o the governor, to tell him of the
victory. This was on the twelfth of November, at eleven o'clock on
St. Martin's day. After the arrival of this news another piece of news,
of no less importance to this country, was received, namely that the
king of Mindanao wishes peace with us. As security he sent his son
and his nephew as hostages, and with them all the Christians captive
in his land. He offered to help the governor as a true friend. It is a
notable thing that even the animals have tried to show the mortal hate
that ought to be extended toward this canaille. Many thanks have been
and are given to our Lord for all. Hence the most holy sacrament has
been exposed for forty days. Every monastery has observed its octave
with great solemnity and processions, accompanied ever by their good
mother [_i.e._, the Virgin] and the propitious St. Francis, by whose
help we have obtained the victory on all occasions offered us. The
plans of the Sangleys were as follows. On the day of St. Francis,
both workmen and merchants were to enter as usual into the city,
some of the merchants with shoes and others with clothes. The barber
was to attend to his duties. Then with four Sangleys in each house,
they were to put all the Spaniards to the sword, reserving the Spanish
women. These they had already distributed, the young girls for their
enjoyment and the old women to serve in the house. For this purpose
each of them was to carry a catan, or sort of cutlass, under their
long robes. Besides this they had ordered a body of five hundred to
assemble, who were to assault the monastery of St. Francis, and leave
no one alive there. Doubtless they would have killed all according to
this plan, if God our Lord had not been pleased, in His divine mercy,
to disclose it, the day before. Although there had been some rumors of
the insurrection nine days before, the Spaniards would never believe
it; for the life of the Spaniard is all confidence, and he thinks no
one can dare to do such things. The cause of the enemy dividing into so
many troops was the factions among them, so that out of the more than
22,00[0] Sangleys in all these islands, not 800 have survived. [22]
On the twenty-fourth of October they began to dig the trench about
the city wall, at which three hundred men, all Sangleys, worked. The
one thousand Moros were engaged in other works, not only on the fort
and in the new retreat, but on the wall and the supplies for it. The
ditch is seventy