Note 62 — INSURRECTIONS BY FILIPINOS IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY (continued 2)

The governor, Don Juan de Vargas, in view of the many ravages, murders, and thefts which the revolted Zambals of Playa Honda had committed—infesting the road from Pangasinán to Ilocos, and harassing the adjoining villages that were subject to the Spanish dominion—determined to curb their audacity by some exploit which would inspire them with fear, and to restrain for the future their insolence and daring. For this purpose he sent Captain Alonso Martín Franco and Captain Simón de Torres, with a suitable number of Spaniards, Pampangos, and Merdicas (who are Ternatans and Malays), and gave them the orders that were desirable for the success of so useful an expedition—that Simón de Torres and Alonso Martín Franco, each with half of the soldiers, should go in opposite directions, beating the woods, and fighting with any Zambals whom they might encounter. They did so, compelling the rebels to retreat as far as the place where their companions were; and on St. James’s day the two captains joined their forces, the signal being the discharge of three exploding rockets, and fought with the Zambal insurgents. They carried out their orders and fought against these enemies, who are indeed a warlike people, and killed many of them, not without some loss of our men. Their leader was a valiant Zambal named Tumalang, to whom the inhabitants of those mountains rendered obedience; this man, seeing the death of an associate of his in whom he greatly trusted, whom Alonso Martín Franco had slain, and influenced by some higher feeling, declared that he wished to be a friend of the Spaniards, and with his people to establish villages where he would be under Spanish rule. A very convenient location was set apart, and therein was founded a handsome village called Nueva Toledo, and some others near a fort that is called Pignamén,62 which Don Manuel de León ordered to be founded—in which, by order of the governor, Captain Alonso Martín Franco remained as commandant, with a larger garrison; and this fort has been most efficacious for averting such losses as they then experienced. Chief Tumalang received holy baptism, and was named Don Alonso; and he declared that it was he who had cut off the head of Don Felipe Ugalde,63 whose skull he had in his possession as a trophy. This he surrendered to Martín Franco, that he might bury it in consecrated ground. The command of this fort is today an office that is conferred on a very meritorious officer; he has jurisdiction in all those villages of Playa Honda, and appoints in them governors who administer justice, as do the alcaldes-mayor of these islands in their [respective] provinces.