The first official gun of the Spanish conquest of Mindanao and Sulu was fired by Governor-General de Sande in 1578.

Never a laggard in matters concerning the spiritual, this worthy Governor determined to impress the Catholic religion upon the Mohammedans of Borneo and Sulu. There were other potent reasons influencing de Sande's decision to conduct this holy crusade. Straggling adventurers drifted into Manila from this terra incognita of the south, bringing reports of the rich pearl beds of Sulu policed by thousands of potential tribute-paying Mohammedans.

The conquest of the Philippines had been singularly unproductive of gold. In the pearly beds of Sulu, de Sande saw an opportunity to dim the luster of the golden trail left by Cortez. The crown in Madrid was impatient of this new country which lagged in its duty of filling the coffers of Castile.

The moment was propitious, for one of the endless inter-tribal wars of the Moros was in progress. Conditions in Borneo gave the Spaniards an excuse for armed intervention. The Sultan Sirela, ejected from the throne of Brunei, solicited aid from the Spaniards in his quest for a return to power.

With a fleet of forty ships manned by a force of several hundred Spanish soldiers and 1,500 Visayan auxiliaries, de Sande set out for Borneo. The expedition was a success in that the Spaniards defeated the forces which came against them. The city of Brunei was captured and burned, together with twenty-seven pirate ships; and more than one hundred brass cannons were taken.

But although the Moros were defeated in this first engagement they were far from subdued. A cordon was laid about the victorious Spanish force with the result that sickness and loss of food soon compelled the withdrawal of the troops of Spain. No conversion of the Mohammedans resulted, and the Moro as a payer of tribute still remianed a vague and pleasant possibility.

During the return voyage to Manila, de Sande dispatched a party under Figueroa, of whom we shall hear more later, to attack the Moros in Mindanao and Sulu. Figueroa arrived before the town of Jolo in June of the year 1578. The result of this expedition was the first capture of Jolo, the hereditary capital of the Mohammedans in Sulu. Figueroa made a surprise call on the city and finding most of the inhabitants away on a pirate cruise, was able to partially burn the rows of scattered nipa huts and retire.

The Te Deums sung in Manila upon the return of de Sande were rudely interrupted by the series of terrible raids which centered upon the northern islands. To avenge the burning of their capital, the Moros sent immediate retaliatory parties to the coasts of Luzon and the Visayas. These expeditions became more and more frequent, and terrible depredations were committed by the Moro pirates.

The Spanish veterans, fresh from the conquests of Mexico and Peru, and more recently from the easy victories in the northern islands, held the Moros in sight esteem in the sixteenth century. The rumblings of Legaspi were forgotten and Spain entered confidently into conflict with the infidels of the south.

The self-assurance with which the Spanish government sent a few hundred troops against thousands of determined native warriors remains one of the most astounding things in history. In general, the principle was successful. In a few cases it failed. It was this fanatical belief that the Toledo blade was invincible that cost the life of Magellan at Mactan. The Moros of Mindanao, singularly unappreciative of Spanish valor, proved to be of sterner breed than the Aztecs.

Spain still remained to be convinced that her arms would not prevail in Mindanao within a few years at most. The extra ordinary decree of King Philip of Spain indicates that the Spaniards anticipated no lengthy war in Mindanao.

After a suitable period of thought behind the walls of a monastery, King Phillip made known to his vassals in the Philippines the provisions of this remarkable and naïve Royal Decree.

With this royal carte blanche before them, the Spaniards took up anew the endeavor to bring the Moros into subjugation and to smash the slave markets of Sulu.

During the reign of Sultan Muhammed Halim Pangiram, Captain Figueroa made an expedition to southern Mindanao with instructions from Governor-General de Sande as follows:

During the subsequent expedition, Figueroa fought the Moros in Sulu and Mindanao in what turned out to be a mere raid of the country. If he had carried out the orders of Governor de Sande, the Moros would have been informed that the Spanish object was to convert them to Christianity. This interference with their religious beliefs paved the way for legitimate jihads⁶, or holy wars, as authorized by the tenets of the Koran.

Upon the return of Figueroa to Manila, the mosques burned by his party were rebuilt, and a powerful alliance between the potentates of Mindanao and Sulu developed to resist the desecration of the Mohammedan faith.

