Moro Beheading Knives.
The Climax of Moro Piracy.—The continued presence of the Moros in Mindoro, where they haunted the bays and rivers of both east and west coasts for months at a time, stealing out from this island for attack in every direction, was specially noted by Padre Zuñiga, and indicated how feebly the Spaniards repulsed these pirates a hundred years ago.
It was the last severe phase of Malay piracy, when even the strong merchant ships of England and America dreaded the straits of Borneo and passed with caution through the China Sea. Northern Borneo, the Sulu archipelago, and the southern coasts of Mindanao were the centers from which came these fierce sea-wolves, whose cruel exploits have left their many traditions in the American and British merchant navies, just as they periodically appear in the chronicles of the Philippines.
Moro Hunting Spear.
Five hundred captives annually seem to have been the spoils taken by these Moros in the Philippines Islands, and as far south as Batavia and Macassar captive Filipinos were sold in the slave marts of the Malays. The aged and infirm were inhumanly bartered to the savage tribes of Borneo, who offered them up in their ceremonial sacrifices. The measures of the Spanish government, though constant and expensive, were ineffective. Between 1778 and 1793, a million and a half of pesos were expended on the fleets and expeditions to drive back or punish the Moros, but at the end of the century a veritable climax of piracy was attained.
Pirates swarmed continually about the coasts of Mindoro, Burias, and Masbate, and even frequented the esteros of Manila Bay. Some sort of peace seems to have been established with Jolo and a friendly commerce was engaged in toward the end of the century, but the Moros of Mindanao and Borneo were increasing enemies. In 1798 a fleet of twenty-five Moro bancas passed up the Pacific coast of Luzon and fell upon the isolated towns of Paler, Casiguran, and Palanan, destroying the pueblos and taking 450 captives. The cura of Casiguran was ransomed in Binangonan for the sum of twenty-five hundred pesos. For four years this pirate fleet had its rendezvous on Burias, whence it raided the adjacent coasts and the Catanduanes.
Moro “Kulintangan” or Xylophone.