A History of the Philippines

by David P. Barrows

Fifty years ago the Samal were very numerous in the many islands between Jolo and Basilan, and this group is still known as the Islas Samales. Like the Sulu and other Malays, the Samal are Mohammedans, and scarcely less persistent pirates than their fellow-Malays. With the decline of piratical power among the Sulu of Jolo, the focus of piracy shifted to these settlements of the Samal, and in the time of Claveria the worst centers were the islands of Balanguingui and Tonquil, lying just north of the island of Jolo. From here pirate and slaving raids upon the Bisayan Islands continued to be made, and nearly every year towns were sacked and burned and several hundred unfortunate captives carried away. The captives were destined for slavery, and regular marts existed for this traffic at Jolo and on the Bay of Sandakan in Borneo.

Arrival of Steam Warships.—In 1848 the Philippines secured the first steam war vessels. These were the “Magellanes,” the “Elcano,” and the “Reina de Castilla.” They were destined to revolutionize Moro relations.

The Destruction of the Samal Forts.—Hitherto it had been possible for the great Moro war praos, manned by many oarsmen, to drop their masts on the approach of an armed sailing-vessel, and, turning toward the “eye of the wind,” where no sailing-ship could pursue, row calmly away from danger. Steam alone was effective in combating these sea-wolves. Claveria took these newly arrived ships, and with a strong force of infantry, which was increased by Zamboangueño volunteers, he entered the Samal group in February, 1848, and landed on the island of Balanguingui.

There were four fortresses situated in the mangrove marshes of the island. These, in spite of a desperate resistance, were carried by the infantry and Zamboangueños and the pirates scattered. The conduct of the campaign appears to have been admirable and the fighting heroic. The Moros were completely overwhelmed; 450 dead were burned or interred; 124 pieces of artillery—for the most part, the small brass cannon called “lantacas”—were captured, and 150 Moro boats were destroyed. The Spaniards cut down the cocoanut groves, and with spoil that included such rich pirate loot as silks, silver vases, ornaments, and weapons of war, and with over two hundred prisoners and three hundred rescued captives, returned to Zamboanga. This was the most signal victory ever won by Europeans in conflict with Malay piracy. The effectiveness of this campaign is shown by the fact that while in the preceding year 450 Filipinos had suffered capture at the hands of Moro pirates, in 1848 and the succeeding year there was scarcely a depredation. But in 1850 a pirate squadron from Tonquil, an island adjacent to Balanguingui, fell upon Samar and Camaguin. Fortunately, Governor Urbistondo, who had succeeded Claveria, vigorously continued the policy of his predecessor, and an expedition was promptly dispatched which destroyed the settlements and strongholds on Tonquil.

Destruction of the Moro Forts at Jolo.—A year later war broke out again with Jolo, and after a varied interchange of negotiations and hostilities, the Spaniards stormed and took the town in February, 1851. The question of permanent occupation of this important site was debated by a council of war, but their forces appearing unequal to the task, the forts of the Moros were destroyed, and the expedition returned. Jolo is described at this time as a very strongly guarded situation. Five forts and a double line of trenches faced the shore. The Moro town is said to have contained about seven thousand souls, and there was a barrio of Chinese traders, who numbered about five hundred.

Treaty with the Sultan of Jolo.—A few months later the governor of Zamboanga concluded a treaty with the sultan of Jolo by which the archipelago was to be considered an incorporated part of the Spanish possessions. The sultan bound himself to make no further treaties with or cessions to foreign powers, to suppress piracy, and to fly the Spanish flag. The Moros were guaranteed the practice of their religion, the succession of the sultan and his descendants in the established order, boats of Jolo were to enjoy the same trading privileges in Spanish ports as other Filipino vessels, and the sultan retained the right to all customs duties on foreign trading-vessels. Finally, “in compensation for the damages of war,” the sultan was to be paid an annual subsidy of 1,500 pesos and 600 pesos each to three datos and 360 pesos to a sherif.[4]

The End of Malay Piracy.—In these very years that Malay piracy was receiving such severe blows from the recuperating power and activity of the Spanish government on the north, it was crushed also from the south by the merciless warfare of a great Englishman, the Raja Charles Brooke of Sarawak. The sources of pirate depredation were Maguindanao, the Sulu archipelago, and the north and west coasts of the great island of Borneo. We have seen how these fleets, century after century, swept northward and wasted with fire and murder the fair islands of the Philippines.

But this archipelago was not alone in suffering these ravages. The peaceful trading inhabitants of the great island groups to the south were persistently visited and despoiled. Moreover, as the Chinese trade by the Cape of Good Hope route became established in the first half of the nineteenth century, these pirates became a great menace to European shipping. They swarmed the China Sea, and luckless indeed was the ship carried too far eastward on its course. Every American schoolboy is familiar with the stories of fierce hand-to-hand struggles with Malay pirates, which have come down from those years when the American flag was seen everywhere in the ports of the Far East.

About 1839 a young English officer,[5] who had been in the Indian service, Charles Brooke, having armed and equipped a yacht of about 140 tons, set sail for the coast of Borneo, with the avowed intent of destroying Malay piracy and founding an independent state. In all the romantic stories of the East there is no career of greater daring than that of this man. In 1841, having engaged in several bloody exploits, Brooke forced from the sultan of Borneo the cession of Sarawak, with the government vested in himself as an independent raja.

Brooke now devoted himself with merciless severity to the destruction of the pirates in the deep bays and swampy rivers, whence they had so long made their excursions. Later he was assisted by the presence of the English man-of-war “Dido,” and in 1847 the sultan of Brunei ceded to Great Britain the island of Labuan. In 1849, Brooke visited Zamboanga in the English man-of-war “Mœander,” and concluded a treaty with the sultan of Sulu, which greatly alarmed the Spaniards.