compelling the innocent and peaceable to become enemies
against their own will. Here this class of persons was protected,
and the way left open for [the return of] the others; for with the
burning of the Parian these would have been enemies, and all would
have despaired of reconciliation. This was seen by the response made
to Father Francisco Mesina the first time when he went to confer with
them about their submission; they said, "To whom shall we turn if the
Parian is burned now?" But when he assured them that the affair had
not reached that stage, they were astonished and readily discussed
submission--as those who had gone away, fleeing from our arms which
they supposed to be declared against them; and the haste of their
flight had not given them leisure to ascertain our decision, as they
regarded their own imaginations as facts.
In their mode of action they plainly showed their intentions--that
they were not rebels, but terrified fugitives; nor did they injure
either life or property, whether of Spaniards or of natives. Nor
did they avail themselves of the privilege which the necessity of
supporting life gave them, to use the rice, for they used what they
needed of the food which the Sangley farm-hands had in their houses;
while in the insurrections attested as such they did not leave a
village without burning it, or property that was not pillaged in all
this province of Tondo--sparing not even what was holy, profaning
the churches and the sacred images.
In consequence of his agreement with the Sangley fugitives, Father
Francisco Mesina set out again on the twenty-sixth of the month in
company with the Sangley Raimundo; and at night he reached Sagar in
the fields of which the Sangleys were encamped. Many of them (mostly
Christians) hastened toward the father bewailing their misery and
asking permission to go down to the Parian. So great was their anxiety
that, on that very night, they undertook to carry out this plan. How
important was the preservation of the dove-cote, in order that these
doves might not complete their flight to the mountains and might
easily recover their domesticated tranquillity! The father delayed
their journey until morning, and on the next day, the twenty-seventh,
sent to Manila four hundred of them whom he found most inclined to go
and who showed least distrust in the company of Father Nicolas Cani,
so that he could assure their safety from any misfortune. On the same
day he went with Fa
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