[126] Le Gentil states (Voyage, ii, pp. 103, 104) that Arandía was hated by the friars because he desired to demolish two churches outside the walls of Manila; these were so solid, and equipped with towers, and so near the walls, that they were a source of great danger to the city if they should fall into an enemy's hands. "I have been assured that the friars raised the cry of heresy against M. Arandía, and that they talked of nothing less than excommunicating him; but his death stopped all that. This zealous governor actually died in 1760, before he had effected his project; but his death was not regarded as natural." When the English appeared before Manila, Arandía's loss was regretted, when it was too late. The English demolished the aforesaid churches and their towers, for their own safety.--Eds. [127] That is, elevated so as to fire over the top of a parapet.--Eds. [128] This place was afterward occupied (1824?) by "a statue of Carlos IV, in bronze, a true work of art, cast in Manila. It was erected in recognition of his having ordered the conveyance [to the islands] of vaccine virus, transmitted from arm to arm, for which purpose exclusively he arranged for the departure of a ship from Méjico, which reached Manila on April 15, 1805." (Montero y Vidal, Archipiélago filipino, p. 301.) The same writer says (Hist. de Filipinas, ii, p. 388): "The benefits produced by vaccination among the natives, always so harassed by that pest [of smallpox], were evident," and Folgueras made strenuous efforts to secure its propagation throughout the country. He also gave orders that the dead should not be interred within the churches, a measure which drew upon him hostilities and annoyances from the religious." The Plaza Mayor, where the above statue stands, is now called Plaza McKinley.--Eds. [129] And yet the ignorant natives ascribed the pest of cholera, which caused such ravages in Manila in 1820, to the poisoning of their wells by foreigners. A French physician, Dr. Charles L. Benoit, who arrived at Manila at that time, and spent four years there, states, in his Observacións sobre el cólera morbo espasmodico (Madrid, 1832) that in this belief the Indians, usually so humble and religious, then committed innumerable crimes. See account of their massacre of foreigners, pp. 39-45, ante.--Eds. [130] The brethren devote themselves to the care of the sick, and perform their duties most honourably and zealously; so much so, that the refectory is often supplied with little but rice for their own dinners. The other orders are richly endowed, and fare sumptuously--but they are more a-la-mode. [131] These plates are obtained from the shell of the Placuna placenta, a mollusk; they are generally used in place of window-glass, and by their partial opacity modify the effects of the sun's heat.--Eds.