The haughty Bantilan, who ruled the kingdom of Joló in the absence of his brother, undertook to induce, by the victory which he had gained over the Spaniards, the men of Mindanao to break the peace which they were observing with us, and to harry us as much as they could; and he urged all the pirates who were in those islands to take up arms against the Spaniards, whom he represented as conquered, and in fear of their arms. Then the seas of Bisayas were seen covered with little fleets of Moros, who carried desolation everywhere. Nothing was heard of save plundering, the burning of villages, the seizing of vessels, captivities, and [other] acts of violence, which the Moros committed in our territories[28]—so that Señor Obando wished to go forth in person to restrain them, and to repair the many injuries which they were inflicting on us. His Majesty had commanded that a fortified post should be established in the island of Paragua, in order to shut off the pirates from entrance [into Bisayan waters] on that side, just as it was closed on the other side by the post of Zamboanga. In order to proceed in all respects with moderation, the governor sent an ambassador to the king of Borney, in order that the latter should cede to us the territory that he possessed in that island; and when it was ceded he made ready a squadron to build the fortified post, and from that place to follow up the Moros who were plundering our islands. He intended to go out in person at the head of this armada, and consulted the royal Audiencia on this point; but the auditors were of opinion that it was not expedient to hazard his person, and that he could entrust this expedition to another person, who by carrying an engineer to draw plans for the fort which it was necessary to build on the island of Paragua could accomplish all that was expected from the expedition. In accordance with this advice, the governor appointed, as its commander, Don Antonio Fabea, [sc. Faveau] who sailed from Cavite with eleven vessels; he took with him Don Manuel Aguirre, who went with an appointment as commandant of the military post which was to be established, and bore orders to go to Igolote, in the same island [of Paragua], to dislodge the Moros, who usually took refuge in that place. Here his men fell sick, to such an extent that, without doing more than to take possession of that district, they went back to Manila, leaving behind two hundred and seventy dead, and carrying home many sick men in the squadron.[29]
The king of Joló had already reached Manila, and was imprisoned in the fort of Santiago,[30] to the great satisfaction of those who had been opposed to his baptism and had always doubted his fidelity; but he obtained from the governor permission that his daughter the princess Faatima, who was imprisoned with him, might go to Joló with letters from him for his brother and other chiefs, in order [to urge them] to make a stable peace with the Spaniards; and for this permission he bound himself to surrender fifty Christian captives.[31] The princess accomplished the return of the captives, and obtained from her uncle Bantilan the despatch of an ambassador to Manila, to attend to her father’s affairs. The envoy carried authority to conduct, jointly with Bantilan’s brother the king, negotiations for peace with the governor, and to solemnize the treaties which they should regard as expedient, [the chiefs] binding themselves to obey whatever the two should sign. It was stipulated with the king and the ambassador that the Moros of Joló should surrender all the Christian captives who were in their island, and send back all the arms which they had taken from the Spaniards, and the ornaments which they had plundered from the churches; and, in order to make these treaties effective, permission was granted to one of the chiefs who were prisoners with the king to go to Joló in company with the ambassador whom Bantilan had sent.
The governor had very little confidence in the promises of the Moros or in their treaties, because they had always broken them with the same facility with which they had made them; and he prepared a strong squadron [to go] against them, in order to compel them by force to observe the treaties which he did not expect they would keep of their own accord. Nor did his suspicions prove to be groundless, for in that year (which was 1754) occurred the worst inroad which those islanders had made into Philipinas. In all districts they made raids with blood and fire, killing religious, Indians, and Spaniards, burning and plundering villages; and taking captive thousands of Christians, not only in the islands near Joló, but throughout our territories, even in the provinces nearest to the capital Manila.[32] The fleet which the governor had made ready went out against them, but, before they could do anything, his successor came, at the end of his four years’ term of office; for this reason, he left the islands in the most deplorable condition that had ever been known, the cause of these evils being either his own misconduct or the unfitness of those to whom he gave appointments, or perhaps his misfortune. What is certain is, that he experienced a very grievous residencia, and many charges against him resulted; and in the following year he embarked in the galleon “Santisima Trinidad” for Acapulco, and died on the way, without reaching España.
CHAPTER XXXII
Don Pedro Manuel de Arandia,[33] a native of Ceuta and of Vizcayan ancestry, took possession of his government in July, 1754. As soon as he arrived in Manila, he undertook to organize the troops, and to place the military force on a regular footing and in conformity with the ordinances which are observed in España. From the royal troops that were in the islands he formed the “king’s regiment” of two battalions; he reorganized the body of artillerists, placing it in the condition in which we now see it; and he assigned to both the soldiers and the officers pay with which they could decently support themselves and meet their obligations, without being harassed to seek in some other way what was necessary for life. He was very diligent to put in order the arsenal at Cavite, and whatever depended upon the royal officials—in which he did not fail to suffer annoyances, and to incur the dislike of many persons who did not enjoy so much reform and so great zeal.[34] At the beginning of his government, in the month of December, occurred the terrible eruption of the volcano of Taal, which lies in the middle of Lake Bombon, in the province of Batangas. So heavy was the shower of ashes that it destroyed four villages which were on the shore of the lake, and it was necessary to remove them a legua inland. There were many and severe earthquake shocks, and a noise as of squadrons engaged in battle; and the atmosphere was darkened with the quantities of sand and ashes which issued from the volcano—so that in Manila, which is distant twenty leguas, but little could be seen at noonday; and in Cavite, which is somewhat nearer, that time of day seemed like a dark night.[35] I have ascended with Señor Alava[36] to the summit of this volcano, and only a lake was seen, about half a legua in diameter; it was very deep, and its waters were dark green.
