Neither before nor since the surrender of that city, did your Excellency, or anyone else have, or do you possess any power to surrender to the enemy the domain of these islands—before, because you were not sovereign of them, but only administrator; since, because not even this weak title was left to you, nor the power of liberty. And since the enemy entered by assault and at discretion, they only have a right to what the sack gave them in itself in the territory gained by them. The rest is absurdly and ill surrendered, and contrary to all rights of war. Consequently, if this letter reaches you in time, I summon your Excellency, in his Majesty’s name, once and a thousand times, not to go to the pass of signing the surrender of these islands. And should it be already signed, I protest to your Excellency the wrong and that I shall in no wise obey so unjust and absurd a treaty. If the British wish to dominate this country, their chiefs know that it must be by first gaining it with their arms according to right of war, but to surrender it through the panic of terror, like children, would be a vileness and treason, which I shall not permit so long as I am governor, and which does not belong to my loyalty. Your Excellency also tells me that I received your commission before the surrender, and that my just proceedings must be regulated to this event and to this time. I answer also by asking your Excellency to please explain a trifle more clearly in regard to the security that I alone shall have by my just proceedings, which cannot be one jot turned aside from loyalty to the king (whom may God preserve) and besides from these provinces, without giving or allowing terms for their foreign execution to the slightest degree.[8] Your Excellency gave me your commission before the surrender of that city, in order that I might maintain these provinces under the dominion of his Majesty after the fatal event which was feared.[9] In any other way the commission would have been superfluous. And is it possible that without regarding consequences, your Excellency tells me to faithfully observe the treaties with the British leaders, and that I regulate my just procedures to the result and the time of the surrender of that city? If your Excellency, although a vassal of the king of España, his minister, and so honored, counsels me after this manner, what is allowed to the British leaders?[10] Your Excellency knows that when I left that capital, you did not give me the royal seal, without which no Audiencia provision can be despatched. I beg your Excellency to please have it sent to me, or to have the lieutenant of the grand Chancillor come to exercise his employment, if he is not detained in that capital.
[The archbishop answers Anda’s letter on the twenty-third, ordering him to present himself before him by the twenty-fifth, without fail. He sends the translation of a passport given by the English, which he attests (while keeping the original), so that Anda may come safely.][11]
[Anda, however, does not trust in the passport, as shown by his letter of October 25, in answer to that of the archbishop. In this letter he protests that he is a faithful vassal of the king, and since he is not a vassal of the archbishop, and since he knows nothing of the terms of the treaty that has been made with the British, he refuses to go to Manila. Such conduct would make him run the risk of being called a traitor to his king. He is greatly exasperated because the archbishop has not sent the original passport, but instead a translation attested by himself as a true copy, while he retains the original in his possession in order that it may run no risks. This copy means nothing, as the British soldiers will pay no attention to a passport signed by the archbishop and purporting to come from their own commander, whereas they would recognize and obey the signature of the latter. Besides, the date of the passport is the twenty-fifth,[12] and that could not be. In the passport also, the archbishop acts as the clerk of the British, and in his letter as a minister of the Catholic monarch, but the two capacities are not conformable. Lastly, Anda cannot leave the natives secretly (as the archbishop has suggested), as they love him so that they will not allow him out of their sight, and he must not leave them or risk his person.]
[In his reply to Anda, on the twenty-sixth of October,[13] the archbishop complains bitterly of the former’s lack of courtesy in his letter of the twenty-fifth, in omitting his name and title as captain and governor-general. His letter, the archbishop declares, is full of nonsense. It is a specious pretext to boast of being a good vassal, but it is not a mark of loyalty to seize authority belonging to another, by which he has incited trouble among both Spaniards and natives. On account of his absurd action, the British leaders have proscribed him and placed a price on his head, as a disturber of the provinces. The archbishop had sent the translated copy of the passport for Anda’s own safety, but he sends the original now, and thus places all the risk on Anda’s own shoulders. Although he is obliged for the present to endure these insults thrust upon him by Anda and those who imitate him, in order to avoid scandal, a time will come when he will compel their obedience. He informs Anda that the English calendar is one day in advance of that of the Spanish in the Orient. He protests his loyalty and Anda’s excesses.]
