Moro depredations.] Long have the inhabitants of the Philippines
deplored, and in vain remonstrated, against the ravages committed
on their coasts and settlements by the barbarous natives of the
Islands of Mindanao, Basilan and Jolo, as well as by the Malanos,
Ilanos and Tirone Moros and others; and there is nothing that so much
deserves the attention, and interests the honor of the Captain-General
commanding in this quarter, as an early and efficient attempt to check
and punish these cruel enemies. It is indeed true that, in the years
1636 and 1638, General Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera, undertook in
person and happily carried into effect the reduction of the Sultan of
Mindanao and the conquest of the Island of Jolo, placing in the latter
a governor and establishing three military posts there; under the
protection of the garrisons of which, Christianity was considerably
extended. It is equally true, that on the subsequent abandonment of
this important acquisition, owing to the government being compelled to
attend to other urgent matters, the enemy acquired a greater degree of
audacity, and the captain-general in command afterwards sent armaments
to check his inroads. On one of these occasions, our troops obliged an
army of more than 5,000 Moros, who had closely beset the fortress of
Zamboanga, to raise the siege; and also in the years 1731 and 1734,
fresh detachments of our men were landed on the Islands of Jolo,
Capul and Basilan, and their success was followed by the destruction
and ruin of the fortified posts, vessels, and settlements of those
perfidious Mahometans. It is not, however, less certain that at the
periods above mentioned, the war was carried on rather from motives
of punishment and revenge, and suggested by a sudden and passing zeal,
than in conformity to any progressive and well-combined system. Since
then these laudable military enterprises have been entirely neglected,
as well on account of the indolence of some of the governors, as
the too great confidence placed in the protestations of friendship
and treaties of peace with which, from time to time, the Sultans
of Jolo and Mindanao have sought to lull them to sleep. Their want
of sincerity is proved by the circumstance of the piracies of their
respective subjects not ceasing, the chiefs sometimes feigning they
were carried on without their license or knowledge; and, at others,
excusing themselves on the plea of their inability to restrain the
ins