The people of the Philippines, their religious progress and preparation for spiritual leadership in the Far East,

58 THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES

another, made in an attempt to conquer the chiefs of Moroland. The net result of these expeditions was to stir up a
hornets' nest and to unite the forces of the Moros as they
had never been combined before. In 1599, for example, fifty
vessels (caracaos) containing three thousand Moro soldiers
invaded Panay, burning houses, and murdering all the inhabitants they did not wish for slaves; and finally returned,
loaded with gold, foodstuffs, and eight hundred captives. So
lucrative did this expedition prove that the next year more
than seventy ships with over four thousand fighting men, from
all parts of Mindanao and Sulu, attacked the town of Arevalo.
This time they were repulsed without capturing much plunder,
but they immediately began preparations for further expeditions.1 In the year I616 a large fleet destroyed the town of
Pantao in Camarines, and then pushed up to the shipyards
in Cavite, which were reduced to ruins, while large sums were
exacted for the ransom of Spanish prisoners. Then Cebu,
Leyte, Negros, and Samar fell victims to annual raids of
Moro pirates sailing northward with the southwest monsoons. "From this time until the present day" (about the
year I8oo), writes Zufiiga, "these Moros have not ceased to
infest our colonies; innumerable are the Indians [Filipinos]
they have captured, the towns they have looted, the rancherias
they have destroyed, and the vessels they have taken. It
seems as if God has preserved them for vengeance on the
Spaniards, since we have not been able to subject them in
two hundred years, in spite of the expeditions sent against
them, the armaments sent almost every year to pursue them.
In a very little while we conquered nearly all the Islands of
the Philippines; but the little island of Sulu, a part of
Mindanao, and the other islands nearby, we have not been
able to subjugate to this day."
The Spaniards tried first one policy and then another in
an effort to put an end to these annual invasions. First they
thought they would give the hornets a rest and allow them
to settle down. The effect was redoubled activity on the part
"Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas," Dr. Antonio de Morga, Mexico, 1609, translated in Blair and Robertson XV, pp. I90-6.