Note 39 — ROJO’S NARRATIVE

58. Surprised at this information, the archbishop had the above-mentioned letter brought into the presence of the said person, together with the others, and had the secretary read them with their dates. By their very dates, namely, the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth of October, it was plain that they could not have occasioned the event of Pagsanjan which occurred the day before, namely, the twenty-seventh of the same month. This casualty was made more impossible by the distance of said village from Manila, which is at the least three days’ journey. The legitimate cause of this insurrection and tyrannical murder of their alcalde was that which appears in the documents formed of this matter, where it is evident that this cloud of dust which was raised was no other thing than the racial inconstancy and disloyalty of the natives of that village and its environs. The fact that the archbishop had not had any support or reply to the contents of his letter from the superiors of Manila, and the knowledge that Auditor Anda had already sent his message [cordillera] through the provinces,39 in which he declared himself to be governor and captain-general, made it necessary for the archbishop not to disturb the provinces and accede to the times and to the circumstances thereof, and ordered that none of the said letters be sent. That order was executed as given and the originals were kept in the possession of the secretary. That which can have happened, and of which there is frequent experience in any part, as well as in this city, is that a copy of one or more of said letters may have been drawn by the infidelity of some clerk without the archbishop or his secretary being able to remedy it, and in this way their contents may have become known and explained by the malicious rivalry in as sinister a manner as is usual.