[4] It was Lopez who soon afterward, having gone to Manila to report results to Governor Fajardo, secured (largely through the influence of Venegas, who was very friendly to Lopez) permission for six Jesuits to labor in the islands of the south, the rebuilding of their residence at Zamboanga, and the exemption of the Lutaos from tribute, and the appointment of Rafael Omen de Azevedo as governor. (Murillo Velarde, Hist. de Philipinas, fol. 151 b.)
[5] In the text, desvelar, “to keep awake”—but from the context, apparently an error of some sort.
[6] Spanish, dió una bofetada, literally, “gave a blow in the face”—in the Spanish a play on words which it is difficult to retain in English.
[7] This order was carried out by Balatamay, on December 13, 1655. See Combés’s detailed account of this tragedy, as cited by Diaz.
[8] Pedro Durán de Monforte; his term of office began in 1649, and lasted until Esteybar’s arrival at Zamboanga (Dec. 2, 1656).
[9] “La Silanga, which is a strait that is formed by the island of Tulaya with the land of Mindanao” (Diaz, p. 561). Retana and Pastells, in their edition of Combés, make Tulaya the modern Tulayan, near Sulu—an evident error, from Diaz’s statement.
[10] Referring to the governor ad interim from November, 1661 to February, 1662; Combés describes at length his “persecution” of the Jesuits at Zamboanga (col. 591–609), but does not mention his name.
[11] “Hardly had Morales reached the islands, when a new despatch arrived from Manila, repeating the same orders. The silence of the Spaniards [i.e., regarding their first order to leave the fort], and the hurried preparations that were made that very night for the withdrawal of Morales, inflamed the injured feelings of the Lutaos, nor could any argument repress them. The governor did not attempt to do more than console them, in order that they might prudently decide what they should do; he told them that the Spaniards would never forsake them, and that if the Lutaos would follow them there were places in the islands, with equal and even greater advantages, where they could live; that Corralat was friendly, and the Spaniards would charge him to maintain friendly relations with them, which they could with good reason expect, as he was of the same nation as themselves; that if he should not fulfil this obligation, occasion would not fail the Spaniards to avenge them. He also said that they could, with the forts which he left to them, easily defend themselves from their enemies; and finally, that they should await the ultimate decision which would be brought by General Don Francisco de Atienza on his way to Maluco, since it might improve the condition of affairs.
“Little impression did these arguments, which the Spaniards offered by way of consolation, make on the Lutaos. The tyrannies that they would experience when left to their own government had no respect for kinship, nor was there any law save that of might. To leave their homes was most difficult, and to transplant their villages was to ruin them. To defend the fort supplies of ammunition and food were required, and they had no fund to meet these costs. They gave way to lamentations and complaints that, as they had served the Spaniards with their lives, they had roused in their neighbors a mortal hatred; that, notwithstanding they had become Christians, they were left abandoned, in the power of the Moros, without instruction, or defense, or honor. They recounted their services, and their sighs grew heavier, while they declared as false the promises made to them in the beginning, which drew them away from obedience to their natural king; and that with such an example [as this of the Lutaos before them] the peoples [of Mindanao] would not change sides in order to please a nation so unreliable [as the Spaniards]. The Subanos also presented their piteous remonstrances that as a people of the hill-country, and of timid disposition, they were exposed to greater misfortunes. They went to the fort and renewed their importunities, saying that the Spaniards were deserting and abandoning them [notwithstanding] their humble submission, and leaving them to be slaves of their enemies; that although they had maintained the Spaniards with their tributes, provided their houses with their products, and embraced their faith, contented with the freedom which followed Spanish protection, yet now their liberty remained at the mercy of greed, the Spaniards profiting by their lives for the sake of keeping up intercourse with the Macassars and Malayos; and that it was too much to be endured, to leave in such infamous subjection vassals so obedient as they. The governor, his heart pierced by their pathetic expostulations, could give no other satisfaction than his own anxious hopes. In the midst of these limited and sad consolations, with the arrival of the succors for Terrenate came anew the severe orders [for abandoning the forts]; the governor was now unable to give them courage, for lack of means, and all were disconsolate; but it was necessary to execute the rigorous order—those who remained being as sorrowful at it as were those who were going away, and each one endeavoring to make his decision and to suit it to this emergency. Some went to Mindanao, others to Joló, and others to Basilan; many dispersed in the coasts of Zamboangan, the people of Don Alonso Macombon remaining here with him; and a few determined to follow the fortunes of those who retreated thence, going to settle at Dapitan and Zebù.... In the vessels had to be placed more than a thousand souls, and the military supplies. It was a grievous abandonment, by which more than a thousand Christians were left exposed to the cruelty of the Moros.... In great part it was due to the obstinacy of the Jesuits, who, regarding the allowance of fifty men as insufficient, compelled its total abandonment. Such garrisons have been and are sufficient to oppose the Moros in the remaining presidios; and the same would be enough in Zamboangan if the great extent which must be guarded, on account of the size of the fort, were reduced to a little, demolishing the less important part [of the fortifications]. But their profound thoughts feared lest that fort would afterward remain thus scantily garrisoned, and that it would not make so much show or its administration be so conspicuous; nor would there be expended in the allowances [for it] so large sums, which they converted to their own advantage.... Soon there were representations made at the court of injury resulting from its desertion, and consequent royal decrees for its reconstruction, which did not take effect until long afterward.” (Concepción, Hist. de Philipinas, vii, pp. 93–97.)
[12] This name is Curay in Concepción’s Historia.