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The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 - Volume 41 of 55, 1691-1700: Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century. — John Shaqi

History

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 - Volume 41 of 55, 1691-1700: Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century.

Demarcation line of Alexander VI; Missions -- Philippines; Philippines -- Discovery and exploration; Philippines -- History -- Sources

In 1639 Almonte subdues the fierce Guimbanos, a mountain people in
Sulu. Later, they and the Joloans rebel, and in 1643-44 Agustín
de Cepeda again chastises them, defeating the natives in several
battles and ravaging their country. One of these expeditions is
related in detail by a Jesuit in Joló, who, as usual, ascribes
the success of the Spaniards to the favor of St. Ignatius and the
Virgin Mary. In Mindanao, Corcuera's invasion (1637) long restrains
Corralat; but in 1655 he treacherously causes the murder of three
Spanish envoys sent to him and attempts (but in vain) to stir up the
other Moro rulers to rebellion against the Spaniards. The latter are
not strong enough to wage war with him, and therefore overlook his
insolence; this encourages him to begin anew his piratical raids
against other islands. At this, several attempts are made to curb
them, most proving ineffectual--although in January-February, 1658,
Esteybar with a squadron of armed vessels, destroys several Mindanao
villages. Finally (in 1662) the Manila authorities decide to abandon
their forts in Mindanao and Joló; this causes the loss of Spanish
dominion there, and the christianized Moros soon relapse into their
former heathenism. Some of the Joloan chiefs make unauthorized raids
on the northern islands, but their king punishes them and restores
the captives. Corralat meanwhile, in his old age, maintains peace,
and charges his heir to do the same--an example which is followed by
the king of Joló. The Camucones are kept in awe by the light galleys
which are built at Manila for this purpose. Thus the latter part of
the century is a time of comparative peace, so far as the relations
of the Spaniards and Visayans with the Moros are concerned.


The Editors

July, 1906.







DOCUMENTS OF 1691-1700


    Extracts from Jesuit letters. Juan de Zarzuela, and others;
    1691 and 1694.
    Discovery of Palaos Islands. Paul Clain, S. J.; June 10, 1697.
    Recollect missions in the Philippines, 1661-1712. Pedro de
    San Francisco de Assis; 1756. Juan de la Concepción; 1788.


Sources: The first of these documents is obtained from the Ventura
del Arco MSS. (Ayer library), iv, pp. 1-3, 69-72; the second, from
Lettres édifiantes (1st Paris ed.), i, (1717), pp. 112-136, from a
copy in the library of the Wisconsin Historical Society; the third,
from the Historia general de los religiosos descalzos de San Agustin,
part iv, written by Pedro de San Francisco de Assis (Zaragoza, 1756),
from a copy in the Library of Congress.

Translations: The first document is translated by Emma Helen Blair;
the second, by Frances B. Marshall; the third, by James Alexander
Robertson.







EXTRACTS FROM JESUIT LETTERS, 1691-94


[From a letter by Father Juan de Zarzuela, [1] June 19, 1691.]

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