Note 7 — Chapter IX · The Dutch and Moro Wars. 1600–1663.

The Jesuits were the missionaries on Ternate and Siao and wherever in the Moluccas and Celebes the Spanish and Portuguese had established their power. The Jesuits had accompanied the expedition of Rodriguez de Figueroa in 1595, and from that date they never ceased petitioning the government for a military occupation of these islands and for their own return, as the missionaries of these regions. The Jesuits were brilliant and able administrators. For men of their ambition, Mindanao, with its rich soil, attractive productions, and comparatively numerous populations, was a most enticing field for the establishment of such a theocratic commonwealth as the Jesuits had created and administered in America.7