CHAPTER XV.Of the Defence of the Islands by the Oidor Don Simon de Anda.On the day before the capture of Manila, Señor Anda quitted the city, with the title of visitor and lieutenant governor, in order to maintain the islands in obedience to the King of Spain. He arrived at Bulacan with forty orders under the royal seal, which were the only supply of arms and money with which he was furnished, as the treasure had been sent to the Lake Bay. As soon as it was known in Bulacan that the English were in possession of Manila, he summoned a meeting, at which were present the Father Hernandez, who filled the office of provincial of St. Augustine, the chief magistrates of the province, and other Spaniards and Augustine friars, andlaying before them the resolutions of the Royal Audience, and the authority with which he was furnished by the Governor to defend the islands, he at the same time adverted to the insufficiency of their force to make resistance to the English. They highly praised all the measures of the Royal Audience and the Governor of Manila, and promised to spill the last drop of their blood rather than forsake him. The monks offered to raise troops in the towns for the service, and conduct them to the field. He gave them thanks for their loyalty, and thinking that the title of visitor appeared of too little importance for the undertaking he was upon, he declared himself under the necessity of having recourse to certain old established regulations, which ordain that the Royal Audience may be preserved in the person of one Oidor, and in case of a vacancy in the government seat, that the Royal Audience may take the government, and the oldest Oidor command the military,unless any other arrangement should be made by his Majesty. And on this occasion the other Oidors and Governor being prisoners of war, and dead in the eye of the law, all these offices fell of necessity on him. He accordingly got himself acknowledged as Governor of the islands, in which capacity, joined to the office of Royal Audience, he circulated his orders to the different alcaldes and ecclesiastical superintendants of missions, no one, in the smallest degree, questioning his authority.Señor Anda fixed his residence, and the seat of government, at the town of Bacolor, the capital of the province of Pampanga, where he sent the Augustine friars, accompanied by some troops, some fugitives from Manila, and some Indian militia: the friars were directed to watch over the tranquillity and security of the provinces of Pampanga and Bulacan. Had the English then despatched a small detachment for the purpose, they would havegot possession of those two provinces; but General Draper was not disposed to think the acquisition of these islands an object of such difficult attainment as to require such prompt measures.The British council left by General Draper in Manila followed his plans, and convening a meeting of the principal inhabitants of the city, Señor Anda was declared by this assembly a seditious person, and deserving of capital punishment. The same censure extended to the Marquis of Monte Castro, who having been allowed his parole of honour, had not returned at the appointed time, and likewise to the provincial ofSaintAugustine, who had joined the party of Señor Anda: all the Augustine friars too were declared traitors. At this meeting much discussion took place on the subject of making up the deficiency of the million in specie which had been stipulated for, but the Spaniards replied, that with what had been taken inthe Trinidad, which, according to the articles of capitulation, was not to be deemed a prize, the amount had been made good, and the religious establishments pleaded that they had been stripped of all their valuables.The English council forcibly recommended, that the friars should impress upon the Indians the necessity of peaceable conduct under the novelty of their situation, as otherwise their interference with them would be totally interdicted. But the prior of St. Augustine being urged to use his influence with the friars of Bulacan and Pampanga, answered, that they were not under his authority, but under the provincial, who was his superior. For this guarded reply he was ordered to be confined in his convent; and although he in person represented to the council that he ought not to be considered as a prisoner of war, having come to Manila under a protection granted by them, they refusedto listen to him, but ordered him to be escorted back to his convent with bayonets fixed, leaving a guard to prevent his quitting it.The English perceiving that decrees were of very little service, and that it was necessary to have recourse to force, determined to take possession of a position on the Pasig, in order to open a passage for provisions from the Lake Bay; and Thomas Backhouse, whom the Spaniards called Becus for that purpose, filed off with five hundred men to the left of the river. He arrived in front of Maybonga, where the famous Bustos was stationed with his Cagayans, ready to defend the passage of the river. He fired upon the first English party that advanced, but as soon as they returned it, he retired to Maraquina with his people. The enemy passed the river without hesitation, and sent an officer with a white flag, to summons the Indians to surrender. The boasting little Governor answered,that the Pasig was not Manila, and if the Spaniards had given that up to them in a treacherous manner, he would defend his post to the last; adding, that should the officer return with the white flag (a trick he might deceive children with), he would hang him on the first tree. This reply being reported to Backhouse, he immediately ordered the troops to march, and the two field-pieces he had with him beginning to play, the Indians became alarmed to such a degree, that they fled precipitately. Such, indeed, was their hurry and confusion at the bridge near the convent, that numbers of them were drowned.The English got possession of the convent without resistance, and pursued the Indians as if they had been a flock of goats as far as the river Bamban, which they swam over, at least all those who had the good fortune to escape the enemy’s bullets. The King of Jolo, attempting todefend a post occupied by his family, was obliged to surrender. The English fortified this post, and maintained themselves in it till the peace.By this time Señor Anda had collected some troops, which he was enabled to maintain with the money which had been saved in Pampanga. Bustos, in the capacity of his lieutenant-general, paraded the province of Bulacan, making an ostentatious display of the power of Señor Anda; and the Pampangan Indians, commanded by a Franciscan and an Augustine friar, advanced to Maysilo, about two leagues distance from Manila, idly expecting that Bustos would support them under all circumstances. The English sallied out to dislodge them; and our Indians formed an ambuscade, in which they hoped to succeed by counterfeiting death, when it was said that many of the enemy fell; but a friar asserted, that by means of a glass he had observed from the Tambobon towerthat the Indians only let fly their arrows, and immediately made the best of their way. Certain it is that the English burnt Maysilo, and re-entered Manila with their field-pieces, without any diminution of their numbers.The Augustine friars still remained prisoners in their convents, although sometimes permitted to leave them, but restricted within the walls of the city. A counter order, however, was very unexpectedly issued, depriving them of that indulgence. It was thought that the English had recourse to this method, to compel them to deliver up the money, which, it was said, they had secreted. Persevering, however, in their firmness, they were accused of a participation in the plans of the Augustine friars of Pampanga, who favoured the views of Anda, and twelve of them were embarked for Europe, of whom, however, one was liberated at the request of the Archbishop.The remaining friars being embarked, the English entered the convent, and stripped it of every valuable. They found six thousand dollars in coin in the garden, together with the wrought silver they had hid during the treaty for the million. The reliques of the Saints even were not spared, and were torn down, in order to carry off the cases which contained them. Before the vessels sailed in which the friars were embarked, the British commander determined upon an expedition against Bulacan, in the expectation that this wouldfinallyclose the undertaking, and enable him to sail for Bombay and England. The convent of Bulacan was in some respect fortified with three small guns and six falconetes, and there were in it some artillerymen, and many Indians with bows and arrows. It was the object of the English, of course, to dislodge these troops, for which purpose a squadron sailed on the 18th of January, 1763, under the commandof Captain Eslay, of the grenadiers, who arrived with about six hundred men, ready for action, many of them Chinese, who followed the English. Their intention was to enter the bar of Binoangan, but being prevented by contrary winds, they proceeded to that of Pumarava, close to Malolos. The following day they arrived there, and coasting for two leagues by the marshes they arrived at Malolos, where they effected the landing without any impediment whatever, for the troops which we had there retired precipitately, the Indians to their houses, and the Spaniards to the convent of Calumpit. Whilst the English were marching to Bulacan, Bustos sallied out to reconnoitre them, and seeing they were superior to him in numbers, he returned to the convent, persuading the alcalde mayor and the Franciscan friar who commanded there, to burn the convent and retire; but unable to succeed in his object, he retreated with his people.The English force arriving in sight of the convent, our people did much mischief by means of a cannon loaded with case-shot, which commanded the street, and as the Chinese composed the vanguard, they alone suffered, and that severely. The English commander ordered his field-pieces to be pointed at this gun; and so correct was the aim, that the head of Ybarra, who commanded there, was carried off, which so appalled the Indians, that they fled in a most tumultuous manner; the consequence of which was, that the gates being forced, the enemy entered sword in hand, and an