[The active campaign soon begins, and notwithstanding some few successes in the siege of Ternate by Furtado and Gallinato, sickness, and want of ammunition and provisions, compel the Portuguese commander to withdraw before the superior forces and equipment of the Ternatans. Thereupon Gallinato and his men return to the Philippines via Tidore, while Furtado intends going to Amboina and perhaps to Malaca. About April of this same year the Jesuit brother, Gaspar Gomez, reaches Spain, to argue before the Council of the Indias the necessity of an effective expedition from the Philippines. There it is agreed that Acuña shall undertake one in person. The following year a letter received from Acuña by the council describes the ill-success of Furtado's expedition and the necessity for an effective expedition from the Philippines, a synopsis of the letter being given by our author.]
Conquest of the Malucas Islands
Book Ninth
[The action of the council finally secured the king's assent to the
Molucca expedition, and the following decree was sent to Acuña:]
… Don Pedro de Acuña, my governor and captain-general of the Filipinas Islands, and president of my royal Audiencia therein. On September twenty of the past year, six hundred and three, I wrote you by an advice-boat on which Gaspar Gomez, of the Society of Jesus, took passage for Nueva España, my resolution in regard to what you wrote me from Nueva España, when you went to take charge of that office, about the Ternate expedition. In accordance with that resolution, I have ordered a contingent of five hundred men to be collected in these kingdoms, which are to be conveyed in the trading fleet that sails to Nueva España this year. I wrote to the viceroy to have another five hundred men enlisted so that, at the very least, eight hundred men could be sent you for this enterprise. I have appointed four captains for the contingent from these kingdoms. One of them, namely, Admiral Juan de Esquivel, is to be commander and governor of the said soldiers. I have also appointed six substitutes, practiced and experienced soldiers, so that, in case any of the said captains die, these may take command of the men, and that they may be in charge of the companies to be raised in Nueva España, as I am writing to the viceroy. I have assigned forty ducados per month as pay to the said captains; to Admiral Juan de Esquivel the sum of sixty; and to the substitutes, twenty-five escudos apiece until ahey reach Nueva España. Thenceforward the said Juan de Esquivel, in case I order him to be given the title of master-of-camp, shall enjoy the sum of one hundred and twenty ducados per month; but if he serves with the title of commander and governor of the said soldiers, he shall have sixty. The substitutes shall receive forty; and the soldiers—both those levied in España and those to be raised in Nueva España—shall have the sum of eight ducados per month. I have ordered the viceroy, in accordance with the above, to send to those islands the necessary money to meet the pay of the soldiers for one year. If they are detained longer in other affairs of my service, he shall also furnish what may be necessary after advice from you. I have thought it best to advise you of the above, in order to charge and order you that, if the pay of the soldiers can be moderated, in respect to what is there paid men of that rank, you may reform the schedule justifiably, advising me thereof, and the viceroy of Nueva España. However, you shall make no alteration in the pay of Admiral Juan de Esquivel, or of the captains, alférezes, or substitutes. I have also ordered the viceroy to provide you with whatever may be necessary, up to the amount of the one hundred and twenty thousand ducados that you have asked for this undertaking; also six pieces of artillery for bombardment, and five hundred quintals of arquebus powder. The men sent from here are armed with muskets and arquebuses. You shall be careful in the distribution of this money, and in all the rest you shall exercise the advisable care, system, and caution. You shall endeavor to attain the end sought, as I confidently expect from you, with the men sent from España, and those from Nueva España, together with those whom you shall have collected in those islands for the expedition to Ternate. If possible, you shall make the expedition in person, as you have offered to do, and shall leave those islands provided as it fitting. In case conditions are such that you cannot go in person, on this expedition, then you shall appoint another man of the experience and qualities requisite for it, who may take entire charge of it; and for this I grant you authority. It is my will that, in case of your death while on the expedition, or through any other cause, or the death of the person whom you may appoint for it, Admiral Juan de Esquivel succeed in it and continue it. All the sea and land forces who shall take part in the said expedition, shall obey him as they would yourself. I declare that, in this event, and in case of your death, and the succession of the said Juan de Esquivel to the charge of the expedition, he shall be subject and subordinate to my royal Audiencia in those islands. The captains in whose charge is the infantry raised in these kingdoms, I have selected as worthy men who have served. Accordingly I charge and order you chat you honor and favor them as far as possible, for in that I shall consider myself served. You shall not dismiss them or deprive them of their companies to give these to others, without just cause, unless it be to appoint them to better offices. However, if they should commit crimes you may punish them, as their superior. It is supposed that by the time of the arrival of these soldiers at those islands—and they shall leave Nueva España in the first vessels, after the arrival of the trading fleet there—you will have matters so well in hand that you may begin the expedition immediately. I charge you straitly to do with circumspectness, consideration, and caution what I expect from so gallant a soldier. These men are to be well disciplined and drilled, and everything so ordered that the desired and so important effect may be gained, for you see the risk in this and its expense. You shall endeavor, as I charge you, to have the advisable care and order taken in the efficient distribution and collection of my revenues, and the avoidance of superfluous expense. Of the course of events you shall keep me advised on all occasions. After recovering the fort of Ternate, you shall place there and on the island the garrison necessary for its safety. I have ordered the viceroy of Nueva España, if he has any opportunity for it, to advise you as soon as the men raised here arrive there [i.e., in Nueva España], and that he report clearly to you the contingent enlisted in that country, and that will be raised in any other way, as well as the time that they will leave there, so that you may take the necessary precautions concerning them from those islands. If you consider it advisable for these men to stop anywhere and not to go to Manila, you shall so order it, or give any other orders that you deem most advisable, in anything. Valladolid. June twenty, one thousand six hundred and four.
