In July 1892 , days after he founded La Liga Filipina,Dr. Rizal was arrested and deported to Dapitan City , in the province of Zamboanga(He was implicated in rebellion with Bonifacio , who founded the militant group Katipunan}.

  The streamer Cebu which brought Rizal  to  Dapitan carried a letter from Father Pablo Pastells, Superior of the Jesuits  parish  priest of  Dapitan. In  this  letter,  Father Superior  Pastells informed Father Obach  that Rizal could live at the parish convent on the following conditions:

  1."That Rizal publicly retract his errors concerning religion, and make statements that

       were clearly  pro-Spanish and against revolution".

   2."That he perform the church rites and make a general confession of his past life".

   3.That henceforth he conduct himself in an exemplary manner as a Spanish subject and

       a man of religion."

Rizal did not agree with these  conditions.  Consequently,  he   lived  in  the  house  of  the   commandant, Captain Carnicero.  The relations between Carnicero  (the warden) and Rizal (the prisoner) were warm and  friendly. Carnicero  came  to  know that  Rizal  was not a  common felon, much  less  a  filibustero. He gave good reports  on his prisoner to Governor Despujol. He gave him  complete freedom to go  anywhere, reporting only once  a  week at his  office,   and  permitted   Rizal,   who  was  a  good equestrian, to ride  his  chestnut horse. Rizal on his  part, admired  the  kind,  generous  Spanish  captain.  He then wrote  a   poem,  A  Don  Ricardo  Carnicero,  on  August  26, 1892 on the occassion of the captain's birthday.

After a short time, Jose Rizal began to enjoy the simple life of Dapitan.

Rizal became prosperous. Aside from his lottery prize, Rizal earned more money by practicing medicine. Some rich patients paid him well for curing their eye ailments. He began to buy agricultural lands in Talisay, a barrio near Dapitan. He planned to build his house in this scenic barrio by the seashore.

As Christmas came nearer, Rizal became more cheerful. His savings increased, for the cost of living in Dapitan was cheaper than in Calamba. His health improved. Many Dapitan folks, who were formerly indifferent to him, became his friends.

No wonder, Rizal enjoyed his first Christmas in Dapitan. He was one of the guests of Captain Carnicero at a Christmas Eve dinner in the comandancia (house of the commandant). The other guests were three Spaniards from the neighboring town of Dipolog and a Frenchman named Jean Lardet. It was a merry feast. The guests enjoyed the delicious dishes prepared by the commandant’s native cook. With the exception of Rizal, they drank beer, for he disliked hard liquor. At midnight, Captain Carnicero, Rizal, and other guests went to church to hear the Mass of the Noche Buena.

"I have many fruit trees,mangoes,lanzones,guyabano,baluno,nangka and many flowering orchids,along with chickens and other animals"

At half past seven ,we breakfast with tea,pastries,cheese,sweatmeats ,later i treat my poor patients who come to my land , i dress go to the town in baroto , treat the people there and came back at high noon where my luncheon awaits me , then i teach the boys until 4 pm....

Jose Rizal was a superb educator and founded a school for boys (one of his students was Jose Caancan who came all the way from paete,Laguna and a certain Aseniero who eventually became the 2nd Governo of Zamoboanga peninsula -later on divided by congressman Peping Azcuna into del norte and del sur)and spend the rest of the afternoon  in farming -watering the plants,pruning the fruits,and planting many kinds of  trees...

 Idyllic Life in Dapitan

            Since August 1893, members of his family  took turns in visiting him in order to assuage  his  loneliness  in  the isolated outpost of the  Spanish  power in  the  Moroland. Among them  were  his  mother,  Sisters Trinidad,  Maria, Narcisa; and nephews Teodosio, Estanislao, Mauricio, and Prudencio. He built  his house by the seashore of Talisay, surrounded by fruit trees and another house for his school boys and a hospital for his patients.

  Rizal practiced  medicine  in  Dapitan.  He  had  many patients  but  most  of them  were poor so that  he  even gave them free medicine.  To his  friend in Hong Kong, Dr. Marquez, he wrote:  "Here  the  people  are so poor that I even have  to  give  medicine  gratis." He  had,  however, some rich  patients  who  paid  him  handsomely  for  his surgical skill.

In August 1893 his mother and sister (Maria) arrived in Dapitan and lived with him for one year and a half. He operated on his  mother's  right eye.  The operation  was successful but Dona Teodora  ignored  her  son's  instructions by removing the bandages from  her  eyes,  hereby causing the wound to be infected.Thus  Rizal told Hidalgo his brother-in-law; "Now I  understand  very  well  why  a physician should  not  treat  the  members  of  his family. Fortunately,   the  infection  was   arrested  and   Dona Teodora's sight was restored.

