of those who have successively
held the command of these Islands within the last fifty or sixty years.

[Native efforts for self-defence.] Abandoned therefore to their own
resources, and from time to time relieved by the presence of a few
gunboats which, after scouring the coasts, have never been able
to come up with the light and fast sailing vessels of the enemy,
the inhabitants of our towns and settlements have been under the
necessity of intrenching and fortifying themselves in the best way
they were able, by opening ditches and planting a breastwork of stakes
and palisades, crowned with watch towers, or a wooden or stone castle;
precautions which sometimes are not sufficient against the nocturnal
irruptions and robberies of the Moros, more especially when they come
with any strength and fire-arms, in general scarce among the natives.

[Moro piratical craft.] The pancos, or prows, used by the Moros, are
light and simple vessels, built with numerous thin planks and ribs,
with a small draft of water; and being manned by dexterous rowers,
they appear and disappear from the horizon with equal celerity, flying
or attacking, whenever they can do it with evident advantage. Some
of those vessels are large, and fitted out with fifty, a hundred,
and sometimes two hundred men. The shots of their scanty and defective
artillery are very uncertain, because they generally carry their guns
suspended in slings; but they are to be dreaded, and are extremely
dexterous in the management of the campilan, or sword, of which they
wear the blades long and well tempered. When they have any attack
of importance in view, they generally assemble to the number of
two hundred galleys, or more, and even in their ordinary cruises,
a considerable number navigate together. As dread and the scarcity
of inhabitants in the Bisayan Islands cause great ranges of the coast
to be left unsettled, it is very easy for the Moros to find numerous
lurking-places and strongholds whenever they are pressed, and their
constant practice, in these cases, is to enter the rivers, ground
their vessels, and hide them among the mangroves and thick foliage,
and fly with their arms to the mountains, thus almost always laughing
at the efforts of their opponents, who seldom venture to follow them
into the thickets and morasses, where the musket is of no use and a
single step cannot be taken with any security.

[Outrages suffered.] The fatal consequences and ravages of this s