which are so usual to the sloth of those peoples being
overlooked--although the way in which the people were treated,
their willingness, and their consideration of its importance, all
facilitated so difficult an enterprise as the repair of the castle,
which toward the river was threatening to fall. A fausse-braye [51]
was applied to it, which commenced at a cupola and ended at the bar,
with a very handsome platform; and five redoubts were erected which
ran from that point toward the sea as far as the bulwark at the foundry
(which defends the gate on the land side), as the wall was there very
weak and its defenses were far apart and not very convenient. From
this bulwark to the gate was built a covert-way, and in front of it a
ravelin, from which again ran the covert-way until it connected with
the bulwark of Dilao, and met the estuary which crosses from Malosa
the land as far as the moat. At the gate of Santo Domingo another
redoubt was erected, and another at the postern of the Almacenes
[i.e., magazines], so that these shook hands with the cupola at the
river. At the gate of the Parian a spacious ravelin was made with its
covert-way toward the bridge over the river, cutting the land between
the inner and outer ditches, and leaving a passage sunken around the
ditches for a movable bridge. The wall was strengthened toward the
river and Bagumbayan by its fausse-braye. A fine bridge was built
on the estuary of Santa Cruz, so that the cavalry and troops could
reconnoiter unhindered the other side of the river, as well as Sagar
and Antipolo. [52]
At the same time, public prayers were offered. The Augustinian
religious began this with the opportunity afforded by the fiesta of
the canonization of St. Thomas of Villanova. They were followed by the
fathers of the Society of Jesus with the triumphal reception of the
bodies of Sts. Martial and Jucundus and the relics of other martyrs,
which were deposited in the cathedral, and were carried in a grand
procession to the church of the Society; the governor, the Audiencia,
the cabildos, and the citizens, with the regiment of soldiers (who
fired a salute) took part in this. The governor paid the expenses of an
octave festival in the cathedral in honor of the archangel St. Michael
on the fourteenth of January; it began with a procession which marched
through the Calle de Palacio, past the house of the Misericordia,
the convent of San Agustin, and the college of the Society; thence it
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