This alliance gave great stimulus to piracy. Corsairs went out under the full sanction of the Sultan and every port of the colony was ravished. Not a single peopled island was spared and whole villages were murdered or carried into captivity. For a period of more than four years, Spain was forced to suspend all tributes from the Christian subjects of the Visayan Islands who had been impoverished by the Moro raids.

The flood of piracy loosed by Figueroa's first campaign only encouraged the Spaniards to greater efforts. Whatever his other limitations, the conquistadore of the golden age of Spain was blessed with terrific confidence. These warrior-priests offer some of the strangest contrasts in history.

We have the spectacle of barefooted priests leading a frenzied attack on a Moro cotta, mercilessly putting the garrison to the sword with unbelievable tortures. In the middle of the fray we see these same priests laying down their swords to offer benedictions for the heathen their Toledo blades had cut down.

We find the same Missioners who tirelessly conducted a religious campaign which involved the tender ministrations of doctor, nurse and spiritual guide, calmly putting an ignorant house servant to the garrote for the theft of a crust of bread.

We see the priesthood substituting for the golden idols of the natives, an image of dark wood, with the comforting assurance "that God, as a benediction, has changed the golden color of the image to a brown color like them."

We find religious parades and the chanting of Te Deums in the morning followed by the slaughter of hundreds before the sun goes down. Truly the conquistadores were remarkable fanatics.

Knowing these things we cannot find it strange that history records Figueroa blandly proposing to Governor de Sande in 1596 the conquest of Mindanao under the following terms:

"Said Figueroa binds himself and promises to pacify and colonize the said island of Mindanao at his own expense, within a period of three years."

Picture if you can, this suave adventurer standing in the Governor's palace in Manila, swearing on his blade to subdue an area of 38,000 square miles peopled by the finest fighting men in the world. And all within a period of three short years!

There were certain strings attached to this offer of Figueroa. He offered his person and his means in exchange for the trifling consideration of the looting privilege (as Governor) for a period of ten years. It was an ambitious program and it is unfortunate (for Figueroa) that he was unable to survive to see its successful accomplishment.

With the keys to Mindanao in his pocket and his mind filled with visions of the fortune that is to be his, we see the Adelantado Esteban Rodriguez de Figueroa setting out for Mindanao in 1596 with three priests and a company of soldiers.

In May of that year he arrived at the mouth of the Rio Grande river in Cotobato, which he ascended as far as Buhayen into the territory of the Moro chieftain, Silongan. The forest was deceptively silent and the party effected a landing upon the beach without difficulty.

If Figueroa was haunted by the shadow of the gallant de Ribera who had passed that way in 1578, his subsequent activities do not make the fact evident.

The soldiers are lined upon the beach and the Adelantado addresses them: "Soldiers of Felipe, we stand upon the newest soil of Spain. To subdue this dark forest and rid the soil of the infidel Moslem is our aim. They shall submit as vassals and converts or fall before the Spanish blades. Forward to our duty for King and country."

The soldiers properly inspired, a reconnoitering party is sent out to survey the state of the resistance. After they have been gone a few moments, the Adelantando grows restless and, collecting a party of soldiers about him, he hastens into the woods after the scouting party.

A few hundred yards from the beach the party is assaulted, and Figueroa is cleaved almost in two by a kris in the hands of the younger brother of Silongan. The jungle is suddenly alive, and after a terrific battle, the Spaniards pick up their wounded leader and retire to the beach, where a barricade is raised against the Moros.

Six hours later, the Adelantado raises himself weakly from the hummock of reddened white sand and murmurs: "They have killed me."

Then there passes from his mind forever all thought of the conquest of Mindanao.

With the death of Figueroa, the survivors of the ambush flee to Manila and the colonization project comes to an abrupt ending.

Father Crevas, the Spanish historian, writing in 1860, looks back two hundred and fifty years to Figueroa and takes a somewhat more charitable view of the fiasco. The good father remarks:

Command of the retreat of the leaderless party of colonists was assumed by one Juan de la Jara, whose chief activity appears to have been an amorous pursuit of the charming widow of the Adelantado Esteban Rodriguez de Figueroa.

Filipiniana Reprint Series © 1985 Cacho Hermanos, Inc.

This publication (HTML format & original artwork) © 1997, 1998 Bakbakan International