Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 61.djvu/229

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RACE DIFFERENCES.
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Anthropological Society of Berlin. Upon returning to his native land he was soon compelled to emigrate because his novel 'Noli me Tangere'[1] had drawn upon him the unextinguishable hatred of the Old Spanish party. After a short sojourn in Japan and North America, he established himself in London where, under the guidance of Dr. Rost, he broadened his acquaintance with languages, and meanwhile edited the second edition of the well-known work of DeMorga upon the Philippines which was published in Paris.[2] In Biarritz, Paris, Ghent and Brussels he wrote his second political novel 'El Filibusterismo.' He then returned to the East and practised medicine for some time in Hong Kong, from which city he removed to British Borneo with a view to establishing a Filipino farming colony there. He meanwhile obtained permission to visit his home again, but was arrested upon his arrival upon the charge that anti-Spanish writings had been found in his trunks at the Custom House. He was thereupon banished to Dapitan in the island of Mindanao, whence he could easily have made his escape, but in the full consciousness of innocence he did not hesitate to remain there in exile. When the insurrection of 1896 broke out he was immediately charged with instigating it, was brought to trial on this charge three times in five months, was acquitted twice, but the third time his unchristian enemies succeeded in their purpose of convicting him and he was condemned. to death.

Rizal devoted himself particularly to the analysis of the sentiments with which whites and the colored races mutually regard each other. No one was so well qualified as he to study this question which is of such importance for folk-psychology, for he was himself of a colored race, had lived among his fellow countrymen at his own home, as well as among the whites, mixed bloods and other classes at Manila, and had besides come to know Hong Kong, Japan, Europe and the United States, and that in a thorough way and not as a mere tourist. His extensive acquaintance with languages opened for him the ethnological writings of all civilized nations, and his own penetrating intellect prevented him from remaining content with the surface of things. It should be said, however, that Rizal concerned himself wholly with the relations between the whites and the colored people of the Philippines because, as he explained, he knew nothing of the psychology of other colored races.

He said that when a boy lie was deeply sensible that the Spaniards treated him with contemptuous disregard for the sole reason that he was a Filipino. From the moment when he discovered this attitude


  1. Published in an English translation in the United States under the title 'An Eagle Flight.'
  2. De Morga was viceroy in Manila in 1598 and wrote a most valuable work upon the Philippines which was published in Mexico in 1609.