Volume 14 — The Sangley Insurrection of 1603
Reading edition
[Marginal note at beginning of MS.: “Chinese Sangleys who remained in this island to enjoy the liberty of the gospel, many of whom afterward failed in their duty.”]
[Here follows a list of the principal officers who accompanied the governor’s nephew. They contained [123] such names as Captain Juan de la Isla, Captain Villafaña, Captain Cebrian de Madrid, and Pedro de Benavides, besides a number of citizens who are unnamed.]
I do not mention the stratagems of war, the instructions, and the orders throughout the course of it, in order not to prove wearisome, and, moreover, to leave them for one who can write them in a better style. Only, as an eye-witness, I affirm what I have here told, and that all in general have behaved themselves very well as honorable soldiers (especially the leaders), both of the ecclesiastics and of the laymen; and that in this, as in other matters, our Lord has shown us a thousand favors.
Among the enemy’s flags were two that contained characters in the Sangley language, which, translated into our Castilian vernacular, read as follows:
On the tenth of December, Captain Marcos de la Cueva left this city as ambassador to the kingdom of China, accompanied by one hundred and forty Spaniards and two friars, in order to inform the eunuch who is the viceroy at Canton of the above events. Many thought that he ought not to go, for if the matter were learned there, and war-vessels were to come, then the island would be supplied with men to be able to receive them in the same manner; and if they came for peace they would be received in peace. In the latter case they were to be informed of the truth of the matter, to which the Christian law binds us, and told that we did not intend to take their possessions, or refuse to pay them what was owing them. Nevertheless, he went, ordered to do the contrary by the Council. May God direct everything for His holy service.