The History of Sulu Part 8

Before Ferdinand I left Manila, he had addressed a letter to the sultan of Mindanao, at the instance of the Spanish Governor-General. The original was written by Ferdinand I in Moro; a version in Spanish was dictated by him, and both were signed by him. These doc.u.ments reached the governor of Zamboanga, but he had the original in Moro retranslated and found that it did not at all agree with the sultan's Spanish rendering. The translation of the Moro text runs thus:

"I shall be glad to know that the Sultan Mohammed Amirud Din and all his chiefs, male and female, are well. I do not write a lengthy letter, as I intended, because I simply wish to give you to understand, in case the sultan or his chiefs and others should feel aggrieved at my writing this letter in this manner, that I do so under pressure, being under foreign dominion, and I am compelled to obey whatever they tell me to do, and I have to say what they tell me to say. Thus the governor has ordered me to write to you in our style and language; therefore, do not understand that I am writing you on my own behalf, but because I am ordered to do so, and I have nothing more to add. Written in the year 1164 in the month Rabi'-ul Akir. Ferdinand I, King of Sulu, who seals with his own seal."

This letter was p.r.o.nounced treasonable. Impressed with, or feigning this idea, Governor Zacharias saw real or imaginary indications of a design on the part of the sultan to throw off the foreign yoke at the first opportunity. [190]

After the landing of Datu Asin and his followers at Zamboanga, the governor found out by his spies that they had many arms and quant.i.ties of ammunition in their boats which lay in the roadstead opposite the town and fort. Suspicious and distrustful from the beginning, Zacharias interpreted these facts as positive proof of an intention on the part of the sultan and Datu Asin treacherously to attack the town when an opportunity offered itself. He then at once confiscated part of the arms, ordered the boats to leave the port, imprisoned the sultan and Datu Asin and all their retinue, and communicated his suspicions and the action taken to Manila. Among the prisoners were the sons and daughters of the sultan, several datus and dignitaries and panditas, and many male and female followers and servants. In all 217 persons entered the prisons of the fort, most of whom were later transferred to Manila and confined in Fort Santiago.

Zacharias's interpretation of the action of the sultan and Datu Asin was simply absurd and his behavior reflected considerable discredit on his ability as an officer and administrator. It was further most regrettable that his views were accepted as true by higher authority in Manila where no clemency or redress was extended to the unfortunate sultan and datus.

By a degree of the Governor-General, the following accusations were set forth against the sultan and Datu Asin, viz:

1. That Prince Asin had not surrendered captives; 2. That whilst the sultan was in Manila, new captives were made by the party who expelled him from the throne; 3. That the number of arms brought to Zamboanga by Sulu chiefs was excessive; 4. That the letter to Sultan Mohammed Amirud Din insinuated help wanted against the Spaniards; 5. That several Mohammedan, but no Christian books, were found in the sultan's baggage; 6. That during the journey to Zamboanga he had refused to pray in Christian form; 7. That he had only attended ma.s.s twice; 8. That he had celebrated Mohammedan rites, sacrificing a goat, and had given evidence in a hundred ways of being a Mohammedan; 9. That his conversation generally denoted a want of attachment to the Spaniards, and a contempt for their treatment of him in Manila, [191] and, 10. That he still cohabited with his concubines.

The greatest stress was laid on the recovery of the captive Christians, and the governor added, that although the mission of the fleet was to restore the sultan to the throne (which, by the way, he does not appear to have attempted), the princ.i.p.al object was the rescue of Christian slaves. He therefore proposed that the liberty of the imprisoned n.o.bles and chiefs should be bartered at the rate of 500 Christian slaves for each one of the chiefs and n.o.bles, and the balance of the captives for Prince Asin and the clergy. [192]

It is not therefore surprising to hear of the extraordinarily revengeful activity which the Sulus exhibited during the period of humiliation to which their sultan and n.o.bles were subjected in Manila.