indiscriminate slaughter took place. The alcalde mayor and the Franciscan friar (who was the head of the clergy there) fell in this action, and of two Augustines one escaped, and the other being taken, was, with all the Indians found in the place, delivered up by the English to the Chinese, who murdered them in cold blood, in revenge for the death of their countrymenduring the attack. Having got possession of Bulacan, the English commandant despatched the principal part of his force to Manila, remaining with three hundred seapoys only. Bustos and Eslava advanced against him, and though they brought with them eight thousand men, all Indians, six hundred of whom were cavalry, they were not hardy enough to attempt to dislodge him; and they contented themselves with cutting off his communications, and giving him occasional alarms. The English commandant having sent some small parties against them with little effect, he sallied out in person, with the major part of his people, and made our troops run in a most dastardly manner, under the apprehension that he would pursue them to the province of Pampanga; but he did no more than cut down the underwood, which served as an ambush for the Indians, and then returned to the convent.Bustos, as soon as the English retired,returned to occupy his old position; but from this he was a second time dislodged as shamefully as at first. This kind of warfare, however, was very useful; for the English commander, not daring to advance far, obtained permission from the British council to retire from the position, which he executed in an orderly manner, without any interruption from our people, having first burnt the church and convent of Bulacan.Admiral Cornish now determined to return to the peninsula, but before his departure, he ordered the remaining two millions to be raised and paid in, threatening to give the city, and its suburbs, up to plunder a second time, if his requisition was not complied with. This gave the Archbishop excessive uneasiness, and he did not rest until he persuaded him to take an order on the treasury of Madrid. Señor Anda, in consequence of the death of the alcalde of Bulacan, appointed Bustosgovernor of that province, continuing him as his lieutenant-general, and ordering him to raise troops, and teach them the manual exercise, while the inhabitants in the neighbourhood of Manila, with the monks, contributed arms, lead, and other articles of war, exciting, at the same time, desertion from the city, and expecting by all these means to enable Anda to form a respectable body of troops, with which he might confine the English to Manila, and possibly drive them out of it. A French serjeant, named Bretaña, favoured much the desertion of the Frenchmen, which the English had brought with them of those they captured in Pondicherry; and he himself having also deserted, Señor Anda made him a captain.The Spanish regulars, too, who had been made prisoners in Manila, deserted very generally, and at a public entertainment which the English gave, many of them escaped through a small breach inthe fort, whilst the attention of the enemy was otherwise engaged.In order to check this spirit of desertion, Admiral Cornish confined all the Frenchmen, and the Spanish regulars, to the side of the town next the sea, using every precaution in his power to prevent Señor Anda from receiving any succours from the town and its suburbs. In consequence of these precautions, many were caught in the act of absconding, and friars and secular clergy formed a large portion of the number. In that number were Señor Viana, the fiscal, and Señor Villa Corta. This latter, whilst a prisoner, very incautiously wrote to Señor Anda, and gave a man fifty dollars to convey the letter. The guard intercepted the money and letter; and a council of war was held on him, which sentenced him to be hanged, and his four quarters to be exhibited in the public places. Having accordingly confessed, and prepared himself for hisfate, the Archbishop obtained his pardon, on condition that Señor Anda would retire from Pampanga to another province. The Archbishop and Villa Corta wrote to Señor Anda, supplicating him to accede to the proposal of the English, in order that that magistrate might be saved from the ignominious death which awaited him. He replied to Villa Corta, lamenting his situation, but refusing to accede to his application. To the Archbishop his letter was of so shameful a nature, that the English having perused it, ordered it to be burnt by the common hangman, not permitting the Archbishop to read it.This mode of saving Villa Corta’s life having failed, he availed himself of other means, and for three thousand dollars paid down, the sentence pronounced against him was remitted.During these transactions in Manila, the commanding officer of Pasig (Backhouse) had gone to the provinces of theLake and Batangas, in order to intercept the money of the Philipino, which, it was said, was on its way thither. He left his position on the Pasig with eighty mixed troops, arrived at the bar of Tagui, and removing the sampans (which our people had grounded on the bar to prevent his passage), he entered the Great Lake, and proceeded to Tunasan; from whence dislodging the troops which had fortified themselves in the government-house, he plundered it of every thing. He did the same in Biñan and Santa Rosa, where he embarked for Pagsanhan, the capital of the province of the Lake. As soon as our people perceived him, they set fire to the church and convent, and took precipitately to flight. Backhouse returned to Calamba, and entering the province of Batangas, he traversed it completely, making prisoners of some Augustine friars, who had the direction of that province; and in the townof Lipa he got possession of three thousand dollars, which some Spaniards had secreted there. In this town he took up his quarters, in expectation of the money being landed from the Philipino; but he shortly after understood that it had been secretly ordered away by sea to the opposite coast of Santor, a town of Pampanga, by which precaution the money was saved; and Backhouse, being woefully disappointed of his booty, returned to Pasig. Señor Anda, by the possession of the Philipino’s money, was enabled to collect a respectable force; all the Spaniards who had retired from Manila, and lived in misery, enlisting under his banners, to procure pay and subsistence. This force being appointed and rendered effective, he ordered his Lieutenant-General, Bustos, to form a camp at Malinta, a house belonging to the Augustine friars, a league and a half from Manila. The officers took up their quartersin the house, and the soldiers pitched their tents around. This disposition of the encampment being made, to strengthen it some redoubts and palisadoes were constructed by the Serjeant Bretaña, who had been promoted to a company, and was apparently the most intelligent of the whole of them. From this place our people made excursions to the outskirts of Manila, and on one occasion they took the horses from the coach belonging to a dignified clergyman. On another occasion, the English commander himself had nearly been taken by them. One night Bustos sent a piquet guard to get possession of the bells of the town of Quiapo, close to the walls of Manila, in order to be cast into cannon, which were much wanted; and so alarmed were the English, that they sent out one hundred fusileers, and fifty horse, with an immense number of Chinese; but notwithstanding this, after anaction of an hour and a half, the piquet succeeded in bringing off the bells. The English finding themselves very weak, and rather alarmed at these incursions of the troops of Malinta, called in all the piquets which were without the city, and dug ditches, in order to cut off the communication, and have a less extended line to cover; and in a manifesto which they published, ordering the Spaniards to retire within the walls of the city, out of the range of the artillery, which they were obliged to keep playing against these Malinta troops, to prevent their surrounding them, they bestowed on these troops the appellations of canaille and robbers.On the 19th of May, 1763, Señor Anda published in Bacolor a counter-manifesto, in which he complains that the English put the guns they took in Bulacan under the gallows, in contempt of the magistrate from whom they had taken them; thatthey called the King’s troops robbers and canaille; that they had promised five thousand dollars for his head, dead or alive; and in consequence of all this, he declared Drake and his colleagues, Smith and Brock, tyrants, common enemies, and unworthy of human society, offering for either of them, alive or dead, ten thousand dollars. The English council replied to all these charges in a manifesto, in which they complain of the conduct of the Spaniards; but as a paper war was of little avail in furnishing them with the provisions they were deprived of by the interruption occasioned by the Malinta troops, they resolved to dislodge Bustos, and with the greatest secrecy despatched three hundred and fifty fusileers, fifty horse, together with a great number of Chinese, to convey the necessary guns and ammunition. The English made this sortie on the 27th of June, and arrived at the river, in frontof our post, before day-break. As soon as our people discovered them they began to form, but before we were prepared the fire with their field-pieces commenced, the Spaniards answering with five small guns, followed up by the musketry; but neither daring to pass the river, they were expending their powder to no purpose until eleven o’clock, when the English retired in good order to the King’s house at Maysilo, where they remained until it was understood that Bustos had burnt Malinta house, and removed his camp to Meycavayan. They then retired into Manila in the evening. On our side we had two killed and seven wounded, of which five afterwards died; and of the enemy there were thirteen wounded, of which five or six died afterwards in the hospital. The Indians of Caloocan intercepted some people conveying provisions to the English camp; and another party of Indians made prisoners a party of Chinese,who had strayed for the purpose of plunder. These were the last actions of this war, for on the 23d of July an English frigate arrived with the preliminaries of peace, and a cessation of hostilities of course took place.
