The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803; explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commericial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the beginning of the nineteenth century; [Vol. 1, no. 48]

I44

THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS

[Vol. 48

his place began to rule, conformably to the directions
given by his Majesty, Sefior Arrechedera of the Order of St. Dominic, the bishop-elect of Ylocos. He
made investigations in regard to the uprising of the
Chinese, and found that they had no such intention,
nor had they given any cause for suspecting them of
rebellion; it was therefore believed that this report
had been circulated in order to vex the governor.
No long time was spent in quelling the uprising in
Balayan; for the sargento-mayor went out with a
hundred men of the regular troops and many Indians,
encountered the insurgents, and, although he could
not conquer them, because the Indians who accompanied him all fled immediately, checked the onset
of the enemy, without his having suffered any mishap, save that he received a musket-shot from one of
his own men, a raw recruit. He asked for aid from
Manila, and they sent him two hundred men, with
whom he conquered the enemies and punished them
as they deserved - shooting some, and banishing
others, according to the influence that they had exercised in the sedition, which vanished like smoke. He
were kept in prison for six months, the investigations being continued by Arrechedera and indicating that the "plot" was but a
malicious fabrication, intended to harass Torre and thus cause his
death. Finally, the governor, in view of their long imprisonment
and the failure to prove any charges against them, released the
Chinese prisoners, "under precautions and securities." One of the
prisoners proved, by a note from the warden of the court prison,
that the latter "had received the Chinaman as a prisoner, without
being told from whom or by whose order." The further precaution was taken of sending back to China, in the champans that
went that year, "no small number of Chinese, of those who were
known to be strollers and without employment." Concepcion
states that Torre's government was rendered odious largely by a
certain man in Manila, "who, on account of his rank and wealth,
ambitiously lorded it over the community, causing its government
to be subject to his pleasure, and did all that he could to cast
infamy on the governor."