The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 27 of 55: 1636-37; Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century
History
The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 27 of 55: 1636-37; Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century
Demarcation line of Alexander VI; Missions -- Philippines; Philippines -- Discovery and exploration; Philippines -- History -- Sources
Seeing now our flags on the enemy's stockade, we soon, with his
Lordship, crossed the river for the second time; and climbing up on the
other side, I also raised my standard, that of Christ and St. Francis
Xavier. We all sang the _Te Deum laudamus_; and, after his Lordship had
given the name of St. Francis Xavier to the fort and had left Alférez
Amesquita as its governor, with a garrison of soldiers, we advanced to
the rear of a stockade which Corralat defended with its one cannon,
and to the mosque. Here the Moros had rallied for the last time,
trusting in what their captain-general [_condestable_] had told them,
that they were not to retreat until they saw him fall. He believed,
by some witchcraft or other, that our bullets could not injure him;
and he had had proof of this, for once a ball had broken the bone
of his leg, crippling him, but without breaking the skin or drawing
blood. In this confidence, he came out with his men to defy us,
but Captain Zubire at once leveled his musket at him, and sent two
balls through his forehead; this was the only portion of his body
uncovered, the rest of it being protected by an English shield. The
wretched man fell dead on the spot, and instantly all the rest in
the stockade and the mosque lost courage, left their arms, and fled
with all possible speed to the woods. At this same time Don Rodrigo,
marching with his detachment between the slope of the hill and the
river, charged the enemy so valiantly that by force he compelled them
to abandon all their ships--which, for fear of us, they had hidden
two days before in a broad inlet to this same river. Here they thought
the ships would be safe, because they had brought them in so quietly,
and because the place was so far away from the mouth of the river.
Thus in a little more than half an hour we gained possession of all
below [the hill], and we would have captured the heights above on
the same day, had we had all our forces, for the Moros fled in so
great fright that Corralat himself had covered his face with mud
so as not to be recognized by our men. This was told us by one of
his servants, a Christian, who came to us the following morning,
reporting a great number of Moros wounded--especially the king of
the Lake, who was suffering with a bullet-wound in the breast; he
had come to celebrate some marriage, that of a cousin of his with a
daughter of Corralat. From this captive, and others, we learned that
Corralat had desired, in any event, to surrender to the governor,
but that the Christians had not consented to this, and had persuaded
him to make a defense, promising that they would fight in the front
rank. This promise they fulfilled, especially the day of the assault
upon the hill, for it was they who did us the most injury; but they
paid the penalty of this advice, not only with the property which we
took from their ships, but with their lives, which the Moros themselves
took in anger at their bad advice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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