  Rizals fame as  a  physician  particularly  as  an  eye specialist pave way to patients from different parts of the Philippines from Luzon,  Bohol, Cebu, Panay, Negros, and Mindanao and  even  from  Hong Kong.   Because  of  his ophthalmic skill he was paid P3000 by Don Ignacio Tuma- rongin  for the  restoration  of  his  sight,  P500  from  an Englishman and a cargo of sugar given as payment  by  a rich hacendero in Aklan,  Don  Florencio  Azacarraga  who was cured of eye ailment.

            Rizal became interested in local medicine and the use of medicinal plants. He studied  their  curative values  for the poor patients who could not  afford  to  buy  imported medicine, he prescribed the local medicinal plants.

Josephine Bracken later became his wife though they never had a church wedding due to refusal by the friars, Rizal and Jo had a son who died 8 hrs after giving birth because of prematurity.

   Rizal  was   involved  in  a  quarrel  with  a  French acquaintance in Dapitan, Mr. Juan Lardet, a businessman. This man purchased many logs  from  the  lands  of  Rizal and it so happened  that  some of the logs were  of  poor  quality.

            Lardet,  in  a  letter  written  to  Antonio  Miranda, a Dapitan   merchant  and  friend  of  Rizal,  expressed  his disgust with the  business  deal  and  stated  that  "if  he (Rizal - Z.) were a truthful man, he  would have  told  me that the lumber not included in the account were bad.

            Miranda  indiscreetly  forwarded  Lardet's  letter  to Rizal. When he read Lardet's letter, he flared up in anger, regarding  the  Frenchman's  unsavory  comment  as  an affront to his integrity. Immediately, he confronted Lardet and  challenged  him  to  a  duel .   When  commandant Carcinero heard  the incident, he told  the  frenchman  to apologize rather than accept the  challenge,  " My  Friend, you have not a Chinaman's chance in  a  fight  with  Rizal on  a  field  of  honor.  Rizal  is  an expert in martial arts particularly in fencing and pistol shooting.

Leonor Rivera was his childhood girlfriend , the girl who capture his love,whom he had an 8-year romantic relationship ,Rizal send her love notes written in invinsible ink,that could only be deciphered by the warmth or burn of the candle. Sadly she died while giving birth to a child with another man , Rizal had been inform that she died was reclusive and depressed for a few weeks until he met Josephine,an Irish who was at the time accompanying her uncle in Dapitan for Cataract Surgery.

  Another famous and well-known water supply is  that of Dapitan, Mindanao, designed  and  constructed  by  Dr. Rizal during his banishment in  that  municipality  by  the Spanish  authorities...  this  supply  comes  from  a  little mountain  stream  across  the  river  from  Dapitan  and follows the contour of the  country for the whole distance. When one considers  that Doctor Rizal had no explosives with which to block the hard rocks and no resources save his own ingenuity, one cannot help but honor a man, who against adverse conditions, had the courage and tenacity to construct the aqueduct  which had  for its  bottom  the fluted  tiles from  the  house roofs, and was covered with concrete made from limed burned from the sea coral. The length of this aqueduct is several kilometers, and it winds in and out among the rocks and is carried across gullies in bamboo pipes upheld by rocks or brick piers to the distribution reservoir.

His best friend, professor Ferdinand Blumentritt, kept him in touch with European friends and fellow-scientists. Their stream of letters, arriving in Dutch, French, German and English, baffled the censors and delayed their delivery. The four years of exile coincided with the development of the Philippine Revolution. The Court that tried Rizal believed this coincidence suggested his complicity in the Revolution.Rizal condemned the uprising, although the members of the Katipunan made him honorary president and used his name as a war-cry.

"From my house I hear the murmur of a crystal clear brook which comes from the high rocks; i see the seashore , the sea where i have small boats or barotos as they called it"

An American  engineer,   Mr.  H. F. Cameron,  praised Rizal's engineering feat in the following words:

            Another famous and well-known water supply is  that of Dapitan, Mindanao, designed  and  constructed  by  Dr. Rizal during his banishment in  that  municipality  by  the Spanish  authorities...  this  supply  comes  from  a  little mountain  stream  across  the  river  from  Dapitan  and follows the contour of the  country for the whole distance. When one considers  that Doctor Rizal had no explosives with which to block the hard rocks and no resources save his own ingenuity, one cannot help but honor a man, who against adverse conditions, had the courage and tenacity to construct the aqueduct  which had  for its  bottom  the fluted  tiles from  the  house roofs, and was covered with concrete made from limed burned from the sea coral. The length of this aqueduct is several kilometers, and it winds in and out among the rocks and is carried across gullies in bamboo pipes upheld by rocks or brick piers to the distribution reservoir.