CHAPTER XV.Of the Defence of the Islands by the Oidor Don Simon de Anda.On the day before the capture of Manila, Señor Anda quitted the city, with the title of visitor and lieutenant governor, in order to maintain the islands in obedience to the King of Spain. He arrived at Bulacan with forty orders under the royal seal, which were the only supply of arms and money with which he was furnished, as the treasure had been sent to the Lake Bay. As soon as it was known in Bulacan that the English were in possession of Manila, he summoned a meeting, at which were present the Father Hernandez, who filled the office of provincial of St. Augustine, the chief magistrates of the province, and other Spaniards and Augustine friars, andlaying before them the resolutions of the Royal Audience, and the authority with which he was furnished by the Governor to defend the islands, he at the same time adverted to the insufficiency of their force to make resistance to the English. They highly praised all the measures of the Royal Audience and the Governor of Manila, and promised to spill the last drop of their blood rather than forsake him. The monks offered to raise troops in the towns for the service, and conduct them to the field. He gave them thanks for their loyalty, and thinking that the title of visitor appeared of too little importance for the undertaking he was upon, he declared himself under the necessity of having recourse to certain old established regulations, which ordain that the Royal Audience may be preserved in the person of one Oidor, and in case of a vacancy in the government seat, that the Royal Audience may take the government, and the oldest Oidor command the military,unless any other arrangement should be made by his Majesty. And on this occasion the other Oidors and Governor being prisoners of war, and dead in the eye of the law, all these offices fell of necessity on him. He accordingly got himself acknowledged as Governor of the islands, in which capacity, joined to the office of Royal Audience, he circulated his orders to the different alcaldes and ecclesiastical superintendants of missions, no one, in the smallest degree, questioning his authority.Señor Anda fixed his residence, and the seat of government, at the town of Bacolor, the capital of the province of Pampanga, where he sent the Augustine friars, accompanied by some troops, some fugitives from Manila, and some Indian militia: the friars were directed to watch over the tranquillity and security of the provinces of Pampanga and Bulacan. Had the English then despatched a small detachment for the purpose, they would havegot possession of those two provinces; but General Draper was not disposed to think the acquisition of these islands an object of such difficult attainment as to require such prompt measures.The British council left by General Draper in Manila followed his plans, and convening a meeting of the principal inhabitants of the city, Señor Anda was declared by this assembly a seditious person, and deserving of capital punishment. The same censure extended to the Marquis of Monte Castro, who having been allowed his parole of honour, had not returned at the appointed time, and likewise to the provincial ofSaintAugustine, who had joined the party of Señor Anda: all the Augustine friars too were declared traitors. At this meeting much discussion took place on the subject of making up the deficiency of the million in specie which had been stipulated for, but the Spaniards replied, that with what had been taken inthe Trinidad, which, according to the articles of capitulation, was not to be deemed a prize, the amount had been made good, and the religious establishments pleaded that they had been stripped of all their valuables.The English council forcibly recommended, that the friars should impress upon the Indians the necessity of peaceable conduct under the novelty of their situation, as otherwise their interference with them would be totally interdicted. But the prior of St. Augustine being urged to use his influence with the friars of Bulacan and Pampanga, answered, that they were not under his authority, but under the provincial, who was his superior. For this guarded reply he was ordered to be confined in his convent; and although he in person represented to the council that he ought not to be considered as a prisoner of war, having come to Manila under a protection granted by them, they refusedto listen to him, but ordered him to be escorted back to his convent with bayonets fixed, leaving a guard to prevent his quitting it.The English perceiving that decrees were of very little service, and that it was necessary to have recourse to force, determined to take possession of a position on the Pasig, in order to open a passage for provisions from the Lake Bay; and Thomas Backhouse, whom the Spaniards called Becus for that purpose, filed off with five hundred men to the left of the river. He arrived in front of Maybonga, where the famous Bustos was stationed with his Cagayans, ready to defend the passage of the river. He fired upon the first English party that advanced, but as soon as they returned it, he retired to Maraquina with his people. The enemy passed the river without hesitation, and sent an officer with a white flag, to summons the Indians to surrender. The boasting little Governor answered,that the Pasig was not Manila, and if the Spaniards had given that up to them in a treacherous manner, he would defend his post to the last; adding, that should the officer return with the white flag (a trick he might deceive children with), he would hang him on the first tree. This reply being reported to Backhouse, he immediately ordered the troops to march, and the two field-pieces he had with him beginning to play, the Indians became alarmed to such a degree, that they fled precipitately. Such, indeed, was their hurry and confusion at the bridge near the convent, that numbers of them were drowned.The English got possession of the convent without resistance, and pursued the Indians as if they had been a flock of goats as far as the river Bamban, which they swam over, at least all those who had the good fortune to escape the enemy’s bullets. The King of Jolo, attempting todefend a post occupied by his family, was obliged to surrender. The English fortified this post, and maintained themselves in it till the peace.By this time Señor Anda had collected some troops, which he was enabled to maintain with the money which had been saved in Pampanga. Bustos, in the capacity of his lieutenant-general, paraded the province of Bulacan, making an ostentatious display of the power of Señor Anda; and the Pampangan Indians, commanded by a Franciscan and an Augustine friar, advanced to Maysilo, about two leagues distance from Manila, idly expecting that Bustos would support them under all circumstances. The English sallied out to dislodge them; and our Indians formed an ambuscade, in which they hoped to succeed by counterfeiting death, when it was said that many of the enemy fell; but a friar asserted, that by means of a glass he had observed from the Tambobon towerthat the Indians only let fly their arrows, and immediately made the best of their way. Certain it is that the English burnt Maysilo, and re-entered Manila with their field-pieces, without any diminution of their numbers.The Augustine friars still remained prisoners in their convents, although sometimes permitted to leave them, but restricted within the walls of the city. A counter order, however, was very unexpectedly issued, depriving them of that indulgence. It was thought that the English had recourse to this method, to compel them to deliver up the money, which, it was said, they had secreted. Persevering, however, in their firmness, they were accused of a participation in the plans of the Augustine friars of Pampanga, who favoured the views of Anda, and twelve of them were embarked for Europe, of whom, however, one was liberated at the request of the Archbishop.The remaining friars being embarked, the English entered the convent, and stripped it of every valuable. They found six thousand dollars in coin in the garden, together with the wrought silver they had hid during the treaty for the million. The reliques of the Saints even were not spared, and were torn down, in order to carry off the cases which contained them. Before the vessels sailed in which the friars were embarked, the British commander determined upon an expedition against Bulacan, in the expectation that this wouldfinallyclose the undertaking, and enable him to sail for Bombay and England. The convent of Bulacan was in some respect fortified with three small guns and six falconetes, and there were in it some artillerymen, and many Indians with bows and arrows. It was the object of the English, of course, to dislodge these troops, for which purpose a squadron sailed on the 18th of January, 1763, under the commandof Captain Eslay, of the grenadiers, who arrived with about six hundred men, ready for action, many of them Chinese, who followed the English. Their intention was to enter the bar of Binoangan, but being prevented by contrary winds, they proceeded to that of Pumarava, close to Malolos. The following day they arrived there, and coasting for two leagues by the marshes they arrived at Malolos, where they effected the landing without any impediment whatever, for the troops which we had there retired precipitately, the Indians to their houses, and the Spaniards to the convent of Calumpit. Whilst the English were marching to Bulacan, Bustos sallied out to reconnoitre them, and seeing they were superior to him in numbers, he returned to the convent, persuading the alcalde mayor and the Franciscan friar who commanded there, to burn the convent and retire; but unable to succeed in his object, he retreated with his people.The English force arriving in sight of the convent, our people did much mischief by means of a cannon loaded with case-shot, which commanded the street, and as the Chinese composed the vanguard, they alone suffered, and that severely. The English commander ordered his field-pieces to be pointed at this gun; and so correct was the aim, that the head of Ybarra, who commanded there, was carried off, which so appalled the Indians, that they fled in a most tumultuous manner; the consequence of which was, that the gates being forced, the enemy entered sword in hand, and an