The frequent raids of these Moro pirates, both Mindanaos and Joloans, were one of the greatest hardships which these Filipinas Islands suffered through many continuous years; they were the scourge of the natives of the islands of Pintados and Camarines, Tayabas, and Mindoro, as being nearest to the danger and most weak for defense. These people paid with their beloved liberty for our neglect to defend them--not always deserving of blame, on account of the mutations of the times. Few Spaniards have been the prey of these vile thieves, except some who were very incautious; but amends have been made for these by many religious and some secular priests, ministers in the Indian villages, who have suffered rigorous captivities and cruel deaths. No small amount of expenditure has fallen on the royal exchequer; for those pirates have caused innumerable expenses in armed fleets, most of them useless because the news of the loss did not reach us until the pirates were returning unhurt to their own lands. At times it has given even the governors and captains-general of these islands plenty to do in defending them from these pilfering thieves, as we saw in the first part of this history, in the case of Don Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera and others. All the life of Cachil Corralat--which was a very long one, for it exceeded ninety years--and that of his father Bahisan kept our vigilance continually on the alert, and caused us to found and maintain the fortified posts of Zamboanga, Sabanilla, Malanao, and others--which caused so much expense and no profits; for the forts defend only a small space, and the sea has many roads, and thus they did not hinder the Moro fleets from sallying forth whenever they chose. Moreover, Corralat had all the Lutaos for spies, on account of their great reverence for him, and because they were in secret as much Mahometans as himself; for never is a Lutao found who has not been circumcised, or one who eats pork--and it is this which constitutes their Mahometanism, as also having many wives and being enemies of Christians; for in other respects they are atheists, and do not know what the Koran is or what it contains. And, as I have heard from military men who have experience in these wars, the only restraint upon these Joloan and Mindanao enemies is in armed fleets, which go to search for them in their homes and inflict on them all the damage they can, without going inland; for the Spaniards will not find any one there on whom to avenge themselves, since the inhabitants are safe in their thick forests and on impregnable heights.