He was succeeded ad interim (March 1, 1835) by Gabriel de Torres, at the time the commander of the army [segundo cabo] under Enrile; as a military officer, he immediately proposed plans for the improvement of the military service; but these were checked by his premature death, [22] less than two months after entering on his office. In his place, the command was assumed (April 23) by the officer next him in rank, Juan Crámer; but he surrendered this office on September 9 following to the new segundo cabo, Pedro Antonio Salazar Castillo y Varona. The latter, on April 25, 1836, issued an edict that "the plain [sencillas] pesetas coined in the Peninsula should be accepted [in the islands] at their lawful value of four reals vellón instead of five, as if they were pillar coins [columnarias]; [23] accordingly they began to circulate, having been recently introduced into the islands." On June 11, 1836, the superintendency of treasury affairs was assumed by Urréjola in place of Enríquez. [24] On July 28, Salazar found it necessary to issue an edict for the enforcement of the laws which prohibited carrying gunpowder and firearms to the Indias, and selling them in countries hostile to Spain; this referred especially to Moroland, where evidently the pirates had been thus aided by unscrupulous traders to make their raids against the northern islands. Salazar thought that he could restrain those piracies by carrying on commerce with the Moros, and therefore made a treaty with the sultan of Joló, Mahamad Diamalud Quiram (September 22, 1836), which stipulated "that every three-masted ship which made port at Joló with Chinese passengers from Manila should pay 2,000 pesos fuertes, and smaller vessels in proportion to their size;" but "the most important cargo which went from Manila to Joló never exceeded 2,500 pesos. The Joloan barks which should go to Zamboanga were to pay a duty of one per cent, and those which entered at Manila two per cent; but no Joloan bark was accustomed to go to Manila." The governor of Zamboanga also made a treaty with another Moro ruler; but it resulted only in increasing the insolence of the pirates, who paid no attention to their treaties. At the beginning of 1836, Salazar sent an expedition under Galvey to occupy the Igorrot country; but it was, despite Galvey's remonstrances, sent in too great haste, and without adequate preparations, and too near the beginning of the rainy season; they reached that region, and built some forts, but so many of the soldiers were attacked by sickness that the expedition was forced to give up the undertaking and retire, "without any other result than the expenditure of several thousand dollars." [25] In that same year, Peñaranda conducted with brilliant success an expedition to dislodge the pirates from Masbate Island, where they had fortified themselves. "Afterward, he established a system of signals in the provinces of the south, to watch the movements of those pirates." On January 26, 1837, Salazar sent an urgent request to the Spanish government for the despatch of Spanish regulars to supply the parish curacies throughout the archipelago, as (for the same reasons advanced by former governors) he considered the Indian clerics unfit for that purpose. In view of the secularization of the orders that had been decreed in Spain, [26] he desired that some two hundred of the friars there should be sent to Filipinas, which, added to those already in the islands, would be sufficient for the parishes. The political disturbances in Spain found some reflection in the distant colonies; and in February, 1837, there was danger of a tumult arising, "some insisting that the Constitution should be proclaimed, in order that they might utilize the change to their own advantage;" among these were several officers of high rank. Absurd reports were circulated throughout Manila: that the governor was opposed to the proclamation, and was intending to banish certain persons from the country, and that he was a Carlist, etc. Violent measures were proposed by some of the radicals, but these were resisted by some of the cooler heads; and many citizens opposed the proclamation of the Constitution, fearing that serious disturbances would result. Salazar, being informed of these things, promised that when the royal despatches arrived he would open them in the presence of all, and fulfil whatever orders he should receive from the home government. This occurred on August 26 of that year, and the royal orders decreed that no change in political affairs should be made in Filipinas until the Cortes should decide the matter; this and Salazar's tact reconciled the contending factions.