Document 301

pp. 269-273

Spanish Version of the Cavite

Mutiny of 1872

By Jose Montero y Vidal 1

The Spanish version of the Cavite Mutiny of 1872 was written by the Spanish historian,
Jose Montero y Vidal, in his book entitled Historia General de Filipinas (Madrid, 1895, Vol. III,
pp. 566-595.) This narrative of Montero y Vidal,1 normally a good historian, was so woefully
biased that Dr. T. H. Pardo de Tavera commented that he, "in narrating the Cavite episode,
does not speak as a historian; he speaks as a Spaniard bent on perverting the facts at his
pleasure; he is mischievously partial." 2 Unsupported by positive documentary evidence, this
Spanish historian exaggerated the mutiny of a few disgruntled native soldiers and laborers
into a revolt to overthrow Spanish rule - a seditious movement - and involved the innocent
Filipino patriotic leaders including Fathers Gomez, Burgos, and Zamora, Jose Ma. Basa,
Antonio Ma. Regidor, Joaquin Pardo de Tavera, and others. Montero y Vidal's version of the
Cavite episode of 1872 in English translation follows:*

With the establishment in Spain of a government less radical than the one that
appointed La Torre, the latter was relieved from his post. His successor D. Rafael de Izquierdo,

1
1Montero y Vidal, despite his bias against the Filipino people and the Jesuits, was one of the most
knowledgeable of the Spanish historians on the Philippines. At the time of the Cavite Mutiny of 1872, he was a
government official residing in Manila. Three of his major historical works are good references on Philippine
history, namely: El Archipelago Filipino y las islas Marianas, Carolinas y Palaos: Su historia, geografia y estadistica,
Madrid, 1886; Historia general de Filipinas desde el descubrimiento de dichas isles hasta nuestras dias, Madrid,
1877-1895, 3 vols; and Historia de la pirateria Malayomahometana en Mindanao, Jolo y Borneo, Madrid,1888, 2
vols.

2See Biblioteca Filipina (Washington, D.C., 1903), P. 271. The noted American historian, James A. LeRoy also
noticed Montero y Vidal's bias. He said: The usually sober and colorless Montero y Vidal becomes very rabid in
his recital of the Cavite episode in the Philippine History and is very positive not only in denouncing the priests
who were executed and the deportees as guilty, but in proclaiming their movement as actually separatist in
character. He ridicules at length the account of the Frenchman Plauchut (see Document 300). But Plauchut, as
well as Montero y Vidal himself, was a resident in or near Manila at the time of the occurrences.

*Nicolas Zafra, Readings in Philippine History (Manila: University of the Philippines, 1947, mimeographed
edition), pp. 461-465.
assumed control of the government of these islands April 4, 1871. The most eventful episode
in his rule was the Cavite revolt of 1872.

The abolition of the privileges enjoyed by the laborers of the Cavite arsenal of
exemption from the tribute was, according to some, the cause of the insurrection. There
were, however, other causes.

The Spanish revolution which overthrew a secular throne; the propaganda carried on
by an unbridled press against monarchical principles, attentatory of the most sacred respects
towards the dethroned majesty; the democratic and republican books and pamphlets; the
speeches and preachings of the apostles of these new ideas in Spain; the outbursts of the
American publicists and the criminal policy of the senseless Governor whom the Revolutionary
government sent to govern the Philippines, and who put into practice these ideas were the
determining circumstances which gave rise, among certain Filipinos, to the idea of attaining
their independence. It was towards this goal that they started to work, with the powerful
assistance of a certain section of the native clergy, who out of spite toward the friars, made
common cause with the enemies of the mother country.

At various times but especially in the beginning of the year 1872, the authorities
received anonymous communications with the information that a great uprising would break
out against the Spaniards, the minute the fleet at Cavite left for the South, and that all would
be assassinated, including the friars. But nobody gave importance to these notices. The
conspiracy had been going on since the days of La Torre with utmost secrecy. At times, the
principal leaders met either in the house of the Filipino Spaniard, D. Joaquin Pardo de Tavera,
or in that of the native priest, Jacinto Zamora, and these meetings were usually attended by
the curate of Bacoor (Cavite), the soul of the movement, whose energetic character and
immense wealth enabled him to exercise a strong influence.

