worked on the superstitious nature of his countrymen, who believed that he was immune from danger and that the rebel forces would be aided by the direct intervention of heaven. His followers baptized him under the name of "The king of the Tagálogs." No one except pure-blooded natives were allowed to become members of the organization, from which circumstance the Spaniards have always professed to believe that the confraternity was political in nature and that religious motives were merely a blind. Some (as in Vindel's Catálogo biblioteca filipina, no. 1895) assert that the confraternity was a sort of Katipunan. It is quite probable, however, that its origin was entirely religious, but religion mingled with superstition and fanaticism. The fact that Apolinario attempted to legalize the existence of the organization through both ecclesiastical and government centers, which was refused in both instances, indicates that the insurrection was forced by the Spaniards, through either fear or contempt. It is highly unlikely that the organization had at the beginning any political motive, and its attempted suppression was a mistake of the religious and civil authorities. [38] The defeat and slaughter of the members of the confraternity of San José angered the native soldiers from the Province of Tayabas, who were quartered in Malate. Conspiring with some of the garrison of the fort of Santiago, also from the same province, they attacked and took that fort Jan. 20, 1843, under the leadership of two brothers (mestizos and officers of the regiment), after killing the officers on guard. The mutiny was quickly stilled by Oraá, and the commander of the insurgents, a sergeant, Samaniego, and some of the other leaders were shot on the twenty-second at the camp of Bagumbayang. The other native soldiers remained loyal and aided in quelling the mutiny. See Montero y Vidal, Hist. de Filipinas, iii, pp. 58, 59, and note. [39] The Spanish government decided to aid France against England, and declared war against the latter power in June, 1779. The Spaniards aided the Americans against the British in Florida and Mississippi, and in March, 1780, captured Mobile. Martin A. S. Hume says in Modern Spain (New York, 1900), p. 6: "As Aranda himself foresaw, and set forth in a most remarkable prophecy, the aid lent by Spain to the revolt of the English North American Colonies formed a dangerous precedent for the separation of her own colonial dominions, and promoted the establishment of a great Anglo-Saxon republic in America, which in time to come should oust Spain from her last foothold in the New World. 'This new federal republic,' wrote Aranda to Floridablanca, 'is, so to speak, born a mere pigmy, and has needed the support of two powerful nations like France and Spain to win its independence. But the day will come when it will grow into a giant, a terrible Colossus. It will then forget the benefits it has received, and think only of its own aggrandizement.'"