Note 28 — Chapter XXXII

These hostilities broke out in 1752, and for several years scourged the unfortunate Visayans. Concepción records many of these attacks in considerable detail (Hist. de Philipinas, xiii, pp. 5–36); the missions of the Recollects, as also those of the Jesuits in Mindanao (except those under the shelter of the fort at Zamboanga) were the frontier outposts most exposed to the pirates, and it is these missions that Concepción chiefly mentions. The fort at Iligan, Mindanao, was besieged by two thousand Moros for two months; but a Spanish fleet was sent from Cebú, which obliged the enemy to raise the siege, after a great loss of men. This defense was conducted by the Jesuit in charge there, Father José Ducós, whose father had been an officer in the Spanish army; and this same priest rendered valiant service in other Moro raids in that region. Tagoloan and Yponan, in the province of Cagayan, Mindanao were besieged by the Moros; but the mountain Indians were called down to their aid by the Jesuit missionaries, and compelled the enemy to retreat. In Caraga, Surigao was attacked, and the Christian inhabitants, with their two Recollect missionaries, were compelled to take flight and seek refuge in the mountains; they were hunted there for weeks by the enemy—one of the priests being finally captured and taken to Lanao—all this time, enduring terrible hardships and suffering, which caused the other (Fray Roque de Santa Monica) to become hopelessly insane; he was afterward brought to Manila, but died there in a demented condition. “The district of Surigao, rich through its famous gold-mines, and now in most wretched condition,” was devastated and ruined. The enemy did the same in the island of Siargao, where the Recollect missionary, Fray Joseph de la Virgen de el Niño Perdido, was slain while endeavoring to lead his followers against the pirates. Nearly all the population—of Surigao, more than 2,000 souls; of Siargao, more than 1,600—were either slain or carried away captive. The district of Butuan was laid waste and some two hundred captives seized; the little military post at Linao, up the river, alone escaped, mainly through the difficulty of ascending the stream. The Moros attacked the island of Camiguin, which was so bravely defended by its natives that the pirates were repulsed—especially by “one of the villages, which consisted of people of Moro origin from the Lake of Malanao, from which they had withdrawn on account of domestic dissensions, and settled in this island. They are of excellent disposition, very good Christians, courageous, and have an irreconcilable hatred for those enemies.” Here they were led by their Recollect priest, Fray Marcelinc de el Espiritu Santo, “a robust native of La Mancha,” who with them fought so valiantly that the enemy could not make a landing. Romblon had so good a fort that it could repel the foe; Ticao was so poorly defended that the people, with their missionary, Fray Manuel de Santa Cathalina, could only take to flight—the priest being afterward captured, and finally ransomed for eight hundred pesos. In several places the missionaries were either slain or captured by the pirates; and these raids were extended, the boldness of the enemy increasing, even to the coasts of Luzón, in Batangas and Zambales. The government took what precautions it could, but these amounted to little save in the vicinity of Manila, Cebú, and Zamboanga; military and naval forces, and supplies of all sorts, were deficient, and there was much official apathy and corruption. ↑