Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 07).djvu/105

 met, and drank after their fashion. During this time they resolved to act in harmony and with one mind in everything. If their slaves demanded liberty, they were to help one another against them; for already they were not regarded or obeyed as before. They possessed neither slaves nor gold, and found themselves poor and cast down, ready to go to prison any day. Their sorrow was very keen because their wives were being taken away from them, and given to others to whom, they claimed, they had been first married. For all these reasons they were very sad, and they discussed and plotted, and took oath, according to their custom, that if an enemy came to Manila to attack the Spaniards, they would unanimously and with one mind aid the enemy against the Spaniards. Thus they would once more become masters, as they had been before, and exercise the old tyranny over the common people—who now were much favored by the Spaniards, being promoted to superior places by them. The said Don Agustin de Legaspi proposed to them the plan and compact which he had made with the said Japanese Don Joan Payo [Gayo]; and the other chiefs declared that they were ready to help him and to accede to his wishes.

After this, it appears that in the month of February, one thousand five hundred and eighty-eight, when we heard of the English pirate who passed through these islands and plundered the ship "Santana," the said chiefs made preparations, thinking he would come to this city, to carry out their plan.

A few days afterward, Don Estevan Taes, chief of Bulacan, came to the village of Tondo where they were. He conferred with Don Martin Panga; and they decided that since the Englishman had not come,