indiscriminate slaughter took place. The alcalde mayor and the Franciscan friar (who was the head of the clergy there) fell in this action, and of two Augustines one escaped, and the other being taken, was, with all the Indians found in the place, delivered up by the English to the Chinese, who murdered them in cold blood, in revenge for the death of their countrymenduring the attack. Having got possession of Bulacan, the English commandant despatched the principal part of his force to Manila, remaining with three hundred seapoys only. Bustos and Eslava advanced against him, and though they brought with them eight thousand men, all Indians, six hundred of whom were cavalry, they were not hardy enough to attempt to dislodge him; and they contented themselves with cutting off his communications, and giving him occasional alarms. The English commandant having sent some small parties against them with little effect, he sallied out in person, with the major part of his people, and made our troops run in a most dastardly manner, under the apprehension that he would pursue them to the province of Pampanga; but he did no more than cut down the underwood, which served as an ambush for the Indians, and then returned to the convent.Bustos, as soon as the English retired,returned to occupy his old position; but from this he was a second time dislodged as shamefully as at first. This kind of warfare, however, was very useful; for the English commander, not daring to advance far, obtained permission from the British council to retire from the position, which he executed in an orderly manner, without any interruption from our people, having first burnt the church and convent of Bulacan.Admiral Cornish now determined to return to the peninsula, but before his departure, he ordered the remaining two millions to be raised and paid in, threatening to give the city, and its suburbs, up to plunder a second time, if his requisition was not complied with. This gave the Archbishop excessive uneasiness, and he did not rest until he persuaded him to take an order on the treasury of Madrid. Señor Anda, in consequence of the death of the alcalde of Bulacan, appointed Bustosgovernor of that province, continuing him as his lieutenant-general, and ordering him to raise troops, and teach them the manual exercise, while the inhabitants in the neighbourhood of Manila, with the monks, contributed arms, lead, and other articles of war, exciting, at the same time, desertion from the city, and expecting by all these means to enable Anda to form a respectable body of troops, with which he might confine the English to Manila, and possibly drive them out of it. A French serjeant, named Bretaña, favoured much the desertion of the Frenchmen, which the English had brought with them of those they captured in Pondicherry; and he himself having also deserted, Señor Anda made him a captain.The Spanish regulars, too, who had been made prisoners in Manila, deserted very generally, and at a public entertainment which the English gave, many of them escaped through a small breach inthe fort, whilst the attention of the enemy was otherwise engaged.In order to check this spirit of desertion, Admiral Cornish confined all the Frenchmen, and the Spanish regulars, to the side of the town next the sea, using every precaution in his power to prevent Señor Anda from receiving any succours from the town and its suburbs. In consequence of these precautions, many were caught in the act of absconding, and friars and secular clergy formed a large portion of the number. In that number were Señor Viana, the fiscal, and Señor Villa Corta. This latter, whilst a prisoner, very incautiously wrote to Señor Anda, and gave a man fifty dollars to convey the letter. The guard intercepted the money and letter; and a council of war was held on him, which sentenced him to be hanged, and his four quarters to be exhibited in the public places. Having accordingly confessed, and prepared himself for hisfate, the Archbishop obtained his pardon, on condition that Señor Anda would retire from Pampanga to another province. The Archbishop and Villa Corta wrote to Señor Anda, supplicating him to accede to the proposal of the English, in order that that magistrate might be saved from the ignominious death which awaited him. He replied to Villa Corta, lamenting his situation, but refusing to accede to his application. To the Archbishop his letter was of so shameful a nature, that the English having perused it, ordered it to be burnt by the common hangman, not permitting the Archbishop to read it.This mode of saving Villa Corta’s life having failed, he availed himself of other means, and for three thousand dollars paid down, the sentence pronounced against him was remitted.During these transactions in Manila, the commanding officer of Pasig (Backhouse) had gone to the provinces of theLake and Batangas, in order to intercept the money of the Philipino, which, it was said, was on its way thither. He left his position on the Pasig with eighty mixed troops, arrived at the bar of Tagui, and removing the sampans (which our people had grounded on the bar to prevent his passage), he entered the Great Lake, and proceeded to Tunasan; from whence dislodging the troops which had fortified themselves in the government-house, he plundered it of every thing. He did the same in Biñan and Santa Rosa, where he embarked for Pagsanhan, the capital of the province of the Lake. As soon as our people perceived him, they set fire to the church and convent, and took precipitately to flight. Backhouse returned to Calamba, and entering the province of Batangas, he traversed it completely, making prisoners of some Augustine friars, who had the direction of that province; and in the townof Lipa he got possession of three thousand dollars, which some Spaniards had secreted there. In this town he took up his quarters, in expectation of the money being landed from the Philipino; but he shortly after understood that it had been secretly ordered away by sea to the opposite coast of Santor, a town of Pampanga, by which precaution the money was saved; and Backhouse, being woefully disappointed of his booty, returned to Pasig. Señor Anda, by the possession of the Philipino’s money, was enabled to collect a respectable force; all the Spaniards who had retired from Manila, and lived in misery, enlisting under his banners, to procure pay and subsistence. This force being appointed and rendered effective, he ordered his Lieutenant-General, Bustos, to form a camp at Malinta, a house belonging to the Augustine friars, a league and a half from Manila. The officers took up their quartersin the house, and the soldiers pitched their tents around. This disposition of the encampment being made, to strengthen it some redoubts and palisadoes were constructed by the Serjeant Bretaña, who had been promoted to a company, and was apparently the most intelligent of the whole of them. From this place our people made excursions to the outskirts of Manila, and on one occasion they took the horses from the coach belonging to a dignified clergyman. On another occasion, the English commander himself had nearly been taken by them. One night Bustos sent a piquet guard to get possession of the bells of the town of Quiapo, close to the walls of Manila, in order to be cast into cannon, which were much wanted; and so alarmed were the English, that they sent out one hundred fusileers, and fifty horse, with an immense number of Chinese; but notwithstanding this, after anaction of an hour and a half, the piquet succeeded in bringing off the bells. The English finding themselves very weak, and rather alarmed at these incursions of the troops of Malinta, called in all the piquets which were without the city, and dug ditches, in order to cut off the communication, and have a less extended line to cover; and in a manifesto which they published, ordering the Spaniards to retire within the walls of the city, out of the range of the artillery, which they were obliged to keep playing against these Malinta troops, to prevent their surrounding them, they bestowed on these troops the appellations of canaille and robbers.On the 19th of May, 1763, Señor Anda published in Bacolor a counter-manifesto, in which he complains that the English put the guns they took in Bulacan under the gallows, in contempt of the magistrate from whom they had taken them; thatthey called the King’s troops robbers and canaille; that they had promised five thousand dollars for his head, dead or alive; and in consequence of all this, he declared Drake and his colleagues, Smith and Brock, tyrants, common enemies, and unworthy of human society, offering for either of them, alive or dead, ten thousand dollars. The English council replied to all these charges in a manifesto, in which they complain of the conduct of the Spaniards; but as a paper war was of little avail in furnishing them with the provisions they were deprived of by the interruption occasioned by the Malinta troops, they resolved to dislodge Bustos, and with the greatest secrecy despatched three hundred and fifty fusileers, fifty horse, together with a great number of Chinese, to convey the necessary guns and ammunition. The English made this sortie on the 27th of June, and arrived at the river, in frontof our post, before day-break. As soon as our people discovered them they began to form, but before we were prepared the fire with their field-pieces commenced, the Spaniards answering with five small guns, followed up by the musketry; but neither daring to pass the river, they were expending their powder to no purpose until eleven o’clock, when the English retired in good order to the King’s house at Maysilo, where they remained until it was understood that Bustos had burnt Malinta house, and removed his camp to Meycavayan. They then retired into Manila in the evening. On our side we had two killed and seven wounded, of which five afterwards died; and of the enemy there were thirteen wounded, of which five or six died afterwards in the hospital. The Indians of Caloocan intercepted some people conveying provisions to the English camp; and another party of Indians made prisoners a party of Chinese,who had strayed for the purpose of plunder. These were the last actions of this war, for on the 23d of July an English frigate arrived with the preliminaries of peace, and a cessation of hostilities of course took place.
