The insolence of the Sooloo men has at various times drawn down on
them the wrath of the Spanish authorities, who, in 1848, and also
shortly after I left Manilla, towards the end of 1850, were making
arrangements for punishing them, as they afterwards did, with some
severity, about the beginning of this year.
The Datos, and their families, are like the old Danes, or Norsemen,
born to be seamen; and the barbarous state of their native country
preventing the establishment of a mercantile marine, their energies
have marked out a scheme of warlike adventure on the sea, to succeed
in which their natural quickness and duplicity of character eminently
qualify them.
A young Sooloo chief, whose ambitious or restless temper will not
permit him to remain an idle man at home, where his passions for
cruelty and voluptuous excess could scarcely fail to ruin him in
a few years--surrounded as he is there by slavish dependents, and
fearless of any higher power, whose authority might act as a check
on his temper, or force him to control his passions--finds that the
activity of his mind and body demand more scope for excitement than
exists at home; and having a bias for the sea, he becomes a pirate
chief, and scours the neighbouring waters in search of honour as well
as gain. Under proper influences these men might be taught to divert
their roving propensities into more peaceful channels. Fitting out
large and fast-sailing proas, manned by their slaves, and officered
by kinsmen, their warlike excursions take a wide range, and on some
occasions their audacity has led them up even to the Bay of Manilla,
landing on the shores of which, they have plundered the people,
and carried off some of them to increase the number of their slaves,
who constitute their principal wealth and power--daring to do this
when so near as to be almost under the very walls of the capital,
on which waves the banner of Castile.
On the coasts of the provinces these predatory inroads were not
uncommon, till General Claveria, in the beginning of 1848, determined
to punish them severely, and to intimidate them so signally, as to
prevent any repetition of these offences. Accordingly, having secretly
fitted out an expedition from Manilla on the 13th February, 1848, the
steamer on board of which the Governor himself was, anchored between
the islands of Parol and Balanguinguy. Next day the transports arrived,
and on that and the following day they reconnoitred the islands,
and did all the damage they could, by way of reprisal, demolishing
several piers, and destroying a large quantity of paddy which they
discovered concealed in a cave in a retired place.
At daybreak, on the 16th February, the troops were disembarked before
Balanguinguy under cover of a fire from the ships, and after a little
resistance from the Sooloo men--who were excessively frightened by
the appearance of the steamers, whose facility of movement they were
quite unprepared for--the fort, consisting of bamboo, was taken by
escalade after a brave resistance. The attacking force, consisting
of about 4000 men, behaved with great coolness and decision, when
exposed to the enemy's fire and missiles of all sorts, such as arrows,
javelins, &c. About eighty of the defenders of the place were slain,
many of them with the desperate bravery--or ferocity if you will--of
men who neither would give or accept of quarter, having first stabbed
their wives, children, and useless old men and women. On seeing
the success of the Spaniards, they formed themselves into a band,
nearly all of whom perished on the points of the soldiers' bayonets,
fighting bravely to the last; when the few survivors, seeing their
companions dead and dying around them, with all the desperation of
pirates, threw themselves from the walls, which were lofty, preferring
certain death to the chance of falling into the hands of their enemies
alive. Fourteen pieces of artillery were found within the place,
which was destroyed, and preparations were made and acted upon for
attacking the forts of Sipac and Sungap, both of which were successful.
The Governor, General Claveria, gained at the time a good deal
of reputation from his soldierly management of the forces at his
disposal; and when the news reached Spain, he was created the _Conde_
of Manilla, &c.
On his return from this expedition, a great deal of absurd parade
was, as is usual with the Spaniards, prepared to welcome him; and the
General was forced to march under triumphal arches, &c., all of them
bearing the most glowing inscriptions to the conqueror of the three
bamboo forts from a race of barbarians, most of whom were unprovided
with better arms than bows and arrows, spears, &c.; for although they
had some small cannon, they could not make a proper use of them. Truly
it was a pity to see the good deeds of the Balanguinguy expedition
burlesqued by these ridiculous pageants.
