Note 38 — INSURRECTIONS BY FILIPINOS IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

Thus was finally extinguished this fire which rebellion kindled in the province of Pangasinán, which threatened great destruction—although it wrought no slight havoc in the burning of the two villages Bagnotan and Binalatongan, which were the most important in that province; and up to the present time they have not been able to recover the wealth and population that they formerly had. That the outbreak of these rebels was no more extensive is due to the fact that the governor undertook so promptly to apply the remedy, sending out by land and sea officers so valiant, and so experienced in conquest—as [for instance], Francisco de Esteybar, who was one of the most fortunate soldiers who have been known in these regions. In a printed history38 I have seen mention of this rebellion in Pangasinán with much solicitude to exonerate the insurgents, and omitting many circumstances which aggravate it. But I am not influenced by prejudice, for I do not feel it; but I am guided by the relations of it made by disinterested persons of that period, and of soldiers who took part in the said reduction. Some of these are still alive, among them Captain Alonso Martín Franco, who was present in all the revolutions, those of Pampanga, Pangasinán, and Ilocos, and gives an account of all the events above mentioned and of those which are related in the following chapters. In the latter are recounted the ravages wrought by Don Pedro Gumapos, by order of his king Don Andrés Malóng, in the province of Ilocos, aided by the Zambals, a cruel and barbarous people, who inflicted so much harm on that province that it is deplored even to this day.