Cartridges 1221, containing 7904 lb.
Musquets, 280 serviceable, 12 unserviceable.
[1] Draper’s Journal should be compared throughout with Rojo’s. The Spanish figures for the English force are as follows: 13 warships, which the blind authorities believed to be a Chinese trading fleet (Malo de Luque’s Establecimientos ultramarinos, Madrid, 1790, v, p. 238); 1,500 European soldiers; two companies of artillerymen; 3,000 European seamen armed with muskets; 800 Sepoy musketeers, and 1,400 for work—a total of 6,830 men. See Montero y Vidal, ii, p. 13; and Rojo’s Journal, post. [↑]
[2] Some Armenian merchants from Madras told the archbishop that a squadron was being prepared there for the capture of Manila. A certain secular priest had a letter which contained the same news; while Father Cuadrado, O.S.A., received another letter which mentioned the declaration of war between England and Spain. On September 14, word was received in Manila from the outposts on the island of Corregidor of the appearance of a vessel there the preceding day. A small boat sent ashore from this vessel inquired how many vessels were in the bay, and whether the “Filipino” had entered. This vessel left on the 17th without any salute. This produced no other sensation in Manila than some slight suspicions, and no preparations were taken. Word was, however, despatched to the “Filipino” to make some other port than at Manila. See Le Gentil’s Voyage, ii, pp. 236, 237; Montero y Vidal, ii, pp. 12, 13; and Sitio y conquista de Manila (Zaragoza, 1897), by Marquis de Ayerbe, pp. 33, 34. [↑]
[3] While the Spaniards were deliberating on the defense of this place, the British captured it. Two companies of fifty men each who had been sent for its defense fled on seeing the British before them, with the exception of twenty-five men, under Captain Baltasar Cosar. See Sitio y conquista de Manila, p. 38. [↑]
[4] Called César Fallet in the Spanish accounts, but Le Gentil gives his name as Fayette. He was a French officer then in the Spanish service, and was later at Pondicherry. See post, Rojo’s Journal. Rojo’s account makes the Spanish force larger. [↑]
[5] The council of war called on the twenty-fifth of September (the twenty-sixth, English date) because of the English summons for surrender, was attended by the following, under the presidency of the archbishop: Auditors Villacorta, Galbán, and Anda; the fiscal Francisco Leandro de Viana; the marquis de Villamediana, master-of-camp and commandant of the garrison; Martin de Goicocoa, sargento-mayor of the city; the marquis de Monte-Castro y Llana Hermosa, Leandro Rodríguez Varela, alcalde-in-ordinary; José Antonio Memije y Quirós, alguacil-mayor; Antonio Díaz Conde, provincial alcalde of the Hermandad; Alberto Jacinto Reyes, accountant; and Fernando Carabeo, royal official. After Draper’s letter was read, all voted unanimously: “That inasmuch as this place was in condition to continue its defense, as no especial harm had been seen to have been done by the enemy, notwithstanding the continual and lively firing from the 23d when the siege commenced until the present, therefore they are unanimous and in harmony in their opinion that this place should be defended until the last extremity; and the enemy should be informed to the effect that the Spanish arms did not surrender to any power, for they alone venerated their sovereign, whose royal sovereignty never deserted his faithful vassals, not even in the most remote part of this dominion, as were these islands, in which the love and loyalty of their inhabitants was great, and obliged them to the defense of this place.” See Montero y Vidal, ii, pp. 16, 17. [↑]
[6] Cf. Rojo’s description of the fortifications of Manila, post. [↑]