Of all this Rizal himself was, of course, entirely ignorant, until
in May, 1896, a Filipino doctor named Pio Valenzuela, a creature of
Bonifacio's, was despatched to Dapitan, taking along a blind man as a
pretext for the visit to the famous oculist, to lay the plans before
him for his consent and approval. Rizal expostulated with Valenzuela
for a time over such a mad and hopeless venture, which would only bring
ruin and misery upon the masses, and then is said to have very humanly
lost his patience, ending the interview "in so bad a humor and with
words so offensive that the deponent, who had gone with the intention
of remaining there a month, took the steamer on the following day, for
return to Manila." [12] He reported secretly to Bonifacio, who bestowed
several choice Tagalog epithets on Rizal, and charged his envoy to
say nothing about the failure of his mission, but rather to give the
impression that he had been successful. Rizal's name continued to be
used as the shibboleth of the insurrection, and the masses were made
to believe that he would appear as their leader at the appointed hour.
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