Particular relation should be made of this valorous defense for being distinguished and aided, as is evident from its occurrences, by the powerful arm of the Highest; and therefore the glorious defenses of other villages which, with warning to the Moros, are celebrating the triumph of their bravery, I will reduce to a brief summary, which will thus make the memory of these eternal, without wearying the public with a diffuse account of their circumstances.
In the month of February of this year, the Moros, elated at the destruction of some little villages on that coast of the island [of Leyte] opposite Carigara, attacked the important village of Hilongos. There were some two thousand of them, and they besieged the place for eleven days; but the natives of the village, encouraged by the presence and advice of their father minister, who was with them, made various sallies to hinder the formation of the enemy’s trenches; and they repulsed his assaults with the death of many Mahometans, without losing even one of our men in so frequent encounters.
In the month of May of the same year, four joangas made port at the island of Marinduque, with more than two thousand Moros, and for a week they besieged the little fort of the village of Gazang, which was defended by its natives from repeated assaults, under the judicious management of their courageous father minister; and the Mahometans, not carrying out their depraved intentions, smothered their fury, ravaging and sacking whatever they found outside the precincts of the said fort. During the continual fighting of those days, the Moros had more than ninety killed, and many more were wounded; while on our side there was no more than one killed, and another one wounded.
The Moros who went away unsuccessful from Marinduque sent eight joangas to the island of Luban, where they landed thinking that they would find very little resistance; but the father cura and the alcalde-mayor, with a few people who hastily gathered about them, defended themselves from behind a palisade which they had formed, with so notable intrepidity that with only the firearms of the alcalde-mayor they killed seven Moros; and, sallying from the trenches, they fell upon the enemies until they compelled them to a shameful flight.
A squadron of more than twenty joangas of the Mahometans almost at the same time attacked the village of Antiqui in the island of Panay; but they experienced a vigorous resistance from its inhabitants, which originated from the fiery spirit and persuasions of their father prior. The same thing happened to another squadron of the same or greater number in the island of Cuyo, the natives of which, with their father prior, not only defended themselves in their fort, but in a glorious sortie on the Moros—who were terrified, as was proved by the weapons and armor which the Indians secured as spoil.
Twice was the village of Ylog, the chief town on the island of Negros, attacked by thirty joangas of Moros, but on both occasions their designs were frustrated, with notable loss to their hosts; this was attained through the noble intrepidity of the natives, urged on by the fiery courage and direction of their father minister; and the Moros, seeing themselves attacked by the besieged, left several of their companions lying on the ground in the haste and confusion with which they embarked in their joangas, the moorings of which they cut in order to hasten their flight.
On the twenty-fifth of July, the day of the illustrious patron of the Spains, St. James the apostle, fifty boat-loads of Moros arrived at the important village of Catbalogan, and, divided into two bands, attacked the village on both sides. One of these parties gained possession of a high hill from which their lantacas dominated the fort, in which was enclosed the house and church of the [Jesuit] college; the other party attacked on the side of the village, and for a week the rest of the Moros hurled on it continual attacks; but all these were repelled with singular courage. The Moros therefore, many of them having perished with their dato, the chief in command of the squadron, withdrew the rest of their forces, making the boast that they would return with a stronger force to avenge their injuries.
The Moros then proceeded to the village of Calviga, which is situated on the same coast up the river, about half a legua from the shore, where some three hundred of them landed. These, on leaving their vessels, marched toward the village, regarding themselves as certain of taking it; but the natives, by the instruction of their father minister, waited for the enemy until they came within range of a cannon-shot. Thus they secured the effective fire of their lantacas, with which they killed fifteen Moros; and this alone was enough to make the enemy turn in precipitate flight. From here they went to the village of Boad, which was on an island near by called Palasan; and although they besieged it for three days, with redoubled efforts in their assaults, when they saw the vigorous resistance that was made by the natives and their father minister they retreated, balked in their intentions.
About the month of September, in the province of Albay the Moros found their arrogance defeated by the union which was formed among the natives in three villages, under the conduct of an ardent Franciscan; and by main force the natives compelled the enemy to go away from the province, rebuffed. Last of all, the two villages Ynitao and Lubungan, on the northern coast of the island Mindanao, especially experienced the fierce attacks of the Mahometans on four occasions, when they sustained continuous assaults, repulsing them with vigorous sallies, and inflicting heavy punishment, with evident losses, on the Moros.[2]
By this brief narration it is clearly proved that, although these favorable results have not preserved the villages from the ravaging of their fields and other injuries, at least their inhabitants were delivered from slavery;[3] while, on the contrary, those who through cowardice did not make valorous resistance to the Mahometan enemy have not only lost their goods, but they groan in captivity, unless they have been delivered by the victorious arms of his Majesty. And thus the natives of this archipelago, arousing their own courage by the fortunate successes of their countrymen, can take example therefrom in order to avoid misfortunes in the future.[4]