diced b Jos e S. Arc a, - non

Fressell warehouse where the latter was employed. According to Retana,these documents implicated Rizal to a lesser degree and were the reason forhis trial, his detention in the boat on leaving Port Said, and his return to thePhilippines since Olive, the judge, demanded from Blanco Rizal's presencein Manila. Rizal defended himself against this piece of evidence sovigorously that the court threw away the charge that he had introducedmasonry to the Filipinos. The lack of any reference by Rizal himself to theFrench document explains why it did not figure in his trial. This is why I thinkthese documents could have reached the governor's office through hissecretary who, according to Retana, "mow proprio, drew at one time amemorandum of how much he knew against Rizal. Submitted to theGovernor General, the informant suggested a copy be sent to the militarytribunal." See Retana, Op. cit., 354, 389.6. This is the testimony of Moises Salvador, first Venerable of the lodgeNilad: Retana, Archivo del biblidfilo filipino (Madrid, 1897) III, 291-293. Inhis statement, Salvador seems to want to implicate Rizal, who was not inMadrid when La Solidaridad was founded. Elected later to be its president,he refused the office. He could, therefore, not send orders to Manila toestablish masonic lodges. Likewise, it was not Rizal, but Jose Ma. Basa whosent the statutes of "La Liga filipina," as Salvador himself admitted laterwhen questioned. See Retana, Op. cit., 295-296. In his written "informationfor my defense" given to Taviel de Andrade, Rizal said: "It is not true that Ihave given orders to Pedro Serrano to introduce masonry into the Philippines.Serrano had a higher degree in masonry . . . . I did not go beyond the 3rddegree, while Serrano reached the 30th or the 33rd. This is clear in the letterhe wrote me when I was in Hongkong, a letter included in the case, in whichhe names me Venerable as though it was something. If I was the head, whenis an officer permitted to raise the rank of a Captain General? The letterproves the assertion false. Besides Serrano and I separated in Europe quitehostile to each other": EJR, IX-2, 741.7. Blumentritt wrote Rizal on 15 February 1891: ". . . topping all themisfortunes they have inflicted on you, your sweetheart now abandons you":EJR, 11-2, 711-713. On his possible marriage to Nelly Boustead, daughter ofa British trader who introduced British and French road building machineryinto the Philippines, Fischer wrote: "In 1891, a young Philippine-born girlwhom Rizal courted in Biarritz told him she could not agree to marry himunless he became a Protestant. Our hero was not converted, and later, hewould qualify this decision as a voluntary sacrifice for the religion hi which255.