After the above decree was sent, its dispositions began to be carried out in España. Before this, in the preceding year one thousand six hundred and three, while governor Don Pedro was occupied in the preparations necessary for this purpose [i.e., of the expedition], an accident occurred in Filipinas which threatened their loss and other greater misfortunes. In the month of April a fire broke out in Manila and burnt the richest part and more than half of the city, and it was impossible to keep the goods from burning which had been discharged from the ships recently arrived from Nueva España which were being kept in the most secure of the houses. Two hundred and seventy houses, wood and stone, were burned, and even the monastery of St. Dominic (both house and church), the royal Spanish hospital, and the magazines; and not a single edifice was left standing in the burned area. Fourteen Spaniards were burned, among whom was Licentiate Sanz, canon of the cathedral, together with some Indians and negroes. The loss was estimated at one million….
[The incident of the coming of the three Chinese mandarins and their pretense of looking for an island of gold is described. This with certain rumors, readily believed, leads to the outbreak of feeling against the Chinese or Sangleys resident in Manila and other parts of the island. That same year (1603), the insurrection by them takes active shape. Argensola's account is substantially the same as that of other writers. He traces the insurrection during its rise, and progress, and the retreat of the Sangicys, with the consequent slaughters of those people. The following extracts and synopses are made from his account:]
At the time when Covernor Don Pedro was attending most closely to the war with Maluco, there occurred in Manila a circumstance such that it might not only have suspended the war, but extinguished the entire province. A man was residing in Manila who had remained there when the great pirate Limaon (of whose history popular accounts are current) came against the city. He was formerly an idolater, and, as was reported, served the pirate for a lewd purpose. His name was Encàn, and he was a native of Semygua in the province of Chincheo. He was baptized during Santiago de Vera's term, and took the latter's surname, being called Baptista de Vera. He proved sagacious, industrious, and of efficacious energy, by means of which, exercising his trading, he came to possess great wealth and to have influence with the governors of Filipinas. Through his arrangements the Sangleys negotiated with Don Pedro, asking his consent to finish a parapet of the wall that he was completing, at their own cost; for they, as a portion of the commonwealth, wished to do this service for his Majesty. Each of them offered four reals for the work. This service and the thanks of the citizens, whom Encàn or Baptista had bought by benefits, destroyed or decreased the suspicions conceived against their conspiracy. He was respected by the Spaniards and loved by the Sangleys. He had twice been their governor, and had many adopted sons and dependents…. Near the Parián was another district inhabited by Japanese, a race hostile to the Sangleys, with whom they are at constant war in their own country. The governor summoned their headmen, and sounded them by kind methods, as he wished to know how to depend on them on any occasion, and if they would help against the Chinese if war came. The Japanese, puffed up by the confidence that he placed in them, and elated that time would give them an opportunity to fight against their enemy, answered that they were ready to die with the Spaniards. Some trouble arose from this wise effort, and as the Japanese kept the secret badly, or referred to it with exaggeration, it became public that Don Pedro was going to kill the Sangleys with their help. Some of the Japanese told them that, so that the Sangleys could flee and pay them for the warning. Many Sangleys tried to take to the mountains, while all were in fear. Those who wished to revolt were able to persuade the others to do the same, and to quiet the anxious by promises. In fact, the greater portion of them determined to rebel, and assigned St. Francis' day for the beginning of the insurrection, at the hour when the Christians would be busied in their churches, in the holy feast. Some said that the time assigned for it was during the night, when twenty-five thousand of them would enter the city and behead our men. Some indications of it escaped, notwithstanding their secrecy. Juan de Talavera, parish priest of the hamlet of Quiapo, informed the archbishop that an Indian woman, with whom a Sangley was in love, had revealed to him the plot for St. Francis's day…. All these advices and some others were learned immediately by the governor and the royal Audiencia. It would be sufficient to see the haste with which the Chinese sold