There was anxiety at the port of Cavite when they heard the cannon
from Manila, and saw the clouds of smoke from the Parian; then news
of the result arrived, with an order to the warden of the fort,
Sargento-mayor Alonso Garcia Romero, to put to the sword all the
Sangleys who were in that port. [64] Hardly was this information
guessed at when all the people--Spaniards, Indians, Japanese, Sangleys,
and mulattoes ran in dismay through the streets; all suspected one
another, and all tried to secure their own safety. The women and the
more valuable articles of property were collected in the churches;
and there prayers were offered aloud, entreating God for mercy. In
the present tumult, the prudence with which the warden acted was of
great value; for he restored tranquillity among all, especially the
Sangleys, who were most disturbed. Within half an hour he gathered
about a thousand of them in the royal buildings, making it known that
this was for the purpose of securing them from the public fury. They
were satisfied with this, closed their houses, and proceeded to take
refuge in the buildings assigned to them. While the Ave Maria was
ringing, the warden went to all the religious orders, requesting that
priests should go to baptize the infidels and hear the confessions
of the Christians, since all of them must die. They went immediately;
and the warden commanded that the Chinese should be taken out by tens,
on the pretext that the governor had summoned them to Manila. In this
way, they cut off the heads of as many as three hundred Sangleys,
many of them receiving the sacrament of baptism, and many who were
Christians that of penance. At this time a Spaniard made the mistake
of cutting off the purses which the Sangleys always carry with them;
this was seen by some, who immediately called out that they were
taking the Chinese away to kill them, and that the rest would better
put themselves on the defensive, and either save their lives or sell
them dearly. The Spaniards who were inside at once tried to escape, and
did so, although with some wounds from stones, taking the precaution to
close the gate of exit--a prudent act of great importance, because the
rest of the Spaniards, running up to that place, began to fire their
arquebuses wherever they could. The Sangleys then set fire to the royal
building, close to the gate, in order to make an opening by which they
could escape; others, climbing above, began to throw stones and tiles
at the Spaniards, and broke in pieces an ivory image of the blessed
Christ, with which they wounded some of our men. Many Indian women
had been sheltered in these buildings the day before, thinking that
they would there be safe, and seeing themselves suddenly in extreme
danger. Only three of these, with one child, died on this occasion,
at the hands of the Sangleys; another woman and another child flung
themselves down from the windows, but, falling upon some dead Sangleys,
they received no injury of importance. Nor did the rest of these women,
who, seeing their danger, did the same; they threw themselves down
and remained safe, although bruised by the fall. The fire was now
seizing on the entire building; [65] and those within, with death
so near and in their sight, broke down the wall on two sides, and as
many as four hundred flung themselves through this opening, the rest
remaining among the flames. Here they were opposed by the Spaniards
and Japanese, whom the Sangleys confronted with such mad fury that,
although armed only with stones and clubs, they strove to make way
for themselves, wounding some of our men (among these the warden),
and killing two Japanese. Finally they took the road to the beach,
and, being pursued thither, many of them continued to fall until,
being hindered by a fishing corral in which they were crowded together,
they were a mark for the bullets of our soldiers, and for the balls
from a blunderbuss which was fired from the fort of La Magdalena,
and thus thirty of them died. Those who remained alive went out into
the country, continually pursued by our soldiers at short range,
so that few escaped; and most of those were caught next day by the
ranchmen. Others hanged themselves from the trees; and, according to
the best information that can be obtained, only twenty three were left
who could carry the news to those in Manila. The slaughter continued
on the following day, since there were many who were hidden in the
houses. This success was a great mercy of God; for it was afterward
known that the Sangleys of the port had agreed upon an uprising
for that very night; they had planned to set fire to the village in
all parts of it, which they could have executed all the more easily
because their houses were very near to those of the Spaniards. In the
house of a rich Chinese Christian was found the banner to which they
were to rally. Many kept hidden in the fireplaces pincers with which
they intended to torture certain Spaniards by tearing away their flesh
piecemeal, in revenge for the Sangley pirates who were punished by that
torture in Manila in the past year. [66] The number of those who died
in the port of Cavite reached one thousand three hundred. Immediately
afterward all the Sangley laborers on the lands in that district
revolted, of whom some five hundred perished at the hands of the
Indians and ranchmen--not to speak of others who were scattered in
Maragondon and Silan, probably four hundred and fifty. Many were also
killed in the neighboring jurisdictions: in Bulacan, three hundred;
in Pampanga, six hundred; in Pangasinan, two hundred; in Taal and
Balayan, five hundred. Besides this, the corpses of more than six
hundred Sangleys have been encountered in the villages and coasts of
Zambales, the coasts of Maderas, and other places. [67]
Encampment of the insurgents; damages which they inflict; levies of
men to oppose them
The damages which the Sangleys continued to commit--which were
especially seen among the recent arrivals in the Parian--have been very
heavy. They set fire to many houses of Spaniards and of religious;
and they burned the villages, with the churches, profaning all
that was sacred [68]--hacking the images with knives, wearing the
chasubles, and making from the altar-coverings garments to cover
themselves, and flags. Some of these articles were taken from them,
in encounters which the Spaniards had with them. The villages which,
with their churches, were burned were: Santa Cruz (although they did
not entirely destroy it), Quiapo, Meyhaligue, Sampaloc, San Sebastian,
San Francisco del Monte, and part of San Juan de la Penitencia. They
also burned the ranches of Santiago Castelu (or Gastelu), General
Asaldegui, Admiral Ezquerra, and others; and a large part of the
villages of Tondo and Binondo.
They arrogantly continued these forays, and they were further
confirmed in their notion that they were masters of the field by
having therein more than twenty-six thousand fighting men, and knowing
that the Spaniards who could be assembled hardly amounted to three
hundred. Accordingly they formed their encampment opposite Manila,
with fortifications at intervals, where they remained about twenty
days, without our men crossing the river to attack them--the Spaniards
contenting themselves with depriving the Sangleys of boats, so that
the latter might not cross from the other side; and they waged war on
us in two directions. It was our prudent decision, and its importance
was recognized by the insurgents, not to let our force of soldiers be
weakened; and they exerted all their strength to overcome it, sparing
no effort in order to carry out their intention, and in one case
almost succeeding. Only by their great [number was it] [69] possible,
and their natural ingenuity; they undertook to intercept the river,
although it was so broad and deep, with a causeway of stone--a work
which they were able to complete in a short time, by each Sangley
carrying only one stone. With this they were masters of the river
as regards its passage, which they prevented to the boats which were
coming down with provisions from Laguna de Bay; but they were checked
in this by the diligence of those who had in charge the safety of
those supplies. These were General Asaldegui and Captain Ugalde, who
had various skirmishes with the Sangleys to keep them back from the
passage of the river, killing many of them without serious loss of our
men. By that time, recognizing the dangerous character of the war,
and that it would apparently be a long one, the governor continued
to make provision of all sorts of munitions and food; and raised
levies of men from Pampanga [70] and other jurisdictions--not only
arquebusiers, but Indians armed with arrows, lances, and shields. At
this summons, all showed their fidelity to the king, their affection
for the Spaniards, their hatred to the Chinese, and their promptness
in obedience. The Pampango Indians quickly rallied, constrained
not only by their ancient loyalty but by the present need; in this
they were not a little encouraged by seeing the spirited conduct of
their women whom they left behind, who offered to come with them to
fight. As it was impracticable to accept this offer, they were ready,
even at the cost of their lives, to defend their homes and villages,
in case the insurgents should undertake to enter these.