The lesson then taught the Sooloo chiefs did not, however, linger long
in their memories; for their old habits of piracy, and kidnapping
people for slaves, were resumed almost so soon as the Spaniards
returned to Manilla.
In 1850, Don Antonio de Urbistondo, Marques de la Solana, came out to
Manilla as Governor of the Philippines. He was a man whose whole life
had been passed in the camp, but his reputation had been gained during
the civil wars in Spain, where he fought for legitimacy by the side of
Don Carlos against the present queen. Nor did he give up the cause in
which he had drawn his sword, until Don Carlos himself lost heart and
forsook it, after which Don Antonio took advantage of the clemency of
the queen, and swore allegiance to her as his sovereign. His talents
as a soldier, although they had been displayed against herself,
were rewarded by a marquisate, and afterwards by the government of
the Philippines. A person of his character and military education was,
of course, a most unlikely one tamely to permit an insult to be offered
to the Spanish flag, or an outrage to be perpetrated in the Philippines
by the Sooloomen; accordingly, when an instance occurred near the end
of last year, prompt satisfaction was immediately demanded from the
Sultan and Datos, who, as usual, accused some of their neighbours,
with whom they were at variance at the time, of being the authors of
it; and invited the Spaniards to seek reparation from them sword in
hand. Accordingly an expedition was fitted out, and, with the Governor
at its head, sailed for Sooloo in order to awe them, by the alacrity
and force which the occasion at once called forth, and to establish
a new treaty which would prevent the recurrence of such acts, and the
necessity for such expeditions; and it was proposed to punish with no
light hand those Tonquiles and others of the Samales whom the Sultan
had accused as the perpetrators of the late aggression.
However, on reaching the principal fort of the Sultan Mahomet Pulalon,
he found that the Sooloomen would have no communication with him,
and that they even threatened the envoys sent among them; and at last,
some guns were, I believe, fired on one of the ships. Immediately after
this, measures of retaliation were arranged, and were acted upon at
once; the place off which the fleet was, being attacked and taken,
and all the forts and villages in the neighbourhood burnt within
forty-eight hours after the Spanish flag had been insulted. After
this severe lesson the Sultan and Datos fled, leaving in the hands of
the Spaniards eight bamboo forts and one hundred and thirty pieces of
artillery, besides several other warlike stores. All this took place
very recently, no longer ago than on the last day of February of this
year (1851). General Urbistondo published to his troops a general
complimentary order, dated from the fortified residence of one of
the most powerful Datos; and on the 1st of March the Spaniards were
in possession of the principal fort of the Sultan. The particulars
of this expedition I cannot give, having left Manilla shortly before
the preparations for it began, although, I believe, it consisted of
three war-steamers and some transports, who carried about 4000 men
down to Sooloo.
The loss of the Spaniards in the whole affair was 34 men killed,
with 84 wounded. A very unpleasant circumstance to the army was
connected with this expedition. Two field-officers, both of them acting
lieutenant-colonels of separate regiments, showed the white feather
at the moment of danger; for which, I believe, they have since been
cashiered, and not shot, as they might have been, had their chief
not been as merciful as he is brave.
Although this chastisement to the Sooloo men has been severe, it is
unlikely to restrain the chiefs from their predatory expeditions, at
least for any length of time; as under the present state of things
prevailing among them, they have no other objects to exhaust their
idleness and energetic characters upon, than piratical adventure. But
were commerce and its emoluments displayed before them, from some
place in the vicinity of Zamboanga, or from that place itself, the
civilizing influence which the arts of peace always engender would so
pervade their minds in a very few years, that their habits would be
changed, and the blessings of education, religion, and peace, might
be expected to civilize and elevate their minds. Their energies and
seamanship would then be in requisition as the navigators of all
the Archipelago, and to carry in their native vessels the produce
of the fertile inland districts of Mindanao, and of Northern Borneo,
to the great mart which Zamboanga would become, should it fortunately
be made an open port of trade for the people of all nations.