The History of Sulu

by Najeeb M. Saleeby

Treaty of July, 1878

Col. Carlos Martinez became Governor of Sulu on the 28th of September, 1877. This distinguished commander applied himself to his work with unusual enthusiasm and assiduity, and by tact and sagacity succeeded in restoring order and peace, in the form of a treaty signed by him and by Sultan Jamalul Aʿlam in July, 1878. Great credit for the success of the negotiations belongs to Datu Harun ar-Rashid, who spared no effort to convince the Sultan that peace and loyalty to Spain were preferable to a condition of continued hostility, which meant ruin to the state of Sulu. The treaty laid stress on the submission of Sulu to Spanish sovereignty, and the terms of the Sulu text expressed the same fairly well and without evasion. This being the last treaty entered into by both states, it may be considered to define the final relation that existed between them and the exact position which Sulu occupied in the Philippine Archipelago during the last period of the Spanish régime. The best account of this relation is given in the words of the treaty itself, careful translations of which have been prepared from both the Spanish and Sulu texts and are herein added for full information:

Translation of the Spanish Copy of the Treaty

Decree

Office of the Governor-General of the Philippines,

Manila, August 19, 1878.

The Supreme Government having approved the bases of pacification and capitulation which are submitted through me to his Majesty, the King, by the Sultan of Sulu and the Datus of Sulu, and the act to that effect, which I confirmed and ratified on the 15th instant, having been drafted and signed by the commission appointed for that purpose by me in representation of my authority, and the Sultan and Datus, in representation of the sultanate of Sulu, I hereby direct that a copy of said act be published in the Official Gazette of Manila, in order that said bases be officially and publicly known.

Moriones.

[Copy referred to.]

An Act drafted on the bases of pacification and capitulation presented by the Sultan of Sulu and the Datus to His Majesty the King Alfonso XII, through His Excellency the Governor-General of the Philippine Islands, acknowledging the sovereignty of Spain over the territory of this sultanate.