The great Spanish journalist Jose Felipe del Pan, in "Revisita de Filipinas" (1876), praised Kapampangans for their discipline, bravery and loyalty, and for their "honorable military history."
He wrote: "I have met these natives in the streets of Pampanga--the loyal companions of our disgraces and our glories. They, and only they, were with us during the 1650s to the 1750s, in that century of frustrations, when we were harassed at all fronts. They were there, in equal number with the Spanish soldiers, guarding the fortresses, defending against the assaults of the Dutch, the Moros, the Igorots. Brave people!"
Del Pan continued, "Pampanga did not even have one-fifth of the present population, yet it supplied our army with thousands of volunteers, officials, petty officers, and soldiers, always disciplined and valiant. Pampanga gave us a most dignified chapter in history."
He was referring to the Dutch Invasions when Manila had just been devastated by an earthquake and the Spaniards could only send two old and rotting galleons (hastily converted into warships) to repulse the Dutch warships off the coast of Bataan. With help from Kapampangan soldiers, and the intercession of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary (one of the galleons was named Rosario), the Spaniards won--which is why there are only two places in the country that the La Naval is celebrated to mark the Spaniards' naval victory against the Protestant Dutch: Manila and Pampanga (Bacolor and Angeles).