The armada which Señor Obando had sent against the Moros met so poor success that the governor was obliged to take away its command from Don Miguel Valdés, who had been sent as its chief officer; and it was conferred on Father Ducos, a Jesuit, from whom he expected better results. In fact, that father was fitted for the post, and acted with such valor and discretion that he took from the enemies more than a hundred and fifty vessels, destroyed three of their villages, killed their inhabitants, and made captive innumerable people; and he checked the onset of those barbarians, who were devastating everything.[37] These happy tidings arrived at Manila in January, 1755; Señor Arandia gave orders that the Te Deum should be sung by way of thanksgiving, and confirmed Father Ducos in his command of the naval squadron; he had great esteem for the father because the latter was the son of a colonel who was the governor’s intimate friend, and because he seemed to have inherited his father’s valor.
Señor Arandia treated the king of Joló with much kindness, and allowed him his liberty, although the king voluntarily continued to live in the fort of Santiago; the governor gave him a monthly allowance of fifty pesos and six cavans of rice for his support, and prevailed upon the archbishop to grant him permission to hear mass and receive the sacraments, of which he had been deprived. The king desired to marry as his second wife a woman who had been his concubine but was now a Christian;[38] the archbishop would not permit this, and Señor Arandia not only smoothed away all the difficulties, but gave the king the use of his palace in order that in it he might celebrate the marriage with more pomp and solemnity. He did not gain these dispensations without some dispute with his most illustrious Lordship, to which was added another, which, although of less importance, was sufficient to alienate feeling and cause resentment in Philipinas. The governor complained of the archbishop because the bells were not rung for the former when he entered or left any church, as ought to be done on account of his being vice-patron, especially when he went [thither] as president of the [ecclesiastical] tribunals. His most illustrious Lordship declared that he had no order from the king for doing so; but these formalities, together with the attacks of illness which the most illustrious Señor Trinidad suffered, caused his death; this occurred on May 29, 1755. Señor Arandia continued to favor the king of Joló, for he thought that by this means he could end the war with the Moros. He sent to Joló all the princes and princesses, the datos, and all the women, who were detained in Manila, leaving the king alone—who acknowledged his vassalage [hizo pleito homenaje] and took the oath of fidelity, until a decision [of his case] should arrive from the court of España, which had been informed of his detention. The princes and princesses arrived at Joló on October 5 of this year; they were graciously received by Bantilan, who, grateful for the generosity of the governor, promised to observe faithfully the treaty of peace which his ambassador and his brother had signed at Manila. It was necessary, in order to extricate ourselves entirely from the war, to make an agreement with the men of Mindanao; the governor undertook this, and sent ambassadors to them; but the petty rulers who are in that island are so numerous and so treacherous that it is impossible to establish a permanent peace with them. Even assuming that all the petty kings of the Moros may desire to observe the peace with the Spaniards, they will never succeed in it, because they possess so little authority over their vassals that they have never been able to restrain them,[39] and they never will prevent them from going out to plunder and to seize captives throughout our islands, for they have given themselves up to this kind of life; and only the spiritual conquest of their provinces is adequate to deliver us from these troublesome enemies.
During this government was undertaken the reëstablishment of the missions in the islands of Batanes, which lie to the north of Cagayan. From early times the Dominican fathers maintained in the islands of Babuyanes religious ministers, who gave instruction to their inhabitants; but in the year 1690 they removed these people to Cagayan. The king having decreed that they should go back to their own land, the religious who directed them established a mission in the islands of the Batanes,[40] distant some thirty leguas from Cagayan; and after his death his companion withdrew, leaving the mission abandoned until the year 1718. It was then reëstablished by another Dominican religious, who fixed his headquarters in the island of Calayan, in which place he attempted to make the Indians in the other islands settle, in order that, brought together there, they might be instructed in the Christian religion. Great as was the desire of the Batanes to enter the bosom of the church, only a hundred and fifty persons took the resolution to change their place of abode; and half of these died in a short time. That island offered few means of comfort, for which reason the father missionary became sick; and, although he had a successor, the mission was entirely abandoned.[41]
In the year 1754, two religious were sent, of whom one died and the other retired to Cagayan, seriously ill; but he returned in the following year with another companion. In order to ameliorate the destitution which they had suffered in the preceding year, they determined to take with them a carpenter, a lay brother of their order, in order that he might, as soon as they reached the place, put together a house, which was to go in the vessel, in pieces. Their zeal did not permit them to wait until the work was finished; and, fearing that the monsoon would pass away, they embarked without their little house. Hardly had they reached Calayan when the two fell sick; other fathers went to succor them, and all became sick; accordingly, they returned [to the mainland] one after another, and it was necessary to abandon the mission after the Dominican fathers had incurred large expenses for it. Afterward, this conquest was again undertaken, by Señor Basco in 1783; and this effort has been successful in maintaining there the Dominican fathers, converting those islanders to the faith. A commandant was stationed there with his garrison, which caused much expense, because it was necessary to send them all their supplies from Philipinas; for in all those islands the only produce is camotes and such other eatable things as grow in the country itself. There is no doubt that other articles would be produced, but so numerous are the rats, which consume everything, and so frequent the baguios or hurricanes, that one may rest assured that these plagues would devastate the fields before the crops could mature. Every year a bark was sent to carry succor to the islands, but, as the baguios are so frequent in those seas, many of these vessels were wrecked; it has therefore been recognized that the maintenance of that post is impossible, and the result is, that only the Dominican fathers remain there with a small guard, who must be succored from Cagayan. For this enterprise Señor Basco was granted the title of Conde de la Conquista; but I assert that if half of what he spent in Batanes had been expended in placing missionaries in Ylocos, Pangasinan, and Cagayan, he would have gained more vassals for the king of España, and with less risk.