Note 34 — INSURRECTIONS BY FILIPINOS IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

The fire, covered during two months, steadily spread, through the hidden passage of the intercourse between different villages, until its effects became so serious that the alcalde-mayor Francisco Gómez Pulido was undeceived, and had to give up his groundless confidence. A spark flew over to the province of Ilocos, and left matters there ready for the operations that afterward were seen.... It took two months, as I have said, after apparent quiet was secured, to explode the mine which the faithlessness of the Pangasinans had covered, [and this occurred] with a fearful crash. On the fifteenth of December, 1660, this perilous volcano was revealed in Lingayén, the chief town of that province. The reason why its effects were so long delayed was the great bulk which it had acquired through the diligence of Don Andrés Malóng, his Majesty’s master-of-camp for that tribe, a native of Binalatongan. The first proceeding of mob ferocity was to go to the house of the alguazil-mayor34 and kill him and all his family, and then set fire to his house. From here the multitude went, hoisting their sails, under the guidance of Malóng to conquer the villages—by the cruel acts of armed force gaining those who would not voluntarily have surrendered to them. Encouraged by their large following, which was hourly increasing, Malóng directed his efforts to capture by force the village of Bagnotan, one of the richest and most populous of that province, whose inhabitants had thus far refused to range themselves on the side of the traitors. The loyalty of those people proved very costly to them; for they were suddenly attacked one night by Don Andres Malóng, followed by more than four thousand rebels. They sacked the town, and after having committed many inhuman murders set fire to it, and reduced it to ashes—the voracity of the flames not sparing the convent and church, a magnificent edifice which was one of the finest that the fathers of St. Dominic possessed in that province. The father minister thought himself fortunate that he could escape with his life, fleeing on a swift horse from the barbarous cruelty of the assailants—who, on learning that the alcalde-mayor Francisco Gómez Pulido had left Lingayén in flight, flew thither on the wings of their fury. He had embarked with all his family, and with the soldiers whom the governor had sent him, in the champan of a ship-master named Juan de Campos; but, as unfortunately they could not pass over that bar on account of the ebb-tide, they had to wait for high tide, and this gave the insurgents time to arrive. Attempting to attack the champan, they found such resistance from the firearms of those within it that they had to curb their first fury; but they were soon freed from this hindrance by the malicious cunning of some Sangleys, who imparted to them a scheme for success. This was, to cover some small boats with many branches of trees, when they could safely attack those on the champan—which plan they carried out so effectively that a great number of little boats in entire safety made an assault on the champan. Those who were in it could make no resistance to such a multitude, and were all put to the sword—among them the alcalde-mayor, who did wonderful things in the defense, until, covered with wounds from arrows and javelins, and faint from loss of blood, his strength failed. The rebels killed his wife, who had recently become a mother, and his sister-in-law, a young girl, and all those in his service—soldiers, servants, and other people—no one being able to escape from this barbarous cruelty except a little girl and a little boy (the latter only a few days old), the children of the alcalde-mayor. Their lives were saved by the efforts of a friendly Indian from the village of Binalatongan; Don Sabiniano afterward rewarded him, and gave the girl an encomienda for the services rendered by her father. With this deed, which seemed a victory to Don Andrés Malóng, he persuaded himself that he had closed the account with the entire Spanish nation, his arrogant confidence believing that the Spaniards would not return there on account of their punctilious regard for honor. Carried away by his vanity, he caused himself to be acclaimed king of Pangasinán, with much drinking of wine; and he bestowed the title of Conde on Don Pedro Gumapos, a native of the village of Agoo. In order to perpetuate by might his new but tyrannical dignity, he summoned to his aid the Zambal tribe—a people who know no more civilized mode of life than the savage abode of the mountains and rocks; and without recognizing any one as king save him who, most barbarous of all, distinguishes himself as most courageous. They accepted the invitation, attracted more by the desire to plunder than by friendship, a relation which they recognize with no one. With this succor, Malóng easily persuaded himself that he was invincible; his arrogance therefore led him to send letters to all the chiefs of the provinces of Ilocos and Cagayán, commanding that they immediately acknowledge him as their lord, and slay all the Spaniards whom they might find in those provinces, unless they wished to experience chastisement from his power. He sent other letters, similar to these, to Pampanga, and especially to Don Francisco Mañago; these were seized from the messengers by the wary artifice, inspired by loyalty, of an Indian, a native of Magalang, who offered to the messengers to place the letters safely in the hands of Don Francisco Mañago. He delivered them to the commandant of the fort at Arayat, Captain Nicolás Coronado, who without delay sent them to the governor, who received them on the twentieth of the same month of December. When he opened these, he found that their contents were, in brief, to tell Don Francisco Mañago that, if he did not undertake to arouse the province of Pampanga to take sides with Malóng, killing the Spaniards who were found therein, he would send for the chastisement of that province Don Melchor de Vera, with six thousand men who were already under his command. This assertion was not a false one; for so great was the multitude of adherents who were coming to him—some attracted by the novelty, others by their eagerness for plunder, and others by inconstancy or fear—that he was able to divide his men into three parts. To Don Melchor de Vera he gave orders to descend on Pampanga with six thousand men, and conquer the villages; to Don Pedro Gumapos he assigned three thousand Pangasinans and Zambals, with orders to reduce the provinces of Ilocos and Cagayán; and he himself was left with two thousand men, to furnish aid wherever necessity required it.