nd armed to the number of
one and two hundred war-boats, openly in their ports.

[A plan for future policing.] After the emporiums of slavery have
been destroyed by the conquest of Jolo, and the other general
measures adopted, as above pointed out, the government would then
be in a situation to turn its attention, with much greater ease,
to the arrangement of all the other minor schemes of precaution and
protection suited to the difference of circumstances and locality,
without the concurrence of which the work would be left imperfect,
and in some degree the existence of those settled in the new
establishments rendered precarious. As, however, I am unprepared
minutely to point out the nature of these measures, or distinctly
to lay down a ground-work for future civilization and improvement,
I shall merely observe, that what would then remain to be done would
neither require any great capital, or present obstacles which might
not easily be overcome. The Moros being then concentrated in the
Island of Mindanao, and this completely surrounded on all sides by our
forts and settlements, in the manner above described, the only enemies
let loose on these seas would be either the few who might, from time
to time, elude the vigilance of our troops and district-commanders,
or those who might have escaped from Jolo previous to its conquest,
and taken up their abode in one or other of the Bisayas Islands; or,
in short, such as are out cruising at the time our armament returns
to Zamboanga and takes possession of the southern coast of Mindanao;
in which case they would be compelled to resort to a roving life,
establishing, like the Jolo fugitives, temporary dwellings among the
mangroves and thickets bordering on the shore.

The principal objects then remaining for the attention of government
would be to guard and protect the towns and settlements established
on the coasts from the insults and inroads of banditti, impelled by
necessity or despair, and at the same time to promote the gradual
overthrow or civilization of the dispersed remnant of Moorish
population left in the Island. The cruising of the pirates being
thus reduced to a space comprehended in an oblong circle formed by
an imaginary line drawn from the southern extreme of the Island of
Leyte, to the south-west point of Samar, which next running along
the north-west coast of Mindoro, on the outside of Tacao and Burias,
and coming down to the west of Panay, Negros and Bohol,