When the Chinese saw the Spaniards making ready for war, they knew from past experience that it meant trouble for them. As usual, therefore, they began the trouble themselves. They attacked the Spanish, and the latter at once began fighting the Chinese wherever they found them.
This time the Spanish meant to kill every Chinaman in the country. They hunted out all who hid, and cut them down. Not one whom they caught was spared. Not one of all in the islands would have been spared if the country could have gotten along without them. Some one remembered, however, before it was too late, that if all the Chinese were killed there would be no one left to carry on the small trades of the country. Because bootmakers and tailors and small shopkeepers were needed, therefore about 5,000 Chinamen were spared, and these were permitted to remain in Manila.
After peace was made, Riccio was allowed to go back to Formosa, to tell Koxinga what had been done. He found the chieftain getting ready to come to Manila with an army to take the country, and Riccio told him what had happened.
Koxinga’s rage was great when he heard his mandarin’s story. He planned to go at once to the islands to punish this wicked cruelty to his countrymen. He fell ill, however, and died of fever before he could start. Thus Manila escaped the fate that must almost surely have fallen upon the city if the Chinese chief and his great army had reached the bay.
AN OLD SPANISH FORT AT SIASSI.
The foolish attack upon the Chinese took so many Spanish soldiers from the southern islands that the Moros now had free swing along the coasts of Mindanao and the Visayas. Other troubles came up in Manila, and soon evil and sorrow were as active and as real as though the islands had never been cleansed by book and ceremony. Not even these can stay the results of cruelty and evil in men’s lives.
Poor Governor-General Lara, in spite of his wish to be a good leader in the Philippines, made many enemies. These men began to accuse him of dishonesty in office. They charged him with disloyalty to the king, and he was put into prison. He was also made to pay a fine equal to $60,000, Mexican money. Afterwards he was set free, but he never got over the effects of his disgrace. Filled with sorrow and shame, he went back to Spain and became a friar.
In 1663 Diego Salcedo became governor-general. He was no sooner in office than the good understanding between the Church and the State came to an end. Salcedo treated Archbishop Problete very harshly, and took from him many of the privileges granted him by Lara. Great strife grew out of this, and the government was soon in as bad order as it had ever been.
At last the archbishop became ill and died. Salcedo then behaved in a very unseemly manner. He made a great feast, and would not allow the usual mourning services to be held for the archbishop. This conduct came to the ears of the authorities at home, and the governor-general was punished as he deserved. He was put into prison to await the sailing of the galleon that should take him to Mexico for further punishment. He was sent to Mexico later, but died at sea on his way there.