CHAPTER XV.Of the Defence of the Islands by the Oidor Don Simon de Anda.
Of the Defence of the Islands by the Oidor Don Simon de Anda.
Of the Defence of the Islands by the Oidor Don Simon de Anda.
On the day before the capture of Manila, Señor Anda quitted the city, with the title of visitor and lieutenant governor, in order to maintain the islands in obedience to the King of Spain. He arrived at Bulacan with forty orders under the royal seal, which were the only supply of arms and money with which he was furnished, as the treasure had been sent to the Lake Bay. As soon as it was known in Bulacan that the English were in possession of Manila, he summoned a meeting, at which were present the Father Hernandez, who filled the office of provincial of St. Augustine, the chief magistrates of the province, and other Spaniards and Augustine friars, andlaying before them the resolutions of the Royal Audience, and the authority with which he was furnished by the Governor to defend the islands, he at the same time adverted to the insufficiency of their force to make resistance to the English. They highly praised all the measures of the Royal Audience and the Governor of Manila, and promised to spill the last drop of their blood rather than forsake him. The monks offered to raise troops in the towns for the service, and conduct them to the field. He gave them thanks for their loyalty, and thinking that the title of visitor appeared of too little importance for the undertaking he was upon, he declared himself under the necessity of having recourse to certain old established regulations, which ordain that the Royal Audience may be preserved in the person of one Oidor, and in case of a vacancy in the government seat, that the Royal Audience may take the government, and the oldest Oidor command the military,unless any other arrangement should be made by his Majesty. And on this occasion the other Oidors and Governor being prisoners of war, and dead in the eye of the law, all these offices fell of necessity on him. He accordingly got himself acknowledged as Governor of the islands, in which capacity, joined to the office of Royal Audience, he circulated his orders to the different alcaldes and ecclesiastical superintendants of missions, no one, in the smallest degree, questioning his authority.Señor Anda fixed his residence, and the seat of government, at the town of Bacolor, the capital of the province of Pampanga, where he sent the Augustine friars, accompanied by some troops, some fugitives from Manila, and some Indian militia: the friars were directed to watch over the tranquillity and security of the provinces of Pampanga and Bulacan. Had the English then despatched a small detachment for the purpose, they would havegot possession of those two provinces; but General Draper was not disposed to think the acquisition of these islands an object of such difficult attainment as to require such prompt measures.The British council left by General Draper in Manila followed his plans, and convening a meeting of the principal inhabitants of the city, Señor Anda was declared by this assembly a seditious person, and deserving of capital punishment. The same censure extended to the Marquis of Monte Castro, who having been allowed his parole of honour, had not returned at the appointed time, and likewise to the provincial ofSaintAugustine, who had joined the party of Señor Anda: all the Augustine friars too were declared traitors. At this meeting much discussion took place on the subject of making up the deficiency of the million in specie which had been stipulated for, but the Spaniards replied, that with what had been taken inthe Trinidad, which, according to the articles of capitulation, was not to be deemed a prize, the amount had been made good, and the religious establishments pleaded that they had been stripped of all their valuables.The English council forcibly recommended, that the friars should impress upon the Indians the necessity of peaceable conduct under the novelty of their situation, as otherwise their interference with them would be totally interdicted. But the prior of St. Augustine being urged to use his influence with the friars of Bulacan and Pampanga, answered, that they were not under his authority, but under the provincial, who was his superior. For this guarded reply he was ordered to be confined in his convent; and although he in person represented to the council that he ought not to be considered as a prisoner of war, having come to Manila under a protection granted by them, they refusedto listen to him, but ordered him to be escorted back to his convent with bayonets fixed, leaving a guard to prevent his quitting it.The English perceiving that decrees were of very little service, and that it was necessary to have recourse to force, determined to take possession of a position on the Pasig, in order to open a passage for provisions from the Lake Bay; and Thomas Backhouse, whom the Spaniards called Becus for that purpose, filed off with five hundred men to the left of the river. He arrived in front of Maybonga, where the famous Bustos was stationed with his Cagayans, ready to defend the passage of the river. He fired upon the first English party that advanced, but as soon as they returned it, he retired to Maraquina with his people. The enemy passed the river without hesitation, and sent an officer with a white flag, to summons the Indians to surrender. The boasting little Governor answered,that the Pasig was not Manila, and if the Spaniards had given that up to them in a treacherous manner, he would defend his post to the last; adding, that should the officer return with the white flag (a trick he might deceive children with), he would hang him on the first tree. This reply being reported to Backhouse, he immediately ordered the troops to march, and the two field-pieces he had with him beginning to play, the Indians became alarmed to such a degree, that they fled precipitately. Such, indeed, was their hurry and confusion at the bridge near the convent, that numbers of them were drowned.The English got possession of the convent without resistance, and pursued the Indians as if they had been a flock of goats as far as the river Bamban, which they swam over, at least all those who had the good fortune to escape the enemy’s bullets. The King of Jolo, attempting todefend a post occupied by his family, was obliged to surrender. The English fortified this post, and maintained themselves in it till the peace.By this time Señor Anda had collected some troops, which he was enabled to maintain with the money which had been saved in Pampanga. Bustos, in the capacity of his lieutenant-general, paraded the province of Bulacan, making an ostentatious display of the power of Señor Anda; and the Pampangan Indians, commanded by a Franciscan and an Augustine friar, advanced to Maysilo, about two leagues distance from Manila, idly expecting that Bustos would support them under all circumstances. The English sallied out to dislodge them; and our Indians formed an ambuscade, in which they hoped to succeed by counterfeiting death, when it was said that many of the enemy fell; but a friar asserted, that by means of a glass he had observed from the Tambobon towerthat the Indians only let fly their arrows, and immediately made the best of their way. Certain it is that the English burnt Maysilo, and re-entered Manila with their field-pieces, without any diminution of their numbers.The Augustine friars still remained prisoners in their convents, although sometimes permitted to leave them, but restricted within the walls of the city. A counter order, however, was very unexpectedly issued, depriving them of that indulgence. It was thought that the English had recourse to this method, to compel them to deliver up the money, which, it was said, they had secreted. Persevering, however, in their firmness, they were accused of a participation in the plans of the Augustine friars of Pampanga, who favoured the views of Anda, and twelve of them were embarked for Europe, of whom, however, one was liberated at the request of the Archbishop.The remaining friars being embarked, the English entered the convent, and stripped it of every valuable. They found six thousand dollars in coin in the garden, together with the wrought silver they had hid during the treaty for the million. The reliques of the Saints even were not spared, and were torn down, in order to carry off the cases which contained them. Before the vessels sailed in which the friars were embarked, the British commander determined upon an expedition against Bulacan, in the expectation that this wouldfinallyclose the undertaking, and enable him to sail for Bombay and England. The convent of Bulacan was in some respect fortified with three small guns and six falconetes, and there were in it some artillerymen, and many Indians with bows and arrows. It was the object of the English, of course, to dislodge these troops, for which purpose a squadron sailed on the 18th of January, 1763, under the commandof Captain Eslay, of the grenadiers, who arrived with about six hundred men, ready for action, many of them Chinese, who followed the English. Their intention was to enter the bar of Binoangan, but being prevented by contrary winds, they proceeded to that of Pumarava, close to Malolos. The following day they arrived there, and coasting for two leagues by the marshes they arrived at Malolos, where they effected the landing without any impediment whatever, for the troops which we had there retired precipitately, the Indians to their houses, and the Spaniards to the convent of Calumpit. Whilst the English were marching to Bulacan, Bustos sallied out to reconnoitre them, and seeing they were superior to him in numbers, he returned to the convent, persuading the alcalde mayor and the Franciscan friar who commanded there, to burn the convent and retire; but unable to succeed in his object, he retreated with his people.The English force arriving in sight of the convent, our people did much mischief by means of a cannon loaded with case-shot, which commanded the street, and as the Chinese composed the vanguard, they alone suffered, and that severely. The English commander ordered his field-pieces to be pointed at this gun; and so correct was the aim, that the head of Ybarra, who commanded there, was carried off, which so appalled the Indians, that they fled in a most tumultuous manner; the consequence of which was, that the