CHAPTER 23:

LAST TRIP ABROAD (1896)

● Reported by:
Angel M. Ybañez

Rizal in Singapore
● September 7, 1896 - The Isla de Panay arrived at Singapore.

The following morning Rizal and other passengers went ashore for
sightseeing and shopping for souvenirs. In his travel diary, Rizal wrote “I
have observed some changes: There are more Chinese merchants and
less Indian . . . I bought a Chinese gown . . . Singapore has changed much
since I saw it for the first time in 1882.”

Don Pedro, with his Son, disembarked at Singapore. He advised Rizal

to stay behind too and take advantage of the protection of the British
law. Rizal did not heed his advise. Several Filipino residents of Singapore,
headed by Don Manuel Camus, boarded the steamer, urging him to stay
in Singapore to save his life. He also ignores their appeal because he had
given his word of honor to Governor General Blanco and he did not like
to break it.

Victim of Spanish Duplicity

By refusing to break his word of honor in Singapore, Rizal sealedhis
own doom. For without his knowledge , Governor General Blanco was
secretly conspiring with the Ministers of war and the Colonies (Ultramar)
for his destruction.
 Great hero and genius that he was, Rizal proved to be as gullible as
Sultan Zaide, another victim of Spanish intrigue. For all his wonderful
talents, Rizal was after all a mortal man who committed mistakes.

● One of Rizal Greatest Mistakes - was to believe that Governor General

Blanco was a man of honor and a friend because he allowed him to go as
a free man to Spain to become a physician-surgeon of the Spanish army
in Cuba, where a bloody revolution was raging, and gave him two nice
letters of introduction addressed to the Spanish Ministers of Wars and
the Colonies.

The truth of the matter , as now substantiated by the declasified

documents in the Ministries of War and the Colonies, was that Blanco
was his implacable foe, who regarded him as a “dangerous Filipino” who
was responsible for the raging Philippine Revolution, and therefore
plotted his doom.

Rizal was unaware that since his departure from Manila Bay on his
way to Spain, Blanco and the Ministers of War arm and colonies were
exchanging coded telegrams and confidential messages for his arrest
upon reaching Barcelona and that he was a deportee and was being
secretly kept under surveillance.

Rizal Arrested Before Reaching Barcelona

● September 8, 1896 - The Isla de Panay with Rizal on board, left
Singapore.
● September 25, 1896 - Rizal saw the steamer Isla de Luzon, leaving the
Suez Canal, crammed with Spanish troops.
● September 27, 1896 - Rizal heard from the passengers that a telegram
arrived from Manila reporting the execution of Francisco Roxas, Genato
and Osorio.
● September 28, 1896 - A day after the steamer had left Port Said
(Mediterranean terminus of the Suez Canal), a passenger told Rizal the
bad news that he would be arrested by order of Governor General
Blanco and would be sent to prison in Ceuta (Spanish Morocco),
opposite Gibraltar.

Shocked by the alarming news, Rizal belatedly realized that he was

duped by the unscrupulous Spanish officials, particularly the sly
Governor General Blanco. With an agonizing heart, he immediately
wrote a letter to his best friend, Blumentritt, unburdening his disgust
and bitterness, as follows:
S.S. Isla de Panay, Mediterranean

September 28, 1896

My very dear Friend,

A passenger on board has just told me a news that I can hardly believe and shou
ld it be true, would bring to an end the prestige of Philippine authorities.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

I cannot believe for it would be the greatest injustice and the most abominable i
nfamy, unworthy not of a military official but of the bandit. I have offered to serve
as a physician, risking life in the hazard of war and abandoning all my business. I a
m innocent and now in reward they are sending me to prison!!

I cannot believe it! This is infamous, but if it turns out to be true, as everybody
assures me, I am communicating to you these news so that you may appraise my
situation.

Yours,

(signed) Jose Rizal

There was nothing official yet about his impending arrest; it was still
merely shipboard gossip.

● September 29, 1896 - Rizal wrote in his travel diary: “There are people
on board who do nothing but slander me and invent fanciful stories
about me. I’m going to become a legendary personage.”
● September 30, 1896 at 4:00 pm - Rizal officially notified by Captain
Alemany that he should stay in his cabin until further orders from Manila.
Rizal graciously complied with the captain’s directive.

Arrival in Barcelona as a Prisoner

● September 30, 1896 at 6:25 pm - the steamer anchored at Malta.

Rizal was not able to visit the famous island-fortress of the Christian
crusaders. “I saw through a tiny window” he wrote in his diary, “ the
beautiful view of the port with its monumental and magnificent castle in
three levels . . . illuminated by the lingering afternoon lights.”

● October 3, 1896 - Isla de Panay arrived in Barcelona, with Rizal in

prisoner on board.

The trip from Manila to Barcelona lasted exactly 30 days. He was

kept under heavy guard in his cabin for three days. His jailor was no
longer the ship captain but the Military Commander of Barcelona, who
happened to be General Eulogio Despujol, the same one who ordered
his banishment to Dapitan in July, 1892. It was one of those coincidences
in the lives of men that make “history stranger than fiction.”

On his second day in Barcelona, Rizal although held incomunicado in

his cabin, noticed the city celebration of the feast of St. Francis of Assisi.
He recorded it in his diary as follows: “At 6:00 in the morning many
cannon shots awakened us. It seems that they are in honor of the feast
of St. Francis of Assisi . . . At 12:00 o’clock I counted as many as 31
cannon shots and at 6:00 there were again as many. At night there was a
concert in the dinning room which can be heard from my cabin”

At 3:00 am on October 6, Rizal was awakened by the guards and

escorted to the grim and infamous prison-fortress named Monjuich. He
spent the whole morning in a cell. About 2:00 in the afternoon, he was
taken out of prison by the guards and brought to the headquarters of
General Despujol. In the interview, which lasted a quarter of an hour,
the brusque general told Rizal that he would be shipped back to Manila
on board the transport ship Colon which was leaving that evening.

After the interview, Rizal was taken aboard the Colon, which was
“full of soldiers and officers and their families.”

● October 6, 1896 at 8:00 pm - the ship left Barcelona with Rizal on

board.