Note 10 — ROJO’S JOURNAL

The following night it was resolved to make a vigorous sortie in order to discomfit the enemy who were fortifying themselves with all haste in the churches of which we have just spoken, namely, Nuestra Señora de Guia, Malate, and Santiago. Two four-pounders were detached, with the necessary artillerymen and the men needed to manage those cannons, fifty musketeers of the regular troops, some militiamen, and eight hundred Indian natives with their spears. In charge of this expedition was Monsieur Fayette (a Frenchman in the service of Manila). He attacked the enemy at their posts.10 The action lasted the greater part of the night, with a sharp fire on both sides; but Monsieur Fayette having recognized the invincible strength of the corps opposed to ours, and that fresh forces were continually coming to the enemy, ordered our men to retire a bit, and take position before the church of San Juan de Bagumbayan, where he kept his post all night, firing on the church of Santiago until nine o’clock of the morning of the twenty-fifth, when all the troops came back under protection of a new force which was sent them from the city.11 From that time until three o’clock in the afternoon, firing was suspended, because an officer of the hostile camp was received in the place, who was charged with a special mission.12