Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 04).djvu/38

went down to the shore, leaving the post, where he was stationed to find out from what quarter the Chinese were coming. They were already so near that, upon one of the Chinese meeting him, the lance of the latter must have proved the longer weapon; for he wounded the soldier, who was armed only with a halberd, in the neck. Either this wound or some other obliged him to retire; and, upon his doing so, the Chinese shot him in the back with an arquebuse, which caused his death. They assert that this must have occurred as narrated, for he was seen to measure his halbert against the lance of the Chinese. They found him wounded with a lance-thrust, and the larger hole caused by the bullet was in his breast, a proof that the bullet left his body there. But his friends tried to say that while he was fighting with the Sangley, they shot him in the back—which might have been so; for as the enemy were forcing their way into the fort, they naturally met with resistance from those defending that position. Thus according to his friends, the mistake in leaving the palisade caused the harm. On this account it happened that, when they forced that position, they found there the least resistance. About eighty Chinese entered the fort at that point, and all of them might have done so had they all been of equal courage. Our soldiers attacked them immediately, with lance and arquebuse, killing them all, according to report. This result was aided by the resistance experienced by the assaulters in other parts of the fort, which forced the Chinese to commence a retreat. Now when the main division of those who had entered the fort saw the others retreat, they too retreated and did not enter, abandoning the eighty, all of whom the Spaniards