Star.
London, England, 1821-04-30 00:00:00

THE LATE MASSACRE AT MANILLA.

Idnifoto of Don Mariano Fernandez de Fulgueras, Bri-
gadier of the National Armies, Political Chief and. Captai-
n ad interim, of the Philippire Islands, &c. Ecc. ad-
dressed to the inhabitants of the Philippine Islands, and in
particular to those of the district of Fondo.
While the Government was directing its whole
attention to the means of reestablishing the state of
the public 'health, and of alleviating the evils which
afflicted you; while. the zeal and the charity of the,
religious communities, and of several rich inhabit-
ants, were lavishly bestowing on you food and neces-
saries; while public prayers supplicated the ETERNAL
to deign to suspend the contagion with which Divine
justice punished your transgressions, misled by some
ill-disposed persons, you have covered yourselves
with opprobrium and ignominy—you have falsified,
for the, first lime, the flattering opinion which the,
world had conceived of your good qualities, and of,
your hospitable virtues. You have not only filled with
consternation all feeling minds, but you have become
an object of execration and horror to the nations who!
40 not know tilt simple and. credulous character
which distinguishes you, and which the infamous au-
thors of the unhappy days of the 9th and loth inst.
have abused in so criminal a manner.

" A general frenzy was everywhere spread, which
inspired your hearts with hatred and thirst of yen-,
geance, and made you trample under foot all laws
both human and divine. You have cruelly massa-
cred peaceable and defenceless men. You have com-
mitted robberies and iniquities which humanity de-
plores, and which your children will bewail. In the
excess of rage with which the wicked inspired yen,
you have sacrificed your honour and your fortune;
become traitors and enemies to your country, you
•have gripped it of its honour and glory. And what
was the motive or the pretext for a tumult as dread-
ful as unforeseen ? The foreigners, you say, poison
the waters of the rivers and the wells, your food, the
air which you breathe! To accomplish this hon ible
design they purchase, you add, serpents, and other
venomous reptiles, which they preserve with cruel
care and refined precautions!
46 Unhappy people! do you not perceive all the
absurdity or ridicule of your error? Do you forget
that the waters of the rivers directing continually
their course to the sea, the hand of the ALMIGHTY
alone could poison them? And were it evert possi-
ble to poison the waters and the food, could there
possibly exist numbers capable of such a crime? The
blacks of the mountain, the Moors of Tolo and of
Mindanao, would blush to conceive so atrocious a
project. And can you• believe strangers capable of
it, who come to enrich us by their capitals and their
industry ?—men, wbo are our brethren, who are
Christians, who belong to illustrious nations, and
whose connections with us were the source of our
continually increasing prosperity ? How, in fine,
could men, whose fortune is founded on your agri-
.celture or your industry attempt to injure you ? .

