After thorough reflection, while those of our camp were waiting for
the enemy to submit and give up their arms, the latter saw that the
conditions demanded for making peace did not depend on him whose
strength had been broken, but on him who was able to boast of his
advantage and superiority; and how, if the negotiations for peace
arose more from the needs of the case and from our strength than from
mercy and compassion, the governor would have closed, as it were,
the gates of mercy with the determination to destroy them, if he had
not checked his anger, and given to the religious in whose hands was
this affair time for endeavoring to convert them to a more prudent
decision. Finally, they agreed that all should surrender themselves
and give up their weapons. A place was appointed at a little distance
from our camp, between which and theirs was a river; at its crossing
stood our men in two ranks, before whom the Sangleys passed, laying
down the weapons that they carried. As soon as all of them, some
eight thousand in number, had reached their station, arrangements
were made for their return to Manila, the governor charging the
master-of-camp to set out with the two armies. This was done, and
they marched until they arrived in the parade-ground at Bagumbayan,
opposite the city, on the evening of Friday, March. 15. The governor
arrived that same evening, and the two armies encamped there for the
night. At dawn of the following day, the drums sounded for the march,
which was conducted in this order. In the vanguard went Captain
Juan Fiallo with the cavalry, to the sound of trumpets; next some
companies of Pampango infantry, those of the Cagayan Indians, the
Zambal archers, and the Indians who carried javelins and shields in
the battalion. Next came all the Sangley forces, and in the rearguard
the Spanish infantry, with the master-of-camp. The halberdiers of
the governor followed, and in their midst was one on horseback, who
carried as a standard the image of the blessed Christ from Antipolo,
mounted on a staff. Last of all came the governor, accompanied by his
suite, and by many volunteer horsemen who had gone to the war. In this
order they proceeded along the causeway to the bridge over the river,
and across it to Tondo; and there our troops left the Sangleys inside a
stockade which they had built as a precaution, with soldiers guarding
them on all sides. The governor went thence to his palace by water,
and the master-of-camp marched with his soldiers to the city. The
people received them with great joy at seeing the war ended, as it
had caused them so much anxiety and lasted so long a time--for it
began on November 20, 1639, and came to an end on March 15, 1640.
The slain in both armies; the enemy's weapons and mode of warfare;
and the damage committed by them.
Those who make the most careful estimate of the deaths on both
sides state that the number of Spaniards who died in the war,
from its beginning to its end, were about forty or forty-five, and
of Indians three hundred; and it was always the main care of the
governor to watch over his men. On the side of the enemy, they make
the number of deaths approximate twenty-two thousand to twenty-four
thousand--including therein those who died in the provinces. [77]
Thus is made very evident, by the unequal and disproportionate number
[of deaths] on both sides, the special protection of our Lord over
our army--a fact acknowledged even by the very infidels.
The weapons that the Sangleys collected, besides some few firearms,
were: javelins and Japanese catanas, fastened to poles (and some were
made in Manila), some of these weighing more than an arroba, which
will indicate the force with which they could be used; sickles and
pruning-hooks, also fastened to poles; iron tridents; and bamboos with
sharp points hardened in fire, four or five brazas in length. They
also carried away the iron from the houses and churches that they
burned, and whenever they were left undisturbed in any encampment,
they set up their forges and made weapons, in order that no one might
he unprovided with them. The men were divided into tens, like [the
Roman] decurias, so that the exact number of their men was known; and,
of each ten, six fought, and four were responsible for their food,
in order that the fighting men might be entirely relieved from that
work. [78] They did not fight all at one time, but only three from
each decuria, in order that while these were fighting the others
might rest, and thus always they could have men who could enter the
battle in fresh condition. They employed stratagems in fighting--in
the beginning, when they had not so many arms, they made sham weapons,
covering these with cloth, so that they looked like steel. In their
camp near Sanpaloc, [79] in some towers that they built they placed
straw figures of Sangleys, so that our infantry might fire at these
and use up their bullets, and then the Sangleys could, without risk
of being hit, rush to attack our men.
The damages which they committed throughout the period of the
insurrection are very great. They made havoc among the sacred images
and utensils, besides which they burned the village of Calamba and
its church; the village of Taluco, [80] in charge of secular priests,
with a wooden church and a stone clergy-house; houses and property
in Vinan; the house of San Pedro, belonging to the Society of Jesus;
the house and church at Meyhaligue and Santa Cruz; the village and
church of Quiapo, belonging to the Society of Jesus; many houses in
the villages of Tondo and Binondoc; the village of Sanpaloc, with a
house and church of stone belonging to the fathers of St. Francis;
the village of Taytay, with house and church of stone belonging to the
Society of Jesus; the villages of Mahayhay, Santa Cruz, Antipolo, and
Baras, belonging to the Society of Jesus; the villages and churches
of San Mateo and Pasig, belonging to the fathers of St. Augustine;
the villages of Santa Maria and Siniloan, and some visitas, belonging
to the fathers of St. Francis. They also burned ranches and country
houses belonging to [the fathers of] St. Augustine, the Society of
Jesus, Captain Gastelu, General Don Juan Claudio, Alferez Medrano,
General Azaldegui, Admiral Ezquerra, and Admiral Juan Alonso; besides
other stone houses and property belonging to private persons.