The governor had no information of the road that the enemy took
in their flight; accordingly, while he was waiting for this,
he endeavored to have his army take some rest in the village of
Bocaue. But little rest did the insurgents have; for, seeing the
misfortunes that pursued them, and so many of their men (in whose
numbers they were trusting to make themselves masters of the country)
dead, or wounded, or disheartened, they resolved to remove from [the
vicinity of] our camp. Returning to their familiar haunts of Sagar and
San Mateo--which is a visita of the village of Pasig, belonging to the
fathers of St. Augustine--desirous of avenging their defeats and the
loss of their dead, and feeling safe on account of our troops being
so far away, they sent some bands of their people to burn the church
and village of Pasig, which they did. Other Sangleys, roaming through
the hills, found among them some tiny hamlets of the natives, where
they had concealed their valuables, and their children and wives, to
save them from the common danger; and these were in very great danger
of falling into the hands of these enemies. Our Lord delivered these
people, although the Sangleys took possession of what they found in
the huts. Then their scattered bands being reunited with those whom
they had sent to hunt for provisions, they formed their camp on a hill,
and the various bands built shelters for themselves.
As soon as the governor knew where the enemy were now encamped, he
went in pursuit of them, and on the twelfth [of January] he halted
on the river San Mateo. The next day he went in person, with some
few horsemen, to reconnoiter, and on the way encountered a troop of
about a hundred Sangleys; fifty of them were armed, and the rest
were laden with rice and other provisions. Our men attacked them
and killed twenty or more of the Sangleys, without any loss on our
side--although Captain Juan Fiallo found himself in great danger. On
this as on other occasions he displayed honorable proofs of his valor;
for, having wounded a Sangley in the forehead with a lance-thrust,
and felled him to the ground, the latter, suddenly raising himself
from between the horse's feet, slashed at him with a Japanese catana,
with which at one thrust he wounded both the captain and the horse. The
captain quickly turned his horse about, and securing room for using
his lance, ran it entirely through the Sangley's body, at one side;
it pierced so deeply that it was impossible to pull out the weapon,
so he had to leave it sticking in the body. But the Sangley, with the
anguish or the desperation of death, eager to avenge it rather than
endure it, with his own hands drew out the lance, and, bracing himself
with it on the ground, attempted to attack the man who had wounded
him. But at this moment he was himself attacked by a lay religious
belonging to the Society of Jesus, who rendered good service in the
war throughout its active period--and at this time with especial good
fortune, since he freed the captain from danger by completing the
killing of the Sangley. All the rest of the Sangleys fled, and the
governor returned to his camp, to give orders for the attack on the
enemy, who during all the time while they remained in the hills never
ceased from inflicting damages. They burned the church of San Mateo,
and that of Taytay, a house and church of the Society of Jesus, and a
visita of Antipolo; also Santa Cruz and Mahayhay. According to what
many of them said, their chief incentive to setting these fires was
what happened to a certain Sangley. Desiring to become a Christian, he
buried an idol which he had, of which they relate fables very similar
to those about Mars, calling it "the god of battles." This Christian
Sangley was one of the insurgents, and, desiring to appease this god,
managed with others to disinter it, entreating its protection on the
present occasion. They say that the idol spoke to them, saying that
it considered itself appeased and satisfied for the previous injury
done to it; and promising them, besides this, its favor, provided
that they would burn all the churches, profane all that was sacred,
and inflict on the Christians all the harm that they possibly could.