Bantilan was a man of strong personality, a warrior, and a leader. The expeditions which he organized against his enemies were unusually strong and left havoc everywhere. The towns he pillaged and the captives he carried away alarmed the Spanish Government to a high degree. A high council of war was convened in Manila in 1752, which declared for an unmerciful campaign and a war of extermination to be conducted with the utmost conceivable cruelty. Volunteers and Bisayan corsairs were called to aid the regular troops. Unlimited authority was granted them to annihilate the foe, burn his villages, destroy his crops, and desolate his lands. The corsairs were exempted from all taxes. They were allowed to keep or sell all female captives and all males under 12 and over 30 years of age. Old men and crippled persons were to be killed. Male captives between 12 and 30 years of age were to be turned in to the government; the captors to receive in compensation from P4 to P6 per man. Nursing children were ordered to be baptized. At first the corsairs were required to turn in to the government one-fifth of all valuables looted, but this was soon afterwards revoked and all corsairs who equipped themselves retained all their booty.

As part of the general campaign, Field Marshal Abad made another attack on Jolo with a force amounting to 1,900 men. The fleet cannonaded the forts for seventy-two continuous hours. A division of the troops landed and engaged the Sulus, but after suffering considerable loss retreated disastrously.

The raids of the Spaniards and Bisayans helped to increase the vigilance of the Sulus and excited them to extreme cruelty and an abnormal degree of revenge. [193]

The year 1753 is stated to have been the bloodiest in the history of Moro piracy. No part of the Bisayas escaped ravaging in this year, while the Camarines, Batangas, and Albay suffered equally with the rest. The conduct of the pirates was more than ordinarily cruel. Priests were slain, towns wholly destroyed, and thousands of captives carried south into Moro slavery. The condition of the Islands at the end of this year was probably the most deplorable in their history. [194]

In the meantime Prince Asin died of grief in his prison.

Early in 1753 Alimud Din pet.i.tioned the governor to allow Princess Fatimah to go to Jolo for the purpose of arranging a peace with Bantilan. This request was granted on condition that she deliver 50 slaves to the Spanish Government on her arrival at Jolo. This she complied with faithfully, adding one Spanish captive to the 50 Christian slaves wanted. Her mission was apparently successful and she returned to Manila with Datu Mohammed Ismael and Datu Maharaja-Layla, a commission sent by Bantilan. They brought a letter from Bantilan, which was transmitted to the governor by Alimud Din together with a draft of a treaty for the restoration of peace between Spain and Sulu. Bantilan expressed deep regret for Alimud Din and the existing condition of hostility and gave strong a.s.surance of his desire for the return of the sultan and the reestablishment of peace with Spain.

The governor acceded to the pet.i.tion of the sultan and sent a letter to Bantilan with the commission, requesting that all hostilities stop for the period of one year pending the consideration and completion of the new treaty. In 1754 Governor Arandia a.s.sumed command and approved of the proposed treaty. To expedite matters he sent the commanding officer of the southern forces to find out what had been done by Bantilan toward the fulfilment of the conditions agreed upon. Bantilan met the commanding officer in a most friendly manner and discussed the questions frankly and ably. He explained in clear and impressive manner the princ.i.p.al causes of hostility and strongly blamed the governor of Zamboanga for his unjust imprisonment of the sultan and Datu Asin and his unbearable treatment of the messengers and representatives of the Sulu authorities. He declared his wish and true desire for peace and delivered to the commanding officer 68 Christian captives and two Spanish sloops. The officer was strongly impressed with the integrity of Bantilan and with the honesty of his intentions, and gave to the governor a very favorable report of both Alimud Din and Bantilan. He a.s.sured him that the sultan was not a traitor at all, but a man of good intentions, who was simply unable to carry out some of his plans and promises because of the determined resistance of many of the princ.i.p.al datus.

A general council was held in Manila early in 1755, in which it was resolved to set the sultan free and return him to Jolo if the Sulu authorities carried out the terms of the following conditions:

1. That all captives within the sultanate of Sulu be delivered within one year.

2. That all valuable property and ornaments looted from the churches be returned within one year.

General Zacharias who had attended the council set out from Manila in September to take charge of the government of Mindanao. He brought back to Jolo 6 princes, 5 princesses, 20 women, and 130 men of the sultan's retinue. He had letters from Alimud Din and the Governor-General to Bantilan and was authorized to conduct the preliminaries of a peace treaty. Other amba.s.sadors who accompanied Zacharias were empowered to ratify the same. The s.h.i.+ps arrived at Jolo on October 4, and the amba.s.sadors were well received by Bantilan. The latter agreed to all the conditions imposed in as far as it was in his power to carry them out. But he stated that many captives were bought from Mindanao chiefs and were owned by datus on Basilan and other inaccessible places, who were unwilling to give them up unless they were justly compensated. He added that many such datus were in alliance with datus in Mindanao and were planning to attack Zamboanga, and that the time was very inopportune for him to force them to deliver all captives.

