RARALIO, XYLA CASSANDRA YASMEEN NICOLE P.

BSN 1-E
Readings in Philippine History

The 1977 archeological site opened the truth of how early Filipinos already knew how to build
their own boat or ship, to create their own design that would be suited for a tough ship to be used for
legal purposes. One of these purposes is the rising trend within the natives – slave raiding. Slave raiding
is when the raiders would burn the houses within the town, cut a hole through the captives’ palms, and
run a rope through the said hole to connect all the captives in a one pile.

These raiders came from the tribes of Bulangingi, Illanun, and Taosug from both the Sulu and
Maguidanao Sultanate. And their main religion is Islam. Islamization reached the Southern Philippines
back in 1318 and started to spread northwards. But, in the 16 th century where the Spaniards took over
the Philippines from the Northern part, Christianity was then started to also spread southwards.
However, these tribes made sure that Christianity was eliminated. This was one of the primary reasons
of their attempt to take over the Fort Del Pilar, a 10-meter high wall that surrounded the geographical
land of Zamboanga City.

But, before that, these raiders, composed of approximately 3000 people, took over the town
that surrounded the fortress first, doing their trend of capturing the people and boring holes through
their palms for the rope to pass through. It was also for this event that the Spaniards wanted to
eliminate slave raiding. However, their ships manipulated by only flags could never reach the manual
rowing of 30 people the slave raiders’ ships. This event was called the 1720 attack of the Maguidanao
King Dalasi. However, it was unsuccessful because the Spaniards called for backup from England. Thus,
the appearance of steamships which are manipulated by steam who are much faster than the manual
rowing. This ended the war between the Spaniards and the slave raiders.

In my point of view, I would describe the slave raiders’ attempt to eliminate the Spaniards as a
form of freedom to act on what’s against them. This statement shall agree on the Taosug’s descendant
Halman Abubakar who still holds the swords that was used for the unforgettable war.