Desires for the increase of the royal revenues, which Don Sebastian
Hurtado de Corcuera, governor of those islands, always tried to carry
out, with greater exactitude in intention than success in the outcome,
gave occasion to the Chinese of the city of Manila and its environs
to attempt an insurrection, the destruction of that country, and
the complete extermination of the Spaniards there. I do not mention
other causes, [50] in order to reduce them to those that have existed
and those which the Sangleys have tried to assign as a pretext for
their insurrection. That which surpassed the others, as being the
greatest in their estimation, was that many laborers saw that they
were obliged to live in a new village which the governor built in the
lands of Calamba, [51] for certain advantages to the royal service;
the object was, to produce there the rice sufficient for the presidios
of these islands, by which his Majesty would be spared a great expense,
and the government employees the neglect and difficulty [usual] in its
provision. The good intention of the one who made this arrangement was
recognized, if it had also been so on the part of those on whom its
fulfilment depended. Its execution was not without hardships, which
occasioned all the more resentment the more the comforts experienced
in their old villages, attracted them. The exemptions promised by
the government, with the desire of keeping the Chinese contented,
because of the advantage that accrued to his Majesty in obtaining
the necessary food from those lands--by which the Chinese could gain
greater profits, and the Indians, being exempted from such burdens,
could make extraordinary gains--were sufficient to overcome those
difficulties. Attention was given to both of those peoples in the
change. But as it caused many of them to fall sick in a short time,
and more than three hundred died because of the unhealthful climate, a
great disturbance was caused in their minds--which was greater because
they were oppressed by the alcalde-mayor with continual extortions and
punishment. Consequently, desirous of lifting so heavy a yoke from
their necks, they rushed on to the last risk, whether to themselves
or to others; and determined to kill him who ruled them there, and
to go ahead, committing all the damage possible in all the Indian
villages, and on the possessions of the Spaniards, until they came
in sight of Manila, where they would call out the other Chinese from
the Parian and the villages round about--if they did not rise before,
of which it has not been possible to gain certain information; for,
the cause being their own, they all would force the governor, who
had but few infantrymen, to pardon their deed; and, if they did not
succeed in this, confident in their multitude, they would go forward
to besiege the city. Then, in conformity with the resolution adopted,
they assaulted the house of the alcalde-mayor [52] on November 19. He
was entirely unguarded, the more for [having no] fears of so fatal
an outcome. They treacherously killed him, manifesting their cruelty
against him, as in revenge for the cruelties that they were shortly
before lamenting as caused by him on themselves. They burned the
village, ordering their wives to hide in the mountains, while they
went to try their fortune--saying that, if they found a good one, and
gained the victory over the Spaniards, they would return for them;
or, in case of adverse fortune and their own defeat, their families
would remain alive and safe in their place of retirement.