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

Its causes and beginning

Desires for the increase of the royal revenues, which Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera, governor of those islands, always tried to carry out, with greater exactitude in intention than success in the outcome, gave occasion to the Chinese of the city of Manila and its environs to attempt an insurrection, the destruction of that country, and the complete extermination of the Spaniards there. I do not mention other causes,[1] in order to reduce them to those that have existed and those which the Sangleys have tried to assign as a pretext for their insurrection. That which surpassed the others, as being the greatest in their estimation, was that many laborers saw that they were obliged to live in a new village which the governor built in the lands of Calamba,[2] for certain advantages to the royal service; the object was, to produce there the rice sufficient for the presidios of these islands, by which his Majesty would be spared a great expense, and the government employees the neglect and difficulty [usual] in its provision. The good intention of the one who made this arrangement was recognized, if it had also been so on the part of those on whom its fulfilment depended. Its execution was not without hardships, which occasioned all the more resentment the more the comforts experienced in their old villages, attracted them. The exemptions promised by the government, with the desire of keeping the Chinese contented, because of the advantage that accrued to his Majesty in obtaining the necessary food from those lands—by which the Chinese could gain greater profits, and the Indians, being exempted from such burdens, could make extraordinary gains—were sufficient to overcome those difficulties. Attention was given to both of those peoples in the change. But as it caused many of them to fall sick in a short time, and more than three hundred died because of the unhealthful climate, a great disturbance was caused in their minds—which was greater because they were oppressed by the alcalde-mayor with continual extortions and punishment. Consequently, desirous of lifting so heavy a yoke from their necks, they rushed on to the last risk, whether to themselves or to others; and determined to kill him who ruled them there, and to go ahead, committing all the damage possible in all the Indian villages, and on the possessions of the Spaniards, until they came in sight of Manila, where they would call out the other Chinese from the Parián and the villages round about—if they did not rise before, of which it has not been possible to gain certain information; for, the cause being their own, they all would force the governor, who had but few infantrymen, to pardon their deed; and, if they did not succeed in this, confident in their multitude, they would go forward to besiege the city. Then, in conformity with the resolution adopted, they assaulted the house of the alcalde-mayor[3] on November 19. He was entirely unguarded, the more for [having no] fears of so fatal an outcome. They treacherously killed him, manifesting their cruelty against him, as in revenge for the cruelties that they were shortly before lamenting as caused by him on themselves. They burned the village, ordering their wives to hide in the mountains, while they went to try their fortune—saying that, if they found a good one, and gained the victory over the Spaniards, they would return for them; or, in case of adverse fortune and their own defeat, their families would remain alive and safe in their place of retirement.