Note 12 — INSURRECTIONS BY FILIPINOS IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

This fearful earthquake12 was general in all these Filipinas, although it was more severe in some regions than in others—for in the province of Cagayán, in [the land of] one people called Maynanes, a great mountain was cleft open; and the havoc made by it extended as far as Maluco. In the heights of Gapang,13 in the province of Pampanga, it was very severe, and lasted several days. Even greater damage might have been done by an uprising that was plotted by an Indian of evil disposition in the villages of Gapang, Santor, Caranglán, and Patabangán, exhorting the natives there to rebel and restore themselves to their former liberty, by slaying the Spaniards and the religious. He assured them that in Manila there were no Spaniards left, because the earth had swallowed them, with the entire city, on the night of the earthquake that occurred on St. Andrew’s day; and that the demon, with whom he had compact and intercourse, had promised him that he would aid the natives so that they might maintain themselves without paying tribute, and might enjoy much prosperity, and provided that they would slay the fathers and burn the churches. The delusion of the Indians of Gapang went so far that they seized arms, and summoned to their aid many heathen Zambals, and burned the churches of Santor and Pantabangán. When this was known in Manila, the encomendero of those villages, Admiral Rodrigo de Mesa, offered his services to pacify them, and went to Gapang with Alférez Callejas, their collectors of tribute, and some friendly Indians; but the insurgents, who now were numerous, badly wounded the encomendero, who fled on horseback, and a year later died from that wound at Manila. They slew Alférez Callejas and many of the loyal Indians who went in his company, and fortified themselves in the mountains. The prior and minister, Fray Juan Cabello, escaped by the aid of some other Indians who were not of the hostile party, came to Manila, and gave information of the progress of the rebellion. Opinions differed as to the methods which should be employed in pacifying the insurgents; and our father provincial, Fray Alonso Carbajal, decided to send the father lecturer Fray Juan de Abarca,14 a religious for whom the natives of that district had much affection and respect, since he had been their minister for many years. With this commission this religious set out for Pampanga, taking with him a companion, Master-of-camp Don Agustin Songsong, a valiant Pampango, with as many soldiers of that people as seemed necessary. They arrived at Gapang, and by means of father Fray Juan de Abarca’s preaching and his earnest efforts—which would take too long to relate, as would the many perils of death to which he exposed himself—that sedition was finally quelled, and the insurgents returned to their former quiet. But the Indian sorcerer, the cause of this disturbance, did not make his appearance, notwithstanding all the efforts that were made to find him.