The garrison of Manila, composed mostly of native soldiers, were involved in this
conspiracy, as well as a multitude of civilians. The plan was for the soldiers to assassinate their
officers, the servants, their masters, and the escort of the Captain-General at Malacañang, to
dispose of the governor himself. The friars and other Spaniards were later to have their turn.
The pre-concerted signal among the conspirators of Cavite and Manila was the firing of
rockets from the walls of the city. The details having been arranged, it was agreed that the
uprising was to break out in the evening of the 20th of January, 1872. Various circumstances,
however, which might well be considered as providential, upset the plans, and made the
conspiracy a dismal failure.
 In the district of Sampaloc, the fiesta of the patron saint, the Virgin of Loreto, was
being celebrated with pomp and splendor. On the night of the 20th, fireworks were displayed
and rockets fired into the air. Those in Cavite mistook these for the signal to revolt, and at
nine-thirty in the evening of that day two hundred native soldiers under the leadership of
Sergeant La Madrid rose up in arms, assassinated the commander of the fort and wounded
his wife.

The military governor of Cavite, D. Fernando Rojas, dispatched two Spaniards to

inform the Manila authorities of the uprising but they were met on the way by a group of
natives, belonging to the Guias established by LaTorre, who put them instantly to death. At
about the same time, an employee of the arsenal, D. Domingo Mijares, left Cavite in a war
vessel for Manila, arriving there at midnight. He informed the commandant of Marine of what
had occurred, and this official immediately relayed the news to Governor Izquierdo.

Early the next morning two regiments, under the command of D. Felipe Ginoves,
segundo cabo, left for Cavite on board the merchant vessels Filipino, Manila, Isabela I and
Isabela II. Ginoves demanded rendition and waited the whole day of the 21st for the rebels to
surrender, without ordering the assault of their position in order to avoid unnecessary
shedding of blood. After waiting the whole day in vain for the rendition of the rebels, Ginoves
launched an assault against the latter's position, early in the morning of the 22nd, putting to
the sword the majority of the rebels and making prisoners of the rest. On the same day an
official proclamation announced the suppression of the revolt.

As a result of the declarations made by some of the prisoners in which several

individuals were pointed out as instigators, Don Jose Burgos and D. Jacinto Zamora, curates
of the Cathedral, D. Mariano Gomez, curate of Bacoor (Cavite), several other Filipino priests,
D. Antonio Maria Regidor, lawyer and Regidor of the Ayuntamiento, D. Joaquin Pardo de
Tavera, Consejero de Administracion, Pedro Carillo, Gervasio Sanchez and Jose Mauricio de
Leon, lawyer Enrique Paraiso and Jose and Pio Basa, employees, and Crisanto Reyes, Maximo
Paterno and several other Filipinos, were arrested.

The council of war, which from the beginning took charge of the causes in connection
with the Cavite uprising, passed the sentence of death on forty-one of the rebels. On the 27th
of January the Captain-General fixed his "cumplase" on the sentence. On the 6th of the
following month, eleven more were sentenced to death, but the Governor General, by decree
of the day following, commuted this sentence to life imprisonment. On the 8th, the sentence
of death was pronounced on Camerino and ten years imprisonment of eleven individuals of
the famous "Guias de la Torre," for the assassination of the Spaniards who, on the night of
January 20th, were sent to Manila to carry news of the uprising.

The same council on the 15th of February, sentenced to die by strangulation the Filipino
priests, D. Jose Burgos, D. Jacinto Zamora and D. Mariano Gomez, and Francisco Saldua; and
Maximo Inocencio, Enrique Paraiso and Crisanto de los Reyes to ten years imprisonment. Early
in the morning of the seventeenth of February, an immense multitude appeared on the field
of Bagumbayan to witness the execution of the sentence. The attending force was composed
of Filipino troops, and the batteries of the fort were aimed at the place of execution, ready to
fire upon the least sign of uprising. Gomez was executed first, then Zamora, then Burgos, and
lastly, Saldua.

On the 3rd of April, 1872, the Audiencia suspended from the practice of law the
following men: D. Jose Basa y Enriquez, D. Joaquin Pardo de Tavera, D. Antonio Ma. Regidor,
D. Pedro Carillo, D. Gervasio Sanchez and D. Jose Mauricio de Leon.

Izquierdo had requested the sending to Manila of Spanish troops for the defense of
the fort as most of these found here were natives. In pursuance of Izquierdo's request, the
government, by decree of April 4, 1872, dissolved the native regiment of artillery and ordered
the creation of an artillery force to be composed exclusively of Peninsulares. The latter arrived
in Manila in July, 1872. On the occasion of the arrival of the troops, the Sto. Domingo Church
celebrated a special mass at which high officials of the Government, the religious
corporations, and the general public, attended, upon invitation by the Governor and Captain-
General of the Philippines.