[25] Evidently Lieutenant Hardwick. [↑]
[26] The following account of the assault is taken from Le Gentil, ii, pp. 252–255:
“Archbishop Roxo was a capable man for the good management of finances. He was clever in business and very zealous for the service of the king. But he did not understand anything of military affairs. Consequently, the factions which were formed, and which he was unable to resist, were the cause of his not capitulating in time, and those factions caused the misfortune of Manila.
“It would be difficult to form an idea of the embarrassment in which this prelate found himself, and of the consternation of the entire village. I have been assured that the name of Arandia, that man whom the friars had, two years previously, dubbed a heretic, and toward whom they had been so hostile that no one could be found who would take charge of his funeral oration, was heard pronounced several times. ‘If Arandia were living,’ said one, several times during the siege. It was perceived then that they lacked a man to direct. Several times the archbishop wished to capitulate, but he was prevented. Don Andres Roxo has assured me very emphatically, that had the archbishop been alone, and had he not been besieged on one side by the auditors, and on the other by the friars, he would not have waited until the English had mounted to the assault. It was in fine a notorious fact at the time of my stay in Manila, that the fiscal and especially an auditor, who has died since my departure, were the cause of Roxo not capitulating in time. Many councils, indeed, were held, but nothing was determined there. These councils, besides, were very illy made up; for, if the military men were excused from it, what good could come from appealing from the auditors there, who knew nothing in this line, and from fanatic friars. The latter made use of Mother Paula, whom they pretended had had visions of St. Francis. They carried the news of those visions to the archbishop, and did what they could to support him in the flattering idea that St. Francis would work a miracle in favor of the inhabitants of Manila and that one would see him on the breach, with his cord in his hand, defending and sustaining the assault, as he had formerly repulsed the Chinese, who, so they said at Manila, had risen against this city to the number of more than twenty thousand.
“While the English were pressing Manila, the auditors were besieging the archbishop, and prevented any one from approaching to speak with him. Monsieur Fayette, more experienced than the other officers, seeing the evident danger which was threatening the city, tried, in spite of the difficulty in penetrating thither, into the presence of the archbishop, to leap the barrier. Auditor —— was performing constant guard duty in the anti-chamber. It was impossible for Monsieur Fayette to get nearer. He told the auditor what brought him. The latter sent him back very roughly, giving him to understand that he was an ignoramus in the trade; that the governor was better informed than he; that the ministers of the king, who were there to assist the governor by their counsels, knew all that was to be done. ‘Do you take us,’ said he in wrath, ‘do you take us for traitors to our fatherland? Do we not know our obligations?’
“Monsieur Fayette retired. That same afternoon, the archbishop desired to go in person to view the breach (a fact that has been attested to me) but Auditor —— and the fiscal prevented him. They did not wish, they said, to have his most illustrious Lordship expose himself to so evident a danger. It is true that, since they were near his person in order to assist him with their counsels, it would have been necessary for the two auditors to have accompanied him in his visit.
“Don Andres Roxo has shown me a copy of one of the letters written to the king by this prelate, when he was near death, in which he gave his Majesty an account of his conduct, and asked his pardon for the errors which he had committed. When speaking of the matter that we have just seen concerning the visit to the breach, he says ‘Would to God that a cannon ball had then shortened my days.’
“Next morning bout six o’clock, the same officer (Monsieur Fayette) returned to make a second attempt. He succeeded finally in getting quite into the apartment of the archbishop, but it was after he had deceived and thrown the watchful auditor off his guard. It was then too late to deliberate. A messenger announced that the enemy were at the breach, in possession of the bastion of the foundry.
“The English were divided into three columns. The one which was to mount the breach was preceded by thirty volunteers and pioneers who were the first to mount, but who probably well knew that they would find but very little or no opposition.
“The breach was scarcely practicable, and these volunteers had some difficulty in mounting. Arrived at the bastion, they saw no one to dispute the ground with them. They cried out to their comrades that they had found no obstacles, and in fact, the few people that had been stationed on the bastion had become affrighted, and had fled in both directions along the wall. Some even threw themselves down from the walls. The column seeing that these volunteers met no resistance on the bastion, bravely mounted the breach, and took the bastion. The volunteers went to the royal gate, where they found a feeble guard, who, frightened, had taken refuge under an altar of the Virgin which was in the guardhouse, and before which all the guard were wont to recite the rosary night and morning. The guard thought that they were safe from all danger, but the English, having few scruples, massacred them. They opened the gates to the rest of the troops, who were only Sepoys, who composed the second column. Thus was Manila taken by assault.” [↑]