CAPITULO III.

Government of Bravo de Acuña.—Government of the governor to Visayas. —

Excursions of the Moorish pirates. —Their depredations. —Captain
Gaspar Pérez comes out against them. —His little activity. —Peril of
Acuña. —He finds Pérez and orders him to pursue the pirates. —This
one manages to destroy some of their ships. —Brilliant weaponry made
by Captain Travelo. —Various expeditions against Mindanao, Joló and
Basilan. —Süonga Embassy. —Governor's proposals. —Buhisan's
demands. —Buhayen's new envoy. —Piocura Acuña delay the matter
on the occasion of his expedition to the Moluccas. Command of D. Juan
de Silva. —Captain Vega's departure to Visayas and Caraga in pursuit
of Moors. —Dutch hostilities against the Philippines. —The Malay-
Mohammedans try to ally themselves with them. — Victory of Captain
Flores over a Joloan armadilla. Maritime forces from Cebu and Cavite
come out against these pirates. New depredations of the Joloanos—
They destroy the shipyards of Cavite and Camarines.

In May 1602, D. Pedro Bravo de Acuña, knight of the habit of San Juan,
and governor who had been of Cartagena de Indios, took charge of the superior
command of the Philippines.
Acuña, desirous of curbing the audacity of the pirates, went out in person
to visit the Presidio'; from Pintados, going to the province of Iloilo, so punished
by the Moors. He took with him 100 Spanish soldiers and some brave captains,
in a galley and five frigates, leaving in order, upon his departure from the
Visayas, the construction of a fortress in Iloilo and another in the town of
Arévalo.
 IN MINDANAO, JOLO AND BORNEO 149

The Moors, proud of their triumphs, armed 48 large caracoas and many other
small boats on the coasts of Mindanao, with whose squadron they went out to
pirate, inflicting untold damage everywhere, personally directed by the Moorish
ruler. Buhisan. A ship that was going from Cebu to Manila fell into their power,
and on it they captured a Spanish woman, 10 Spanish men and the captain D.
Martín de Mendía. In Dulac they arrested their missionary, Fr. Melchor Hurtado,
who remained captive in Mindanao for about a year. In Calibaya, a town located
125 kilometers from Manila, they burned the convent and church of the
Franciscan fathers, and they almost arrested the religious of said order, Br.
Pedro Matías, recently elected provincial, who was currently making his first
visit. (1). They took many captives, seizing all valuable objects in the Indios'
homes, and even taking the church bells. They immediately went to Balayan;
but, rejected from that point, they moved to Mindoro, distant 33 miles from that
place and 60 from Manila. They burned the town; they caused many deaths;
they looted the church and arrested Canon Corral, who accidentally carried out
the administration of that priesthood, captivating multitudes of people of all
sexes and ages. Captain Mendía offered The Moors were given a large ransom
for the main captives if they allowed him to go to Manila. They agreed to this
under certain conditions, but as soon as he arrived in Manila, the interim
governor, D. Antonio de Rivero, ordered the captain to leave. Gaspar Pérez,
mayor of Balayan, in search of the pirates, but did not verify it with the
necessary brevity

(1) ` This religious was later bishop (le Camarines

150 HISTORY OF PIRACY

and when he arrived in Mindoro, the pirates had left a week ago, loaded with
spoils, continuing in their pursuit, although without hurrying. The Moors entered
an unpopulated island to make firewood and water.
The governor general, upon his return from the Visayas, passed very
close to this island, with serious risk of being captured if the Moors had
discovered him and attacked him, because he had forces much inferior to
theirs. By an Indio ship that was fleeing from the pirates, he learned that the
Moors were on the aforementioned island, and when he found Captain Pérez,
who was returning to Manila, he ordered him to continue the pursuit of the
Mindanaos, giving him some people, to that he knew where they were.
When the pirates' sentinels saw the enemy, they abandoned their
refuge, throwing some effects and even slaves into the sea, to flee more
quickly. Due to the heaviness of the Spanish ships, this captain was only able
to catch up with several caracoas of those, with whom he fought a short battle,
in which many Mindanaos died, sinking five of their ships and capturing two of
them, but he did not give chase. to the others and returned to the capital.
The available forces were insufficient for the effective pursuit of the
Moors, for which reason Captain Travelo's request to arm 50 Spaniards and
100 Indios at his expense was granted without difficulty. With these people he
went to Marapon, where the pirates were dividing the loot, and managed to kill
about 200, capturing 90.
Despite such repeated expeditions against Mindanao, Joló and Basilan,
in which they suffered the pirates lost their ships, but this did not mean that
 IN MINDANAO, JOLO AND BORNEO 151

