V
Mention of some dangers suffered by Ours in the insurrection of the Caraghas Indians
The above were not the only dangers suffered by Ours in that insurrection of Caragha; for the Indian chiefs, dividing into different bands, went to various districts, not only to make those who were quiet revolt, but to wipe out the Spaniards, to kill the religious, and to destroy the convents, in their hatred for our holy faith.
July 22, the day of the Magdalene, the father teacher, Fray Lorenço de San Facundo, was saying mass in the convent of Bacoag, which was attended by the Spaniards, and the traitor Zancalàn (one of the leaders of the revolt), and his wife Doña Geronima Moag, and a dozen Indians. The father was disturbed at seeing them, and having asked who those Indians were, and being answered that they were the son and daughter-in-law of Mangabo, he calmed himself. In their carousals the Indians had determined upon the murder, one after another, of the three Spaniards there, and the two religious, father Fray Lorenço de San Facundo, and his associate, a brother, Fray Francisco de San Fulgencio; for these seemed many to them. They killed the three Spaniards treacherously; and at the hour of vespers, Zancalàn put in an appearance with seven Indians. Zancalàn went to kiss the hand of father Fray Lorenço, who was just finishing the burial of a dead woman. With other like courtesies the Indians went up to see the convent, accompanied by the father teacher, when one Indian seized him by the shoulders crying out to another: “Strike him!” The father boldly wrenched himself loose, and shoved the Indian against a post. Then he ran to jump through a window, where they pushed him so that he fell on his back upon a piece of timber, from which he sustained severe injuries. The house was in confusion; various weapons were seized; father Fray Lorenço arose as well as he was able, and fled to the landing-place. Three Indians followed him with lances. An Indian went to him and said: “Father, take this machete, that they may not kill thee.” One of the three threw his lance at the father. The lance passed through his tunic near his right thigh, the father escaping that blow by jumping aside. He seized the lance, and, with it and the machete, retired to the convent. When he arrived, Zancalàn went out with lance and cuirass to kill father Fray Lorenço. The latter defended himself skilfully, and entered the convent, where brother Fray Francisco was defending himself with a musket from the multitude who were attacking him.
Some feats of arms were performed, but we shall omit mention of them for the sake of brevity. The two religious were taken prisoners, and expected instant death in their captivity. Zancalàn gave them a pledge to take them to his father Mangabo, although other Indians wrangled with him demanding that he surrender to them the fathers, in order that they might be sacrificed to their idols. The religious heard all that with great fear, the peculiar effect of our natural weakness. But after commending themselves very earnestly to God, they became so brave that (as the said father teacher testifies in his relation) already they were sorry that Zancalàn was defending them, for they wished to offer their lives for our holy faith.
Thus imprisoned, they reached Tago on Monday, the twenty-eighth of the same month of July, where they expected to be sacrificed—joyful, for they were preparing to go to enjoy God. But (as father Fray Lorenço remarks) the fruit could not have been ripe enough to present it at the table of heaven. Mangabo was a huge man, of enormous strength, and of a terrible temper—on account of which he was called “the Crocodile of Tago.” The fathers were quite sure that, as soon as they reached his presence, they would be killed; but our good God, who can draw water from the hard rock, changed the heart of the barbarian so that he threw himself at the feet of father Fray Lorenço, kissing them and his hands with great show of affection. He gave various excuses for the murders of the fathers and the Spaniards which he had committed, although all of them were frivolous, and said that the fathers should have no fear, for they were under his protection, and that he would defend them with his life. As assurance of that promise, he took an oath in the following manner.
He asked for a varalao, and clutching it in his hands, he loosened some breeches which he had made from an embroidered crimson damask altar-cloth that he had stolen from the convent of Tanda. He wounded himself twice below the stomach, drawing blood, which he ordered his son Zancalàn to catch in a dish which contained wine.[7] He began to swear and to invoke his divatas, with howlings so extravagant that he was terrifying. He cursed himself in all ways[8] if he should be found wanting in friendship to us, or in our defense, even did he die for it. He drank some of the wine, and then put the dish on his head, crying out in a terrible voice. He embraced father Fray Lorenço, and placed his own turban on his head. Thus did he finish his execrable and ridiculous oath, which they call sandugo, and which they consider as inviolable. That oath was of no little use in defending the religious, for when some of the other Indians once asked Mangabo to sacrifice them, he replied that he would not discuss the matter, that he would first fight anyone who tried to offend them. And he did so, even driving the other chiefs from the place.
He took father Fray Lorenço to his house, and brought out Castilian wine so that he and his associate might drink it, and two chalices, one from the convent of Tanda, and the other from that of Bacoag. When father Fray Lorenço saw these, much affected and weeping, he covered them with the cloth wrapped about them, and said: “Father Mangabo, since you have given me life, I beseech you not to use those chalices, and that neither you nor any woman go near them, for I shall burst with grief.” Mangabo replied: “As you say, son,” and ordered that they be not uncovered, but that they be kept with veneration.
Then Mangabo arose and took a holy bronze crucifix which Zangalàn had taken from father Fray Lorenço, under the impression that it was gold, saying, “I am keeping this your God until the time when we two go to Manila.” “Keep it,” the father said to him, “for He will preserve you if you respect Him; but if you do not respect Him He will confound you, for He is God of Heaven and earth.” Then Mangabo brought out another holy crucifix, with its arms cut off and its head split in twain, as above said, and father Fray Lorenço, falling on his knees before it, kissed it, weeping and sighing, and kept it for his own consolation.
Then Maria Campan (mentioned above) went out and brought back in a small casket the chrismatories of the convent of Tago; and father Fray Lorenço, opening it, saw that nothing was lacking. He wrapped them in a cloth and charged her to keep them and not to open them, saying that he would give her six pesos for them, although they did not have so much money. Father Fray Lorenço could ransom none of it, for he was without money.