Meanwhile, Anda collected troops; and Bustos, as his lieutenant-general, vaunted the power of his chief through the Bulacan and Pampanga provinces. A Franciscan and an Austin friar, having led troops to Masilo, about seven miles from Manila, the British went out to dislodge them, but on their approach most of the natives feigned they were dead, and the British returned without any loss in arms or men.
The British, believing that the Austin friars were conspiring against them in connivance with those inside the city, placed these friars in confinement, and subsequently shipped away eleven of them to Europe. For the same reason, they at last determined to enter the St. Augustine Convent, and on ransacking it they found that the priests had been lying to them all the time. Six thousand dollars in coin were found hidden in the garden, and large quantities of wrought silver elsewhere. The whole premises were then searched and all the valuables were seized. A British expedition went out to Bulacan, sailing across the bay and up the Hagonoy River, where they disembarked at Malolos on the 19th of January, 1763. The troops, under Captain Eslay, of the Grenadiers, numbered six hundred men, many of whom were Chinese volunteers. As they advanced from Malolos, the natives and Spaniards fled. On the way to Bulacan, Bustos advanced to meet them, but retreated into ambush on seeing they were superior in numbers. Bulacan Convent was fortified with three small cannon. As soon as the troops were in sight of the convent, a desultory fire of case-shot made great havoc in the ranks of the Chinese forming the British vanguard. At length the British brought their field pieces into action, and pointing at the enemy’s cannon, the first discharge carried off the head of their artilleryman Ybarra. The panic-stricken natives decamped; the convent was taken by assault; there was an indiscriminate fight and general slaughter. The alcalde and a Franciscan friar fell in action; one Austin friar escaped, and another was seized and killed to avenge the death of the British soldiers. The invading forces occupied the convent, and some of the troops were shortly sent back to Manila. Bustos reappeared near the Bulacan convent with eight thousand native troops, of which six hundred were cavalry, but they dared not attack the British. Bustos then maneuvered in the neighborhood and made occasional alarms. Small parties were sent out against him with so little effect that the British commander headed a body in person, and put the whole of Bustos’ troops to flight like mosquitoes before a gust of wind, for Bustos feared they would be pursued into Pampanga. After clearing away the underwood, which served as a covert for the natives, the British reoccupied the convent; but Bustos returned to his position, and was a second time as disgracefully routed by the British, who then withdrew to Manila.
At the same time, it was alleged that a conspiracy was being organized among the Chinese in the Province of Pampanga with the object of assassinating Anda and his Spanish followers. The Chinese cut trenches and raised fortifications, avowing that their bellicose preparations were only to defend themselves against the possible attack of the British; while the Spaniards saw in all this a connivance with the invaders. The latter, no doubt, conjectured rightly. Anda, acting upon the views of his party, precipitated matters by appearing with fourteen Spanish soldiers and a crowd of native bowmen to commence the slaughter in the town of Guagua. The Chinese assembled there in great numbers, and Anda endeavored in vain to induce them to surrender to him. He then sent a Spaniard, named Miguel Garces, with a message, offering them pardon in the name of the King of Spain if they would lay down their arms; but they killed the emissary, and Anda therefore commenced the attack. The result was favorable for Anda’s party, and great numbers of the Chinese were slain. Many fled to the fields, where they were pursued by the troops, while those who were captured were hanged. Such was the inveterate hatred which Anda entertained for the Chinese, that he issued a general decree declaring all the Chinese traitors to the Spanish flag, and ordered them to be hanged wherever they might be found in the provinces. Thus thousands of Chinese were executed who had taken no part whatever in the events of this little war.
Admiral Cornish, having decided to return to Europe, again urged for the payment of the two millions of dollars. The archbishop was in great straits; he was willing to do anything, but his colleagues opposed him, and Cornish was at length obliged to content himself with a bill on the Madrid treasury. Anda appointed Bustos alcalde of Bulacan, and ordered him to recruit and train troops, as he still nurtured the hope of confining the British to Manila—perhaps even of driving them out of the colony.
The British in the city were compelled to adopt the most rigorous precautions against a rising of the population within the walls, and several Spanish residents were arrested for intriguing against them in concert with those outside.