The terms were actually impossible of execution and the endeavor to make the treaty and ratify it proved fruitless.

Alimud Din remained in prison until 1763, when the English, after their conquest and occupation of Manila, reinstated him on the throne of Sulu. During the period of his imprisonment he felt greatly humiliated, but lived as a Christian and with one wife only. At the death of his wife, in 1755, he was allowed to marry a Sulu woman who had been his concubine, but who had professed Christianity and was living at the College of Santa Potenciana.

The Sulus received their former sultan with a good heart and Alimud Din resumed his former authority as Sultan of Sulu. The people had evidently acquired strong sympathy for him and Bantilan had either undergone a change of heart or felt convinced that it was of no avail to go against such strong popular sentiment and fight the English forces. Withdrawing from Jolo he moved to Kuta Gubang near Parang, where, a few years later, he died.

In return for the favors which he received from the English, Alimud Din ceded to them that part of North Borneo lying between Cape Inarstang and the River Frimanis with the adjacent Island of Balambangan and the Island of Tulayan. Balambangan was soon after that occupied and garrisoned by English forces.

In the later days of his reign, Alimud Din was addressed as Amirul Mu'minin (The Prince of the Faithful) by which name he is better known to the Sulus. Moro incursions increased at that time and the Sulus became so daring as to invade the Bay of Manila in 1769, carry away captives from the wharves of the city, and appear at the Plaza del Palacio at retreat before they were repulsed or even detected. Becoming old and weak, Amirul Mu'minin abdicated the sultanate in favor of his son Israel, in November, 1773.

REIGN OF SULTAN ISRAEL

Sultan Israel followed the same progressive policy which characterized his father's administration. However, his succession was contested by rivals, and the people were not unanimous in his support. In his foreign relations with the English and Spaniards he was at the beginning uncertain as to the side toward which to lean. Both powers had an eye on Sulu and appeared interested in its affairs. However, before long he refused the request of the English to be allowed to move their factory from Balambangan to Tandu-dayang, in the neighborhood of Jolo, and exchanged messages of friends.h.i.+p with King Carlos III, who congratulated Israel on his succession to the sultanate and thanked him for his action relative to the removal of the Balambangan factory to Sulu Island. [195] The early education Israel received in Manila, together with the consideration with which the Spanish authorities treated him at that time, helped to win his sympathies to the Spanish side and to form a sort of an alliance between Sulu and Spain against Great Britain. Such an alliance was further needed to strengthen his hand in Sulu, for the purpose of checking any insurrection that might be fomented by rival datus or unfriendly chiefs. The Spaniards promised to help him in his endeavors to organize an army and a navy; and, he on his part, agreed to open the ports of Sulu for free commerce with the Philippine Islands. He further asked the Spanish Government for capital to work his mines, promising to pay back one-fifth of the output.

In 1774 and 1776, Jolo was visited by Captain Thomas Forrest, who in his "Voyage to New Guinea" described the town and country as he saw them. His account is so interesting and so clear that the following extracts [196] are quoted therefrom:

They have a great variety of fine tropical fruits; the oranges are fully as good as those of China. They have also a variety of the fruit called jack, or nangka, durians, a kind of large custard apple named madang, mangos, mangustines * * *. The Sulus having great connection with China, and many Chineses being settled amongst them, they have learned the art of ingrafting and improving their fruits * * *.

The capital town is called Baw.a.n.g, [197] situated by the seacoast, on the northwest part of the island, and containing about 6,000 inhabitants. Many of them were Ilanun * * *.

This island * * * is well cultivated, affording a fine prospect from the sea, on every side far superior to that of Malay countries in general * * *.

Here are wild elephants, the offspring, doubtless, of those sent in former days, from the continent of India [198] as presents to the kings of Sulu. Those animals avoid meeting with horned cattle, though they are not shy of horses. After harvest the Sulus hunt the elephants and wild hog, endeavoring to destroy them * * *.