gates being forced, the enemy entered sword in hand, and an indiscriminate slaughter took place. The alcalde mayor and the Franciscan friar (who was the head of the clergy there) fell in this action, and of two Augustines one escaped, and the other being taken, was, with all the Indians found in the place, delivered up by the English to the Chinese, who murdered them in cold blood, in revenge for the death of their countrymenduring the attack. Having got possession of Bulacan, the English commandant despatched the principal part of his force to Manila, remaining with three hundred seapoys only. Bustos and Eslava advanced against him, and though they brought with them eight thousand men, all Indians, six hundred of whom were cavalry, they were not hardy enough to attempt to dislodge him; and they contented themselves with cutting off his communications, and giving him occasional alarms. The English commandant having sent some small parties against them with little effect, he sallied out in person, with the major part of his people, and made our troops run in a most dastardly manner, under the apprehension that he would pursue them to the province of Pampanga; but he did no more than cut down the underwood, which served as an ambush for the Indians, and then returned to the convent.Bustos, as soon as the English retired,returned to occupy his old position; but from this he was a second time dislodged as shamefully as at first. This kind of warfare, however, was very useful; for the English commander, not daring to advance far, obtained permission from the British council to retire from the position, which he executed in an orderly manner, without any interruption from our people, having first burnt the church and convent of Bulacan.Admiral Cornish now determined to return to the peninsula, but before his departure, he ordered the remaining two millions to be raised and paid in, threatening to give the city, and its suburbs, up to plunder a second time, if his requisition was not complied with. This gave the Archbishop excessive uneasiness, and he did not rest until he persuaded him to take an order on the treasury of Madrid. Señor Anda, in consequence of the death of the alcalde of Bulacan, appointed Bustosgovernor of that province, continuing him as his lieutenant-general, and ordering him to raise troops, and teach them the manual exercise, while the inhabitants in the neighbourhood of Manila, with the monks, contributed arms, lead, and other articles of war, exciting, at the same time, desertion from the city, and expecting by all these means to enable Anda to form a respectable body of troops, with which he might confine the English to Manila, and possibly drive them out of it. A French serjeant, named Bretaña, favoured much the desertion of the Frenchmen, which the English had brought with them of those they captured in Pondicherry; and he himself having also deserted, Señor Anda made him a captain.The Spanish regulars, too, who had been made prisoners in Manila, deserted very generally, and at a public entertainment which the English gave, many of them escaped through a small breach inthe fort, whilst the attention of the enemy was otherwise engaged.In order to check this spirit of desertion, Admiral Cornish confined all the Frenchmen, and the Spanish regulars, to the side of the town next the sea, using every precaution in his power to prevent Señor Anda from receiving any succours from the town and its suburbs. In consequence of these precautions, many were caught in the act of absconding, and friars and secular clergy formed a large portion of the number. In that number were Señor Viana, the fiscal, and Señor Villa Corta. This latter, whilst a prisoner, very incautiously wrote to Señor Anda, and gave a man fifty dollars to convey the letter. The guard intercepted the money and letter; and a council of war was held on him, which sentenced him to be hanged, and his four quarters to be exhibited in the public places. Having accordingly confessed, and prepared himself for hisfate, the Archbishop obtained his pardon, on condition that Señor Anda would retire from Pampanga to another province. The Archbishop and Villa Corta wrote to Señor Anda, supplicating him to accede to the proposal of the English, in order that that magistrate might be saved from the ignominious death which awaited him. He replied to Villa Corta, lamenting his situation, but refusing to accede to his application. To the Archbishop his letter was of so shameful a nature, that the English having perused it, ordered it to be burnt by the common hangman, not permitting the Archbishop to read it.This mode of saving Villa Corta’s life having failed, he availed himself of other means, and for three thousand dollars paid down, the sentence pronounced against him was remitted.During these transactions in Manila, the commanding officer of Pasig (Backhouse) had gone to the provinces of theLake and Batangas, in order to intercept the money of the Philipino, which, it was said, was on its way thither. He left his position on the Pasig with eighty mixed troops, arrived at the bar of Tagui, and removing the sampans (which our people had grounded on the bar to prevent his passage), he entered the Great Lake, and proceeded to Tunasan; from whence dislodging the troops which had fortified themselves in the government-house, he plundered it of every thing. He did the same in Biñan and Santa Rosa, where he embarked for Pagsanhan, the capital of the province of the Lake. As soon as our people perceived him, they set fire to the church and convent, and took precipitately to flight. Backhouse returned to Calamba, and entering the province of Batangas, he traversed it completely, making prisoners of some Augustine friars, who had the direction of that province; and in the townof Lipa he got possession of three thousand dollars, which some Spaniards had secreted there. In this town he took up his quarters, in expectation of the money being landed from the Philipino; but he shortly after understood that it had been secretly ordered away by sea to the opposite coast of Santor, a town of Pampanga, by which precaution the money was saved; and Backhouse, being woefully disappointed of his booty, returned to Pasig. Señor Anda, by the possession of the Philipino’s money, was enabled to collect a respectable force; all the Spaniards who had retired from Manila, and lived in misery, enlisting under his banners, to procure pay and subsistence. This force being appointed and rendered effective, he ordered his Lieutenant-General, Bustos, to form a camp at Malinta, a house belonging to the Augustine friars, a league and a half from Manila. The officers took up their quartersin the house, and the soldiers pitched their tents around. This disposition of the encampment being made, to strengthen it some redoubts and palisadoes were constructed by the Serjeant Bretaña, who had been promoted to a company, and was apparently the most intelligent of the whole of them. From this place our people made excursions to the outskirts of Manila, and on one occasion they took the horses from the coach belonging to a dignified clergyman. On another occasion, the English commander himself had nearly been taken by them. One night Bustos sent a piquet guard to get possession of the bells of the town of Quiapo, close to the walls of Manila, in order to be cast into cannon, which were much wanted; and so alarmed were the English, that they sent out one hundred fusileers, and fifty horse, with an immense number of Chinese; but notwithstanding this, after anaction of an hour and a half, the piquet succeeded in bringing off the bells. The English finding themselves very weak, and rather alarmed at these incursions of the troops of Malinta, called in all the piquets which were without the city, and dug ditches, in order to cut off the communication, and have a less extended line to cover; and in a manifesto which they published, ordering the Spaniards to retire within the walls of the city, out of the range of the artillery, which they were obliged to keep playing against these Malinta troops, to prevent their surrounding them, they bestowed on these troops the appellations of canaille and robbers.On the 19th of May, 1763, Señor Anda published in Bacolor a counter-manifesto, in which he complains that the English put the guns they took in Bulacan under the gallows, in contempt of the magistrate from whom they had taken them; thatthey called the King’s troops robbers and canaille; that they had promised five thousand dollars for his head, dead or alive; and in consequence of all this, he declared Drake and his colleagues, Smith and Brock, tyrants, common enemies, and unworthy of human society, offering for either of them, alive or dead, ten thousand dollars. The English council replied to all these charges in a manifesto, in which they complain of the conduct of the Spaniards; but as a paper war was of little avail in furnishing them with the provisions they were deprived of by the interruption occasioned by the Malinta troops, they resolved to dislodge Bustos, and with the greatest secrecy despatched three hundred and fifty fusileers, fifty horse, together with a great number of Chinese, to convey the necessary guns and ammunition. The English made this sortie on the 27th of June, and arrived at the river, in frontof our post, before day-break. As soon as our people discovered them they began to form, but before we were prepared the fire with their field-pieces commenced, the Spaniards answering with five small guns, followed up by the musketry; but neither daring to pass the river, they were expending their powder to no purpose until eleven o’clock, when the English retired in good order to the King’s house at Maysilo, where they remained until it was understood that Bustos had burnt Malinta house, and removed his camp to Meycavayan. They then retired into Manila in the evening. On our side we had two killed and seven wounded, of which five afterwards died; and of the enemy there were thirteen wounded, of which five or six died afterwards in the hospital. The Indians of Caloocan intercepted some people conveying provisions to the English camp; and another party of Indians made prisoners a party of Chinese,who had strayed for the purpose of plunder. These were the last actions of this war, for on the 23d of July an English frigate arrived with the preliminaries of peace, and a cessation of hostilities of course took place.
