The middle of the year 1907 brought into the conflict the entry of the most famous of all of the bandits of Sulu. Jikiri, a Samal pirate, began operations which brought him to the attention of the American army during a bloody career which lasted for about two years.

Jikiri was born on the small island of Pata, south of Jolo, the son of Tantari, a Samal fisherman, and Layhia, a Moro woman of blue blood. Layhia's breeding reflected in the outlaw's appearance, for he has been described as being tall, broad-shouldered and having a hooked nose, denoting Arabian blood. It was a physical defect, however, that turned Jikiri to a life of banditry. IIn spite of an otherwise striking appearance, the Samal was marred by the possession of mis-matched eyes. One eye was considerably larger than the other and the constant ridicule he received as a youth caused Jikiri to seek fame with the kris.

As he told Jammang, one of his trusted lieutenants of the later pirate days, "The strength of my kris arm will comfort the women who now shun me."

Jikiri began his career as a betel-nut bearer for the Sultan. The rough krismen of the Royal Guard soon made his disfigurement a matter for banter, and Jikiri sought the solitude of the jungle. There he gathered about him the original seven men who formed the nucleus of what was to be the most formidable pirate gang of Sulu. With these seven men, Jammang, Bara, Sariol, Damang, Pintasan, Elali and Wadji, Jikiri launched into a campaign of banditry and murder.

On the night of November 1, 1907, a Chinese trader named Tao Tila left Jolo in a vinta with a cargo of merchandise and two Moro companions. Off the coast of Lumapid, a swift sailing vinta overhauled them in the darkness and one of the Moros in the Chinese boat heard the strangers say in the Sulu tongue, "Kill them."

This Moro leaped into the sea and swam ashore to be the only witness to the attack. The moment he had left the boat the pirate vinta came alongside the trader, and the remaining occupants of the Chinese boat were stricken with a kris before they could rise from their seats.

Jikiri now took his band to Sibago Island where the outlaws decked themselves in the loot taken from the Chinese boat and laid plans for a raid on Basilan Island.

The pirate chief attempted to enlist other Moros for the raid on the logging camp at Kopuga, telling the Sibago islanders that it would be easy to catch the Americans off guard and loot the camp of much booty. The Moros of Sibago remaining unimpressed, Jikiri set sail with his seven men for the camp at Kopuga.

Arriving at the camp at two o'clock in the afternoon on Christmas Eve, 1907, Jikiri sent two of his men to reconnoiter. The two Moros went down into the camp and found the place deserted of laborers; the woodcutters had been paid off and had gone to the village to celebrate. In the camp, the Moros found a native foreman, a Moro woman, the two loggers, Case and Verment, and Mrs. Case and her mother-in-law.

The two Moros from Jikiri's party approached Case and asked to buy one of his vintas. Case refusing to sell any of his boats the Moros immediately left the camp, while the logger turned back into his house.

At five o'clock in the afternoon, the raid began. Mrs. Case was called into the company store by a Moro asking for cigarettes. As she turned to the shelves to reach for the purchase she heard Verment scream. Looking through the window, she saw the logger go down under the blows of two Moros.

At the same moment, the Moro in the store leaped for her. The high counter was in the way and before the Moro could cut the woman down, she managed to escape through the window and make her way to the shelter of a Yakan village a few miles away.

While Verment was bring struck down near the store, two other Moros attacked Case as he walked in the back yard. His head was severed at a stroke and rolled under a corner of the house, from which place it was later recovered by the Constabulary. The wife of the dead Verment received a ghastly cut which ripped her back from the shoulder to the hip.

The bandits looted the camp before they left. The victims of this brutal attack were carried to Zamboanga in a sailing vinta by seven Yakan sailors. The wind failed and the trip required twelve terrible hours before Mrs. Verment reached the hospital at Zamboanga where she soon succumbed. General Bliss sent Constabulary soldiers under Lieutenant Shutan to Kopuga, but they returned with no other information than that the attack had been conducted by an outlaw gang.

