The Jesuits Expelled from the Philippines.—The order expelling the Jesuits from the Philippines was put into effect in the year 1767. The instructions authorized the governor in case of resistance to use force of arms as against a rebellion.[2] Besides their colleges in Manila, Tondo, Cavite, Leyte, Samar, Bohol, and Negros, the Jesuits administered curacies in the vicinity of Manila, in Cavite province, in Mindoro and Marinduque, while the islands of Bohol, Samar, and Leyte were completely under their spiritual jurisdiction. In Mindanao their missions, a dozen or more in number, were found on both the northern and southern coasts. Outside of the Philippines proper they were the missionaries on the Ladrones, or Marianas. Their property in the Philippines, which was confiscated by the government, amounted to 1,320,000 pesos, although a great deal of their wealth was secreted and escaped seizure through the connivance of the governor, Raon.
Governor Anda’s Charges against the Religious Orders.—Don Simon de Anda had been received in Spain with great honor for the defense which he had made in the Islands, and in 1770 returned as governor of the Philippines. His appointment was bitterly resented by the friars. In 1768, Anda had addressed to the king a memorial upon the disorders in the Philippines, in which he openly charged the friars with commercialism, neglect of their spiritual duties, oppression of the natives, opposition to the teaching of the Spanish language, and scandalous interference with civil officials and affairs. Anda’s remedy for these abuses was the rigorous enforcement of the laws actually existing for the punishment of such conduct and the return to Spain of friars who refused to respect the law.
The Anda Monument in Manila.
He was, however, only partially successful in his policy. During the six years of his rule, he labored unremittingly to restore the Spanish government and to lift it from the decadence and corruption that had so long characterized it. There were strong traits of the modern man in this independent and incorruptible official. If he made many enemies, it is, perhaps, no less to the credit of his character; and if in the few years of his official life he was unable to restore the colony, it must be remembered that he had few assistants upon whom to rely and was without adequate means.
Igorot Ax.
The Moro Pirates.—The Moros were again upon their forays, and in 1771 even attacked Aparri, on the extreme northern coast of Luzon, and captured a Spanish missionary. Anda reorganized the Armada de Pintados, and toward the end of his life created also the Marina Sutil, a fleet of light gunboats for the defense of the coasts against the attacks of pirates.
Failure of an English Settlement.—The hostility of the Moro rulers was complicated by the interference of the English, who, after the evacuation of Manila, continued to haunt the Sulu archipelago with the apparent object of effecting a settlement. By treaty with the Moro datos, they secured the cession of the island of Balanbangan, off the north coast of Borneo. This island was fortified and a factory was established, but in 1775 the Moros attacked the English with great fury and destroyed the entire garrison, except the governor and five others, who escaped on board a vessel, leaving a great quantity of arms and wealth to the spoils of the Moros. The English factors, who had taken up business on the island of Jolo, fled in a Chinese junk; and these events, so unfortunate to the English, ended their attempts to gain a position in the Jolo archipelago until many years later.
