Great were the calamities suffered by the Filipinas Islands in these years of 1657 and 58, which might have occasioned their entire ruin, if divine Providence had not manifestly preserved them, at the expense of miracles and prodigies. Even the arrogance of the Dutch recognized this, when they saw their proud forces humiliated by the unequal strength of ours; and it was acknowledged by the inhabitants of these islands, recognizing the divine clemency. In the former of those years the scourge of divine justice was the great armada of Mindanao corsairs, which, commanded by Salicala, a Moro of much valor, infested the Pintados Islands; and their insolence went so far that they came in sight of the great bay of Manila. The poor natives who groaned under the yoke of captivity to these pirates amounted to more than a thousand; and as it was impossible for most of them to furnish ransom for their persons, they usually died as slaves of the Moros. I have not been able to learn the reason why no assistance was given to deliver them by going out to find those pirates—although I do not believe that it was the absence of compassion in Governor Don Sabiniano Manrique de Lara, but rather his lack of means, and his being engrossed with more pressing affairs. This was followed by the plagues of innumerable locusts, which, laying waste the fields, made general havoc, occasioning the famine which was the worst enemy of the poor; this was followed by its inseparable companion, pestilence, which made great ravages with a general epidemic of smallpox. (Diaz, Conquistas, p. 556.)
General Don Agustin de Cepeda went to Zamboanga as governor (June 16, 1659), without any events worthy of mention occurring during the time while he exercised that office; afterward he went to assume the government of Molucas. He who took his place[10] experienced great annoyances with the Jesuits, who in their histories relate in great detail how much he tried to injure their interests; but Don Fernando Bobadilla was again charged with the government of Zamboanga (February 15, 1662).
The authorities and citizens of Manila were the victims in May, 1662, of a fearful panic, on account of the claim by the powerful Chinese pirate Kue-Sing that the little realm of Filipinas should render him homage and be declared his tributary, under penalty of his going with his squadrons to destroy the Spaniards—as he had done with the Dutch, expelling them from Formosa. This embassy, which was brought to Manila by the Dominican father Fray Victorio Ricci, and the consequent indignation against the Chinese, were the origin of an insurrection by those who resided in Manila, which was subdued; and the conference of authorities resolved to expel them from the country and repel by force of arms the aggression of Kue-Sing—the governor-general making ready great armaments, and whatever preparations for defense seemed to him necessary that he might come out victorious from the tremendous danger that threatened the island.
But the most important and most far-reaching of the measures adopted by the council at which Manrique de Lara presided was the abandonment of the advantageous post of Zamboanga—the advanced sentinel of our domination over the coasts inhabited by the fierce Malay Mahometans—and those of La Sabanilla, Calamianes, and Iligan (which were also important in the highest degree), with the intention of concentrating in Manila all the forces which garrisoned those posts (May 6). This notification caused, among the Spanish subjects of those lands, or it may be among the Lutaos, profound sorrow and the utmost fear. They complained bitterly of the unprotected state in which they were left, remaining exposed to the vengeance of the Moros—who no longer could consider them as belonging to their race, and bore a mortal hatred to them for having become Christians.[11] These just complaints, and the knowledge of the damages which would result from the withdrawal of the Spanish forces, impelled the governor of the fort, Don Fernando Bobadilla, and the learned Father Combés to entreat the governor-general to revoke his mandate, both explaining to him the very cogent and strong reasons which prompted their advice. The news that the Spaniards were involved in so tremendous a conflict encouraged the Joloans to repeat once more their terrible incursions. The datos of Joló, Tawi-Tawi, Lacay-Lacay, and Tuptup, equipped sixty vessels, and, dividing their forces into several small squadrons, sacked and burned the villages of Poro, Baybay, Sogor, Cabalian, Basey, Dangajon, Guinobatan, and Capul. They killed Captain Gabriel de la Peña; they captured an official of the same class, Ignacio de la Cueva, and the Jesuit father Buenaventura Barcena; they went even to the mountains in pursuit of the religious; and all the Indians whom they caught they carried away as captives to their own country, killing many of all ages and classes.