Jikiri now returned with his blood-thirsty crew to Sibago, where he talked freely and became a village hero. With a part of the proceeds of the raid on Kopuga, he purchased a Remington rifle from the widow of an old pirate. Then, with considerable sagacity, he dispersed his gang to await developments. A rendezvous was established for Patian Island and here the crew met fate in January to lay plans for the future, Jikiri's position on Patian becoming known to the authorities, Captain Newbold was detailed with a force of 200 men to capture the pirate.

But Jikiri went into hiding near Lumapid and evaded the search of the American troops. For three months he skulked in the swamps near Jolo, occasionally venturing forth for a minor raid.

At last he came to grips with troops of the 6th Cavalry. In this skirmish, Jikiri used his new Remington rifle to advantage, wounding Trooper Ferguson in the left thigh and making good his escape.

Private Albeit L. Burleigh, detailed as a school teacher at Maybun, was the third white man to fall a victim to Jikiri. Emerging from the swamp on a new campaign of terror, Jikiri waylaid Burleigh on the lonely trail between Maybun and Jolo and cut the American to pieces with a kris.

By August, 1908, the unpunished depredations of Jikiri had grown so severe that the Mindanao Herald of Zamboanga was impeded to publish the following statement:

"Jikiri has evaded the authorities so long that the Moros are beginning to entertain a great respect for his prowess, and unless he is accounted for soon, he will be the cause of serious disorder."

The Moro leaders now entered into the affair in an attempt to aid the American forces. Hadji Butu, the Prime Minister of the Sultan, made every effort to round up the outlaw with krismen from the Sultan's own guard.

Jikiri's force had now grown to formidable proportions, and he was credited with at least forty murders. With a well-armed force of more than one hundred men, the outlaw now entered into an ambitious career of piracy on the high seas.

At eleven o'clock at night on August 22, a Japanese diver in charge of a pearling lugger at anchor off Tonquil Island, heard the approach of vintas and came on deck to investigate.

As he came from the hold of the lugger, a rifle shot from the darkness dropped him dead in his tracks. Almost instantly, the pirates swarmed over the sides of the pearler. Four more of the crew were put to the kris while the cook and one other badly wounded sailor escaped by swimming ashore.

Loot consisting of a half-ton of pearl shell and provisions of all description was loaded into the four pirate praos and the buccaneers sailed off into the night, leaving five dead men on the deck of the abandoned lugger.

The American government now rose up, thoroughly in arms. Rewards totalling 4000 pesos were offered for the capture, dead or alive, of Jikiri.

The bandit replied by sending word that he would run juramentado in the streets of Jolo on September first. "But not before 1 have cut down the hundred men I have sworn to kill."

Triple guards were placed in the army post at Jolo in anticipation of this threat, but Jikiri apparently failed to attain his quota for the appearance was not made on schedule.

A Moro boy delivered another mocking letter from Jikiri in which he warned the garrison to maintain their triple guards as he would strike without warning.

The Mindanao Herald commented: "It seems incredible that this man could run a course of murder for a year, killing right and left, with no way found to catch him. Jikiri, in one year, has won more glory of the sort such men seek, than most Moros look for in a long lifetime."

The Sultan of Sulu now detailed all of his headmen to hunt for Jikiri as the Moros themselves believed that the pirate would be safer dead.

The American government assigned Captain DC Witt to the permanent detail of running down the outlaw. De Witt operated with a small force with the hope of catching Jikiri off guard. This American officer spoke the Joloano dialect fluently, and he was an excellent "under cover" man to carry on the type of campaign necessary to round up the elusive criminal.

Jikiri, finding the pearling luggers so demoralized that they remained in port, now apparently turned his attention to Borneo. Captain De Witt, locating a portion of Jikiri's band near Parang in Jolo, called upon them to surrender and was answered by a volley of rifle fire. The ensuing battle resulted in the death of four of the pirates, but it was learned that Jikiri himself had gone to Borneo.

Subsequent reports from Borneo confirmed this belief. The British government reported that Joloano Moros were terrorizing the inhabitants of North Borneo, looting small towns and killing the people.

A field force of the British Constabulary captured three of the bandits and placed them under the guard of three soldiers in a vinta which was taken in tow by a steam launch. The Captain of the launch heard a cry aft in the vinta and hastened to the stern of the launch in time to see one of the Moros seize a kris and lop off the head of a guard. Instantly, the two remaining guards and the two prisoners leaped over the side of the vinta into the water.

