There was no arithmetical proportion to the Spanish conquest of the Philippines. Though Spain could conquer one half of the Philippines within the spaces of eleven years, she was to find that the remaining 300 years of occupation of the islands produced no colonization of the unconquerable half.

With the completion of the Spanish conquests of the north, Mindanao and Sulu no became definitely the territory of the Moros. Hope of a northern expansion of Mohammedanism was extinguished and the Moro power became limited to the lands of the south.

Moroland divides into three natural geographic divisions which will be treated in detail.

The first of these is the island of Mindanao, second largest of the Philippine group and inferior in size only to Luzon. Mindanao, as before mentioned, contains 38,000 square miles, an area slightly larger than Ireland.

On Mindanao the Spaniards found some 250,000 Moros. One out of ten of the Moros was a warrior of fighting age. In early days this great island was ruled by a number of minor kings who held forth in overlapping territories. The Rio Grande Valley in Cotobato came under the domination of the Kings of Mindanao and Buhayen. The region is in the vicinity of Lake Lanao and was under the rulership of the powerful King Buhisan at the time of the first Spanish penetration. This district was a very ancient settlement of the Moros.

Malabang on the Lanao coast was a trading post where the Moros had conducted commercial transactions with Borneo and Celebes for centuries prior to the coming of the Spanish. It as a part of the empire of Buhisan. There was no central authority over the island until 1640, when the Sultanate of Mindanao was founded with Maguinguin as the first Sultan.

The northern portions of Mindanao were never definitely a part of the Moro territory. The regions of Dapitan and Surigao were occupied by the Spaniards as early as 1600, and no serious effort was made to dislodge them.

In Zamboanga there was established at an early date a powerful pirate town which controlled the territory on both sides of the peninsula for a distance of one hundred miles.

With the formation of the Sultanate of Mindanao in the latter part of the seventeenth century, all of these districts were loosely gathered under a common seat of authority to make up the group known as the Maguindanao Moros.

The second center of Mohammedan population was found on the island of Basilan. It was ruled over in ancient times by the King of Taguima, who commanded a force of 5,000 armed Moros. Basilan contains an area of about 600 square miles and the population was distributed very sparsely through fifty Moro villages. From earliest times this island was a hotbed of bandits and pirates, and it was not until early in the twentieth century that American arms made it safe for travel. The island remained unknown in its entirety until Father Cavelleria sailed around it and mapped the coast in the year 1893.

The third and most interesting of the divisions of the Moro country are the islands of the Sulu Archipelago. This territory is made up of some 300 scattered islands, many of which are barely more than a coral reef. It was here that the main seat of the Moro power was located.

Upon the main island of Jolo was found the town of the same name, which became the object of countless assaults in the succeeding three centuries. The town of Jolo was the residence of the Sultan of Sulu and the hereditary capital of the Sulu Moros. Its embattled existence is detailed elsewhere in this volume.

The Moros had developed a higher stage of centralized government in Sulu than existed upon the island of Mindanao. Here in Sulu, a Sultanate existed since the middle of the fifteenth century. The coming of Spain found the sixth Sultan on the throne of Sulu.

Following the formation of the Sultanate of Mindanao two centuries later, the Moros divided into two strong states, each ostensibly in support of the other but actually operating more or less independently. The Sultan of Sulu was, however, the highest political and religious authority in the islands and its seldom his influence failed to make itself impressed upon all the Moros in matters relating to the Koran.

Although not strictly included within the territory of the Moros, the island of Palawan requires brief mention. The great island, lying to the northwest of the Sulu group, was controlled vaguely by the Sultan of Sulu. In actuality, it was a "no-man's land" for both the Moros and the Spaniards. The island was in the center of a deadly malarial zone and it required very little protection. The Spanish posts established at Puerta Princesa and on Balabac Island at the tip of Palawan suffered terribly from fever and lack of food.

Palawan was largely ignored by the Moros. It was a long sail across rough waters in a region of dangerous coral reefs and no campaigns of any importance were carried on either in its defense or its conquest. Palawan today s a forgotten territory of the Philippines. It is isolated and almost totally undeveloped.

It can be seen from this brief description that Moroland was a comparatively small area, not appreciably larger than the single island of Luzon in the north.

What the Spaniards failed to consider was the existence of ideal conditions for a successful defense. Here was an empire of a small coral islands, widely separated and thinly populated. Its cities were temporary residences of nipa and bamboo. They could be taken by assault and burned with the utmost ease, but they could as easily be rebuilt.

The fierce fighting men of the region were nomadic. If repulsed at one point they drifted down the coast to establish another village of nipa and bamboo. The constant shifting of population made them an elusive foe. The burning of a town meant nothing. The walls and ceiling of the nipa houses very quickly became filled with scorpions and centipedes and as a result, even under conditions of peace, the were abandoned by the Moros after a few years. The burning of the towns by the Spaniards was, indeed, often a relief, for it provided an excuse to move down the coast and build another town with new, insect-free houses.

The whole archipelago was before the Moros. Their sailing ships were moored to their doorstep. The removal of a village was accomplished with less formality than that accompanying the removal of an American family across the street.

With these preliminary remarks on the territory of the Moros, we turn to the beginnings of the futile struggles of Spain to establish a foothold in this country of islands.

Filipiniana Reprint Series © 1985 Cacho Hermanos, Inc.

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