diced b Jos e S. Arc a, - non

good and simple young men going with much zeal to China. They are poor,pious, and in no way haughty. What a difference! Only one of them has been inChina twice, he is a bit rough, a kind of Fray Damaso; but he is good, frank andlaughs from ear to ear when I tell him a brief joke. We enjoyed playing chesstogether. He is from Tyrol, is called Fr. Fuchs, and I call him Fr. Fox when hemakes a bad move. A good type, Fray Damaso without pride or malice."This compact paragraph suggests several observations of great interest.In the first place, the impact of Volonteri's words on Rizal was noteworthy.He was firmly convinced of the correctness of his denuntiations of the friars,especially the Franciscans, but was also aware he lacked direct and personalexperience to guarantee accusations and ideas expressed in his writings. Nowhe felt relieved that a bishop no less agreed with him the friars in thePhilippines were exceedingly rich and influential, although he seemed torefer only to the Dominicans when he made these assertions. But did thisjustify the crudeness of his most important writings?23 Rizal appeared ill atease. The presence of these Franciscans who "respect" him and played withhim "with pleasure," disturbed him and made him pose questions. "He wasaware he had generalized a few real failures and popularized them,"23doubted the morality of his work ("they do not know what I have done"), buthe immediately reacted, shielding himself again behind the only argumentthat could justify a serious action with irreparable effects: "They are poor,pious and in no way haughty. What a difference!"—this last a circumstanceabout which he was unsure since, as already indicated above, he had nointimate knowledge of the Franciscans in the Philippines.One final observation. The meeting with the friars of the same Orderwhich he had caricatured and drawn so mercilessly in Noli me tangere couldnot help but revive in his memory the most beloved figure of the literarycreation of Rizal, Fray Damaso.24 Fr. Fuchs reminds Rizal of the pastor ofSan Diego. They are so similar, they differed only in the Philippinemissionary's fault, his pride and malice.The mutual respect and even understanding which took place betweenRizal and the Franciscan friars aboard the "Melbourne" since the first day oftheir journey, continued and deepened throughout almost a month of sharingthe monotony, the difficulties, and the almost unending moments of leisureon deck or seated in a salon. For the author of Noli me tangere the journeywould be converted into a kind of journey to the fantastic world of the personscreated by him in the novel, of the men from whom he seems unable to detach129