During the time of Alimud Din the Spaniards forfeited all claim to sympathy in the conduct of their feud with the Moros. The Mohammedans of Mindanao and Sulu had indeed proved to be barbarians of the first order. They slaughtered thousands of people in a series of bloody raids, and the Datus made merry with the captive women in the harems of Sulu. But if the Moro was a barbarian, the Spaniard proved to be equally as barbarous.

The conquistadores of Spain were of a generation which fed on blood. The savage resistance of the Moros infuriated them and the Spaniards adopted a policy of merciless intimidation to bring the Mohammedans to their knees.

As the course of the Moro wars flowed against them, the Spaniards encouraged a privateer system to break the Moro resistance. These privateers, enlisted under the banner of Castile, were all encouraged to rape, slay and torture all Moros who fell into their clutches. The Spanish government gave "carte blanc" to depredations of the worst order.

A decree dated December 21, 1751, was signed by the Governor-General of Manila. It provided:

In order to encourage the privateers to a policy of extreme cruelty, the Royal fifth was eventually abolished, permitting the privateers to retain all of the loot.

Supported by this decree, great fleets of privateers sailed from the port of Manila to engage the Moros in the southern waters. The Moros met the fleets, steel on steel, and the privateers were defeated during the bloody year which followed. So great was the rage engendered among the Moros by this decree, that it was withdrawn after a period of severe Spanish defeats which rocked the stability of the government. Thereafter, the Moros remained absolute masters of the seas for a period of more than twenty years, with the Spaniards in retirement in the north, well satisfied to abandon the Mindanao campaigns.

The immediate results of the Spanish privateer decree had been to bring the Moros into close harmony within the tribal units. Bantilan incited all of the Moros to join him in a jihad against Spain and the krismen flocked to his banner.

There were no more engagements of magnitude with the Spaniards until the year 1777, and the peace which the Moro loathed settled over Mindanao and Sulu.

In 1775, the Moros, chafing under the failure of Spain to provide more kris fodder, turned their backs upon the defeated Spaniards and found a new antagonist in Sulu.

Following the capture of Manila in 1762, the British had established a base on one of the islands of the Sulu group. As the years passed, this British colony became a well-fortified post which resisted the best efforts of the Spaniards to dislodge them. Twenty years of severe reverses had virtually eliminated the Spanish as contenders in Mindanao and Sulu, but by 1775 the British had made themselves sufficiently obnoxious to require the attention of the Moros.

After a conference with the Sultan of Sulu, a grand assault on the British was proclaimed by Datu Tating. With joy the krismen flocked to his island rendezvous where preparations for the undertaking were in process.

All of Sulu became inflamed at the prospect of testing the kris on a new foeman. From the thousands of applicants, Tating selected 4,000 krismen.

A fleet of twenty Moro vessels, each carrying a hundred warriors and a hundred rowers, set sail for the British post. Tating's boats were ninety feet long and were well-armed with brass cannon.

In the dark hours of the morning, the Moro fleet was assembled on the opposite side of the island from the site of the British fort. Here the force was divided, 2,000 warriors proceeding overland to approach the fort from the land side. The remaining warriors then sailed boldly around the island to attack from the sea.

The men of the British garrison fought bravely, concentrating their forces on the fort walls in a position to repel the Moro attack from the sea. With fierce cries, the Moros beached their vessels and rushed to the attack. The fierce battle waged on the sea-walls of the fort required the full attention of the British and too late they found themselves fallen upon from the rear by 2,000 warriors who burst from the jungle.

Ina few moments the embattled fort was silent. Six men of the British garrison escaped to sail a fast vinta on the shores of North Borneo. The kris, at close quarters, accounted for all the rest.

From this post the Moros took booty amounting to a value of more $1,000,000, together with an enormous supply of materials of war. It was not until 1803 that the British returned to re-occupy the island and then for a short period only, pending their permanent withdrawal from Sulu in 1805.

Encouraged by the success of the attack upon the British fort, Tating now turned to a resumption of the attack upon Spain. The strong fortress at Zamboanga was attacked, but the stout walls proved impregnable and Tating was forced to withdraw after a desperate struggle with heavy losses. Krismen succeeded in penetrating the walls of the fortress, decapitating many of the Spanish garrison, but the numerous cannon of the fortress prevented the entrance of a sufficient body to command the fort.

Spain retaliated futilely with a punitive expedition to Jolo under Vargas which failed to effect a landing in the Moro capital.

The Moros now made a bid for a foothold in Spanish territory. The town of Mambarao on Mindoro Island was fortified in order to provide a prate haven close to the Spanish settlements. From this port, great pirate fleets went out to the coasts of Luzon. The Moros found this depot impossible to defend. It was too close to the Spanish capital and too far from the Moro base at Sulu. A squadron of the Royal Spanish navy drove the Moros from Mambarao.

In 1784 Aguilar organized the land and sea forces of Spain and waged a fierce if indecisive war against the Moros. During the period from 1778 to 1793, Spain spent more than 1,500,000 pesos in the pursuance of the war with the Moros. Spanish squadrons patrolled the seas to little avail. Spanish records show that during this period the Moros were completely masters of the sea, making an average of five hundred captives each year. To the Spanish armada was added thirty-six launches armed with cannon. Still the Moros raided the coasts. The war was carried on almost entirely in the north in the heart of the Spanish territory.

