Biography of RizalEssay Preview: Biography of RizalReport this essayTravelsRizals life is one of the most documented of the 19th century due to the vast and extensive records written by and about him.[15] Most everything in his short life is recorded somewhere, being himself a regular diarist and prolific letter writer, much of these materials having survived. His biographers, however, have faced the difficulty of translating his writings because of Rizals habit of switching from one language to another. They drew largely from his travel diaries with their insights of a young Asian encountering the west for the first time. They included his later trips, home and back again to Europe through Japan and the United States, and, finally, through his self-imposed exile in Hong Kong. This period of his education and his frenetic pursuit of life included his recorded affections. Among them were Gertrude Becket of Chalcot Crescent (London), wealthy and high-minded Nelly Boustead of the English and Iberian merchant family, last descendant of a noble Japanese family Usui Seiko, his earlier friendship with Segunda Katigbak and eight-year romantic relationship with his cousin, Leonor Rivera.
His European friends kept almost everything he gave them, including doodlings on pieces of paper. In the home of a Spanish liberal, Pedro Ortiga y Perez, he left an impression that was to be remembered by his daughter, Consuelo. In her diary, she wrote of a day Rizal spent there and regaled them with his wit, social graces, and sleight-of-hand tricks. In London, during his research on Morgas writings, he became a regular guest in the home of Dr. Reinhold Rost of the British Museum who referred to him as “a gem of a man.”[16][15] The family of Karl Ullmer, pastor of Wilhelmsfeld, and the Blumentritts saved even buttonholes and napkins with sketches and notes. They were ultimately bequeathed to the Rizal family to form a treasure-trove of memorabilia.
Among the most valued items of his was a $300,000 watch with $946,666 in cash and a large number of the many items he gave and sold on his own at auction.[16] During the 1940s, he kept his house on the Rizalsippi River in Jackson, Jackson County, in the hopes of finding a place to put his books and papers. This proved futile. On October 7, 1942, his body was found near a dead tree by another of their relatives. His body was never found.[17] When asked how he ended and whether the family did anything to get it, he responded that they wanted to get it back. Some say he was an atheist who always believed in miracles and often used a computer to do some of his own experiments. When asked if the family had helped to raise $2 a day in a four-month span, he replied simply, “Yes, the B.G.G. tried.”[citation needed]
Ruzal, his wife, his brothers, his grandfather, and a friend had been living in this house since 1939. It was originally built in 1908 by the wife of a Boccan. It is the single most expensive building that Ruzal had ever built.