The Moro with the kris made no attempt to escape after killing the guard. Instead, he seized the tow rope and began pulling the vinta alongside the steam launch. The Captain fired three shots into the Moro, who fell across the stern of the launch but rose immediately to pursue the officer across the deck. Then the Captain fired three more shots into the Moro, again dropping him to the deck, but he again came to his feet and continued the pursuit.

After absorbing six shots from a heavy caliber British army pistol, the Moro was still full of fight and the terrified Captain was stalked on the deck of his own vessel.

The British officer, having emptied his pistol, now turned to run for a rifle but the Moro caught him, to deliver a terrible blow on the side of the head which knocked the Captain senseless into the engine room.

The pirate then moved forward to decapitate the helpless officer when his attention was attracted to the Chinese engineer. While he was hacking the engineer into small pieces, the Captain recovered consciousness and fired five rifle bullets into the Moro, finally dropping him dead on the deck.

The other outlaws escaped into the bush and eventually made their way hack to Jolo to rejoin Jikiri's band.

In January, 1909, Jikiri began what was to be his last year of life with an attack upon four pearling luggers near Jolo.

Seeing the approach of the pirate vessels, two of the luggers managed to get up sail and escape. The other two, the Ida and the Nancy, were attacked at long range by rifle fire from the four pirate praos. The pearlers put up a good resistance but eventually the Ida ran out of ammunition, after which the crew jumped overboard and swam ashore where they watched the looting of the vessel.

The Nancy, in the meantime, had maintained a destructive fire upon the pirates, causing the death of several of Jikiri's men. A simultaneous assault upon the Nancy soon silenced the defender's fire and four of the crew of the pearler went down in the last savage, shouting rush.

The next day, Captain De Wilt and Lieutenant Byram arrived at the scene of the piracy on the launch Atlanta,and found the Nancy gutted by fire. The pirates were still at work removing articles of value from the hull but they escaped after a fruitless chase on the part of the Atlanta.

The Nancy was fired by the Constabulary and towed to sea, where it sank off Lagason.

Jikiri now launched another attack on white men. At three o'clock in the morning of January 12, the bandit attacked the Constabulary barracks at Siasi in an attempt to secure ammunition. Twenty-two soldiers were on duty at the post when the barracks was suddenly fired upon by men concealed in the jungle.

Jikiri himself did not land, remaining some yards from land in a boat from which he directed the operations. The outlaw stood erect in his boat with his face shielded with a white cloth.

More than 600 shots were fired into the fort before the pirates gave up the attempt and withdrew. After the engagement, an American planter, M. H, Holmes, was found dead with six bullet wounds. The pirates left four dead on the beach to testify to the accuracy of the soldier's fire.

Following this unsuccessful engagement, Jikiri sailed eighty-five miles down the coast and three days later he attacked the town of Tubig-Indangan on Simunul Island. This town was famous as the original landing place in 1380 of Makdum, the first Mohammedan missionary.

The day following this attack, Tubig-Indangan was visited by a patrol under Lieutenant Hasemyer, who found the bodies of two white traders.

Cornell, one of the victims, was found dead in his bed. His partner, an Englishman named Wolf, was found on the beach. Cornell had been mutilated and Wolf was found cut into thirty-two pieces.

Jikiri by now had established himself as the most terrible menace in the Sulu Islands. He was hunted alike by Moros and Americans. Krismen of the Sultan diligently scoured the jungle, working in complete harmony with the American forces in an effort to eliminate this outlaw who violated all tenets of the Mohammedan fighting code.

Shortly after the murders of Cornell and Wolf, Lieutenant Peake had a spirited encounter with the pirates. In company with Hadji Usman, Peake's command of Constabulary soldiers encountered a strange sapit, which was boarded for investigation.

Believing the crew to be members of Jikiri's band, Peake decided to take them to Bongao for identification. The nine suspects in the sapit made no resistance until the boat drew near the shore in the shallow water near Bongao. Then, with a terrible cry, they made a break for liberty.

The boat became overturned in the melee and one of the pirates, seizing a pistol, shot Peake in the leg. Floundering in the shallow water with the pirates swarming over them, Hadji Usman and Lieutenant Peake gave the freebooters a lesson in pistol practice. Usman killed two of the pirates and Lieutenant Peake coolly dropped the remaining seven.

