Note 49 — INSURRECTIONS BY FILIPINOS IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY (continued 2)

General Francisco de Esteybar arrived with all his army at the village of Bacarra, but Lorenzo Arqueros had it already reduced to quiet, so that the general had nothing to do, except to order that a fort be built in Bacarra and garrisoned with soldiers, so as to secure the province from other disturbances. General Sebastián Rayo Doria gave orders for the execution of the commission which he bore, by agreement of the royal Audiencia, to administer justice to those who were most guilty; his military judge was Licentiate Don Juan de Rosales, and the notary was Nicolás de Herrera, who began their official duties, bringing legal proceedings [against the rebels]. The penalties of justice were inflicted as follows: In Vigán, Don Pedro Gumapos was shot through the back, and afterward the hand with which he took the staff from the bishop was cut off; and Don Cristóbal Ambagán, Don Pedro Almazán, Don Tomás Boaya,49 Don Pedro de la Peña, and others, to the number of sixteen, were hanged. In Binalatongan was erected a square gallows, as in Vigán, and the following were hanged: Don Melchor de Vera, Don Francisco de Pacadua, Don Francisco Along, and Don Jacinto Macasiag; a Sangley mestizo, named Domingo Isón, although he said that he died innocent; a man of half-Malabar blood, named Lorenzo; and others, to the number of fourteen. It is quite remarkable that, when the sacristans were in the [church] tower with orders from the father ministers to toll the bells as soon as each of those who were hanged was dead, when it came to the turn of Domingo Isón they rang a peal instead of tolling, without having had an order for it; in this it seems as if the divine Majesty chose to demonstrate his innocence, as it was afterward ascertained. They promptly shot Don Andrés Malóng, placed in the middle, seated on a stone; and this was the end of his unhappy reign in Pangasinán. Afterward, in Mexico, punishment was inflicted on Don Francisco and Don Cristóbal Mañago, who were shot; and some were hanged—Don Juan Palasigui, Don Marcos Marcasián, Sargento-mayor Chombillo, Supil and Baluyot of Guagua, the amanuensis, and many others. José Celis, the lawyer, was carried to Manila, where he was hanged. After these executions, Licentiate Manuel Suárez de Olivera, the senior advocate of the royal Audiencia, printed a treatise against Don Juan de Rosales, in which he condemned the excessive rigor of these punishments. This was answered by Don Juan de Rosales with another pamphlet—very learned, which also was printed—whose theme was Feci judicium et justitiam, non tradas me calumniantibus me, drawn from Psalm 118,50 justifying his proceedings to the satisfaction of those who were free from prejudice.