History of the Philippine IslandsMorga, Antonio de
History
History of the Philippine Islands
Morga, Antonio de
Philippines -- History
Don Luys
remained to guard the monastery, with the men brought from Manila,
where he had placed in shelter many women and children of Christian
Sangleys, with the religious. The sargento-mayor returned immediately
to the city, where he told of what was being done. The call to arms
was sounded, for the noise and shouts of the Sangleys, who had sallied
out to set fire to some houses in the country, was so great that it
was thought that they were devastating that district. The Sangleys
burned, first, a stone country-house belonging to Captain Estevan
de Marquina. The latter was living there with his wife and children;
and none of them escaped, except a little girl, who was wounded, but
who was hidden in a thicket. [181] Thence the Sangleys went to the
settlement of Laguio, [182] situated on the shore of the river, and
burned it. They killed several Indians of that settlement, and the rest
fled to the city. There the gates were already shut and all the people,
with arms in hand, manned the walls and other suitable posts, ready
for any emergency, until dawn. The enemy, who now had a greater number
of men, retired to their fort, to make another sally thence with more
force. Don Luys Dasmariñas, who was guarding the church and monastery
of Minondoc, expected hourly that the enemy was about to attack him,
and sent a messenger to the governor to beg for more men. These were
sent him, and consisted of regulars and inhabitants of the city,
under Captains Don Tomas Brabo de Acuña (the governor's nephew),
Joan de Alcega, Pedro de Arzeo, and Gaspar Perez, by whose counsel and
advice Don Luys was to be guided on this occasion. All was confusion,
shouting, and outcry in the city, particularly among the Indians, and
the women and children, who were coming thither for safety. Although,
to make certain of the Sangleys of the parián, their merchants had
been asked to come into the city, and bring their property, they did
not dare to do so; for they always thought that the enemy would take
the city because of their great force of numbers, and annihilate the
Spaniards, and they would all be in danger. Consequently they preferred
to remain in their parián, in order to join the victorious side. Don
Luys Dasmariñas thought it advisable to go in search of the enemy
immediately with the reënforcements sent him by the governor, before
they should all assemble and present a strong front. He left seventy
soldiers in Minondoc, in charge of Gaspar Perez; while with the rest,
about one hundred and forty of the best picked arquebusiers, he
went to the village of Tondo, in order to fortify himself in the
church, a stone building. He arrived there at eleven o'clock in the
morning. The Chinese, in number one thousand five hundred, arrived
at the same place at the same time, bent on the same purpose. An
hour's skirmish took place between the two sides, as to which one
would gain the monastery. Captain Gaspar Perez came up with the
reënforcement of the men left at Minondoc.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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