On the day before the capture of Manila, Señor Anda quitted the city, with the title of visitor and lieutenant governor, in order to maintain the islands in obedience to the King of Spain. He arrived at Bulacan with forty orders under the royal seal, which were the only supply of arms and money with which he was furnished, as the treasure had been sent to the Lake Bay. As soon as it was known in Bulacan that the English were in possession of Manila, he summoned a meeting, at which were present the Father Hernandez, who filled the office of provincial of St. Augustine, the chief magistrates of the province, and other Spaniards and Augustine friars, andlaying before them the resolutions of the Royal Audience, and the authority with which he was furnished by the Governor to defend the islands, he at the same time adverted to the insufficiency of their force to make resistance to the English. They highly praised all the measures of the Royal Audience and the Governor of Manila, and promised to spill the last drop of their blood rather than forsake him. The monks offered to raise troops in the towns for the service, and conduct them to the field. He gave them thanks for their loyalty, and thinking that the title of visitor appeared of too little importance for the undertaking he was upon, he declared himself under the necessity of having recourse to certain old established regulations, which ordain that the Royal Audience may be preserved in the person of one Oidor, and in case of a vacancy in the government seat, that the Royal Audience may take the government, and the oldest Oidor command the military,unless any other arrangement should be made by his Majesty. And on this occasion the other Oidors and Governor being prisoners of war, and dead in the eye of the law, all these offices fell of necessity on him. He accordingly got himself acknowledged as Governor of the islands, in which capacity, joined to the office of Royal Audience, he circulated his orders to the different alcaldes and ecclesiastical superintendants of missions, no one, in the smallest degree, questioning his authority.
Señor Anda fixed his residence, and the seat of government, at the town of Bacolor, the capital of the province of Pampanga, where he sent the Augustine friars, accompanied by some troops, some fugitives from Manila, and some Indian militia: the friars were directed to watch over the tranquillity and security of the provinces of Pampanga and Bulacan. Had the English then despatched a small detachment for the purpose, they would havegot possession of those two provinces; but General Draper was not disposed to think the acquisition of these islands an object of such difficult attainment as to require such prompt measures.
The British council left by General Draper in Manila followed his plans, and convening a meeting of the principal inhabitants of the city, Señor Anda was declared by this assembly a seditious person, and deserving of capital punishment. The same censure extended to the Marquis of Monte Castro, who having been allowed his parole of honour, had not returned at the appointed time, and likewise to the provincial ofSaintAugustine, who had joined the party of Señor Anda: all the Augustine friars too were declared traitors. At this meeting much discussion took place on the subject of making up the deficiency of the million in specie which had been stipulated for, but the Spaniards replied, that with what had been taken inthe Trinidad, which, according to the articles of capitulation, was not to be deemed a prize, the amount had been made good, and the religious establishments pleaded that they had been stripped of all their valuables.
The English council forcibly recommended, that the friars should impress upon the Indians the necessity of peaceable conduct under the novelty of their situation, as otherwise their interference with them would be totally interdicted. But the prior of St. Augustine being urged to use his influence with the friars of Bulacan and Pampanga, answered, that they were not under his authority, but under the provincial, who was his superior. For this guarded reply he was ordered to be confined in his convent; and although he in person represented to the council that he ought not to be considered as a prisoner of war, having come to Manila under a protection granted by them, they refusedto listen to him, but ordered him to be escorted back to his convent with bayonets fixed, leaving a guard to prevent his quitting it.
The English perceiving that decrees were of very little service, and that it was necessary to have recourse to force, determined to take possession of a position on the Pasig, in order to open a passage for provisions from the Lake Bay; and Thomas Backhouse, whom the Spaniards called Becus for that purpose, filed off with five hundred men to the left of the river. He arrived in front of Maybonga, where the famous Bustos was stationed with his Cagayans, ready to defend the passage of the river. He fired upon the first English party that advanced, but as soon as they returned it, he retired to Maraquina with his people. The enemy passed the river without hesitation, and sent an officer with a white flag, to summons the Indians to surrender. The boasting little Governor answered,that the Pasig was not Manila, and if the Spaniards had given that up to them in a treacherous manner, he would defend his post to the last; adding, that should the officer return with the white flag (a trick he might deceive children with), he would hang him on the first tree. This reply being reported to Backhouse, he immediately ordered the troops to march, and the two field-pieces he had with him beginning to play, the Indians became alarmed to such a degree, that they fled precipitately. Such, indeed, was their hurry and confusion at the bridge near the convent, that numbers of them were drowned.
The English got possession of the convent without resistance, and pursued the Indians as if they had been a flock of goats as far as the river Bamban, which they swam over, at least all those who had the good fortune to escape the enemy’s bullets. The King of Jolo, attempting todefend a post occupied by his family, was obliged to surrender. The English fortified this post, and maintained themselves in it till the peace.
By this time Señor Anda had collected some troops, which he was enabled to maintain with the money which had been saved in Pampanga. Bustos, in the capacity of his lieutenant-general, paraded the province of Bulacan, making an ostentatious display of the power of Señor Anda; and the Pampangan Indians, commanded by a Franciscan and an Augustine friar, advanced to Maysilo, about two leagues distance from Manila, idly expecting that Bustos would support them under all circumstances. The English sallied out to dislodge them; and our Indians formed an ambuscade, in which they hoped to succeed by counterfeiting death, when it was said that many of the enemy fell; but a friar asserted, that by means of a glass he had observed from the Tambobon towerthat the Indians only let fly their arrows, and immediately made the best of their way. Certain it is that the English burnt Maysilo, and re-entered Manila with their field-pieces, without any diminution of their numbers.
The Augustine friars still remained prisoners in their convents, although sometimes permitted to leave them, but restricted within the walls of the city. A counter order, however, was very unexpectedly issued, depriving them of that indulgence. It was thought that the English had recourse to this method, to compel them to deliver up the money, which, it was said, they had secreted. Persevering, however, in their firmness, they were accused of a participation in the plans of the Augustine friars of Pampanga, who favoured the views of Anda, and twelve of them were embarked for Europe, of whom, however, one was liberated at the request of the Archbishop.
The remaining friars being embarked, the English entered the convent, and stripped it of every valuable. They found six thousand dollars in coin in the garden, together with the wrought silver they had hid during the treaty for the million. The reliques of the Saints even were not spared, and were torn down, in order to carry off the cases which contained them. Before the vessels sailed in which the friars were embarked, the British commander determined upon an expedition against Bulacan, in the expectation that this wouldfinallyclose the undertaking, and enable him to sail for Bombay and England. The convent of Bulacan was in some respect fortified with three small guns and six falconetes, and there were in it some artillerymen, and many Indians with bows and arrows. It was the object of the English, of course, to dislodge these troops, for which purpose a squadron sailed on the 18th of January, 1763, under the commandof Captain Eslay, of the grenadiers, who arrived with about six hundred men, ready for action, many of them Chinese, who followed the English. Their intention was to enter the bar of Binoangan, but being prevented by contrary winds, they proceeded to that of Pumarava, close to Malolos. The following day they arrived there, and coasting for two leagues by the marshes they arrived at Malolos, where they effected the landing without any impediment whatever, for the troops which we had there retired precipitately, the Indians to their houses, and the Spaniards to the convent of Calumpit. Whilst the English were marching to Bulacan, Bustos sallied out to reconnoitre them, and seeing they were superior to him in numbers, he returned to the convent, persuading the alcalde mayor and the Franciscan friar who commanded there, to burn the convent and retire; but unable to succeed in his object, he retreated with his people.The English force arriving in sight of the convent, our people did much mischief by means of a cannon loaded with case-shot, which commanded the street, and as the Chinese composed the vanguard, they alone suffered, and that severely. The English commander ordered his field-pieces to be pointed at this gun; and so correct was the aim, that the head of Ybarra, who commanded there, was carried off, which so appalled the Indians, that they fled in a most tumultuous manner; the consequence of which was, that the gates being forced, the enemy entered sword in hand, and an indiscriminate slaughter took place. The alcalde mayor and the Franciscan friar (who was the head of the clergy there) fell in this action, and of two Augustines one escaped, and the other being taken, was, with all the Indians found in the place, delivered up by the English to the Chinese, who murdered them in cold blood, in revenge for the death of their countrymenduring the attack. Having got possession of Bulacan, the English commandant despatched the principal part of his force to Manila, remaining with three hundred seapoys only. Bustos and Eslava advanced against him, and though they brought with them eight thousand men, all Indians, six hundred of whom were cavalry, they were not hardy enough to attempt to dislodge him; and they contented themselves with cutting off his communications, and giving him occasional alarms. The English commandant having sent some small parties against them with little effect, he sallied out in person, with the major part of his people, and made our troops run in a most dastardly manner, under the apprehension that he would pursue them to the province of Pampanga; but he did no more than cut down the underwood, which served as an ambush for the Indians, and then returned to the convent.
