the receipt of two
Royal orders dated the 23d of June of last year, which, with reference to
the treaties made with the Sultan of Sulu, have been transmitted by
your ministry; one replying to the seven communications marked "A"
which my predecessor made in connection with the same subject; the
other confidential, and indicating the policy and measures that should be
carried out with the said Sultan of Sulu and the Sultan of Mindanao.
In communication numbered 5, and dated November 16th last, in
compliance with one of the provisions of Royal order of last April, I
made a minute report accompanied by documentary evidence, of the
antecedents which I encountered relative to Sulu affairs, and at the same
time, could not but intimate in this connection how little I expected as
a result of our treaties, because experience had already caused me to be
suspicious, and also because the various Eoyal orders toward the close of
the past centur}^ confirmed me in this idea;^ and indeed the losses which
all our commercial expeditions experienced during the first year of these
treaties, the vexations they suffered and the risks to which the crews as
well as the vessels and their cargoes were exposed during their stay in
Jolo, have fully borne out this view.
Many are the measures and documents which we have here, in which
this same fact is laid down; many are the Royal decrees in which, in
recognition of this fact, the Governors of the Philippines have evert been
authorized, by every means in their power and without counting cost or
difficulty, to punish severely the intrepidity of those infidel barbarians.
In order to arouse and interest the Royal conscience on that point, it
was requisite that there should be repeatedly presented through various
channels and at distinct times substantiated accounts, non-conflicting and
extremely painful, of the various piracies, cruelties, and vexations, with
which those barbarians have kept the Philippine Islands in the south
in a state of fear and depression ; and needful also was it that there should
have been employed, in vain, on account of the religion and the policy
of our ancestors, those gentle measures of peace and union which no
civilized people could resist; but which are ineffectual with barbarous
nations who know no other right than that of force.
From the 14th of April, 1646, when we abandoned possession of Sulu,
which our arms had so gloriously conquered, making a treaty of peace
whereby the Sulus bound themselves to pay us annually, as tribute, three
boatloads of unhulled rice, until the day the Government again entered
into a treaty with them, neither have the Filipinos succeeded in freeing
themselves from their harassments, nor has the Government reaped any
fruit other than continual menace. The English have had tlie same ex-
perience with the perfidy and bad faith of those islanders. After having
formed, in the island of Balambangan by a concession made by the Sulus,
a settlement destined to be the emporium for tlie products of the East
in connection with their China trade, for which tliis island offers two
good ports, they were two years afterwards surprised by the Sulus them-
selves, who, knowing the English had despatched their vessels, took
advantage of their absence by taking possession of the island and the
fort constructed therein, also a great deal of booty, wliicli cost the Eng-
lish East India Company a loss of more than tliree Imndred thousand
dollars. In narrating this event, Mr. J. II. Moor, who published last
year a brief review of interesting events concerning the islands and lands
bordering on the China Sea, agrees with the views I have expressed,
namely, that these acts of treachery and cruelty on the part of the Sulus
are the offspring of their innate love of robbery and their natural perfidy.
All these facts then will convince your Excellency that the expectations
based by my acting predecessor upon the latest treaties referred to are
too sanguine. They would produce no illusions on my part, in view of
the experience of the past, neither does it seem to me that their results,
looked at with calmness and in the light of the most exact data, could be
of any great advantage to our commerce. Allowing that the treaties
should be religiously complied with, never would they be of any value,
in themselves, to improve the brutal condition of those islanders. This
condition will always constitute, not only for the Spaniards but also for
all civilized nations, a great drawback to mercantile relations, which,
although founded on principles of utility and mutual advantage, cannot
continue nor be developed except under the most favorable guaranties.
How would our merchants, or the foreign merchants of Sulu obtain
them, where there is neither good faith nor justice, and where cunning
fraud makes even the Chinese dangerous traders? Commerce is the
movement and circulation of wealth. The latter results from production, and production from the full and unrestricted utilization of prop
erty. Moreover, when property is insecure, when the laws do not protect
it, when the agents of the Government are the first to disregad it, the
mercantile spirit is the first to become alarmed and, when defrauded,
to flee as far as possible from the place where it does not find that safe
haven it requires to expand and to pursue with skill and perseverance
the objects of its calling. Thus it is that during the period elapsed since
the year cited, 1646, up to the present time, no Spanish merchant has
himself had direct dealings with the inhabitants of Sulu, the Chinese
alone being engaged in this trade, they being the only charterers of our
vessels, so that we do not obtain from said commerce more than interest
on the capital invested, subject to great exposure and risk, which has
made and always will make, this commerce uncertain and of little value.
