Note 24 — INSURRECTIONS BY FILIPINOS IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

As soon as the alcalde-mayor of Leite heard of the insurrection, he collected all the boats and men possible, but these were very fragile means to oppose to so vast a multitude of insurgent and desperate men. Consequently, although they went to Palapag with the said alcalde-mayor, one Captain Don Juan Gómez de tres Palacios y Estrado, they served no other purpose than to make the rebellion worse, and to encourage the enemy. The latter intrenched themselves on an impregnable hill called “the table of Palapag;” and what is the greatest cause for surprise is that a Spaniard called Pedro Zapata, who had married an Indian woman in Palapag (who must have perverted him), went with them. But the insurgents gave him his pay by killing him, in order to take away the woman, a worthy reward for his incredible treason. They made trenches and strong stockades, with many sharp stakes and snares, and many stone boulders suspended, which, by being thrown upon the strongest army, would cause cruel injury. To work greater harm, they gave command of their men to Don Pedro Caamug, who descended the hill with two hundred insurgents and returned to the village of Palapag, where he killed the father minister, Vicente Damián,24 and two boys who were serving him, who in their fear were clinging to the father. They again burned the church, a chamber of nipa and bamboo which Don Gabriel and his faithful followers had erected for the celebration of mass, furnishing this additional bond to their apostasy and rebellion. They returned to their impregnable hill after this, which was in their eyes a great victory, and began to fortify themselves much more strongly than they were, as they feared the war that was expected from Manila.