[97] "Hardly had Morales reached the islands, when a new despatch arrived from Manila, repeating the same orders. The silence of the Spaniards [i.e., regarding their first order to leave the fort], and the hurried preparations that were made that very night for the withdrawal of Morales, inflamed the injured feelings of the Lutaos, nor could any argument repress them. The governor did not attempt to do more than console them, in order that they might prudently decide what they should do; he told them that the Spaniards would never forsake them, and that if the Lutaos would follow them there were places in the islands, with equal and even greater advantages, where they could live; that Corralat was friendly, and the Spaniards would charge him to maintain friendly relations with them, which they could with good reason expect, as he was of the same nation as themselves; that if he should not fulfil this obligation, occasion would not fail the Spaniards to avenge them. He also said that they could, with the forts which he left to them, easily defend themselves from their enemies; and finally, that they should await the ultimate decision which would be brought by General Don Francisco de Atienza on his way to Maluco, since it might improve the condition of affairs. "Little impression did these arguments, which the Spaniards offered by way of consolation, make on the Lutaos. The tyrannies that they would experience when left to their own government had no respect for kinship, nor was there any law save that of might. To leave their homes was most difficult, and to transplant their villages was to ruin them. To defend the fort supplies of ammunition and food were required, and they had no fund to meet these costs. They gave way to lamentations and complaints that, as they had served the Spaniards with their lives, they had roused in their neighbors a mortal hatred; that, notwithstanding they had become Christians, they were left abandoned, in the power of the Moros, without instruction, or defense, or honor. They recounted their services, and their sighs grew heavier, while they declared as false the promises made to them in the beginning, which drew them away from obedience to their natural king; and that with such an example [as this of the Lutaos before them] the peoples [of Mindanao] would not change sides in order to please a nation so unreliable [as the Spaniards]. The Subanos also presented their piteous remonstrances that as a people of the hill-country, and of timid disposition, they were exposed to greater misfortunes. They went to the fort and renewed their importunities, saying that the Spaniards were deserting and abandoning them [notwithstanding] their humble submission, and leaving them to be slaves of their enemies; that although they had maintained the Spaniards with their tributes, provided their houses with their products, and embraced their faith, contented with the freedom which followed Spanish protection, yet