After the above decree was sent, its dispositions began to be carried out in Espana.  Before this, in the preceding year one thousand six hundred and three, while governor Don Pedro was occupied in the preparations necessary for this purpose [i.e., of the expedition], an accident occurred in Filipinas which threatened their loss and other greater misfortunes.  In the month of April a fire broke out in Manila and burnt the richest part and more than half of the city, and it was impossible to keep the goods from burning which had been discharged from the ships recently arrived from Nueva Espana which were being kept in the most secure of the houses.  Two hundred and seventy houses, wood and stone, were burned, and even the monastery of St. Dominic (both house and church), the royal Spanish hospital, and the magazines; and not a single edifice was left standing in the burned area.  Fourteen Spaniards were burned, among whom was Licentiate Sanz, canon of the cathedral, together with some Indians and negroes.  The loss was estimated at one million....

[The incident of the coming of the three Chinese mandarins and their pretense of looking for an island of gold is described.  This with certain rumors, readily believed, leads to the outbreak of feeling against the Chinese or Sangleys resident in Manila and other parts of the island.  That same year (1603), the insurrection by them takes active shape.  Argensola’s account is substantially the same as that of other writers.  He traces the insurrection during its rise, and progress, and the retreat of the Sangicys, with the consequent slaughters of those people.  The following extracts and synopses are made from his account:]

At the time when Covernor Don Pedro was attending most closely to the war with Maluco, there occurred in Manila a circumstance such that it might not only have suspended the war, but extinguished the entire province.  A man was residing in Manila who had remained there when the great pirate Limaon (of whose history popular accounts are current) came against the city.  He was formerly an idolater, and, as was reported, served the pirate for a lewd purpose.  His name was Encan, and he was a native of Semygua in the province of Chincheo.  He was baptized during Santiago de Vera’s term, and took the latter’s surname, being called Baptista de Vera.  He proved sagacious, industrious, and of efficacious energy, by means of which, exercising his trading, he came to possess great wealth and to have influence with the governors of Filipinas.  Through his arrangements the Sangleys negotiated with Don Pedro, asking his consent to finish a parapet of the wall that he was completing, at their own cost; for they, as a portion of the commonwealth, wished to do this service for his Majesty.  Each of them offered four reals for the work.  This service and the thanks of the citizens, whom Encan or Baptista had bought by benefits, destroyed or decreased the suspicions conceived against their conspiracy.  He was respected