Rizal found Mindanao a rich virgin field  for  collecting specimens. With his baroto (sailboat)  and  accompanied by his pupils, he explored thejungles and coasts, seeking specimens of insects, birds, snakes, lizards, frogs, shells, and plants. He sent these specimens  to  the  museum of Europe especially  the  Dresden Museum.  In payment for these  valuable  specimens,  the European Scientist  sent him scientific books and surgical instruments.

            During his four year exile in Dapitan,  Rizal built up a rich collection of concology which consisted of  346 shells representing 203 species.

The beautification and  remodeling of the town plaza with the help of Father Sanchez enhances the beauty  as jokingly remarked that it  could "rival the best in Europe". In front of the church, Rizal and Fr. Sanchez made a huge relief map of Mindanao out of earth, stones, and grass. This map still adorns the town plaza of Dapitan.

Map of Mindanao seen at the 2nd floor of the church.

Casa Redonda,the hexagonal house of Jose Rizal where his guest and chicken lives , and in the octagonal house made of bamboo,wood and nipa-where the boys live,and good youngsters whom he teach arithmetic.

As a scientist, Rizal shared his interest with nature to his students. With his boys, they explored the jungles and searched for specimens which he sent to museums in Europe, particularly in Dressed Museum. In return, scientific books and surgical instruments were delivered to him from the European scientists. He also made a bulk of other researches and studies in the fields of ethnography, archaeology, geology, anthropology and geography. However, Rizal's most significant contribution in the scientific world was his discovery of three species: Draco rizali – flying dragon Apogonia rizali – small beetle Rhacophorus rizali – rare frog

There were at least nine women linked with Rizal; namely Segunda Katigbak, Leonor Valenzuela, Leonor Rivera, Consuelo Ortiga, O-Sei San, Gertrude Beckette, Nelly Boustead, Suzanne Jacoby and Josephine Bracken. These women might have been beguiled by his intelligence, charm and wit.

The altar at the Holy Rosary Cathedral in Dipolog City was designed by Dr. Jose Rizal. The Cathedral was erected by the Spanish friars sometime in 1895, before Dipolog City became a municipality. Rizal's outbacks travel were at Dipolog,Pinan and Ponot

Rizal had many languages speak, write and understand some of the world’s and Asia’s major languages - Tagalog, Spanish, Catalan, French, German, Portuguese, French, Italian, English, Dutch Japanese, Arabic, Swedish, Russian, Chinese, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Sanskrit, Malay, Chavacano, Cebuano, Ilocano, and Subanun.

* Rizal’s poem Mi Ultimo Adios, has had at least 35 English translations known and published (in print) of this poem as of December 2005. The most popular is that of American Charles Derbyshire (dated 1911) and is inscribed on bronze. Also on bronze at the Rizal Park in Manila but less popular is the translation by Filipino National Artist and much-admired novelist and journalist Nick Joaquin (1944). The latest translation is in Czech made by a Czech diplomat, and addressed at the session of the senate.

During his lifetime, Rizal has different occupation and mastery in different fields - he was a doctor, a scientist, a teacher, a novelist, a poet, a journalist, a reformer, a politician, a farmer, a painter, a sculptor, a historian, a propagandist, a mason, a cartographer, a businessman, conchologist, an architect, an artist, an economist, an inventor, a linguist, an ophthalmologist, a philosopher, a nationalist, and a sociologist.

His signature book Noli was one of the first novels in Asia written outside Japan and China and was one of the first novels of anti-colonial rebellion.

* Bonifacio was a member of La Liga Filipina. After Rizal’s arrest and exile, it was disbanded and the group splintered into two; the more radical group formed into the Katipunan, the militant arm of the insurrection.

* He is called by Benedict Anderson as one of the best exemplars of nationalist thinking.

* At age 8 (in 1869) he wrote his first poem Sa aking mga Kabata and had for its theme the love of one’s native languag

Filipino writer Jose Rizal could read and write at age 2, and grew up to speak more than 20 languages, including Latin, Greek, German, French and Chinese. What were his last words? "Consummatum est!" ("It is done!")

