7. The above happened in the early part of December, when authentic tidings were not known in Bolinào of the insurrection, and only various movements were descried in the Indians which provoked fear. However, they had been compelled to dissimulate through lack of forces. But on the twentieth day of the above-mentioned month, the conspiracy was finally published in the village, and Simùlay and his associates notified the religious in the following manner. In front of the cells of the father prior and of his associate father Fray Luis de San Joseph, were placed two bamboos and at the end of them two cocoanuts. That is a barbarous ceremony of those countries by which to threaten one with decapitation. Simùlay thought that that would be sufficient to frighten the fathers and make them abandon the village, and especially since they now had no soldiers, as the soldiers mentioned above had proceeded on their way. But he was mistaken in his reckoning, for although father Fray Luis was of that opinion, and Indian chiefs were not wanting who supported him, either because they were already infected with the rebellion, or, perhaps, in order to assure the lives of the fathers, were carried away by their good zeal, the father prior resolved to die rather than fail in his service to God and the king. He did not change his decision, however much the sign was repeated the following day. On the contrary, he considered the time suitable to ascertain and establish with cunning the degree of the fidelity of his parishioners. He convened the Indians in the atrium of the convent, and in eloquent and powerful arguments gave them to understand that God having entrusted their souls to him, he would not leave their land, although he knew that he was to suffer a thousand martyrdoms. "I am not ignorant," he said, "that the aim of those who occasion these insurrections is to apostatize from the Catholic faith, and to return to their former paganism; but for that same reason, I must oppose myself to that with the greatest strength. Go ahead, send news of my constancy to the partisans of the rebel Màlong, if perchance there are any in the village, so that they may not tire themselves with threatening me with death. Assure them that I shall consider myself very fortunate, if I transform myself into a good martyr from so poor a priest. But meanwhile, I warn you, that I shall know by each one's actions who are the rebels and who are faithful; and that accordingly the proper reward or punishment will follow each one, when the Manila fleet, which will not delay, subdues affairs properly." By that effort some who were wavering in their loyalty were confirmed in it, while those who were on the side of the seditious ones did not dare to put their treacherous thoughts into execution.