Note 24 — ROJO’S JOURNAL

Ferrando (iv, p. 631) says: “Finally the killing ceased, but the sack continued contrary to the previous agreement, without the lewdness of the soldiers pardoning either the honor of the married women or the virginity of girls, who were everywhere the victims of their brutal appetites …. According to old histories, many young women, who had taken refuge during the danger, at the beaterio of Santa Rosa of this city of Manila, were violated. The venerable mother Paula, foundress and directress of said institution, asserted that not one of the girl boarders and collegiates of the house had been violated by the brutal soldiery.”

“There also entered the plaza de armas on this day [October 5], five hundred marines, dressed, armed, and uniformed like the regular English troops, who committed all kinds of excesses in the convents, churches, and houses.” A MS. by Alfonso Rodriguez de Ovalle entitled Sitio de Manila (written in 1763), cited by Marquis de Ayerbe, p. 60. ↑