[On October 30, the archbishop issues a manifesto to “the faithful natives and their leaders of these Philipinas Islands.”[14] Writing as archbishop and governor, he informs them that the city of Manila has been taken by assault by the English on the fifth of October, after a vigorous defense. The British are enemies, but are most generous and cultured and have granted freedom of worship, and permission for the people to proceed freely with their trade, on condition of the payment of four million pesos, and the surrender of all the fortifications of the islands with military honors to alcaldes and officers. The British ask only that the people keep quiet (the islands being as it were, a deposit), until their monarch and the Spanish ruler come to terms. The natives are to be for the present subordinate to the British, although their loyalty to the Spanish king is not to be lessened. At some length, the archbishop entreats the natives to attend to their religious duties, and not to turn aside to listen to the vulgar. They must maintain good relations with the British, for these, although conquerors, live in harmony with the Spaniards and if their soldiers commit any wrongs against the natives they will be punished. Reward and punishment alike will come from God.[15]
Again on November 4, the archbishop writes to Anda. In it he states that he has been recognized throughout his negotiations as the representative of the Spanish monarch, and the true governor and captain-general, and that he is not a prisoner. Much harm has resulted from Anda’s provisions, which he has enacted as royal. By his order to cut off provisions from Manila, he has succeeded in angering the British against the Spaniards and natives in Manila; and it will result in the British carrying their conquest further by going out into the provinces to get food, and the Spaniards in Manila will all perish of hunger if they are not first put to the sword. This will mean the extinction of the Spaniards and the destruction of Christianity in the islands, the maintenance of which is the only object of the Spanish monarch. Anda can see how much service he is doing to the king by his actions. He must not congratulate himself that the British are few, for they number over six thousand, and they have a swift craft by which they can easily descend on the fortifications in the islands. Anda’s action in ordering the removal of the treasury to Pampanga is bad, for that money could have been included in the four millions demanded by the British, one million of which is demanded immediately. Besides the generals will cease to advance the necessary money for the payments incumbent upon the king, as now, and for which the archbishop gives orders on the king to them. The archbishop is not under obligation to communicate the articles of capitulation to Anda, as the latter requests, as they are only due the king. The result of the councils in which the capitulation was made has been signed by the royal Audiencia and the archbishop, and the former has only had the courage to make separately a protest, which the archbishop made openly to the generals. They have not been able to resist the promise of the four millions for a ransom. It was to be raised from the money in the treasury, and that on board the ship “Philipino”[16] if the latter were not already captured by the British. The remainder is to be paid by the king. For the contribution of one million, demanded immediately, the silver in the churches has been given with the exception of the chalices, cups, and monstrances, although the sum raised by this means and by the efforts of the citizens does not reach that amount. The archbishop has given all his plate and pectorals. He closes by strictly ordering Anda to revoke and cease to enact royal provisions, and cause disturbances which are opposed to the service of the king. Anda is sufficiently honored by his commission, and if he executes that prudently, the pacification of the villages will ensue, for which purpose it was given. The archbishop has had a right to enter into the negotiations that have taken place in regard to the surrender of Manila and its environs.]
[An edict signed by “Dauzon Drak,”[17] the English governor at Manila, and by others, on November 4, states that since the governor (i.e., Archbishop Rojo), together with the auditors, has conceded to the English the island of Luzón with the adjacent islands belonging to said government, according to the agreement made between Samuel Cornis, commander of the water forces, and Guillermo Draper, commander of the land forces of the British; and since “the government of Manila is conferred on us Daussone Drake and his council: we announce to all” the natives living in the provinces of Bulacan and Pampanga, freedom to practice the Roman Catholic religion, and exemption from all tributes and personal services imposed by the Spaniards. Further, they are to have all the privileges of British subjects, “provided they immediately renounce the subjection and obedience that they have given to their auditor, Don Simon de Anda y Salazar, who has dared to violate the agreement made between the abovesaid generals commanding and his Excellency, the governor and captain-general of the royal Audiencia of these islands, who declares himself by his own act the governor and captain-general of all the islands, without any authority, and is now a declared rebel and disobedient to the two Majesties in the said districts.” If the natives behave peacefully, no violence will be shown them, but if they obstinately continue to follow Anda, they will be treated as rebels.]
