The Moro resistance in the Sulu Islands, deprived of the sanction of the Sultan, now developed into a terrible period of activity on the part of juramentados. The Americans were face to face with the same situation which had faced the Spaniards in the Sulu capital. With deadly regularity, juramentados swept the streets of Jolo with a kris.

A particularly revolting act of juramentado violence occurred in Jolo on April 16, 1911. Lieutenant Rodney of the 2nd Cavalry was attacked and killed while he was walking unarmed on the Jolo-Asturias road on a Sunday afternoon. As Lieutenant Rodney neared a cock-pit he met a Moro going in the opposite direction. As they passed each other the Moro whirled suddenly and struck the Lieutenant with a barong, killing him almost instantly. With the Lieutenant was his four-year-old daughter, who was unharmed. The Moro, Jamdain by name, was killed by the guard.

Three days later, Sergeant James Ferguson, in charge of the guard at Asturias blockhouse was attacked and killed by two Moros from Para Island who were in turn killed by the guard post. During this same period Lineman Wallace of the Signal Corps was killed at Malabang in Mindanao.

The death of these soldiers caused General Pershing to issue an order requiring all officers to carry arms at all times, and providing that soldiers were to travel constanty in groups of three.

During the year 1911 great numbers of juramentados appeared in all of the southern islands. Sergeant Michales of the 21st Infantry went down before the kris of a maddened Moro at Malabang. At Iligan, John W. Oyler and Bernard Vexecbose, who had a plantation near Camp Overton, were killed in the yard of their estate. In September of that year, on Basilan Islands, Ensign C. E. Hovey of the gunboat Pampangas was rushed during the course of a severe fight which cost the lives of five Americans. Ensign Hovey was carried to Zamboanga, dead from nineteen severe kris wounds.

The ferocity of these juramentado Moros was almost beyond belief, as was their capacity for destruction. On October 17, 1911, one Moro armed with a barong and a spear succeeded in passing the sentries of the 2nd Cavalry while they were in camp at Lake Seit Jolo. The camp became a scene of wild confusion as the Moro hurtled through the troop street slashing and stabbing with his weapons. Sergeant Oswald Homilius received a spear wound through the chest and died in fifteen minutes and four soldiers were severely wounded before the crazed Moro was shot down by Lieutenant Coppock.

The havoc wrought by the juramentados became such that it was decided to disarm the Moros. On September 8, 1911, Executive Order Number 24 became effective. The order provided for a complete disarmament of the Moros, as follows:

"The provisions of the act are hereby made applicable to all districts within the Moro Province. It is therefore declared to be unlawful for any person within the Moro Province to acquire, possess or have the custody of a rifle, musket, carbine, shot-gun, revolver, pistol or any other deadly weapon from which a bullet may be discharged, etc., or to carry, concealed or otherwise on his person, any bowie knife, dirk, dagger, kris, campilane, barong, spear or any other deadly cutting or thrusting weapon except tools used exclusively for working purposes and having a blade less than fifteen Inches in length, without permission from the Governor of the Province."

The attempted enforcement of this act brought a resumption of cotta warfare. In December, 1911, some 1500 Moros assembled again at Bud Dajo and fortified the mountain top. General Peshing, with fare diplomacy, induced many of the Moros to return to their homes. The remainder, led by a chieftain calkd Jailani, were killed or captured in a second battle of Bud Dajo, which lasted for five days.

Shortly after this battle, another serious cotta fight took place at Taglibi, where Captain McNally lost his life and Lieutenants Whitney and Cochran were seriously wounded.

In the region of Lake Seit, Jolo, a renegade Moro succeeded in penetrating the American camp of Captain John Watson on December 21. Sentinels had been posted but no wire protected the camp. At ten-thirty in the evening the Moro crept through the grass, killing Captain Watson and wounding Lieutenant Edmonds before he was shot by a soldier.

During the terrible period of recurring juramentado attacks from 1509 to 1913, the troops operated in small detachments in the interiors of all of the southern islands. The worst of the outlaws were rounded up in a series of bitter cotta fights against entrenched Moros, Lieutenants Tiffany, Tarbell and Preuss carried troops into Mindanao in the region of Cotobato. Lieutenants Gunn and Gilmore ventured into the Sarangani region against the Manobos. Lieutenant Youngblood carried the fight against the Moros near Lake Buluan.

Allan S. Fletcher, now a Captain, fought the outlaw band headed by Alamadas near Lanao. In a series of bush fights with Alamadas, Lieutenant Root was seriously wounded and Captain Fletcher received a gunshot wound in the arm. Captain Fort dropped the outlaw Kapal from the walls of a cotta on Lake Lanao.

All of the American fighting was in the open. Small parties penetrated into the very heart of the Moro country, carrying the war to the outlaws.

Not the least discouraging of the efforts against juramentados was carried on by Colonel Alexander Rodgers, Governor of Jolo. All Moros who ran juramentado were killed and laid out in the market place with slaughtered pigs placed above them. The Mohammedan abhors all contact with pork and the resulting contact of the dead juramentado with the pig neutralized the beneficial effects of the rite itself. Colonel Rodgers became known to the Moros as "The Pig," and juramentados took themselves hurriedly to other districts.

The juramentados on land were aided by the pirates who again took to the sea. By 1908, piracy had again assumed formidable proportions in Sulu. The Americans had supposed piracy to be a thing of the past and had withdrawn the gunboat patrols. The Samals soon took advantage of the lack of a patrol system in Sulu waters and there was a revival of lawlessness in the sea lanes of Jolo.

General Bliss summarized the situation in his annual report: "The Spanish government made no progress in the suppression of piracy but they did build and maintain a small fleet of gunboats for patrol purposes. These were maintained by the American government for a while but no serious outbreak occurred for two years and rise was given to the belief that the Moro had changed his nature."

The Joloano Moros were pirates and warriors by profession, and the spirit which had led them on past raids to the Visayan Islands remained unchanged. The Moro did not regard piracy as resistance to the government but considered it a legitimate source of income.

The view of General Bliss that piracy could be stopped by the return of the gunboats was supported by the government, and in February, 1909, the vessels Arrayat and Paraguay were returned to Sulu waters to resume their patrol service. The trouble with freebooters was soon eliminated and the troops were relieved to allow a continuance of the land campaigns without further interruptions from pirate raids.

By 1913 the Moro dissatisfaction had grown to such proportions that it became evident that a major battle was soon to be fought to establish definite American authority over Sulu. General Pershing had succeeded General Bliss as Governor of the Moro Province on November 28, 1909, and affairs rapidly came to a head in Jolo.

On February 28, 1913, General Pershing wrote to the Governor-General as follows:

"The nature of the Joloano Moro is such that he is not at all overawed or impressed by an overwhelming force. If he takes a notion to light, it is regardless of the number of men he thinks are to be brought against him. You cannot bluff him. There are already enough troops on the island of Jolo to smother the defiant element, but the conditions are such that if we attempt such a thing the loss of life among the innocent women and children would be very great. It is estimated that there are only about 300 arms altogether on the island of Jolo and that these are assembled oh the top of Mount Bagsak in fortified cottas. It is a common thing among these people to have women and children follow them into these cottas.... While I do not believe now, nor have I ever believed at any time, that the Moros who are now opposing us will yield without fight yet I am not prepared to rush in and attack them while they are surrounded by their women and children. I think that most of the women and children can be induced to return to their homes. The situation, as I stated at the beginning, is a difficult one... I fully appreciate your confidence in my ability to handle the situation and you may rest assured that my best efforts are being put forth to carry out the purpose of our undertaking—disarmament with as little disturbance and as little loss of life as possible."

In spite of the best efforts of this very splendid officer, no conciliation was possible and it became necessary to storm Bud Bagsak.

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.