As a gift to his mother on her birthday, he wrote "Mi Retiro", with a description of a calm night overlaid with a million stars.

... the breeze idly cools, the firmament glows,

the waves tell in sighs to the docile wind

timeless stories beneath the shroud of night.

Say that they tell of the world, the first dawn

of the sun, the first kiss that his bosom inflamed,

when thousands of beings surged out of nothing,

and peopled the depths, and to the heights mounted,

to wherever his fecund kiss was implanted.

Dr Jose Protacio Rizal was born in the town of Calamba, Laguna on 19th June 1861. The second son and the seventh among the eleven children of Francisco Mercado and Teodora Alonso.

He studied medicine at the University of Santo Tomas but had to stop because he felt that the Filipino students were being descriminated by their Dominican tutors. He went to Madrid at Universidad Central de Madrid and in 1885 at the age of 24, he finished his course in Philosophy and Letters with a grade of "Excellent".

Rizal was a prolific writer and was anti-violence. He rather fight using his pen than his might. Rizal's two books "Noli Me Tangere" (Touch Me Not) which he wrote while he was in Berlin, Germany in 1887 and "El Filibusterismo" (The Rebel) in Ghent, Belgiun in 1891 exposed the cruelties of the Spanish friars in the Philippines, the defects of the Spanish administration

Indeed, José Rizal was appreciated very much more as a scientist in Germany, France, and England, than he was in the Philippines, where the people knew him only as "the best ophthalmologist in Asia."

Galicano Apacible, who knew Rizal ever since he was in fifth grade, says: "The most notable characteristic of Rizal was his tenacious and vigorous will power. When he proposed to get anything, and had many obstacles in his way, he got what he went after by sheer perseverance."

He overcame the tremendous handicap of being born a sickly child through power of will. "From childhood his shoulders were high and his chest narrow, with a tendency to sickliness. He corrected this in the gymnasium, and by fencing a half hour every day. . . He was of a nervous temperament with a trembling hand. So he practiced shooting to stead his hand, until he became number one among the Filipinos in Europe, able to shoot, without missing, little balls and other objects thrown into the air." After his visit to Japan, where he studied jujitsu, he practiced at Japanese exercises every day.

  In honor of Talisay, he wrote a poem entitled "Himno A Talisay" for his pupils to sing:

HYMN TO TALISAY

At Dapitan, the sandy shore

And rocks aloft on mountain crest

Form thy throne, O refuge blest,

That we from childhood days have known.

In your vales that flowers adorn

And your fruitful leafy shade,

Our thinking power are being made,

And soul with body being grown.

We are youth not long on earth

But our souls are free from sorrow;

Calm, strong men we'll be tomorrow,

Who can guard our families' right.

Lads are we whom naught can frighten,

Whether thunder, waves, or rain

Swift of arm, serene of mien

In peril, shall we wage our fights.

With our games we churn the sand,

Through the caves and crags we roam,

On the rocks  we make our home,

Everywhere our arms can reach.

Neither dark nor night obscure

Cause us fear, nor fierce torment

That even Satan can invent

Life or death? We must face each!

By the time he visited Madrid the second time, just before his second return to the Philippines, he was described as a man of "wholesome vigor and physical well-being. He was of rather slender build but all muscle and sinew compact, for he never remitted his exercises. In height he was five feet four inches. He could endure privations, subdue appetites, and urge himself along the road by sheer force of will".

We passed by the northern coast of Mindoro, the west cost of Panay and we arrived at Dapitan on Sunday, the 17th, at 7:00 o’clock in the evening.

Captain Delgras and three artillerymen accompanied me on the boat manned by about eight sailors.  The sea was rough.

The beach seemed to me very gloomy; it was dark, and our lantern lit a path covered with grass.

In the town they met the commandant, Captain Ricardo Carnicero, Antonio Macis, a former Spanish deputy, and Mr. Cosme, a practicante.

We went up the government house which I found large.

My much esteemed friend Mr. Pepe,

       I am writing you this as I am determined for the present to remain on this Island of Mindanao and the government might accede to my petition and therefore I shall remain here forever.  I am planning to colonize Ponot on the coast of this island if the government grants me advantages or privileges; it will be very easy to begin the work next June.  Therefore, as I shall be in the forest among half-civilized people, I should like to have my library with me.  I beseech you for this reason to have my books ready because if the government will permit their free entry, I should like to have them in the month of June when I shall have a suitable house.  I hope that the governor general will grant me permission one of these days, for I asked him for it more than a month ago.

