The Katipunan; or, The Rise and Fall of the Filipino Commune. Francis St. Clair

of a society formed of noteworthy people. A well-read writer on the subject of “El Katipunan ó el filibusterismo en Filipinas,” says, speaking of this union of such notable folk: “A reunion of people who meet to concoct assassinations, cannot be a reunion of noteworthy people but should rather be called a reunion of noteworthy criminals.” There is not the shadow of a doubt that this is the best and, in fact, the only title to which such a society as the katipunan can justly lay claim.

      Opinion is divided as to the origin of the word katipunan, and as to the manner in which it should be written. Some spell it with C whilst the majority use K. As to the derivation: the root word is undoubtedly Tipon which, prefixed with the particle ca and terminated with an gives us a word, which signifies very select association. The word is however generally written with K so as to be in keeping with the Tagalog way of spelling, as they (that is to say the “redimidos” have taken to the use of K for C whenever C has a hard sound as in cat. In like manner, to the insurgent and his sympathisers, Cavite should be Kawite. The K and W are Blumentrittisms, i.e. of German descent.

2 See note 49.

3 The pseudonym of Rizal. By this name he is mentioned in almost all the masonic documents relating to him and over this same name he wrote in the La Solidaridad and the Kalayaan.

4 The place of Rizal’s banishment.

5 Pio Valenzuela y Alejandro, a near companion of Bonifacio in matters relative to the Katipunan, testified in his evidence in the courts of Justice, (fols 1,663 to 1,673), that Andrés Bonifacio had read much, and possessed a library which was destroyed when his house caught fire. (See note 16) That he would pass the night in reading instead of sleeping, and that from such an excess of reading there had happened to him the same as happened to Don Quixote—his brain had become turned. Thus it was that Andrés was ever dreaming of the presidency and speaking of the French Revolution.

6 It was in the warehouse of this German firm that the Spanish authorities discovered the documentary evidence which Valenzuela testified had been hidden there by Bonifacio. It had been determined by the Katipunan to destroy all documents, but evidently Bonifacio overtaken suddenly by the unexpected discovery of the plot he was developing, had not sufficient presence of mind, or what is more probable still, enough time to put them out of existence, and he therefore hid them as has been said, hoping no doubt, to be thus enabled to put the authorities off the track in case they should happen to get possession of them.

7 That is to say the Spanish population.

8 As the events here spoken of do not fall within the scope of this sketch, no note has here been made of them. As was pointed out in the introduction, this review is not intended as a history of the revolution, but as a brief sketch of the society which gave rise to it.

Notes.

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