A Detailed account of the Sumuroy rebellion as told by a Spaniard

Posted under General History

Wednesday November 09, 2011

(We are presenting here this account from Emma Helen Blair's collection as it is in the archives of
the University of Michigan Special Collection (digital) Library except for page 1, page 2, and the
last page (15) where they are formatted for easy read.)
(Page 1 and 2)

There was an Indian named Sumoroy in the village of Palapag (a municipality in the present day
province of Northern Samar), who was regarded as one of the best, although he was one of the
very worst, and was as evil as his father-who, accredited with the same hypocrisy, was a babaylan
and priest of the devil, and made the other Indians apostatize. He was greatly addicted to
drunkenness, and he had so promoted it [in others] that all the village was contaminated with this
vice, as well as that of lust - vices so closely allied to idolatry, of which truth there are many
examples in Holy Writ. The inhabitants of Palapag were corrupted by those evil habits at the time
when Governor Don Diego Fajardo - with the intention of relieving the near-by provinces of
Tagalos and Pampanga from the burden of working, at the harbor of Cavite, in the building of
galleons and vessels necessary for the conservation and defense of these islands - had ordered the
alcaldes of Leite and other provinces to send men thence to Cavite for that employment. That was
a difficult undertaking, because of the distance of more than one hundred leguas, and the troubles
and wrongs to the said Indians that would result from their leaving their homes for so long a time.
The father ministers went to the alcaldes, and the latter to Manila, to represent those troubles and
wrongs; but the only thing that they obtained was a more stringent order to execute the mandate
without more reply. Consequently they could do nothing else than obey the orders of the superior
government, although they feared what very soon occurred. But what good end could so mistaken
and pernicious a decision have ?

As soon as the inhabitants of Palapag saw that the alcaldes-mayor were beginning to collect men
to send them to the harbor of Cavite, they began to go oftener to the meetings in the house of
Sumoroy and his father, and to begin (when heated with wine, the ordinary counselor of the
Indians) to organize their insurrection. They quickly appointed leaders, of whom the chief was
Don Juan Ponce, a very influential man and a bad Christian, but married to a wife from a chief's
family in the village of Catubig; she was very different from him in her morals, for she was very
virtuous. The second leader was one Don Pedro Caamug, and the third the above-named Sumoroy.
Then they discussed the murder of the father minister, Miguel Ponce of the Society of Jesus, an
Aragonese, at the suggestion of that malignant sorcerer and priest of the devil, the father of
Sumoroy, who charged that undertaking upon his son.
Please click here to continue reading (15-page PDF document).
(Page 15 of the document above)

The chief leader Sumoroy and his sorcerer father refused to put in an appearance, or to talk of
peace. But the very ones whom he had caused to rebel killed him, and carried his head to Don
Gines de Rojas, although they had been so loyal to him before that when the alcalde-mayor of
Leite went at the beginning to reduce them to peace, and asked them as the first condition to deliver
to him the head of Sumoroy, they, making light of the request, sent him the head of a swine. But
afterward, as a token of their true obedience, they delivered the head, without any one asking for
it. Don Juan Ponce remained in hiding in the island of Cebu for a long time, but after having
obtained pardon he returned to Palapag; there he committed crimes that were so atrocious that the
alcalde-mayor seized him and sent him to Manila, where he paid for those crimes on the scaffold.
He who had the best end was Don Pedro Caamug; for he was the first to present himself, and
showed great loyalty in the reduction of the others. He continued all his life to be very quiet, and
was governor of his village, where he was highly esteemed; and it was proved that he was not the
one who had killed Father Vicente with his hands, although he was captain of that band. Moreover,
it was found to be advisable to overlook much on that occasion, as the quiet of all the Pintados
Islands, who were awaiting the end of the rebels of Palapag, depended on it.

Source:
Diaz's Conquistas (pp. 517-523) via The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803; explorations by early
navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic
missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic,
commericial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European
nations to the beginning of the nineteenth century; [Vol. 1, no. 38], page 114-128, Author: Blair,
Emma Helen, ed. d.1911.

Source:
https://kahimyang.com/kauswagan/articles/736/a-detailed-account-of-the-sumuroy-rebellion-as-told-
by-a-spaniard