Note 14 — INTERNAL POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE PHILIPPINES, 1842

The insurrection which occurred recently in Tayabas is a patent proof of these truths. The cura of the village where the confraternity of San José was established, advised the alcalde of the province in time of the suspicions with which it infused him. And since the alcalde-mayor refused to consider the matter, he wrote him: “You will be the first victim,” as in truth he was. The cura of the next village also took great interest in it, and so many letters were written to the archbishop of Manila from various places, that the latter sent an official communication to the captain-general. Orders were then issued for the arrest of Apolinario de Santa Cruz, but he fled. The brothers [of the confraternity] held their meetings in the village of Mahahay. The cura informed the archbishop thereof, telling him that, notwithstanding all that he had done, he had been unable to dissuade them from this undertaking. The archbishop sent this advice to the government. To the curas, then, was due the discovery of that crafty conspiracy; and it is almost beyond the pale of doubt that if there had been no others than Filipino parish priests in the villages (as has been once ordered by the government), there would not have been the slightest suspicion of it, until it had been so firmly and generally organized that our ruin would have been the work of a week. (Note by Mas.) ↑