The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 38, 1674-1683: 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 38, 1674-1683: 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
On the same day (that of St. Ignatius the martyr), the army of the
Zambals set out to go to Pangasinán, leaving part of the village of
Narbacán in flames; the fathers, having compassion for those people,
entreated the leader, Don Jacinto, to order his men to put out the
fire. He did so, by a public order; and immediately they extinguished
the flames. Litters and carriers were already provided for the bishop
and the fathers, that they might follow the army; but they all, with
one voice and opinion, told the guards that they would not depart
from Narbacán, even though it should cost them their lives. When the
guards perceived their firm resolution, they notified their chief, Don
Jacinto Macasiag, who was willing that the fathers should remain; but
when this decision was learned by Gumapos, who had marched ahead, he
commanded his arquebusiers to go there and slay the bishop and all the
ecclesiastics. They would have carried out this order, if Don Marcos
Macasián had not dissuaded Gumapos from it--the latter saying that
the fathers did not serve in the army, and that they were more of a
hindrance than anything else, and it was therefore better to kill them.
[On the third day after the departure of the enemy, the people of
Narbacán return to their homes. The bishop is accidentally hurt,
and Fray Bernardino becomes ill--both cases being aggravated
by the sufferings which they endured while in the hands of the
Zambals.] Generals Francisco de Esteybar and Felipe de Ugalde were
in Pangasinán, uncertain in what part of the country the enemy might
still be, in order to send thither their forces; for, although General
Ugalde had sent two champans to reconnoiter the coasts of the provinces
of Ilocos and Cagayán, they had not returned with their report. By
land, he had no letter from either the alcaldes or the religious
of those provinces. With this, and the assurances of the fathers of
St. Dominic in the province of Pangasinán that those of Ilocos and
Cagayán were free from enemies, the commanders were perplexed, and
almost determined to withdraw their forces from those provinces. Our
Lord permitted that, the champan in which Alcalde-mayor Don Alonso de
Peralta and the father visitor Fray Juan de Isla were sailing having
landed at Bolinao, they should learn there how the Spanish armada was
in Pangasinán; accordingly, they directed their course thither, and,
having arrived, found the commanders and related to them the wretched
condition in which that province of Ilocos was left. In consequence of
this information, Francisco de Esteybar at once gave orders that the
army should set out for that province. Before Francisco de Esteybar
departed from Binalatongan, he left the place fortified, with a
stronghold in the court of the church; it had four sentry-posts,
four pieces of bronze artillery carrying four-libra balls, and four
officers--Captains Don Alonso Quirante, Juan Diaz Ibáñez, Don Juan de
Guzmán, and Nicolás Serrano.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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