to keep them at bay, nor to avoid the horrible evils that they caused to the towns
of the provinces belonging to Spain, since their inhabitants, terrified, fled to the
mountains when they heard of the proximity of the pirates, despite the efforts
of the pirates. friars, who gave their parishioners the example of resistance,
being the first to take up arms, the only way for the Indios to overcome the
terrible panic that the Moors inspired in them
Silonga, fearful of the reprisals of the Spanish, due to the piracy carried
out, sent one of his main dignitaries in the company of Ensign Cristóbal Gómez
Miño, his captive, to negotiate an agreement of peace and friendship with the
government of the Philippines. Acuña was not unaware of the fallacy of the
Malay-Mohammedans; but he hid it, and entertaining the envoy, he sent him off
with letters for the ruler of Buhayen. He received the ambassadors with great
fanfare, showing great pleasure at being given the governor general's
documents. Acuña, in his letter, told Silonga to maintain his territory for Spain,
without offending the people of the island or the others in the government of
Castile, and accepted the friendship and submission to the King offered by the
Moors. He warned them to lay down their arms, to abstain from further wars,
and to exchange their Christian captives for the Moorish prisoners who rowed
in the Spanish galleys, advising Silonga to dismiss the indigenous people of
Ternate and to help him with his people and ships. in the conquest of the
Moluccas; All of these claims were perfectly unrealizable, because in addition
to not being practical, the Moors thought of everything except fulfilling them.
Buhisan demanded for the rescue of Father Hurtado
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falconete that he lost in the previous contests, and that he had in great esteem,
or that failing that he would be paid 400 taels of gold. He kept four Spaniards
hostage, going to Manila, Father Hurtado, Ensign Gómez and some Visayan
captives, together with a brother of the prince of Talayan, called Nalungman,
bearer of the chalices and ornaments that the pirates had taken in the churches
of the looted towns, and two gifts, one for the governor general and the other
for the archbishop.
Acuña was extremely concerned with the preparations for his expedition
to the Moluccas, and wishing to gain time and entertain the Moors, he
commissioned Father Hurtado to return to his captivity, as an ambassador and
with new letters, as he did in April. from 1605. The missionary father remained
among the Moors, very well cared for by Silonga, until Acuña returned victorious
from Moluccas and that religious finally achieved his freedom.
In April of 1609, Mr. D. Juan de Silva, knight of the habit of Santiago and
distinguished officer of the Tercios of Flanders, took possession of the high
position of governor general of the Philippines, from where he took five
companies of bizarre soldiers to Manila.
As a man skilled in the fights of war, from the first moments he devoted
preferential attention to the repression of piracy, not specific in his time to the
Malayo-Mohammedans, but aggravated by the presence in those seas of Dutch
privateers
By order of Silva, Captain D. Juan de la Vega set out with 18 caracoas,
three frigates and other smaller vessels to tour the provinces of Iloilo, Cebu and
Leyte, in order to drive away the pirates from their coasts in.
 IN MINDANAO, JOLO AND BORNEO 153

Mindanao. He then moved on to Caraga, whose natives had also been

bothering the provinces of Visayas with their pirate excursions. He subdued
those warlike Indios, and, to keep them at bay, he had the fortress of Tanda
built, which still exists, where he left cannons and a garrison of soldiers (1609).
In September 1616, the Dutch admiral J. Spielberg, with ten large ships,
bombarded Iloilo, being rejected, upon verifying the landing, by the heroic
governor of the province D. Diego de Quiñones, who made them reembark with
loss of 87 dead and 100 wounded.
Under the protection of the Dutch, and requested by them, a squadron
of 24 canoes manned by Joloans went to the O side. Captain Lázaro Flores,
who went out to meet them by order of Quiñones, found them at Punta Potol,
dispersed the Moors, foundering 6 canoes and rescuing 40 captives.
Another army left Cebu: it surprised 8 pirate caracoas in the Strait of
Tanhay, between that island and Negros. Two were destroyed, and the rest fled
in a hurry, making it impossible to hunt them down.
Also from Cavite, to whose waters some ships from Joló and Mindanao
arrived in order to join the Dutch, two galleys left and the attempt failed, with
the loss of pirate vessels.
Taking advantage of the impunity in which they were left, due to the
Dutch distracting the maritime forces of the Archipelago, the Joloans
committed, around this time, untold depredations. In October of that year, their
audacity reached such a point that they set fire to the shipyards located in the
vicinity of Cavite, also destroying the Pantao shipyard in Camarines, despite
154 HISTORY OF PIRACY

be garrisoned and armed. They burned 3 ships and the workshop premises,
whose losses were valued at one million pesos; They killed the captains Arias
Girón and Juan Pimentel, and took many captives, including the Franciscan
religious Fr. Domingo de los Mártires and Fr. Alonso de la Soledad, whose
ransom earned them large sums.
As a result of such vandalism, the construction of a joangas armadilla
was ordered, stationing it in Iloilo.
IN MINDANAO, JOLO AND BORNEO 155