FORTUNATE SUCCESSES IN FILIPINAS AND TERRENATE, 1636-37
Fortunate successes which our Lord has given by sea and land to the Spanish arms in the Filipinas Islands against the Mindanaos, and in the islands of Terrenate against the Dutch, in the latter part of the year 1636 and the beginning of 1637.
These Filipinas Islands, subject to the Catholic king our sovereign for the past thirty years, have been so harassed and terrorized by invasions, robberies, and fires caused by the Moros (Mindanaos, Joloans, Burneyans, and Camucones), that one could not sail outside the bay of Manila without manifest danger. Not a single village was now safe, nor could an evangelical or royal minister perform his duty undisturbed. These pirates--some at one time, others at another, and sometimes all together--set out every year from their own lands, and at first attacked the islands which are called the Pintados, for these were the nearest; and afterward, becoming more impudent, they came to coast along the island of Manila itself, and once they even came to the suburbs of this city (although without making their presence known). The Christians captured by them on these raids were numberless; some were Spanish but the majority were natives, who, sold afterward either among the enemies themselves, or among more distant unbelievers, either abandoned the faith, or suffered living death in a wretched slavery. The villages which they had ravaged were pitiful to see, being either burned to the ground or abandoned and deserted; for those inhabitants who were able to escape from the hands of the enemy hid themselves in the thickets of the mountains, among wild beasts and venomous serpents, without other food than a few roots and wild fruits. And what is impossible to relate without shedding tears, the gospel ministers were compelled to flee in this same way, to endure the same calamities, and suffer the inclemencies of sky and ground, in order not to fall into the hands of Mahometan cruelty. Even thus they were not always able to flee, for some, cut to pieces, fell into their hands; others were captured and ransomed at great cost, or died of ill-treatment in their captivity. Those barbarians did not spare the churches, but rather plundered them with an infernal fury; burned them, and trampled under foot the ornaments; broke the images and profaned the vessels; and impiously clothed themselves with the sacred vestments. The most unbearable thing of all was to see all those evils unchecked, our friends disheartened, the enemy unresisted, and the villages defenseless. For, although the governors sent fleets in pursuit of the enemy, nothing was effected--partly because the latter hid themselves from our men among the numerous islands, and partly because of the great speed of their boats, in which respect they had great advantage over us.