The artillery now began to play incessantly on both sides; the enemy did some injury to the buildings with their bombardment, and some eighteen-inch shells were picked up in the fort quite entire, and returned to them in their own camp. At night we used charges of canister shot, and kept up a brisk fire of musketry, which produced some effect, for the next day we perceived many of their dead between the esplanade and their trenches.
On the morning of the 27th, at eight o’clock, some Indians and Mestizoes, without having any orders to that effect, presented themselves before the advanced guards of the English camp, fell upon them, and drove them from their posts, but a reinforcement of three hundred men arriving, the advantage was lost, and the Indians repulsed, to whom a signal was made to leave the field open, in order that the artillery might play upon the enemy. During this action, an English officer was seen approaching with a white flag, accompanied by a youth in negro’s dress, and beating the chamade on his drum: our artillery suspended their fire, but the Indians attacking the English officer, murdered him and the boy who accompanied him.
The youth in the negro dress turned out to be a nephew of the Archbishop, whom the English had made prisoner in the galley which they took at Navotas, and the officer was bringing him to deliver him up to his uncle. On the morning of the 28th, a letter was received from the English general, demanding peremptorily the head of the officer who fell on this occasion, the body having, the evening before, been found without the head. He demanded also the author of this atrocious act, with a threat that if he was not delivered up, he would send the heads of all the prisoners in his possession. The Governor replied to this demand by exculpating himself from the act, pleading the uncivilized customs of the Indians, and throwing the blame principally on the sepoys, who did not discontinue their fire on our people even whilst the officer was advancing with the prisoner.
The bombardment now continued with vigour. The enemy had, in the commencement of the siege, placed three mortars behind the church of Santiago, to which they added another battery of three more mortars, which threw the whole city into consternation. On the 29th they fired against the houses of the Governor and Admiral, but without effect; the shots which were fired horizontally reaching only to the beach, and those which they threw by elevation passing over the fort to the other side.
We on our part mounted two mortars in the bulwark of San Diego, from whence were thrown shells against the enemy’s camp. On the 30th, we observed from the fort four shallops overset in the surf, with the crew and troops which they were bringing on shore, and the same accident happened to a sampan; and in the evening a south-wester freshening up, a bomb vessel foundered which was advancing against the place. The wreck of this vessel was discovered near Pasay, of which the Indians gave information the day following, and the Governor despatched some cavalry to take possession of it; but having arrived on the spot, they were repelled by the enemy’s fusileers, who made a sortie from the quarters at Malate in defence of it.
On the 2d of October, at day-break, a battery of eight twenty-four pounders opened against the angle of the foundery bulwark, and by ten in the morning the whole of the parapet was a ruin. The enemy at the same time directed their shells against that battery from nine mortars of various calibres, assisted by the fire of two ships in front; and so hot was the fire, that we picked up four thousand balls of twenty-four pounds. But what incommoded the place most was the fusileers, who could see from the tower and church of Santiago all that passed in the city, and they could fire as they pleased against its defenders. Notwithstanding such a heavy fire directed against a bulwark without a parapet, only seven men were killed, and about twenty wounded. Our people endeavoured to get possession of the church of Santiago and the artillery, but could not succeed. The ships discontinued their fire about sun-set, but the fire from the camp continued all night, and dismounted the artillery of our bastion, so that it became necessary to abandon it: the same night, or rather in the morning of the 3d, it was resolved that a sortie should be made from the fort. About five thousand Indians had arrived from the provinces, of which two thousand Pampangos were selected for this undertaking; they were divided into three columns, to advance by different routes; the first, under command of Don Francisco Rodriguez, was to attack the church of Santiago; the second, commanded by Don Santiago Orendain, was ordered to throw itself upon Malate and Hermita; and the third was to attack the troops on the beach, and was commanded by Eslava y Bastos; the whole to be supported by two piquets of fusileers. The Indians were no sooner on the outside of the fort than they began a loud outcry, which prepared the enemy for their reception; and when the column commanded by Rodriguez arrived near the English camp, the Indians hesitated to advance; but being urged on by the famous Manalastas, their chief, they proceeded, and finding the church of Santiago abandoned, they ascended the tower, and began to ring the bells; but the peals were of very short duration, for the English fell upon them, and scarcely allowed them time to retreat.
The other column, which was ordered to advance on Hermita, marched with the utmost silence until Orendain gave them orders to attack, when they began with their accustomed howlings and beating of their drums, and thus threw the English camp into complete disorder. The English general put his troops under arms, and commenced a fire on the Pampangas, who were speedily put to flight, and their confusion was so great that every shot told. Two hundred were left dead on the field, and Orendain clapping spurs to his horse, was very soon out of all personal danger. From this time forward he was considered as a traitor, and after Manila was delivered up to the English, many were the more inclined to believe this, as he was much seen with the English, although nothing was actually proved against him. The third column was more fortunate, as, without having done or received any damage they retired with more honour than the rest. This action, however, so intimidated the Indians, that they almost all retreated to their towns. The fire from the battery did not cease during all this time, and demolished the whole face and platform of the works of the foundery, whose ruins filled up the fosse; but what caused the greatest uneasiness was a battery which the enemy had constructed, and which, at twelve o’clock at noon, was opened against the works of San Andres and San Eugenio, and so hot was the fire, that in two hours the guns were dismounted from their carriages, the parapets thrown down, and several fusileers and workmen killed, and though new parapets were twice replaced with timber and bags of sand, they were immediately demolished. The Governor held a council of war that same evening, at which were present the staff officers, the Royal Audience, the deputies of the city, and the prelates. The military men gave their opinion for a capitulation, the rest were for obstinately continuing the defence, availing themselves of the usual methods of repairing the works. Orders were accordingly given to this effect, but they could not be put in execution, as the few Indians who remained would not undertake such dangerous work, and the Spaniards could not support the fatigue.
On the morning of the 4th the enemy began to throw carcases into the fort; they set fire to some buildings, and the soldiers and inhabitants of Manila were in the greatest consternation. In this state of things, Monsieur Faller went to the Governor, and endeavoured to induce him to capitulate, but as he had already incurred the charge of being a traitor in the first sortie which he made against the English, and the suspicion had been increased from the circumstance of his going to the enemy’s camp with a present from the Governor to the English Commander in Chief, the Oidors would not permit him to have a voice in the matter, suspecting his fidelity. On this account, when the English left this for the peninsula, he was obliged to accompany them, from the apprehension that at Manila they would institute some suit against him. At one o’clock in the afternoon of this day, the English troops presented themselves before the lines, showing a very extensive front. The grenadiers were somewhat advanced, and in position to make the assault. The town on this became in complete confusion, and many inhabitants, with the clergy, seeing that no capitulation was in agitation, determined to quit the city, which they could easily do, as the guard of the Parian gate was composed of the town’s people of Manila. The English maintained their threatening position for some time, and retiring without making any further attempt, the inhabitants resumed their tranquillity, and thought no more of capitulation. On the night of the 4th the fire of the enemy was terrible from the artillery, the mortars and small arms by land, and principally from the roof of the church of St. Jago, until two o’clock in the morning, when it ceased, and was not resumed. From the commencement of the siege they had thrown more than twenty thousand balls, five thousand shells, and twenty-five carcases, which ruined a great many buildings in the city, and set it on fire in five different places. We cannot account for this otherwise than that the English, to give more splendor and value to their conquest, resolved on such an enormous expenditure of powder and ball, for much less would have sufficed to take a place which was only in a state to defend itself against Asiatic nations, and not against Europeans.