OF THE ARCHIPELAGO. 459 ed from the rest of the fleet, and had not got clear of the islands, when the Chinese rose on the crew and murdered the whole, the governor included. In the same year a great number of Chinese re- sorted to Manila, and among others some men of rank, who excited the suspicion of the Spaniards. In the year 1603 took place the first massacre of the Chinese. In that year the Emperor of China sent three Mandarines on a mission to Ma- nila, to ascertain the truth respecting a report which had reached him, that the fort of Cavito was constructed of gold. The Spaniards conclud- ed them to be spies, and declared them to be the forerunners of an army of 100,000 men for the con- quest of the Spanish possessions. No such army ever arrived, or probably was ever intended, but the apprehensions of the Spaniards connected this circumstance, with the insurrection of the Chinese, which soon after followed, but which was, in fact, brought on by their own jealous and oppressive mea- sures. A rich Chinese of Manila, who had embraced the religion of the Spaniards, and lived on terms of great intimacy with them, undeitook, as a work of munificence to gratify his countrymen, to build a stone wall round their quarter of the suburbs. The work was openly and unsuspectingly commenced upcn, but the jealousy of the Spaniards was roused by it. They conjured the story of a conspiracy to murder the Christians, and the massacre of the
