Spaniards who were found therein, he would send for the chastisement of that province Don Melchor de Vera, with six thousand men who were already under his command. This assertion was not a false one; for so great was the multitude of adherents who were coming to him--some attracted by the novelty, others by their eagerness for plunder, and others by inconstancy or fear--that he was able to divide his men into three parts. To Don Melchor de Vera he gave orders to descend on Pampanga with six thousand men, and conquer the villages; to Don Pedro Gumapos he assigned three thousand Pangasinans and Zambals, with orders to reduce the provinces of Ilocos and Cagayán; and he himself was left with two thousand men, to furnish aid wherever necessity required it. This information was received by the governor without surprise, as if he had been expecting it; and on that very afternoon he despatched, to fortify the post at Arayat, Captain Silvestre de Rodas--an old soldier of experience and reputation in many encounters, in which his valor always obtained the advantage over the enemy. The governor gave him fifty infantry, so that in case Don Melchor de Vera arrived with the rebel army he could maintain his position, going out to encounter them until the arrival of General Francisco de Esteybar with the Spanish army. The latter was on the same day appointed commander-in-chief of the troops and lieutenant of the governor and captain-general, with all the body of soldiers who, under the pressure of necessity, could be detached from the scanty garrison of Manila. On the same day Don Sabiniano appointed, as commander of the armed fleet which he resolved to equip and despatch against the rebels, General Felipe de Ugalde--a man of unusual prudence, and distinguished by heroic deeds in the army of Ternate, where he was sargento-mayor. To this he added a commission as commander-in-chief of Pangasinán and Ilocos, in order that he might be able to act independently, wherever he might be, and, in the lack of a governor for those provinces, carry out their pacification through their fear of punishment. In this army went the following officers: Sargento-mayor Diego de Morales, and Captains Simón de Fuentes, Alonso Castro, Juan de San Martín, Don Juan de Morales, Don Juan Francisco. In it were also the company of Merdicas (who are Malays), and their master-of-camp Cachil Duco, the prince of Tidori; Don Francisco García; the company of creole negroes, [82] with their master-of-camp Ventura Meca; and the Japanese of Dilao. They had four pieces of artillery, which carried four-libra balls.