s
Lieutenant-General, vaunted the power of his chief through the Bulacan
and Pampanga Provinces. A Franciscan and an Austin friar, having led
troops to Masilo, about seven miles from Manila, the British went out
to dislodge them, but on their approach most of the natives feigned
they were dead, and the British returned without any loss in arms
or men.

The British, believing that the Austin friars were conspiring against
them in connivance with those inside the city, placed these friars
in confinement, and subsequently shipped away eleven of them to
Europe. For the same reason they at last determined to enter the
Saint Augustine Convent, and on ransacking it, they found that the
priests had been lying to them all the time. Six thousand pesos
in coin were found hidden in the garden, and large quantities of
wrought silver elsewhere. The whole premises were then searched,
and all the valuables were seized. A British expedition went
out to Bulacan, sailing across the Bay and up the Hagonoy River,
where they disembarked at Malolos on January 19, 1763. The troops,
under Captain Eslay, of the Grenadiers, numbered 600 men, many of
whom were Chinese volunteers. As they advanced from Malolos, the
natives and Spaniards fled. On the way to Bulacan, Bustos came out
to meet them, but retreated into ambush on seeing they were superior
in numbers. Bulacan Convent was defended by three small cannons. As
soon as the troops came in sight of the convent, a desultory fire
of case-shot made great havoc in the ranks of the resident Chinese
volunteers forming the British vanguard. At length the British brought
their field-pieces into action, and pointing at the enemy's cannon, the
first discharge carried off the head of their artilleryman Ybarra. The
panic-stricken natives decamped; the convent was taken by assault;
there was an indiscriminate fight and general slaughter. The _Alcalde_
and a Franciscan friar fell in action; one Austin friar escaped,
and another was seized and killed to avenge the death of the British
soldiers. The invading forces occupied the convent, and some of the
troops were shortly sent back to Manila. Bustos reappeared near the
Bulacan Convent with 8,000 native troops, of whom 600 were cavalry,
but they dared not attack the British. Bustos then manoeuvred in the
neighbourhood and made occasional alarms. Small parties were sent
out against him, with so little effect that the British Commander
headed a body in person, an