The History of Sulu

by Najeeb M. Saleeby

The King was represented here by Colonel Don José María de Carlos y O’Doyle, Politico-Military Governor of the Province of Zamboanga and islands of Basilan, Pilas, Tonkil, and others, who was given power and authority by General Don Antonio de Urbiztondo, Marquis of Solana, Governor and Great Captain of the Philippine Islands.

Article I. The Mahasari Mawlana Sultan of Sulu and his ministers together with the datus mentioned above have the great desire to state that they had good intentions toward the people of Spain, on January 1, of this year. They also state that the relation of Sulu and its dependencies to Spain has been one of intimate union from the first until now.

They make anew, to-day, a firm agreement of union in friendship with the Queen of Spain Isabel II, Constitutional Queen of All Spain, and all her honorable officers, to reaffirm the previous agreement of 1836, as also the agreement of last year made with the governor of Zamboanga, in the month of August, which fully affirmed the “Kunkista”[5] of Sulu which was effected on the 28th of February, this year, by Señor the excellent Don Antonio Urbiztondo, Marquis of Solana, Governor and great Captain of the Philippine Archipelago.

Article II. The Sultan and Datus promise with firm intention and brotherhood not to revoke their agreement to the occupation of Sulu and its dependencies, regarding them as dependencies of Spain.

Article III. Sulu and her dependencies alike use the Spanish flag; the people of Sulu and her dependencies are one with the people of Spain, and ally themselves to the Philippine Islands.

It shall not be right for the Sultan and the Datus to make treaties with Malay datus or any nation other than Spain, whether that nation is Spain’s ally or not. Should such treaties be made they would be null. So also they can not make any contracts with any persons other than Spaniards, nor any agreement contrary to the previous ones. Such agreements, if made, will not be binding because Spain is in all the islands of Sulu as she is in her Philippine Islands, and Sulu has previous friendship treaties with Spain.

Article IV. New promise: Pirates shall not be allowed at all here in Sulu. Should they commit any crime they shall be punished wherever they may be.

Article V. The subordinate rulers, and all boats, from this day on, shall use the Spanish flag, but the Sultan and the Datus can use a war flag like the Spanish officials. They will not use any other flag.

Article VI. The Island of Sulu and all its dependencies large and small, being the same as the Philippine Islands in that they belong to Spain, all Spanish officers and all ships flying the Spanish flag may navigate through the Sulu Archipelago without any objection.

Article VII. It is recognized by the Sultan and the Datus that the King of Spain is powerful these days and is just and merciful in acquiring “Kunkista,” and that it is not right to build forts without informing the Spanish Government nor to buy arms without having also informed the Spanish Government, nor to have boats carry any arms except the kris and the spear, for other arms are signs of enmity.