The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803; explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commericial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the beginning of the nineteenth century; [Vol. 1, no. 48]

175I-1765] EVENTS IN FILIPINAS, I739-62

i63

desolation everywhere. Nothing was heard of save
plundering, the burning of villages, the seizing of
vessels, captivities, and [other] acts of violence,
which the Moros committed in our territories88-so
88 These hostilities broke out in 1752, and for several years
scourged the unfortunate Visayans. Concepcion 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 Concepci6n chiefly mentions.
The fort at Iligan, Mindanao, was besieged by two thousand
Moros for two months; but a Spanish fleet was sent from Cebu,
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 Jose Ducos, 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 Niflo 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,