Appendix: Moro Pirates

  1. Moro pirates and their raids in the seventeenth century.

Sources: This account is compiled from various historians—Combés, Murillo Velarde, Diaz, Concepción, and Montero y Vidalas is fully indicated in the text.

Translation: This is made by Emma Helen Blair.

Moro Pirates and their Raids in the Seventeenth Century

I

[In previous volumes have appeared various accounts of the piratical raids made, down to 1640, by the Mahometan Malays of Mindanao and other southern islands against the Spaniards and the native tribes whom they had subjected in the northern islands. A very brief outline of that information is here presented, with citations of volumes where it appears, as a preliminary to some further account which shall summarize this subject for the remainder of the seventeenth century.]

[When Legazpi first explored the Philippines, he sent some of his officers to open up trade with Mindanao, then reputed to be rich in gold and cinnamon (Vol. II, pp. 116–118, 147, 154, 209, 210). At the outset, much jealousy arose among the Spaniards against the Mahometan Malays (whom they called Moros) of that and other islands in the southern part of the Eastern archipelago, for two reasons—the Moros were “infidels,” and they far excelled the Spaniards as traders (Vol. II, pp. 156, 159, 186, 187; IV, pp. 66, 151, 174). Moreover, the natives were everywhere hostile to the Spaniards because the Portuguese representing themselves to be Castilians, had previously made cruel raids on some of those islands, notably Bohol (Vol. II, pp. 117, 184, 207, 208, 229; III, p. 46). In that first year, 1565, a Bornean vessel was captured by the Spaniards, after a desperate fight; but hostilities then went no further (Vol. II, pp. 116, 206). The Moros of the Rio Grande of Mindanao proffered (1574) their submission to the Spanish power, apparently being in some awe of it (Vol. III, p. 275). Governor Sande had expansive ideas of Spanish dominion, and in 1578–79 undertook an expedition for the subjugation of Borneo, Mindanao, and Joló; he obtained a temporary success, but the Moros again asserted their independence as soon as the Spaniards departed (Vol. IV, pp. 125, 130, 148–303; XV, pp. 54, 132). This expedition was partly caused by piratical raids made by the Borneans (Vol. IV, pp. 151, 153, 154, 159; VI, p. 183), and the Joloans (Vol. IV, pp. 176, 236) against the northern islands. Apparently this punishment intimidated the Moros for a time; the next important raid by them was in 1595 (Vol. IX, p. 196; XI, p. 266). In 1591 Esteban Rodriguez de Figueroa had made a contract with Gomez P. Dasmariñas for the conquest of Mindanao (Vol. VIII, pp. 73–77). The island had then been partly explored and much of it assigned to Spaniards in repartimiento; some of these allotments are mentioned in Vol. VIII, pp. 127, 128, 132 (a list of those bestowed in 1571 is found in the Pastells edition of Colin’s Labor evangélica, i, p. 157, note 1). Instructions were given to Figueroa on November 13, 1595 (Vol. IX, pp. 181–188), and in the following spring he set out with an armed force; but hardly had he begun the campaign when he was slain by a Moro (Vol. IX, pp. 195, 196, 263–265, 276, 277; XV, pp. 89–93; XVI, pp. 270–272). Juan de Ronquillo succeeded him, and for the time “pacified” the hostile Moros (Vol. IX, pp. 281–298; X, pp. 41, 42, 49, 168, 169, 214, 215; XI, p. 236; XV, pp. 95–100; XVI, pp. 273, 274); see his own report of the campaign (Vol. X, pp. 53–74) and Tello’s (Vol. X, pp. 219–226; cf. Vol. XI, pp. 135–139). In 1599 the Spanish fort at La Caldera was dismantled (Vol. XI, pp. 138, 139, 237; XV, pp. 190, 191); this emboldened the Moros to renew their piracies, and from 1600 on they harassed the Visayan Islands and even Luzón—not only the Mindanaos but their allies the Ternatans, and the Joloans (Vol. XI, pp. 238, 239, 292–301, 303; XII, pp. 32, 39–41, 134–137; XIII, pp. 49, 146, 147; XV, pp. 192–196, 209, 265–267; XVIII, pp. 185–187, 331, 333; XIX, pp. 67, 68, 215–218, 223–225; XXII, pp. 89, 90, 203–206; XXIII, p. 259; XXIV, pp. 35–37, 102–104, 139, 142, 143, 329; XXV, pp. 86, 105, 152–154, 199; XXVI, p. 285; XXVII, pp. 215–226, 316). Similar raids were made by the Camucones, Moros from some small islands near Borneo (Vol. XVIII, p. 79; XXII, pp. 89, 132, 133, 202, 296–298, 303; XXIV, pp. 97, 138; XXV, pp. 154–156; XXVII, pp. 314–316; XXIX, pp. 31, 200). These attacks kept the peaceful natives in constant fear; their villages were burned and plundered, and their fields ravaged; and thousands were carried away to be sold as slaves, being thus dispersed among the Malay Islands. In 1621 Hernando de los Rios Coronel stated that ten thousand Christians were held captive in Mindanao (Vol. XIX, p. 264). At times the Spaniards sent armed fleets in pursuit of these pirates, but the latter would escape, on account of the superior lightness and swiftness of their vessels. Punitive expeditions were sent to their villages, some of which were futile, but others inflicted on them severe punishment—Jolo: 1602 (Vol. XV, pp. 240–243, 264, 265), 1626 (XXII, pp. 207–210), 1628 (XXII, pp. 293–295; XXIV, pp. 143–145), 1630 (XXIII, pp. 87, 88, 98; XXIV, pp. 163–165); and Mindanao: 1625 (XXII, pp. 116–119, 218, 224). It was proposed to enslave any Moro pirates who might be captured (Vol. XVII, pp. 187, 296, 331; XXIX, p. 269), and this was sometimes done (Vol. XXII, p. 134). Finally, Corcuera undertook to chastise them effectually; and in 1637 he led a large and well-equipped expedition to Mindanao, which captured Corralat’s stronghold and devastated nearly all the coast of that island, driving out Corralat as a fugitive and intimidating other chiefs who had intrigued with him against the Spaniards (Vol. XXVII, pp. 253–305, 319–325, 346–357; XXIX, pp. 28–30, 60, 86–101, 116–134). Corcuera followed up this success by another in Joló, in 1638 (Vol. XXVII, p. 325; XXVIII, pp. 41–63; XXIX, pp. 32, 36, 43, 44, 135, 136), and in the following year a Spanish expedition severely chastised the Moros around Lake Lanao, in Mindanao (XXIX, pp. 159, 161–163, 273–275); further military operations in Joló and Mindanao, on a smaller scale, occurred during 1638–39 (Vol. XXIX, pp. 141–166, 198–200). It may be noted, further, that the Jesuits established missions there at an early date, evangelists of that order going with Figueroa in 1596 (Vol. XII, pp. 313–321; XIII, pp. 47–49, 86–89; XXII, p. 117; XXVIII, pp. 94–99, 151, 171); and others were founded by Augustinian Recollects (XXI, pp. 196–247, 298–303; XXIV, p. 115; XXVIII, pp. 152, 175, 340–345).]