Note 1 — THE GOVERNMENT AND DEATH OF BUSTAMANTE

Zúñiga says (Hist. de Philipinas, pp. 443–445) that the Moros of Joló and Mindanao, although their rulers were nominally at peace with the Spaniards, had frequently ravaged the islands, the sultans pretending that they could not restrain their subjects; Bustamante accordingly decided to rebuild the fortress at Zamboanga, but when he laid this plan before the junta of treasury officials they refused it by a vote of ten against seven—on the ground that the fort was of no service against the Moros, and would cause extraordinary expense. “As a matter of fact, the entire situado of that military post amounts, in supplies and money, to about 25,000 pesos, which only serves to enrich the governor, who is sent from Manila every three years. Against the majority of votes in the junta the governor gave orders to reëstablish the post, exasperating people’s minds, and giving occasion to the malcontents to exaggerate his despotism. The Recollect fathers, who had returned to the province of Calamianes because the secular priests—whom the bishop of Zebú had stationed there when the Recollects abandoned it—could not maintain themselves there on account of the Moros, erected with the money of their province some little forts, hardly deserving that name, which did not shelter many places in those islands from the pirates; and they requested the governor to establish a post in the island of Paragua, at Labo, hoping that thus they would be freed from those annoying enemies. The governor consented to this, and established a post [there] at much less cost than that of Zamboanga, but equally useless.” ↑