       In Ponot one can have four or five thousand cattle and plant some 40,000 coconut trees, etc.  It has a good port, water, plain, etc.

       With nothing more and wishing that you may have no mishap during the present black plague, I am ever your attentive servant and affectionate friend,

José Rizal

Rizal's  Encounter with the Friar's Spy

            During the early days  of  November  1893  Rizal was living peacefully and happily at his house in Talisay when suddenly jolted by  a  strange incident involving a  spy of the  friars.  The  spy  with the  assumed name of  "Pablo Mercado" and posing as a relative, secretly  visited  Rizal at his  house  on  the  night  of  November  3,  1893.  He introduced himself as a friend  and a relative,  showing a photo  o f Rizal  and  a  pair  of buttons with the  initials "P.M."(Pablo Mercado) as evidence of his kinship with the Rizal family.

            In the course of their conversation the strange visitor offered his services  as  a  confidential  courier of  Rizal's letter and writings for the patriots in Manila. Rizal, being a   man  of  prudence  and  keen  perception  became suspicious. Irked by  the  mpostor's  lies,  he  wanted  to throw him out of the house, but  mindful of his duty as  a host and considering the late  hour of  the night  and the heavy rainfall, he  hospitably invited the unwanted visitor to stay at his house for the night. And early the next day, he sent him a way.

I was flattered to know that the people of Dapitan greatly regretted my departure and the next day many came, including the town band, to bid us goodbye.

Those who were departing were Josephine, my sister N. (Narcisa) and her daughter Ang. (Angélica), Mr. and Mrs. Súnico, my three nephews, six boys and I.  We spent the day in my house on the seashore, the house I was building for the hospital.

We embarked at 5:30 in the afternoon on the España.  As there were not enough cabins, they put all nine of us in the first class in a single cabin which had six beds or bunks.  At midnight of the 31st July (Friday) we left Dapitan.  I have been in that district four years, thirteen days, and a few hours.  The C.P.M. (Politico-Military Commander) also came with me.

Prior to the outbreak of the revolution, the Katipunan leader, Andres Bonifacio, seek the advise of Jose Rizal. In a secret meeting on May 2, 1896 at Bitukang Manok river in Pasig, the group agreed to send Dr. Pio Valenzuela as a representative to Dapitan who will inform Rizal of their plan to launch a revolution against the Spaniards. On board the steamer Venus, Valenzuala left Manila on June 15, 1892 and in 6 days, arrived at Dapitan with a blind companion, Raymundo Mata. At night, Rizal and Valenzuela had a talk in the former's garden. There, Valenzuela told him of the Katipunan's plan.

  Adios, DAPITAN

            On July 31, 1896, Rival's four-year  exile  in  Dapitan came to an end. At  midnight of that date, he  embarked on board the steamer España.

He  was  accompanied  by  Josephine,  Narcisa,  Angelica (Narcisa's daughter),  his three  nephews, and six  pupils. Almost all  Dapitan folks,  young  and  old , were  at  the shore to bid him goodbye. Many wept especially the other pupils who were poor to accompany their beloved teacher to  Manila.  As  farewell  music,  the  town  brass  band strangely played the dolorous Funeral March of Chapin.

            As the steamer pushed out into the sea, Rizal gazed for the last time on Dapitan waving in  farewell salute to its kind and hospitable folks and with a crying heart filled with tears  of  nostalgic  memories.   When he  could  no longer see the dim shoreline , he sadly went to his cabin and wrote in his diary: "I have been  in  that district  four years, thirteen days, and a few hours".

            "I have always loved my poor country, and I am sure that I shall love her until  death,  if  by chance  men  are unjust to me; and I shall enjoy the happy life, contented in the thought  that all  I  have   suffered,  my past,  my present and my future, my life, my loves, my pleasures, I have sacrificed all of these for love of her.  Happen  what may, I shall die blessing her and desiring the dawn of her redemption."

 "Dr. Jose Rizal was an exceptional  man,  unsurpassed by other Filipino heroes in talent, nobility of  character  and  patriotism. His  exile  in  Dapitan possesses  a  keen sense of  history  and  an  aura  of destiny. He  himself  kept and preserved his numerous poetical and prose writings personal and travel diaries, scientific   treatises  and  hundred  of  letters  written to,  and  received  from, his parents, brothers, sisters, relatives, friends and enemies.  Indeed,  Rizal  was  a man of excellence, discipline and disposition........."