[An order of Anda, dated Bacolor, November 11, provides for the safe arrival of the Chinese vessels which will come for the trade at the regular time of the monsoon, and the boat commanded by Antonio Pacheco which has been trading in China. The alcalde-mayor of the province of Zambales is ordered to set a sentinel at Cape Bolinao, in order that he may give advice of the coming of any boat, so that it may be warned not to enter the bay of Manila, now in the control of the English, but to go to the province of Cagayan instead, where the Chinese can hold their fair. The abovesaid alcalde-mayor is to provide for the sentinels, eight in number (two of them corporals) who are to be given the same rations as those of the island of Corregidor. Eight soldiers (two of them corporals) who are to be furnished in connection with this duty by the alcalde-mayor of Pangasinan are to be provided for by the latter at the royal expense from the coffers of that province.]
[From Bacolor, Anda addresses a letter to “Governors of the natives, officials of justice and war, chiefs, cabezas de barangay, and all the natives of the village of Binalotongan, in the province of Pangazam,” under date of November 18. He has been informed by their alcalde-mayor and the provincial vicar, Andres Melendez, O.P., of the village of Lingayen, that they had revolted, and that, in order to quiet them, certain demands, which they had made, had been granted for the present in a signed paper. Now, if ever, when the country is beset with foreign foes, is their perfect loyalty needed. In regard to the signed paper, Anda declares that they ought not to make use of, but rather, burn it. That they be excused from paying the rest of the tribute due from them, until Anda and the government be again in Manila, is preposterous. That demand shows that they believe that the government will not have the strength to reëstablish itself there. Now, indeed, they ought to aid with more than the tribute, which is their recognition of vassalage to the Spanish monarch, in fact, with their lives, possessions, and services, but nothing more than the tribute due is asked from them. All the other villages pay the tribute. Two regiments of Tagálogs and Pampangos are being formed to defend the country against the English, with their own arms and the king’s pay. Their village alone has complained, and is become a reproach to the others, which look askance at it. Anda is certain that they will desist from their attempts and contribute the rest of their tribute. Another of the points in the paper that was signed is that they have demanded the dismissal of two cabezas de barangay, who they declare have shamed them when their first petition was presented in the tribunal; but Anda does not even know what the petition was nor how they were shamed. They ought to present their case in the regular way, and not forcibly dismiss the two cabezas de barangay. Let them be restored to their places and their petition filed before Anda, who promises to judge it rightly. They have also asked that neither the prison guard of four men whom they were bound to furnish, nor a money equivalent for their services if they were not furnished, be longer demanded. That is a great abuse, and cannot be allowed. Their contention that no justice should be appointed who does not come from their midst, Anda approves. If the paper was signed through fear of arms and in order to quiet them, it is null and void, and he who holds it is in danger of being regarded as a traitor. Anda asks them to send him the paper in order that he may destroy it, and to thus prove their loyalty. The troops of Bulacan and Pampanga are about to take the field against the English. Anda had intended to ask them, but recent developments have decided against it.[18]]
[A communication from Anda, dated Bacolor, December 21, recites the conditions of pardon for the Sangleys of Guagua concerned in the conspiracy of the day before.[19] These are as follows: 1. Surrender of all their arms, and examination of their houses, without any resistance. 2. Married Sangleys in the villages of the province to be restored to their houses, if not in too great number. 3. Both married and single Sangleys of Guagua to move with families and possessions to places indicated by government. 4. Must not keep arms henceforth, nor go the villages of Lubao, Guagua, Sesmoan,[20] and Mecabebe, as those places are the keys of the province. 5. Must take out necessary and usual licenses. Certain captains are ordered to inform the Sangleys of these conditions, and to examine the houses in search of hidden arms which are to be confiscated. A classified register of all Chinese by villages is to be made; and for the present soldiers are to be quartered on them. On the twenty-second, the governor of the village of Apalit is ordered to go immediately in pursuit of the Sangleys who fled from Guagua, and in case of resistance and refusal to surrender to kill them all. If they surrender, they are to be taken to Bacolor. The same order is given to the governors of Calumpit, Hagonoy, and Malolos. On the same date, the governor of Guagua is ordered to forbid the sale of nipa wine and destroy all found in the taverns, in order to avoid the possibility of drunkenness and offenses against God, especially now “when it is feared that the Sangleys are coming from Manila with the English, according to the treaty which the latter have made with the Sangleys of this province.”