moreover in many cases the sameKatipuneros saved their parish priests from a sure death whilst they dealt out anything but kind treatment to those of the Civil Guard (Filipinos) and the Spanish troops who fell into their hands. The friars who were murdered by the rebels were not murdered for being friars but because they were Spaniards. The documents captured, the result of the trials held in judgement of persons guilty of treason, show clearly that the revolution was for the purpose of gaining the independence of the country from Spain, and not merely to bring about the expulsion of the Religious Orders. Aguinaldo, the leader of the Katipunanhordes, desired to send the friars who fell prisoners into his hands, over toHong-Kong, where they would be at liberty to return to their own country; but this merciful desire of his was overruled by his advisers, among whom were numbered Mabini his right hand man, Pardo de Tavera, Legarda and Buencamino, all three of them traitors to the cause of independence. To-day they stand in positions of honor, honor which they have done nothing to deserve, whilst Aguinaldo who was the tool of political schemers, their play-thing, is cast into disgrace and kept in thebackground, a scape-goat for the sins and shortcomings of men whose names disgrace the darkest pages of Philippine history.
Note 27.Vast numbers of these documents were later on destroyed in the hope that certain affairs of an anti-patriotic nature might be hushed up, and many persons of a high official standing saved from scandal. Padre Mariano Gil, O. S. A., who made known to the public authorities the fearful plot of the Katipunan in time to prevent the brutal murder of hundreds of Spaniards, was granted certified copies of a large number (all the principal ones) of the documents and these have been since preserved with the greatest care, and remain to-day as a standing proof of the duplicity of many persons who live in ignorance of the fact of the existence of the said certified copies.
Note 28.The element here spoken of was theFilipinocolony (all of themseparatists) and Morayta the “papa” of the saidFilipinosofseparatisttendencies.
Note 29.This committee, although not exclusively masonic, wasessentiallyrevolutionary, and had for its duty the distribution of works of propaganda. Its delegate in Europe was Marcelo H. del Pilar.
Note 30.See note26. The campaign at this present carried on by some of the filipino and Spanish papers, and, in contradiction to the fundamental principles of Americanism, by the local American press also, is but a sequel to the work of this committee of propaganda. The calumnies which are literally crammed into the columns of Manila’s English speaking daily and weekly press are but a poor reproduction of the vicious publications distributed throughout the archipelago since the year 1888. For fourteen years have these calumnies been published, but in spite of countless challenges, never have the statements brought forward been backed up with even the shadow of proof. When almighty God completed his creation by the making of man and woman, he led them to Eden, placing them under his law. Then it was that the devil beguiled them with lying words: “For God doth know that in that day that you shall eat thereof(of the forbidden fruit) your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as Gods knowing good and evil.” From that day to this, this same argument that the devil used to try to prove that God was withholding from the people what was to their benefit, is being to-day used by certain of the offspring of that evil spirit against the element of good, against the Religious Orders, the servants of God, claiming that they held from the people of this Archipelago that which was for their good and advancement. Adam and Eve found to their bitter cost that the devil lied: those who are to-day being misled by anti-friar calumny will make the same discovery in due time.
Note 31.This statement is erroneous. The opinion of the author was formed from statements made by those charged with treason. Many of those under this charge gave false testimony, as was later on proved, and in that testimony implicated honorableFilipinoswho had never harbored such ideas in their hearts as those they wereaccusedof. Many of the wealthy element of Luzon and other islands of the group, were forced by threats and compromises into position they had nodesire to occupy. Of these the great majority were either insular Spaniards, that is sons of Spanish parents, but born in the Philippines, or they were Spanish mestizos or indians. Some 90% of the wealthy revolutionists wereChinesehalf-castes.
Note 32.And at what a cost! Think of the thousands of hard earned dollars which went to swell the funds gathered to feed and clothe and to satisfy the fads and fancies of those exploiters. And what has the poor indian who provided the money gained in the deal? Four or five years of bloodshed and disaster he has surely gained; but what is of more importance to him is that he barely escaped falling into the hands of his own countrymen! He fell out of the frying-pan and almost fell into the fire!
Note 33.The aspirations of the association were, to say the least, anti-patriotic; they were always underhand; they were the aspirations of the “Liga”, of the “Compromisarios” and of the Katipunan.
Note 34.“In the following year, Pedro Serrano arrived from Spain and then was masonry introduced into the Philippines, the first lodge instituted being the “Nilad”23its first Venerable being José Ramos.” Testimony of Moises Salvador y Francisco (fol.1,138to1,143).
According to the testimony of Antonio Salazar (fol.1,118to1,129) “In 1892 Pedro Serrano came from Spain and in union with José Ramos joined a lodge of peninsular Spaniards, and commenced the propaganda of masonry exclusively amongFilipinos, in a short time establishing the mother lodge known as theNilad... the number of members becoming excessive, other lodges were established in the suburbs....”
Into this lodgeNilador the lodges formed therefrom, passed all the members of the committee of propaganda and of the local delegations, the work of the propaganda of masonry and that of separatism being carried on in the same lodge room. The plea that masonry had no connection with the Katipunan fails to stand good in face of thistestimony, added to which may be mentioned letters of M. del Pilar toLa Modestiaconcerning the organization and labors of separatism; as well as other letters, rich in masonic jargon, to the lodges and to individuals connected with the double work of propagating masonry and spreading among the people ideas of the basest of ingratitude.
To the lodgeNilad, the Gr∴ Sec∴ of the Gr∴ Or∴ Esp∴ wrote from Madrid, June 8th 1892: