These terrible pirates who have for centuries laid waste the coasts of the Philippines and the adjacent islands, with fire and sword, carrying off tens of thousands of Christians or heathen into slavery, have only within the last few years had their power definitely broken by the naval and military forces of Spain and by the labours of the Jesuit missionaries, amongst the heathen tribes of the island. It is scarcely half a century since they annually attacked the Visayas Islands and even Southern Luzon, and they have been, up to quite lately, the great obstacle to the civilisation of the Southern Philippines. In Culion, Cuyos and other islands the churches are built within a stone fort, in which the population took refuge when the Moros appeared. The old Spanish sailing men-of-war could not cope with these sea rovers, who in their light prahus, salisipanes, or vintas, kept in shallow water or amongst reefs where these vessels could not reach them. Of course, if the pirates were surprised when crossing open water, they ran great risks, since their artillery was always very deficient, but they sailed in great numbers, and if it fell calm they would cluster round a solitary man-of-war and take her by boarding. In consequence, a special force was raised in the Philippines to protect the coasts against these pests. It was called "La Marina Sutil," or the Light Navy. This force consisted of large flat-bottomed launches propelled by oars and sails. They were half-decked forward, and carried a long brass gun, on a slide, and some swivels on the quarters. These boats were coppered and fitted with a cabin at the after part. They carried forty or fifty men, all natives, and squadrons of them were stationed at the principal southern ports from whence they patrolled the coasts. Most of the officers were natives or mestizos; some of them survive to this day. These vessels rendered good service, and to some extent checked the incursions of the pirates, but they had not the speed to follow up the fast-rowing vintas of the Moros, which could always escape from them unless caught in narrow waters. In 1824, D. Alonso Morgado was appointed Captain of the Marina Sutil, and severely chastised the Moros. Some of these rowing gun-boats are still to be seen rotting on the beach at the southern naval stations. But the introduction of steam gun-boats in 1860 gradually did away with the Marina Sutil, and sounded the knell of piracy in the Philippines. The Moros received terrible chastisement at the hands of these steam gun-boats, one of which, with a crew of only forty men, has been known to destroy a whole fleet of pirates, and now their power on the sea has become only a dread tradition of the past.