Note 14 — Moro Pirates and their Raids in the Seventeenth Century

The governor [i.e., Manuel de León, in 1674] commanded Juan Canosa Raguses, a skilful builder of lateen-rigged vessels, to construct two galleys; these sailed very straight and light, and did good service in frightening away the Camucones, pilfering and troublesome pirates, who in most years infested the Pintados Islands with pillaging and seizure of captives. These are a barbarous, cruel, and cowardly people, and they cannot have one of these traits without the others. They inhabit a chain of small islands, which extend from Paragua to Borney; some of them are Mahometans and others heathens. They have done much harm to the islands of Bisayas, which they ravaged quite at their ease—so much so that in the year 1672 they carried away the alcalde-mayor, Don José de San Miguel, as we have mentioned elsewhere. They have a great advantage in the extreme swiftness of their vessels, which enables them to find their defense in flight. Their confidence and boldness went so far that they ventured to infest the coasts of Manila. The provincial, Fray José Duque, while going to visit the convents in the islands of Pintados, came very near being captured with his companion, Fray Alvaro de Benavente; for they were attacked by a squadron of these pirates near the island of Marinduque, where they would have been a prey to Moro cruelty, if they had not been favored by the divine kindness. [This acted] through the agency of Captain Francisco Ponce, a veteran soldier, who killed the captain and another of the pirates; and also of a sudden wind, which gave wings to the champan for placing itself in safety. With the building of these galleys the Camucones were inspired with such terror that for many years they did not venture to sally out for their usual raids, so much in safety as before. The first time, Sargento-mayor Pedro Lozano went out to scour the seas through which the Camucones might come to make their raids. In the following year, Captain Don José de Novoa went out—a brave Galician, the encomendero of Gapang—and as commander of the second galley Captain Simón de Torres, an able soldier from Maluco; and they scoured the coasts of Mindanao, committing some acts of hostility, their sole object therein being to cause more terror than harm. And thus it was, that with the fear which those piratical tribes had conceived of the galleys neither Joloans, Mindanaos, nor Camucones dared, so long as these lasted, to commit their former ravages. The same thing occurs whenever there are galleys, even though they do not go out to sea and are shut up in the port of Cavite. It is therefore very expedient to keep vessels of this sort, in order to be free from the invasions of those pirates. In view of this, Governor Don Domingo de Zabálburu built two other galleys, which was the cause of the Joloans, Mindanaos, and Camucones remaining, throughout his term of office, within their own boundaries, although they had been in previous years, as we have seen, a continual plague to these islands. (Diaz, Conquistas, p. 711.)14