4' I want terms sufficiently strong to express to
you all the horror and action with which you have
filled my soul; yet, as 1 am ardently desirous of un-
deceiving you, I hasten to communicate to you the
result of the proces verbal, drawn up by M. Licen-
tiate Don Jose,MarianoJugo, who has been appointed '
to examine the pretended poison which has led you
astray, and has served the malevolent as a pretext to
seduce you. The Nlagistrate, after every possible in-
quiry, has made the following declaration:
" Mosr Ituorrelous Ste!--By your official letter of the
13th Instant, you require me to transmit to you the Feces ver-
bal drawn up by the physicians and mytnlf, relative to the phials
and other articles which hare been delivered to me for the pur-
pose of proving the poisoning of the waters and aliments, to
which the inexperienced vulgar gave credit, and to which they
attributed the cause of the mortality which took place on the
6th instant. I will give an account of them, that you may be
able to acquaint the Public with the result of my inquiries. In
order to prove the existence of the crime, the Indians have
brought me some insects and reptiles of different kirds, among
which is a serpent of the common size, of the species called do-
mestic (caseros). This serpent was in a state of dissection.
They brought also some shell fish (coquillages), preserved in
glass phials, tilled with spirits of wine ; a phial containing two
grains of muriatic barita; about half a grain of quinquina ; and
a tin box, about a van in length, a span in breadth, and six
fingers deep, containing insects already in a corrupted state.
I Lastly. in the house of a woman, whom they accused of serving
the French in the execution of the poisoning, there was found
some black powder, wrapped in China paper. Every man en-
&Wed with a reasonable share of good*sense, will comprehend,
without the aid of physicians, that the insects or coquillages,
dissected or preserved in spirits of wine, can oaiy contribute to
enrich cabinets of natural history. The physicians have merely
added, that the insects in 'a State of corruption, found in the tin
box, could have no influence whatever on the contagion. The
muriatic barks, according to the same physicians, was a coin-
pound of mineral waters ; instead of being poison, it is employed
as an efficacious remedy in many disorders. The quinquina (or
Peruvian bark) is the remedy to which we have all had recourse
against the contagion.
" The physicians have also declared that this black powder,
found in the house of the woman abovementioned, has nothing
poisonous in it; that it is probably either a kind of mineral
ethinpa, or a carbonic substance of the vegetable kingdom,
which serves for various purposes in medicine. After this ex-
planation, your Lordship may see that the poisoning imputed to
the French is but an absurd tale, purposely invented to mislead
the vulgar. There is, nevertheless, no doubt but the pretended
poisoning had its origin in the ignorance of the Indians ; but it Is
no leas certain that wretches, abusfng their ignorance, induced
them to commit the robberies and murders on the disastious
days of the tth and loth instant. An incontestable proof of this
truth is, that after the events of the first day, when those who
thought themselves injured by the French must have satiated
their revenge, they proceeded, on the day following, to plunder
the houses and magazines of the Chinese, pretending that one
or more Chinese had been arrested who were concerned in the
poisoning, a circumstance which bad not been hinted at before.
' Such are the explanations resulting front the proces verbal
of my inquiries ; I will only add a word to convince the igno-
rant Public, that the accusation of poisoning reposed on no rea-
sonable basis; it is, that among the three paper books brought
me by the Indians, and which were doubtless taken from the
house of the French Naturalist, I found one containing draw.
itigs of the birds, fish, and shells of our Islands; which ought
to prove to the most ignorant and the most superstitious, that
the collection of insects and animals made by the French, had no
other object than the promotion of the science of natural histoi-y.
" Done at St. Croix, 15th Oct. 1320. (Signed)
" ' M. INCOMBILE JOSE MARIANO JUGO.'

"Inhabitants of the Philippine Islands, and you in
particular, inhabitants of Fondo, behold yourselves
undeceived! Do not lose the hope of meriting the
clemency of our Catholic Monarch, but exert your-
selves, my children, to merit the oblivion of your
errors and of your crimes, by profound repentairce,
delivering to justice the wicked men who seduce and
deceive you; restore the articles stolen to the persons
appointed to receive them; purify your consciences
by declaring the authors of the murders, those who
hurried you to them by false orders and by lies, in
order to render you the blind instruments of their

iniquities. And you, laborious inhabitants of LiPAIII;
panga, of Hocos, and of Pangasinan, do lose the
fruits of your toils, of your progress in agriculture,
and in the arts of industry ; do not. suffer yourselves
' to be misled by the enemies of your welfare, by those
perverse vagabonds, who, jealous of your riches, and
consumed with envy, aim only at yunr ruin. Fix
upon them an eye of the most watchful scrutiny, and
suffer not any idler of the shores,of .Yoinlo and Ba-
naisay to reside among you, wi;hout, hems, acquainted
with his conduct... It it is suspicioudeliver him to
the protecting arm of kis:ice, which will ant fait to
punish him, ',rid take proper measures of safety.
" Unhappy People of BinondoL..yol►,wbose town
has been the theatre of the most. horrible tragedy,
and who have covered yourselves with opprobi turn
and blood, make known to the whole universe the
innocence of your good inhabitants, by delivering up
to the law the chiefs of the revolt—those perfidious
enemies of Goss and man. Public justice, the cha-
racter of the nation stained, and its.honour outraged„
all demand their odious heads. Let no consideration
whatever protect them; this is the only ruca:is to wipe
out the blot of infamy which has just been cast on tae
Philippines and their unfortunate inhabitants."