The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 27 of 55, 1636-37

Volume 27 — Defeat of Moro Pirates

James Alexander Robertson translation

A relation of the battle with the fleet from Mindanao, and the victory of the Spanish, off the coast of that island and the cape known as Punta de Flechas, on the day of the blessed Saint Thomas the Apostle, December 21, 1636.

The Joloans, by the agreement which they made in the time of Captain Juan de Chaves through Father Vera and the queen (although it was in the interim government of Licentiate de Man^a), made raids against the Camucones, and, it is said, they have carried away more than six hundred [of those people] at one time. They have sold many [of these captives] in Sanboangan, and they are bringing a number of them here in a champan. Father Belin says that he has sometimes talked to the Joloans, asking them to give up the body of Father Vilancio. They answer that they would like to preserve it, because it is holy; and they say that it is uninjured. We are very glad [to hear this], although we do not mention it to those outside until we know about the matter with more certainty.

The father prior of the Recollects came the day before yesterday from Cagayan. He says that those who have come there from Mindanao say that Corralat is quite destitute [three words illegible]. The ruler of Buayen and his sons-in-law are making war upon him, in company with a brother of that Gogo whose execution Corralat had ordered, because he had corresponded with the Spaniards at Sanboangan. The peasants, and the people who dwell inland, are molesting him, and he scarcely trusts even his own men. He possesses no mounted cannon, and no arms in good condition. The Mindanao prisoners say that he has not even means enough to arm three good caracoas.

They write from Oton, that they are hourly expecting the lord governor, because he has written that he would leave Manila on January 26. He orders the pataches laden in Sanboangan to wait for him, and the galleon and galleys to sail.

Notes in this chapter

Note 1 · Montero y Vidal says (Hist. piratería, i, p. 162) that Tagal was a brother of Corralat.Note 2 · These religious were Fray Francisco de Jesús María, missionary in Cuyo; and Fray Juan de San Nicolás, and Fray Alonso de San Agustín, of Lin Note 3 · Gregorio Belin (or Belon) was born at Madrid, March 15, 1608 (probably; misprinted 1628 in Pastells’s and Retana’s Combés, col. 699); entere Note 4 · Punta de Flechas is the headland marking division between the great bays of Illana and Dumanquilas on the southern coast of Mindanao, and is Note 5 · See Combés’s account of this battle (Hist. Mindanao, cols. 234–238), and that of La Concepción (Hist. Philipinas, v, pp. 304–310). The latte Note 6 · This letter was probably written by Pedro Gutierrez, from Dapitan—of the Jesuit residence at which place he was rector in the preceding year Note 7 · Tagal, a chief of Mindanao,1 who was entitled Captain-general of Corralat on sea and land, had performed exploits in his service for many ye Note 8 · On the morning of St. Thomas’s day, Father Belin, at Sanboangan, felt such impulses to expose the most holy sacrament that he was almost una Note 9 · This victory has been of so much importance because it has terrified Mindanao and Jolo, and has been a strong incentive to the resumption of