Sulu has spotted deer, abundance of goats, and black cattle.

The pearl fishery * * * proves also to the Sulus the cause of their consequence amongst their neighbors, as being a nursery for seamen, ready to man a fleet of praus upon an emergency * * *.

The praus [boats] of the Sulus are very neatly built, from 6 to 40 tons burden, sail well, and are all fitted with the tripod mast. [199] * * *

The arts are in greater forwardness here than at Mindanao. * * *

In the common market is also a copper currency, a convenience much wanted at Mindanao, where, as has been said, the market currency is rice.

The Sulus have in their families many Bisayan, some Spanish slaves, whom they purchase from the Ilanun and Magindanao cruisers. Sometimes they purchase whole cargoes, which they carry to Pa.s.sir, on Borneo, where, if the females are handsome, they are bought up for the Batavia market. The masters sometimes use their slaves cruelly, a.s.suming the power of life and death over them. Many are put to death for trifling offenses, and their bodies left above the ground. An attempt of elopement is here seldom pardoned, or indeed at Magindanao. Yet, the distance being so small from either Sulu or Slangan, [200] to the Spanish settlement, I have wondered how any stay, as they are not closely confined.

The Bisayan slaves play often on the violin, and the Sulus are fond of European music. [201] I have seen the Sultan Israel, who was educated in Manila, and his niece, * * * dance a tolerable minuet. I have also seen the datus go down a country dance, but as they wore heavy slippers, they did it clumsily.

The Sulus are not only neat in their clothes, but dress gaily. The men go generally in white waistcoats, b.u.t.toned down to the wrist; with white breeches, sometimes strait, sometimes wide. * * *

Both s.e.xes are fond of gaming. * * *

In the cool of the evening, I had the pleasure of seeing the Sultan's niece and another princess. They wore waistcoats of fine muslin close fitted to their bodies; their necks to the upper part of the b.r.e.a.s.t.s being bare. From the waist downward they wore a loose robe, girt with an embroidered zone or belt about the middle, with a large clasp of gold, and a precious stone. This loose robe like a petticoat came over their drawers, and reached to the middle of the leg; the drawers of fine muslin reaching to the ankle. They rode across with very short stirrups, and wore their hair clubbed atop, Chinese fas.h.i.+on. They often put sweet oils on their hair which give it a gloss. The ladies sat their horses remarkably well; and this is an exercise women of fas.h.i.+on indulge all over the island.

"The Island Sulu is far from being large; but its situation between Mindanao and Borneo makes it the mart of all the Moorish kingdoms. I do not find that the Portuguese ever pretended to settle, much less to conquer these islands; but they visited them frequently for the sake of trade; and in those days, there was greater commerce in these parts than can well be imagined. For, while the trade was open to j.a.pan, there came from thence two or three s.h.i.+ps laden with silver, amber, silks, chests, cabinets, and other curiosities made of sweet-scented woods, with vast quant.i.ties of silks, quilts, and earthenware, from China. For these the merchants of Golconda exchanged their diamonds, those of Ceylon their rubies, topazes, and sapphires; from Java and Sumatra came pepper, and spices from the Moluccas." (Harris'

History of the Portuguese Empire, p. 685.)

About fifteen datus * * * make the greater part of the legislature. * * * They sit in council with the Sultan. The sultan has two votes in this a.s.sembly, and each datu has one. The heir apparent, * * * if he side with the sultan, has two votes; but, if against him, only one. There are two representatives of the people, called mantiris, like the military tribunes of the Romans. The common people of Sulu * * * enjoy much real freedom, owing to the above representation.

The state of Sulu is small, * * * containing scarce above 60,000 inhabitants; yet are these powerful, and have under them, not only most of the islands that compose that Archipelago, but a great part of Borneo, some of which they have granted to the English. They have the character of being treacherous, and of endeavoring always to supply by fraud what they can not effect by force. * * *

Only seven years have elapsed since the Sultan of Kulan * *

* on the northeast of Borneo, was at war with the Sultan of Buru, on the same coast. One of them applied to the Sulus for a.s.sistance. The datus Alimud Din and Nukila went; and watching their opportunity, attacked both the sultans, plundered them, and carried them with their wives, children, and many of their headmen to Sulu. They were sometime after sent back, on condition that they should become tributary, which they are at this day.