The provincial friars of St. Augustine and St. Domingo answered him in nearly the same terms; but the provincial of the Jesuits and the Franciscans told him, that in the then situation of the islands he alone could preserve the public tranquillity, and on that account he ought to retain the supreme authority. This diversity of opinion was not very gratifying to Señor Anda, and although the troops were in his favour, he was by no means desirous of having recourse to violence. This induced him to submit so far as to take the opinion of the British commander, and he accordingly wrote to him from Bacolor the 2d of November, 1763. Major Fell, who commanded the English troops, had at this time quitted his command, with the view of proceeding to London, to complain of certain proceedings respecting Monsieur Faller, who was ordered for execution by Admiral Cornish, on account of letters written by him to the commandant at Batavia, in which he termed the admiral a pirate and robber. Governor Drake protected him, and kept him in the hall of the Royal Audience. Fell demanded him, and the Governor refusing to deliver him up, Fell took with him a file of grenadiers, and repaired to the palace. Ascending the staircase, he met the Governor coming down, when an altercation took place, and Fell snatching a fusee from a grenadier, was in the act of bayoneting the Governor, when one of his own soldiers prevented him, and took the musket from him. During this disturbance on the staircase, the grenadiers went to the hall of the Royal Audience, took Faller, and carried him on board ship. Major Fell, in consequence of this, embarked for London, in order to complain of the Governor, and Don Thomas Backhouse took the command. To him it was that Señor Anda wrote, complaining bitterly of the vexations which the English soldiers had given to his soldiers, and finished by observing, that if he meant to write, he must address him by the titles and in the style due to his rank. Backhouse replied by disclaiming the ground of his complaints, as they referred to a period when he had not the command; and in regard to the government of the islands, he pleaded ignorance of our statutes and laws, but he said he saw, with great grief, strong symptoms of civil war, which threatened the desolation of Manila as soon as evacuated by his Britannic Majesty's troops. Señor Anda well knew that the English would not acknowledge any other Governor than the Archbishop, and began to spread suspicions that the preliminaries of peace were forged by the English Governor, who found himself driven to extremity by the incursions our people made from the camp of Polo, and which occasioned a scarcity of provisions in Manila.