The friars surrendered themselves without resistance and joined their bishop near Vigan, awaiting the pleasure of Silan. The bishop excommunicated Silan, and then he released some of the priests. The Christian natives having refused to slay the friars, a secret compact was being made, with this object, with the mountain tribes, when a half-caste named Vicos obtained the bishop’s benediction to go and kill Silan; and the rebellion, which had lasted from December 14, 1762, to May 28, 1763, ended. Not until a score of little battles had been fought were the numerous riots in the provinces quelled. The loyal troops were divided into sections, and marched north in several directions, until peace was restored by March, 1765. Zuniga says that the Spaniards lost in these riots about seventy Europeans and one hundred and forty natives, while they cost the rebels quite ten thousand men. Space will not permit us to cite all the revolutionary protests which ensued. In the time of Legaspi the submission of the Manila and Tondo chiefs was of but local and temporary importance. Since then, and in fact since the very beginning up to the present time, the natives have only yielded to a force which they have repeatedly tried to overthrow. CHAPTER XII THE HISPANO-AMERICAN WAR THE “MAINE”--THE COURT OF INQUIRY--THE PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE--DEWEY AT MANILA--HOBSON AND THE “MERRIMAC”--CERVERA’S RUN TO RUIN--THE CAPITULATION OF SANTIAGO--THE MISSION OF PEACE When General Weyler assumed command in Cuba he issued, October 21, 1896, the following proclamation: “I order and command: First--All the inhabitants of the country now outside of the line of fortifications of the towns shall within the period of eight days concentrate themselves in the towns so occupied by the troops. Any individual who after the expiration of this period is found in the uninhabited parts will be considered a rebel and tried as such.” At the time when the order was issued there was living within the western province a population of four hundred thousand men, women and children. The result of the order was to sweep them from their homes and fields and confine them in open-air prisons. No food whatever was supplied to them. As a result more than half of them died. The indignation aroused became widespread. Weyler was recalled. At the time, especially in Havana among the officials who had been his adherents and who resented his recall, there was an expressed hatred of the United States. That hatred it is generally understood resulted, on the night of February 15, 1898, in the blowing up of the “Maine.”