Rizal remains in exile at Dapitan during the early years of the Katipunan.

He has promised the Spanish governor that he will not attempt an escape, which, in that remote part of the country, would have been relatively easy.

Such a course of action, however, would have both compromised the moderate reform policy that he still advocated and confirmed the suspicions of the reactionary Spanish.

Whether he comes to support Philippine independence during his period of exile is difficult to determine.