diced b Jos e S. Arc a, - non

Cure of Bacoor with his priest uncle." The information gathered by thevictorious troops and the statement of the commander's widow also camefrom the same source.In explaining his desertion, Octavo said the conspiracy had startedbetween November and December 1871. He had been invited by CorporalManonson who had been in turn informed of the plot by Francisco Zaldua.Initially refusing to join, he accepted the invitation the following day in Manonson'shouse, with Sergeant La Madrid, a corporal of the Artillery,Corporal Tolentino, the retired Sergeant Patrick), the scribe Vicente Generoso,the civilian Leon, and Francisco Zaldua. Vicente Generoso made somelists of the forces involved, and Zaldua collected them, saying they were to bepresented to Fr. Burgos, who with Frs. Gomez, Zamora, Guevarra, andothers were directing the revolt. That night, Octavo returned to his barracksand enlisted his companions-in-arms in the conspiracy. That had been his lasttalk with Zaldua or the others. On the 20th, he had a change of mind and fledbecause his regiment did not have the courage to rebel, even thougheverything had been ready.Hence, whatever he might have said during the other examinations hadcome from no other source than what he had heard in that single meetingwhen Zaldua explained the details of the plot. One concludes, then, thatZaldua had held a previous meeting at which they decided to mutiny, ameeting, according to one of Octavo's statements, attended by the lawyerJose Basa, and the soldiers Tolentino, Manonson, and La Madrid.From the fiscal's examination of Octavo, we conclude that in theprevious trials, Zaldua was said to have met with the above-mentionedpersons and gone to Manila with letters from La Madrid and Jose Basa forFrs. Burgos and Zamora. The contents of these letters were unknown, butperhaps they were about a meeting in Cavite, which seems to have beenattended by Burgos, Zamora and other native priests, with some laymen,possibly to discuss the planned uprising. Among the laymen could be countedthe lawyers Joaquin Pardo, Antonio Ma. Regidor, and Gervasio Sanchez, aswell as the traders Gabino Mauricio, Ramon Maurente, No Ma. Basa, JoseMa. Basa, Maximo Patemo, Crisanto de los Reyes, Enrique Paraiso, andMaximo Inocencio. No evidence shows there was agreement to rebel, if theyhad discussed it at all, except to keep it hidden from the government. We canonly conclude it was after this meeting that the rumor about Cuba'sseparation from Spain began to circulate, that various military units wereready to take up arms, and that the gobernadorcillo of San Roque countedwith men to provide aid.33