The governor-general of the islands sent a squadron to pursue the pirates, but they accomplished nothing. From Zamboanga Adjutant Francisco Alvarez went out alone to encounter them; he captured the caracoa of the pirate Gani, a relative of Salé, and of thirty captives whom the latter was carrying away. Alvarez freed twenty-two—afterward going to an island of Joló, where he captured twelve Moros. Bobadilla, in answer to his message, on November 8 received pressing orders to return to Manila without loss of time, the governor yielding so far as to allow that he might leave in the fortress of Zamboanga at most fifty Spaniards. This was equivalent to condemning those unfortunates to a sure death, and the Jesuit fathers protested against it, saying that necessarily they would incur the same fate; but finally the supreme authority of the islands decided upon the total abandonment of the posts above mentioned. Nevertheless Bobadilla, with the object of encouraging the Lutaos and leading the Moros to believe that he was not abandoning the post, sent in pursuit of them Don Juan de Morales Valenzuela, with two caracoas, to the islands called “Orejas de Liebre,” on January 2, 1663; but on the fourth of the same month he received a new and more positive order from the captain-general, dated October 11, that without delay or any excuse he must abandon Zamboanga. At sight of this, Bobadilla warned Morales that the withdrawal must be made, as was done on the seventh—as promptly as possible fulfilling the said imperious mandate, convinced that it was now altogether impossible to oppose so plain a decision.
The governor of Zamboanga made a solemn surrender of the fort to the master-of-camp of the Lutao natives, Don Alonso Macombon, receiving from him an oath of fidelity to hold it for the king of España and defend it from his enemies; but Don Alonso refused to include among these the sultan of Mindanao, on the pretext that he had not sufficient strength to oppose the dreaded Corralat. The governor, fearing his defection, did not leave him any artillery. The Jesuits also surrendered to Macombon their houses and churches, carrying away the images, ornaments, chalices, and books; and six thousand Christians remained in Zamboanga exposed to the rage of the Mahometans. Some Lutaos, although not many, decided to go to the province of Cebú, or to that of Dapitan; others scattered through Joló or Mindanao in search of safety, returning to their former religion.
The abandonment of our military posts in Mindanao was, although it is excused by the embarrassed condition of the capital of the islands, an exceedingly imprudent measure, since, in order to provide for an uncertain danger, the Visayan Islands were left exposed to another which was more immediate and real—to say nothing of the retrogression that must necessarily result to our domination among the natives of Mindanao, where at that time over seventy thousand Christians lived. The pirate who could cause such a panic in the authorities of Manila, and occasioned so great losses to the undertaking of subduing the Mahometan Malay pirates, died without carrying out his threats.
During the government of Don Juan de Vargas (1679), the sultan of Borneo sent an embassy to ask that mercantile dealings might be established with Filipinas; and Vargas in his turn sent another and a very distinguished one, headed by Sargento-mayor Don Juan Morales de Valenzuela. In 1701 occurred in the south of Filipinas an event as tragic as unusual. The sultan of Joló went to visit the ruler of Mindanao, for greater ostentation taking with him as escort a squadron composed of sixty-seven vessels. At sight of such a retinue the sultan of Mindanao, Cutay[12] (the successor of the noted Corralat), feared that the other had designs that were not peaceable, and commanded that the mouth of the river should be closed; but the sultan of Joló, offended thereat, dared the other to a personal combat. This challenge was accepted, and the two sultans engaged in a hand-to-hand contest, so fierce that each slew the other; and immediately war was kindled between the two peoples. The Joloans, breaking down the stakes which closed the river, retired to their own island with many weapons and spoils. The new ruler of Mindanao asked aid from the governor of Manila, Don Domingo Zubálburu; but the latter advised that they should lay aside their dissensions, and for that purpose sent the Jesuit Father Antonio de Borja, who was able to attain his object. (Montero y Vidal, Hist. piratería, i, pp. 244–252. Cf. Combés, Hist. Mindanao, col. 610–640.)