The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 36, 1649-1666: 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 36, 1649-1666: 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
In the midst of these pious exercises the ambassador from China found
us: this was the same religious as before, Fray Victorio Riccio. To
the salute which he fired his Lordship commanded answer to be made
with ball, as one who, having been challenged, awaited the envoy on
a war footing; and despatched to the shore the sargento-mayor of the
garrison to tell him that, on account of the hostilities which he
had announced in the name of Cot-sen, we had expected him to come as
an enemy and were prepared to receive him with the sternness that is
customary in war, and that he must inform the governor of the nature
of the despatches that he carried. The ambassador answered that he
came in peace; and by the news which he at once related it was learned
that, only a few days after his Lordship had placed his forces under
the powerful protection of the holy archangel, Cot-sen had died.
That ruler was ready in all the strength given by ships, men, and
provisions to deliberate according to the news that he should receive
from here upon the measures that would have to be taken, when the first
Sangleys [from Manila] arrived. They, driven by fear and urged on by
desperation, scorning the cannon-shots that were fired from the castle,
seized a royal champan which was ready to sail; and those Sangleys who
had left [the Pasig River] in the talisays, for whom there was no room,
seized other champans in the channels of Mariveles. These fugitives
regarded as already executed that of which their fear persuaded them;
and they told the corsair that the governor had commanded that all
the Sangleys should be slain, not only the traders but those who were
living in this city. At this he was kindled to such anger that he
immediately undertook to sally forth for vengeance without heeding the
obstacles that he would now meet in the expedition from unfavorable
weather. It seemed to the Chinese that with only half of their fleet,
even though the other half should perish, they could carry abundant
force for the enterprise. Upon this disturbance of his mind came the
rebellion of his son whom he had commanded to be slain; [53] and the
mandarins of his city, Vi-cheo, [Fuh-chau, or Foo-chow] protected the
son, having resolved to defend him. With these anxieties Cot-sen was
walking one afternoon through the fort on Hermosa Island which he had
gained from the Dutch. His mind began to be disturbed by visions, which
he said appeared to him, of thousands of men who placed themselves
before him, all headless and clamoring for vengeance on the cruelty
and injustice which had been wreaked on them; accordingly, terrified
at this vision (or else a lifelike presentation by his imagination)
he took refuge in his house and flung himself on his bed, consumed
by a fierce and burning fever. This caused him to die on the fifth
day, fiercely scratching his face and biting his hands--without any
further last will than to charge his intimate friends with the death
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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