Note 12 — Moro Pirates and their Raids in the Seventeenth Century

During the government of Don Juan de Vargas (1679), the sultan of Borneo sent an embassy to ask that mercantile dealings might be established with Filipinas; and Vargas in his turn sent another and a very distinguished one, headed by Sargento-mayor Don Juan Morales de Valenzuela. In 1701 occurred in the south of Filipinas an event as tragic as unusual. The sultan of Joló went to visit the ruler of Mindanao, for greater ostentation taking with him as escort a squadron composed of sixty-seven vessels. At sight of such a retinue the sultan of Mindanao, Cutay12 (the successor of the noted Corralat), feared that the other had designs that were not peaceable, and commanded that the mouth of the river should be closed; but the sultan of Joló, offended thereat, dared the other to a personal combat. This challenge was accepted, and the two sultans engaged in a hand-to-hand contest, so fierce that each slew the other; and immediately war was kindled between the two peoples. The Joloans, breaking down the stakes which closed the river, retired to their own island with many weapons and spoils. The new ruler of Mindanao asked aid from the governor of Manila, Don Domingo Zubálburu; but the latter advised that they should lay aside their dissensions, and for that purpose sent the Jesuit Father Antonio de Borja, who was able to attain his object. (Montero y Vidal, Hist. piratería, i, pp. 244–252. Cf. Combés, Hist. Mindanao, col. 610–640.)