The British, believing that the Austin friars were conspiring against them in connivance with those inside the city, placed these friars in confinement, and subsequently shipped away eleven of them to Europe. For the same reason they at last determined to enter the Saint Augustine Convent, and on ransacking it, they found that the priests had been lying to them all the time. Six thousand pesos in coin were found hidden in the garden, and large quantities of wrought silver elsewhere. The whole premises were then searched, and all the valuables were seized. A British expedition went out to Bulacan, sailing across the Bay and up the Hagonoy River, where they disembarked at Malolos on January 19, 1763. The troops, under Captain Eslay, of the Grenadiers, numbered 600 men, many of whom were Chinese volunteers. As they advanced from Malolos, the natives and Spaniards fled. On the way to Bulacan, Bustos came out to meet them, but retreated into ambush on seeing they were superior in numbers. Bulacan Convent was defended by three small cannons. As soon as the troops came in sight of the convent, a desultory fire of case-shot made great havoc in the ranks of the resident Chinese volunteers forming the British vanguard. At length the British brought their field-pieces into action, and pointing at the enemy's cannon, the first discharge carried off the head of their artilleryman Ybarra. The panic-stricken natives decamped; the convent was taken by assault; there was an indiscriminate fight and general slaughter. The _Alcalde_ and a Franciscan friar fell in action; one Austin friar escaped, and another was seized and killed to avenge the death of the British soldiers. The invading forces occupied the convent, and some of the troops were shortly sent back to Manila. Bustos reappeared near the Bulacan Convent with 8,000 native troops, of whom 600 were cavalry, but they dared not attack the British. Bustos then manoeuvred in the neighbourhood and made occasional alarms. Small parties were sent out against him, with so little effect that the British Commander headed a body in person, and put the whole of Bustos' troops to flight like mosquitoes before a gust of wind, for Bustos feared they would be pursued into Pampanga. After clearing away the underwood, which served as a covert for the natives, the British reoccupied the convent; but Bustos returned to his position, and was a second time as disgracefully routed by the British, who then withdrew to Manila.