On the Lower Deck — El Filibusterismo

There, below, other scenes were being enacted. While the awning crowd still traded port plans in cool shade, most of the Tabo's passengers sat beside the boilers, breathing oil and sweat as shovels scraped and the whistle tore over the water. Chinese peddlers lay heaped in a corner, seasick and pale; students in white slipped between valises and baskets as if vacation could start before the heat did. In the bow Basilio, already known for extraordinary cures, told Capitan Basilio that Capitan Tiago refused every treatment and had sent him away on a pretence so Padre Irene could leave the old man to his opium. Isagani answered with brighter news: the Castilian academy was ready, each student had given a real, Makaraig had offered a house, and from day to day they expected the permit because Padre Irene had promised after receiving a team of bays.

Capitan Basilio quotes Horace about worse generations and walks off satisfied that youth will fail. Isagani answers that old men see only obstacles. Then Simoun comes down, patronises the province for not buying jewels, and offers beer while Padre Camorra's wisdom about water and weakness hangs in the air. Isagani refuses the toast and answers with fire and water: drowned wine, steam when heated, an ocean when roused. Simoun calls it Utopia and goes to drink alone. Basilio whispers that the jeweler is the Brown Cardinal behind the General, and Isagani admits a fear he cannot explain.

On a stern bench sits Padre Florentino, Isagani's uncle, a native priest of old dignity who mingles without arrogance while gamblers dare not crowd him. The captain insists he climb to the upper deck so friars will not think he refuses their company. Florentino obeys but orders Isagani to stay below, blocking Doña Victorina's matchmaking and the scandal of a steerage nephew at the awning table.

The same river carries chapter one's port talk and chapter two's permit, poem, and dread. When the legends start upstairs in the next chapter, will anyone on the lower deck still believe fire and water can join without someone else lighting the match?