everything, even to their shoes, and adjusted their debts—although this was interpreted rather as a design to go away than one of treason. In order to relieve them from fear of the Spaniards and Japanese, the governor talked to them himself, and had the pledge of safety and the royal faith published anew in all districts. But no effort could quiet them. Three days before that of St. Francis, more than four hundred Anhay merchants remained in the city, because they had been unable to sell their goods. These, upon seeing the others in confusion because of the report that the Spaniards and Japanese were about to kill them, sent their embassy to Don Pedro by one Chicàn, also an Anhay or Chincheo…. He came at night, being in fear of the other Chinese. He communicated their fears to the governor and their present uncertainty; and stated that they did not know what resolution to take, and consequently came to him for advice and protection. The governor, after hearing him and having completely assured him with his answer, went next day personally to talk to Chicàn's companions, and satisfied them with affectionate words, saying that the Spanish nation is not accustomed to execute or to consent to such deceits. After this talk they were quieted, but those who had evil intentions were not satisfied….
[At the first outbreak of the insurrection, Encàn is sent to reassure and quiet the Sangleys. He returns very late "telling Don Pedro that he had been in danger of being elected their chief, and that they wished to force him to accept it." In the slaughter of Don Luis Dasmariñas and his men which soon follows, over thirty Spaniards manage to escape. The Japanese aid the Spaniards, while the Sangleys try to induce all their countrymen of the Parian to join them.]
The few Sangleys in the Parián caused the Spaniards no less anxiety than the many in the fort, both because they had them for so near neighbors and as they supposed that if these saw our cause declining, they would join their countrymen. Besides, it was known that the insurgents had sent to ask those in the Parián to join them, and had advised them of the Spaniards whom they had killed. This was declared by a Sangley, who was caught while crossing the river by swimming, by the sentinel of the river-boats. He, confessing, when put to the torture, that he was a spy, and that he gave and carried messages, was beheaded. On the other side, it was considered that although it would lessen the anxiety to kill all the Sangleys or to attempt it, it did not appear a just punishment toward people of whose crime they were uncertain—much more so, since they had come to Filipinas to conduct their trading in good faith, and the governor had given them his word for their safety if they were quiet and did not mix in the rebellion….
[It is finally resolved to induce the peaceful Sangleys to take refuge in the Augustinian convent. However, they refuse to take advantage of the offer, although some put their goods in safety. Meanwhile the hostile Sangleys attempt to incite them to join their ranks, and on their refusal, turn upon them "and kill more than two hundred." Encàn is found concealed in a house for fear of capture, whereupon he confesses his part in the rebellion. The religious take up arms against the insurgents, notable among them being Fray Antonio Flores, an Augustinian lay-brother, and formerly a soldier: he is credited with having slain six hundred Sangleys in the final slaughter. The Chinese, after driving in an attacking party of five hundred men under Gallinato, assault the walls of the city, but are finally driven back with great slaughter. Their Parián is burned, and they begin their retreat, going to San Pablo and other districts, pursued by the Spaniards and natives, who kill immense crowds of them and disperse the rest. Spaniards, Japanese, and Pampangos are sent out under Sargento-mayor Azcueta, and the insurrection is crushed with terrible slaughter; "for the Japanese and natives are so ferocious that nothing can restrain them." The final result of the last campaign shows that only "slightly more than one hundred [of the Sangleys] survived, who were kept alive for the galleys. Eight natives and six Japanese died on our side in these two battles [i.e., the slaughters of the pursuit]. No Spaniard was killed, although many were wounded." Encàn is "hanged and quartered, his head exposed on the site of the Parián, and his goods confiscated; and in the days following, justice gave the same punishment to other guilty Chinese." The insurrection costs the lives of more than twenty-three thousand Chinese and only five hundred are left for the galleys. "Some say that the number of Sangleys killed was greater, but in order that the illegality in admitting so many into the country contrary to royal prohibitions might not be seen, the officials concealed or diminished the numbers of those that perished.">[