The History of Sulu

by Najeeb M. Saleeby

In the meantime Prince Asin died of grief in his prison.

Early in 1753 Alimud Din petitioned the governor to allow Princess Fatimah to go to Jolo for the purpose of arranging a peace with Bantilan. This request was granted on condition that she deliver 50 slaves to the Spanish Government on her arrival at Jolo. This she complied with faithfully, adding one Spanish captive to the 50 Christian slaves wanted. Her mission was apparently successful and she returned to Manila with Datu Mohammed Ismael and Datu Maharaja-Layla, a commission sent by Bantilan. They brought a letter from Bantilan, which was transmitted to the governor by Alimud Din together with a draft of a treaty for the restoration of peace between Spain and Sulu. Bantilan expressed deep regret for Alimud Din and the existing condition of hostility and gave strong assurance of his desire for the return of the sultan and the reëstablishment of peace with Spain.

The governor acceded to the petition of the sultan and sent a letter to Bantilan with the commission, requesting that all hostilities stop for the period of one year pending the consideration and completion of the new treaty. In 1754 Governor Arandia assumed command and approved of the proposed treaty. To expedite matters he sent the commanding officer of the southern forces to find out what had been done by Bantilan toward the fulfilment of the conditions agreed upon. Bantilan met the commanding officer in a most friendly manner and discussed the questions frankly and ably. He explained in clear and impressive manner the principal causes of hostility and strongly blamed the governor of Zamboanga for his unjust imprisonment of the sultan and Datu Asin and his unbearable treatment of the messengers and representatives of the Sulu authorities. He declared his wish and true desire for peace and delivered to the commanding officer 68 Christian captives and two Spanish sloops. The officer was strongly impressed with the integrity of Bantilan and with the honesty of his intentions, and gave to the governor a very favorable report of both Alimud Din and Bantilan. He assured him that the sultan was not a traitor at all, but a man of good intentions, who was simply unable to carry out some of his plans and promises because of the determined resistance of many of the principal datus.

A general council was held in Manila early in 1755, in which it was resolved to set the sultan free and return him to Jolo if the Sulu authorities carried out the terms of the following conditions:

1. That all captives within the sultanate of Sulu be delivered within one year.

2. That all valuable property and ornaments looted from the churches be returned within one year.

General Zacharias who had attended the council set out from Manila in September to take charge of the government of Mindanao. He brought back to Jolo 6 princes, 5 princesses, 20 women, and 130 men of the sultan’s retinue. He had letters from Alimud Din and the Governor-General to Bantilan and was authorized to conduct the preliminaries of a peace treaty. Other ambassadors who accompanied Zacharias were empowered to ratify the same. The ships arrived at Jolo on October 4, and the ambassadors were well received by Bantilan. The latter agreed to all the conditions imposed in as far as it was in his power to carry them out. But he stated that many captives were bought from Mindanao chiefs and were owned by datus on Basilan and other inaccessible places, who were unwilling to give them up unless they were justly compensated. He added that many such datus were in alliance with datus in Mindanao and were planning to attack Zamboanga, and that the time was very inopportune for him to force them to deliver all captives.

The terms were actually impossible of execution and the endeavor to make the treaty and ratify it proved fruitless.

Alimud Din remained in prison until 1763, when the English, after their conquest and occupation of Manila, reinstated him on the throne of Sulu. During the period of his imprisonment he felt greatly humiliated, but lived as a Christian and with one wife only. At the death of his wife, in 1755, he was allowed to marry a Sulu woman who had been his concubine, but who had professed Christianity and was living at the College of Santa Potenciana.

The Sulus received their former sultan with a good heart and Alimud Din resumed his former authority as Sultan of Sulu. The people had evidently acquired strong sympathy for him and Bantilan had either undergone a change of heart or felt convinced that it was of no avail to go against such strong popular sentiment and fight the English forces. Withdrawing from Jolo he moved to Kuta Gubang near Parang, where, a few years later, he died.