In 1763, Fort Pilar in Zamboanga was reconstructed and greatly strengthened. Six years later, the garrison sat within the walls and watched the return of a successful Moro raid on Manila which resulted in captives being taken from the wharves of the Spanish capital.

Ilo-Ilo was again attacked by the Moros and a colony of Portuguese traders exterminated. The towns of Baler, Casuguran and Palanan on the east coast of Luzon were plundered and 450 captives were carried back to Sulu. Among the captives were several Catholic priests finally ransomed by Spain for 2,500 pesos each.

A new pirate depot grew up on Burias Island within fifteen miles of the Spanish island of Luzon. In 1796 Admiral Alava was sent from Spain with a powerful fleet to combat the pirate raids. To celebrate the arrival of a worthy antagonist, the Moros again invaded Manila and we have the picture of swaggering krismen raiding the streets of the Spanish capital. The whole of the year 1798 witnessed attacks of great severity in eastern Luzon, and traffic between Luzon and Mindanao became virtually paralyzed.

The nineteenth century dawned to find krismen still raiding the streets of Manila. Could Figueroa in 1596 have looked forward two hundred and seventeen years he would have marveled at the sight of these jungle warriors. The men he promised to subdue within three years were walking the streets of Manila in 1813, still unconquered.

Across the Pacific, thirteen untied American colonies had grown strong enough to wage a second war with England. These colonies had already developed into the United States of America; within the century they were to take over the faltering sword of Spain and accomplish the downfall of the proud Moros.

But before the day of American intervention, there remained for Spain the hurdle of the 1800's. Alonso Morgado carried the torch in 1824 as Captain of the Marina Sutil. This force has been described in the chapter devoted to Sulu pirates. With a flotilla of these new vessels, the Moro pirate base at Pilas Island was attacked by the Spanish and destroyed. Fifty Moros were killed in the action. Morgado then carried his fleet to Ilana bay and Dumaquilas Bay, where other pirate vessels were burned.

The activities of Morgado at sea were supplemented by Spanish fort-building operations in Mindanao. The Moros had long been accustomed to avoid the rough sail around the peninsula at Zamboanga while engaged in pirate cruises to the Visayas. Sailing their garays to the south of Basilan Island, they entered Illana Bay, proceeding to its head to a point where Mindanao narrows to a bottle-neck fourteen miles across. Here the Moros disembarked and hauled their vessels across the portage to resume the sail to Manila. To circumvent this, the Spaniards had designed a fortress on Panguile Bay, forcing the pirates to resume the southern route past the frowning fortress at Zamboanga.

The pirate activity was further hampered by the construction of a strong fort at Isabela on Basilan Island. This station, facing the fort of Zamboanga only fifteen miles away, virtually closed the straits of Basilan to the pirate fleets. Basilan was also valuable in providing a convenient sally port for operations against the pirate citadel on Balanguingue Island. The fortress at Isabela, garrisoned by a force of eighty-six sailors, became the naval base for Spanish vessels in the south.

The middle of the nineteenth century found the isolated garrisons of Spain in a precarious position in Mindanao. The churches were built within the walls of the forts, as were all of the dwellings, and the entire population was confined closely to the ramparts. The Moros howled without and hurled taunts and missiles into the fort. There was no permanent settlement in all Sulu where the Spaniards would come and go freely without danger from the Mohammedans. The land warfare was purely defensive and Spain was hard pressed to maintain her defensive positions.

The futility of the Spanish arms is well indicated in the records preserved of one abortive expedition conducted against the Moros about the year 1846. During the course of this campaign the Spanish expenses amounted to 200,000 pesetas and the net result of the expedition appears to have been the death of seven Moros!

In 1840 we find the Moros turning to engage another antagonist. A French fleet blockaded the island of Basilan to punish Datu Usak for depredations against French vessels. French marines landed on Basilan and conducted a desultory campaign against the Moros, after which negotiations were opened for the purchase of the island. Nothing came of the matter and the French withdrew with Usak still at large.

In December of 1850, a strong expedition left Zamboanga for Jolo, but finding the town well garrisoned, no attack was made upon the Moro capital and the party returned to Zamboanga after destroying a few pirate boats on Tonquil Island.

Spanish prestige had been badly hurt and the Moros had at length retired sullenly to the coral islands of Sulu. In Mindanao, the Sultan effectively closed the entrance into the Cotobato Valley, leaving the Spaniards closely penned up within the few strong posts they maintained. It was a period of virtual stalemate, with both antagonists taking a breather in anticipation of another century of conflict.

The next few years ushered in a terrible period of juramentados and amuks. With the final occupation of Jolo in 1876 as a permanent Spanish post, juramentados ran daily in the town. The havoc created by these ritualists was so extensive that a chapter has been devoted to juramentados and amuks.

Filipiniana Reprint Series © 1985 Cacho Hermanos, Inc.

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