The Sultan’s State.
The Sultan lived in great state. He had a retinue of sixty persons, and was accompanied by many of the princes of the blood. All lived on the generous bounty of Spain.
Measures were now apparently begun to restore the deposed monarch to his throne. But the Spaniards pretended to discover that the Sultan harbored designs against them, and that he possessed a secret preference for the Mussulman faith. For this crime he, with all his relatives and retainers, 160 in number, was cast into prison, where he was confined several years.
A decree of extermination was then declared against the Mohammedans. A fleet of ships, carrying 2000 men, at once proceeded to Sulu, which the natives defended most ably. The Spanish campaign proved a dismal failure, and awful were the reprisals of the infuriated Mussulmans.
In 1755 most of the Sultan’s suite was sent back to Sulu, though the Sultan himself was still kept in close confinement.
The wily Mohammedan again professed Christianity; but, though the Sultan was henceforth treated with greater leniency, he was not released: he remained captive in Manila until the occupation of the British, in 1763, who restored him to his throne in Sulu.
As might be expected, Mahamed lost no opportunity to avenge the insults that his hereditary enemies had for so many years been heaping upon him; accordingly, he led several incursions against them.
Sulu Warriors in Fighting Attitude.
I have not space here to recount the various expeditions of the Spaniards against their southern neighbors. I shall, instead, mention only the more prominent ones of recent years.
In 1851, Sulu Town, the capital of Sulu, was attacked and razed by the Spaniards. Their advantage, however, proved but temporary. The Mohammedans now changed their capital to Maybun on the south coast, which is far less accessible.
In 1860, Governor-General Norzagaray led another expedition against the Mohammedans. This also met with some success; but none of it was decisive. On account of the persistent renewals of the hated Sulu piracy in 1876, another expedition, under Vice-Admiral Malcampo, pierced the interior of Sulu, where he was ambushed and attacked by a body of juramentados,—formidable fanatics, armed with javelins and the deadly kris. He returned to Manila having sustained great loss.