now their liberty remained at the mercy of greed, the Spaniards profiting by their lives for the sake of keeping up intercourse with the Macassars and Malayos; and that it was too much to be endured, to leave in such infamous subjection vassals so obedient as they. The governor, his heart pierced by their pathetic expostulations, could give no other satisfaction than his own anxious hopes. In the midst of these limited and sad consolations, with the arrival of the succors for Terrenate came anew the severe orders [for abandoning the forts]; the governor was now unable to give them courage, for lack of means, and all were disconsolate; but it was necessary to execute the rigorous order--those who remained being as sorrowful at it as were those who were going away, and each one endeavoring to make his decision and to suit it to this emergency. Some went to Mindanao, others to Joló, and others to Basilan; many dispersed in the coasts of Zamboangan, the people of Don Alonso Macombon remaining here with him; and a few determined to follow the fortunes of those who retreated thence, going to settle at Dapitan and Zebù.... In the vessels had to be placed more than a thousand souls, and the military supplies. It was a grievous abandonment, by which more than a thousand Christians were left exposed to the cruelty of the Moros.... In great part it was due to the obstinacy of the Jesuits, who, regarding the allowance of fifty men as insufficient, compelled its total abandonment. Such garrisons have been and are sufficient to oppose the Moros in the remaining presidios; and the same would be enough in Zamboangan if the great extent which must be guarded, on account of the size of the fort, were reduced to a little, demolishing the less important part [of the fortifications]. But their profound thoughts feared lest that fort would afterward remain thus scantily garrisoned, and that it would not make so much show or its administration be so conspicuous; nor would there be expended in the allowances [for it] so large sums, which they converted to their own advantage.... Soon there were representations made at the court of injury resulting from its desertion, and consequent royal decrees for its reconstruction, which did not take effect until long afterward." (Concepción, Hist. de Philipinas, vii, pp. 93-97.) [98] This name is Curay in Concepción's Historia. [99] An island and point at the entrance to Patungan Bay, in Batangas, Luzón. [100] It is evident, from the above statements by Diaz, that Barrantes is incorrect in saying (Guerras piráticas, p. 17): "In this manner, so melancholy for Filipinas, ended the seventeenth century." He has made this hasty and unfounded conclusion through failure to search for material to supply the gap which occurs at this point in the narrative which he has used as the basis of the work above cited. This is a MS. narrative of the Moro wars, for an account of which see our Vol. XXIX, p. 174, note 40.