Note 44 — EVENTS IN FILIPINAS, 1764–1800

Mas says (Informe, i, part ii of “Historia,” p. 47): “In that same year 1800,… the king ordered that the arsenal called La Barraca should be abolished, and that only that of Cavite should remain, in charge of the royal navy. The execution of this decree was the cause, in 1802, of a dispute between the governor-general, Aguilar, and General Álava.”

See Barrantes’s fuller account (Guerras piraticas, pp. 200, 201, 217, 249–263) of the arsenals at La Barraca and Cavite, and the controversies over them. According to this authority, the naval affairs of those places, as also of Corregidor Island, were in bad condition; the service was inefficient, the methods and tools were antiquated, and lack of discipline prevailed—to say nothing of the fraud and “graft” already hinted at. ↑