the action of the royal Audiencia, despatched a
commissary-general of causes, so that, forming a tribunal together
with Esteybar, Ugalde, and other necessary ministers, he might make a
process in regard to those who had been most active among the rebels;
and after giving such persons the necessary punishment, publish a
general pardon, which would comprehend the remainder. It was reported
then that the judges proceeded with too great rigor, but I should not
be so bold as to impute that guilt to them, for they aimed to spread
a warning, without it ceasing to be very necessary.

28. The least thing that was seen in the disorders of so unjust a
rebellion was the deaths that were caused, notwithstanding that they
were numerous. There was seen vengeance clothed with zeal; ambition
usurping the staff of justice; tyranny proclaiming liberty; treason
applauded with adoration; and he who never knew the law of reason,
making laws. There were seen thefts, conflagrations, profanations
of the temples, persecutions, scorn, and the evangelical ministers
killed sacrilegiously; the Catholic religion abandoned in great part;
and the door opened to apostasy and infidelity. For what time, then,
is the purpose of inexorable justice, if it is not applied at such a
time? That was no sickness that could be cured by mild means when only
iron and fire were found capable of reestablishing that vast body in
health, rigor exercised there being a preservative medicine for the
rest. And if, perchance, any innocent one paid what he did not owe, one
must reflect that public vengeance was inflicted by the hands of men,
who, although they try to work with equity, are after all only men,
and that they would cease to be men, if they proceeded without the
least defect in all things. At last among many others who suffered
the last punishment, Malong was shot in Lingayen, Caucao hanged in
Binalatongan, Sumulay in Bolinao, Sirray in Masingloc, Durrey in Agno,
and Manzano, in the village of Bacarra, killed himself in order to
escape the hand of the hangman. But if some of them left the marks
of treason in the Zambal nation, which is ever valiant and loyal to
the king, most of them in number and rank, washed away that stain
more than clean. Everything yielded the great praise to the discalced
Augustinians, who were able, by their exhortations, to restrain and
maintain the loyalty of so many Indians of their districts, despising
for that purpose many perils.