The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 29 of 55, 1638–40 / Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century

by Unknown

Events at the port of Cavite and other places at this time

There was anxiety at the port of Cavite when they heard the cannon from Manila, and saw the clouds of smoke from the Parián; then news of the result arrived, with an order to the warden of the fort, Sargento-mayor Alonso García Romero, to put to the sword all the Sangleys who were in that port.[15] 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;[16] 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.[17] 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.[18]