WTiile lack of security still sets a limit to the extent of our speculation in
commerce with Sulu, lack of advantageous reciprocity adds another
factor no less appreciable. At the time the Spaniards came to the
Philippines, Sulu seems to have been rich in her own natural and in-
dustrial products, and richer still through the large commerce which
their exchange enabled her to carry on with the Chinese vessels which
in large numbers frequented her coasts. Situated almost midway be-
tween the Philippines and the Moluccas, close to two rich islands so fertile
and densely populated as Mindanao and Borneo, it seemed destined by
nature to be the emporium of the commerce of the south. Converted to
Islamism by the Arab Sayed Ali,^ who landed there from Mecca, how
much ought this principle of civilization in the midst of barbarous na-
tions have tended to their advancement ! But times have changed greatly
since then, and brought their always accompanying vicissitudes. As
Spanish dominion was extended in the Philippines and the Portuguese
penetrated into the Moluccas, they began attracting to their capitals the
wealth and traffic that was accumulating in Sulu, and here begins a new
era. War and desolation, which for a period of eighty years we inflicted
on them, followed, and put in our power this island and its dependen-
cies, and though independence was later restored, it could not divert this
rich commerce from the trend it had taken. Meanwhile, their wars and
internal dissensions resulted in corrupting their customs, and there only
remained for them the habit of piracy, which ever since our appearance,
they had embraced for the purpose of harassing us.
Since then Sulu has been converted into a refuge for pirates allured
by its favorable position, and these barbarians, being more solicitous of
carrying on their devastations than of cultivating their land, have not
ceased to be the greatest scourge of our inhabitants of the south. This
explains the impossibility of obtaining from them by entreaty anything
in the way of peace and tranquillity, which to them as yrell as to us
would be so beneficial.
For this reason, Sulu, which contains a population of pirates and
slaves, is nothing more than a shipping point where certain products
are collected from the other islands of the south. It is surrounded by
islands and islets, which form the archipelago bearing its name, and
has a length from east to west of about ten leagues, a width of four and
a half, and a circumference of thirty-two. The total population credited
to the Archipelago is from 149,000 to 150,000 souls, 6,800 of which
inhabit Jolo, and in this number are included 800 Chinese.
The houses, or rather huts, of the principal place, are estimated to
number 3,500, and that of the petty king, called Sultan, cannot be
distinguished from the rest except for its greater size; all of bamboo
and nipa, weak and poor as their owners, but with cannons of various
calibers which mark the residences of the datus, descendants of the petiy
kings, and who themselves constitute the oligarchy of their Government.
I have already stated that the Sultan can do nothing, all matters being
decreed by the convention, or Rum Bichara of the datus, where the
owner of the greatest number of slaves always decides the questions.*
Wealth, influence and power, are measured among them solely by the
number of slaves, and this is why they cannot but be pirates, in order
to acquire this wealth, nor can they offer any guaranty, if it must be
accompanied by the renunciation of this pursuit.
By this picture, which is corroborated by the Englishman Moor in
his description of Sulu, it will be seen that we can expect nothing from
our present relations with Sulu in the way of securing the tranquillity
and prosperity of our islands of the south. Neither is a system of
continual hostility the best way of procuring these precious gifts, but
the promotion and throwing open of avenues of commerce, directing it
to one of our ports, which, in view of its position, ought to be Zamboanga ;
and in this I coincide with the views of my predecessor. Zamboanga,
with a different organization, the concession of a free port for all the
products from the south and those brought in champanes from China,
and the free admission of the exiles who seek refuge there as well as
the Chinese traders, aiding the former in establishing themselves, and
exempting the latter from all taxes for the first ten years, would be, in
all probability, the most suitable point to which to divert from Sulu the
little transit business which remains, to guard, from a shorter distance,
against the piracy of its inhabitants, and to bring them in the course of
time, perhaps, to a more humane mode of living.
But all this requires first the planning of a suitable and adequate
system which, bringing nearer to the islands of the south the protection
and vigilance of the Government of the capital by means of a subordinate
Government embracing its chief characteristics^ would relieve those pre-
cious islands from the calamities which up to the present time they
have suflPered by reason of their remoteness and possibly also because of
our neglect.
This plan, which I desire to combine with a forward movement in
the great and rich island of Mindanao, a large part of whose coast is
surrounded by the districts of the corregidors ^ of Karaga and Misamis,
will bring about without doubt a new and happy era for the Filipinos
of the south, and place, without the sacrifice of people or money, a
large number of faithful subjects under the illustrious Government of
her Majesty, furnishing the same also with a greater abundance of
resources.
To this end I shall hold in view and faithfully observe the policy
which her Majesty outlines in her confidential Royal order, to which
I reply; its application will be the constant object of everything I decree
and execute. And very happy shall I be thus to make suitable return
for the many proofs of co-operation and esteem, which, for the past
thirteen years I have received from the Filipinos; infinitely more so,
because working at the same time for the better service of her Majesty
in accordance with her Royal plans in which these people have always
found their greatest and surest well-being.
Your Excellency being convinced, then, that these are the sentiments
which impel me and the plans I contemplate for the fulfillment of the
important duties her Majesty has deigned to confer upon me, can from
this reply assure her that as far as I am concerned, nothing shall be
left undone to carry out to the letter the policy she has been pleased to
outline to me, and to merit thereby her august confidence, which I so
earnestly desire. May God preserve your Excellency many years.