Several French prisoners from Pondicherry deserted from the British; and some Spanish regular troops, who had been taken prisoners, effected their escape. The fiscal of the supreme court and a Senor Villa Corta were found conspiring. The latter was caught in the act of sending a letter to Anda, and was sentenced to be hanged and quartered—the quarters to be exhibited in public places. The archbishop, however, obtained Villa Corta’s pardon, on the condition that Anda should evacuate the Pampanga Province; and Villa Corta wrote to Anda, begging him to accede to this, but Anda absolutely refused to make any sacrifice to save his friend’s life; and at the same time he wrote a disgraceful letter to the archbishop, couched in such insulting terms that the British commander burned it without letting the archbishop see it. Villa Corta was finally ransomed by the payment of three thousand dollars.
The treasure brought by the “Philipino” served Anda to organize a respectable force of recruits. Spaniards who were living there in misery, and a crowd of natives always ready for pay, enlisted. These forces, under Lieutenant-general Bustos, encamped at Malinta, about five miles from Manila. The officers lodged in a house belonging to the Austin friars, around which the troops pitched their tents—the whole being defended by redoubts and palisades raised under the direction of a French deserter, who led a company. From this place Bustos constantly caused alarm to the British troops, who once had to retreat before a picket guard sent to get the church bells of Quiapo. The British, in fact, were much molested by Bustos’ Malinta troops, who forced the invaders to withdraw to Manila and reduce the extension of their outposts. This measure was followed up by a proclamation, in which the British commander alluded to Bustos’ troops as “canaille and robbers,” and offered a reward of five thousand dollars for Anda’s head; declaring him and his party rebels and traitors to their majesties the kings of Spain and England. Anda, chafing at his impotence to combat the invading party by force of arms, gave vent to his feelings of rage and disappointment by issuing a decree, dated from Bacolor the 19th of May, 1763, of which the translated text reads as follows:
“Royal Government Tribunal of these Islands for His Catholic Majesty: Whereas the Royal Government Tribunal, Supreme Government and Captain-Generalship of His Catholic Majesty in these Islands are gravely offended at the audacity and blindness of those men, who, forgetting all humanity, have condemned as rebellious and disobedient to both their Majesties, him, who as a faithful vassal of His Catholic Majesty, and in conformity with the law, holds the Royal Tribunal, Government and Captain-Generalship; and having suffered by a reward being offered by order of the British Governor in council to whomsoever shall deliver me alive or dead; and by their having placed the arms captured in Bulacan at the foot of the gallows—seeing that instead of their punishing and reproaching such execrable proceedings, the spirit of haughtiness and pride is increasing, as shown in the Proclamation published in Manila on the 17th instant, in which the troops of His Majesty are infamously calumniated—treating them as blackguards and disaffected to their service—charging them with plotting to assassinate the English officers and soldiers, and with having fled when attacked—the whole of these accusations being false: Now therefore by these presents, be it known to all Spaniards and true Englishmen that Messrs. Drake, Smith and Brock, who signed the Proclamation referred to, must not be considered as vassals of His Britannic Majesty, but as tyrants and common enemies unworthy of human society, and therefore, I order that they be apprehended as such, and I offer ten thousand dollars for each one of them alive or dead. At the same time, I withdraw the order to treat the vassals of his Britannic Majesty with all the humanity which the rights of war will permit, as has been practiced hitherto with respect to the prisoners and deserters.”
Anda had by this time received the consent of his king to occupy the position which he had usurped, and the British commander was thus enabled to communicate officially with, him, if occasion required it; and Drake replied to this proclamation, recommending Anda to carry on the war with greater moderation and humanity.
On the 27th of June, 1763, the British made a sortie from the city to dislodge Bustos, who still occupied Malinta. The attacking party consisted of three hundred and fifty fusileers, fifty horsemen, a mob of Chinese, and a number of guns and ammunition. The British took up quarters on one side of the river, while Bustos remained on the other. The opposing parties exchanged fire, but neither cared nor dared to cross the waterway. The British forces retired in good order to Masilo, and remained there until they heard that Bustos had burned Malinta House and removed his camp to Meycauayan. Then the British withdrew to Manila in the evening. On the Spanish side there were two killed, five mortally wounded and two slightly wounded. The British losses were six mortally wounded and seven disabled. This was the last encounter in open warfare. Chinamen occasionally lost their lives through their love of plunder in the vicinity occupied by the British.