The British Demand an Indemnity.
General Draper readily granted these terms, but demanded an indemnity of $4,000,000. To this the Spanish agreed, and these terms were then signed by both parties to the compact.
When the Union Jack was first unfurled from Fort Santiago, it is said that the British burst forth into a chorus of ringing cheers.
But their joy was not unmixed with sensations of sorrow; for, it is reported, over 1500 men, and many gallant officers, were lost in the assault. The city was then given over to the mercy of the victorious troops, and a riotous scene of pillage ensued; many excesses were committed, the Sepoys, in particular, committing many atrocities. General Draper forthwith gave the command that these outrages should cease; and guards were at once placed at the doors of the convents and the nunneries to prevent outrages on the women. A few thieving Chinamen, who had taken advantage of the confusion to add to their own profit, were hanged; and the General, it is said, with his own hand cut down a soldier that he caught stealing after his inhibition had been proclaimed.
A Native Village in the Foot-hills: Old Manila.
The English now demanded the payment of the stipulated indemnity, but the enforced contributions from the wealthy inhabitants, with the silver from the churches—all that the Spaniards professed to be able to collect—amounted to only a little more than half a million dollars,—but one-eighth of the stipulated sum. Threat and force were alike unavailing to produce the other monies promised, although the friars, it is believed, had secreted immense sums, determined at all hazards to preserve their accumulated store from the rapacity of their Protestant enemy.
By the terms of the capitulation the entire Archipelago had been surrendered to the British; but Simon de Anda, who commanded the Spanish forces during the siege, had now established himself in Bulacan as Provisional Governor, in opposition to the authority of the Archbishop who had bitterly denounced the surrender. The clergy, however, were the more influential part of the Colonial Government, and General Draper accordingly treated with them alone, obtaining their consent to a cession of all the islands to the King of England. Draper himself then returned to England, leaving behind a Provisional Military Government.
Admiral Cornish now demanded the payment of the million dollars that the British had finally decided to accept as full indemnity.
The Spaniard, however, continued to plead poverty, and the money was not forthcoming. Several thousands of dollars were eventually unearthed in the convent where the friars had hidden it. The British, though convinced of the deception that these holy brethren had practised to save these dollars,—wrung from the hearts of the poor,—were, however, unable to lay their hands upon the treasure.
Simon de Anda, the self-constituted Governor, now became unusually active in the provinces, and several expeditions were sent out to quell the various insurrections that he had been stirring up. One of these, numbering 600 men, under the leadership of Captain Eslay, in the province of Bulacan, assaulted and took a fortified convent. They were also victorious in some engagements with a body of natives, several thousand strong, under the command of Lieutenant Bustos, a Spanish officer. As several Austin friars had been found among the slain, the British rightly believed that their order had been conspiring against them. Many, therefore, were arrested. Eleven were sent back to Europe.
Naturally suspicious of all the friars, the English now entered the Augustine convent and found that these priests had been no less deceitful than their brethren in the other orders. Six thousand, five hundred dollars in coin were found hidden in the garden, and large quantities of wrought silver elsewhere. The convent itself was then searched and all the valuables found therein taken.
A Bamboo House in Pampanga Province.
About this time the Spaniards professed to have discovered a conspiracy among the Chinese in the province of Pampanga, the object being, they said, to murder Anda and his Spanish followers. The Chinese had raised extensive fortifications, saying that these preparations were all made as a defense against an expected attack from the British.
The Spaniards, however, suspecting sympathy with their enemies, attacked the Celestials and a general massacre of the Chinese followed. Many thousands, too, were killed that had taken no part in the war.
Admiral Cornish, disgusted and infuriated with their obvious deception and palpable dilly-dallying, again demanded the payment of the indemnity. But he was forced to content himself with a bill on the Madrid Treasury.
Anda now appointed Bustos Alcalde of Bulacan: he hoped great things of his seditious and unscrupulous lieutenant; he knew that he would resort to every means to harass the enemy: he therefore, accordingly, ordered him to recruit and train troops.
For Anda still cherished the hope of confining the British, perhaps, even, of driving them from the colony. So, with practiced subtlety and with masked deviltry, he set about accomplishing his grim purpose.