Bustos, as soon as the English retired,returned to occupy his old position; but from this he was a second time dislodged as shamefully as at first. This kind of warfare, however, was very useful; for the English commander, not daring to advance far, obtained permission from the British council to retire from the position, which he executed in an orderly manner, without any interruption from our people, having first burnt the church and convent of Bulacan.
Admiral Cornish now determined to return to the peninsula, but before his departure, he ordered the remaining two millions to be raised and paid in, threatening to give the city, and its suburbs, up to plunder a second time, if his requisition was not complied with. This gave the Archbishop excessive uneasiness, and he did not rest until he persuaded him to take an order on the treasury of Madrid. Señor Anda, in consequence of the death of the alcalde of Bulacan, appointed Bustosgovernor of that province, continuing him as his lieutenant-general, and ordering him to raise troops, and teach them the manual exercise, while the inhabitants in the neighbourhood of Manila, with the monks, contributed arms, lead, and other articles of war, exciting, at the same time, desertion from the city, and expecting by all these means to enable Anda to form a respectable body of troops, with which he might confine the English to Manila, and possibly drive them out of it. A French serjeant, named Bretaña, favoured much the desertion of the Frenchmen, which the English had brought with them of those they captured in Pondicherry; and he himself having also deserted, Señor Anda made him a captain.
The Spanish regulars, too, who had been made prisoners in Manila, deserted very generally, and at a public entertainment which the English gave, many of them escaped through a small breach inthe fort, whilst the attention of the enemy was otherwise engaged.
In order to check this spirit of desertion, Admiral Cornish confined all the Frenchmen, and the Spanish regulars, to the side of the town next the sea, using every precaution in his power to prevent Señor Anda from receiving any succours from the town and its suburbs. In consequence of these precautions, many were caught in the act of absconding, and friars and secular clergy formed a large portion of the number. In that number were Señor Viana, the fiscal, and Señor Villa Corta. This latter, whilst a prisoner, very incautiously wrote to Señor Anda, and gave a man fifty dollars to convey the letter. The guard intercepted the money and letter; and a council of war was held on him, which sentenced him to be hanged, and his four quarters to be exhibited in the public places. Having accordingly confessed, and prepared himself for hisfate, the Archbishop obtained his pardon, on condition that Señor Anda would retire from Pampanga to another province. The Archbishop and Villa Corta wrote to Señor Anda, supplicating him to accede to the proposal of the English, in order that that magistrate might be saved from the ignominious death which awaited him. He replied to Villa Corta, lamenting his situation, but refusing to accede to his application. To the Archbishop his letter was of so shameful a nature, that the English having perused it, ordered it to be burnt by the common hangman, not permitting the Archbishop to read it.
This mode of saving Villa Corta’s life having failed, he availed himself of other means, and for three thousand dollars paid down, the sentence pronounced against him was remitted.
During these transactions in Manila, the commanding officer of Pasig (Backhouse) had gone to the provinces of theLake and Batangas, in order to intercept the money of the Philipino, which, it was said, was on its way thither. He left his position on the Pasig with eighty mixed troops, arrived at the bar of Tagui, and removing the sampans (which our people had grounded on the bar to prevent his passage), he entered the Great Lake, and proceeded to Tunasan; from whence dislodging the troops which had fortified themselves in the government-house, he plundered it of every thing. He did the same in Biñan and Santa Rosa, where he embarked for Pagsanhan, the capital of the province of the Lake. As soon as our people perceived him, they set fire to the church and convent, and took precipitately to flight. Backhouse returned to Calamba, and entering the province of Batangas, he traversed it completely, making prisoners of some Augustine friars, who had the direction of that province; and in the townof Lipa he got possession of three thousand dollars, which some Spaniards had secreted there. In this town he took up his quarters, in expectation of the money being landed from the Philipino; but he shortly after understood that it had been secretly ordered away by sea to the opposite coast of Santor, a town of Pampanga, by which precaution the money was saved; and Backhouse, being woefully disappointed of his booty, returned to Pasig. Señor Anda, by the possession of the Philipino’s money, was enabled to collect a respectable force; all the Spaniards who had retired from Manila, and lived in misery, enlisting under his banners, to procure pay and subsistence. This force being appointed and rendered effective, he ordered his Lieutenant-General, Bustos, to form a camp at Malinta, a house belonging to the Augustine friars, a league and a half from Manila. The officers took up their quartersin the house, and the soldiers pitched their tents around. This disposition of the encampment being made, to strengthen it some redoubts and palisadoes were constructed by the Serjeant Bretaña, who had been promoted to a company, and was apparently the most intelligent of the whole of them. From this place our people made excursions to the outskirts of Manila, and on one occasion they took the horses from the coach belonging to a dignified clergyman. On another occasion, the English commander himself had nearly been taken by them. One night Bustos sent a piquet guard to get possession of the bells of the town of Quiapo, close to the walls of Manila, in order to be cast into cannon, which were much wanted; and so alarmed were the English, that they sent out one hundred fusileers, and fifty horse, with an immense number of Chinese; but notwithstanding this, after anaction of an hour and a half, the piquet succeeded in bringing off the bells. The English finding themselves very weak, and rather alarmed at these incursions of the troops of Malinta, called in all the piquets which were without the city, and dug ditches, in order to cut off the communication, and have a less extended line to cover; and in a manifesto which they published, ordering the Spaniards to retire within the walls of the city, out of the range of the artillery, which they were obliged to keep playing against these Malinta troops, to prevent their surrounding them, they bestowed on these troops the appellations of canaille and robbers.
On the 19th of May, 1763, Señor Anda published in Bacolor a counter-manifesto, in which he complains that the English put the guns they took in Bulacan under the gallows, in contempt of the magistrate from whom they had taken them; thatthey called the King’s troops robbers and canaille; that they had promised five thousand dollars for his head, dead or alive; and in consequence of all this, he declared Drake and his colleagues, Smith and Brock, tyrants, common enemies, and unworthy of human society, offering for either of them, alive or dead, ten thousand dollars. The English council replied to all these charges in a manifesto, in which they complain of the conduct of the Spaniards; but as a paper war was of little avail in furnishing them with the provisions they were deprived of by the interruption occasioned by the Malinta troops, they resolved to dislodge Bustos, and with the greatest secrecy despatched three hundred and fifty fusileers, fifty horse, together with a great number of Chinese, to convey the necessary guns and ammunition. The English made this sortie on the 27th of June, and arrived at the river, in frontof our post, before day-break. As soon as our people discovered them they began to form, but before we were prepared the fire with their field-pieces commenced, the Spaniards answering with five small guns, followed up by the musketry; but neither daring to pass the river, they were expending their powder to no purpose until eleven o’clock, when the English retired in good order to the King’s house at Maysilo, where they remained until it was understood that Bustos had burnt Malinta house, and removed his camp to Meycavayan. They then retired into Manila in the evening. On our side we had two killed and seven wounded, of which five afterwards died; and of the enemy there were thirteen wounded, of which five or six died afterwards in the hospital. The Indians of Caloocan intercepted some people conveying provisions to the English camp; and another party of Indians made prisoners a party of Chinese,who had strayed for the purpose of plunder. These were the last actions of this war, for on the 23d of July an English frigate arrived with the preliminaries of peace, and a cessation of hostilities of course took place.