These conferences, and the activities that necessarily followed from them were perfectly known by the Sangleys (whose fear kept them very attentive to everything), and the lack of secrecy in the members of the council gave them exact knowledge [of its proceedings]; consequently, they were fully assured of a war and of their own danger. This fear was increased by the haste with which the citizens who had wealth in their possession undertook to hide it away. Their desperation was completed by the interpretation which the common people gave to everything--irresponsible soldiers, with mestizos, mulattoes, and blacks, telling the Sangleys that they were to have their heads cut off, as if they were men already sentenced to death; and inflicting on them many injuries and uttering a thousand insults. Such circumstances as these concurring in the insurrection of the year 1603 necessarily caused it, as Doctor Morga observes; and on this occasion their fear of the like proceedings led them to a similar desperation. They heard that the twenty-fifth day of May was to be that of their destruction, because the cavalry troops were to arrive on the day before. Some of them--the most worthless class, as butchers and vegetable-sellers--began to talk of extricating themselves from he danger; but those in the Parián displayed no courage for any measures, for, as their interests are so involved in peace, they never have incurred the hazard of war except under compulsion. On the night of the twenty-fourth, the governor received information from the castellan of Cavite that the Parián was to revolt on the next day; but on that very night it was quite evident that their determination was not to revolt, but to flee as best they could from the death which they regarded as certain. For on that night all the talisays [45] (which are the fishermen's boats) departed in flight; and although General Don Francisco de Figueroa talked to the Sangleys, endeavoring to calm their minds, it was not possible to remove their fear. They excused themselves by saying that they knew that on the next day all their heads would be cut off. They said that in planning the insurrection it had been agreed that they would not separate; but they had formed an organization to be prepared, their shops made secure, and such weapons provided as they could find for this purpose.