Jikiri's losses were now becoming serious. More than thirty of his men had been destroyed in a period of a few weeks. Friendly Moros trailed the bandits through the jungle, picking off a man now and then from the screen of thick bush. The outlaw himself continued to bear a charmed life.

In April, 1909, the British government in Borneo, weary at the activity of the pirate in their waters, sent a large band of Borneo Moros after Jikiri.

This band of Moros, entering American territory on the Island of Jolo, met a group of men, whom they stopped to demand if they had any news of Jikiri. The leader of the men accosted conversed politely with the Borneo Moros, stating that he had not seen Jikiri. Suddenly, he raised his hand as a signal to his men. The Borneo Moros were fallen upon and overwhelmed in a moment.

Jikiri, for it was he, then ordered the Borneo Moros to be bound securely with bejuco fibre. The fettered Moros were then lined up and Jikiri addressed them: "Borneo brethren, you see before you, he whom you would secure for the reward the Americans have offered. You shall be returned to the British who sent you as a warning that Jikiri is not to be taken."

The pirates then drew knives and severed the ears and fingers of the unfortunate Borneo Moros, who were then given liberty and ordered to proceed to their homes.

Jikiri next gave the Americans a bad moment by sending word that he would attack the Asturias barracks at Jolo with a large force. "The fighting shall not cease until every member of the garrison is dead or until all of my men fall, unable to longer bear a kris."

This attack also failed to materialize, for we next hear of Jikiri bobbing up near Lake Seit, where he fought a bitter engagement with forces under Captain Rhodes. Five outlaws were killed but Jikiri again escaped to reappear on Pata Island against Captain Byram. Captain Signor and his gunboats collaborated with Byram in this battle with the result that five more of the outlaw band were eliminated.

But Jikiri's day of reckoning was approaching rapidly. On June 30,1909, he was discovered to be at Maybun, and thither hastened Captain Byram with a force of two troops of cavalry. Jikiri learned of the approach of the squadron and retired to the small island of Patian, ten miles from Jolo.

Without doubt Jikiri could have escaped the troops again, as he had done so many times in the past, but he appears to have grown tired of life and to have decided upon a last, spectacular stand.

With eight men he took refuge in a large cave within a volcanic crater. To reach this cave it was necessary to climb the mountain and hike along the rim of the crater to its highest point and then down a steep slope.

American troops, consisting of cavalry, infantry, mountain guns and quick-firers, closed in for the kill. In the cave with Jikiri were several women and to them the American forces gave the opportunity to leave. All but two at the women took advantage of the offer. Jikiri's wife and one other woman said they would stay and die with the pirates.

For two days and nights, the mountain guns and riflemen poured a volley into the cave.

On the morning of July 4, it was decided that nothing could have lived in the face of that terrible fire. Through the smote and dust, the American troops began the advance on the mouth of the cave. The mountain guns held their fire to support the bayonets of the soldiers.

Closer and closer the troops advanced to the mouth of the cave.

When they had reached within fifty yards of the entrance, there was a horrible yell and out from the smoke came the nine Moros, Jikiri at their head. In a moment the pirates were upon the soldiers, cutting a crimson trail with their terrible, upraised krises.

Jikiri caught Lieutenant Wilson of the 6th Cavalry by the hair and was about to decapitate him when Lieutenant Bear rushed in and blew off the top of the outlaw's head with a charge of buck-shot. The kris blow was deflected and Wilson's head was saved, but he received a terrible wound.

Eyes were gouged out, men were severed in twain and heads rolled in the rock crevices in that terrible moment before the pirates were annihilated. Bear himself killed four of the Moros with the deadly charges of the sawed-off shot gun.

A few grim moments, and the battle was over. Nine Moros with krises had crossed in the face of that terrible fire to kill three soldiers and seriously wound nineteen. Jikiri was dead, but at what a price!

Original publication © 1936 E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc.

Filipiniana Reprint Series © 1985 Cacho Hermanos, Inc.

This page (HTML format)© 2001 Bakbakan International. Transcription courtesy of Ashley Bass.