felt toward Bustamante, who had established that post; and by the readiness of the Manila government to keep up the fort of Zamboanga, under the pressure exercised by the Jesuits, whose "astute policy" secured votes for that action, desired by them for the protection of their missions in Mindanao--an influence which the Recollects lacked. As soon as Labo is abandoned, the Moro pirates begin their raids on the northern islands, even going to the vicinity of Manila; and they undertake to form a general conspiracy against the Spanish power in the archipelago. The kings of Joló and Mindanao, however, profess to decline to enter this, finding their interest in an alliance with the Spaniards. On December 8, 1720, an attack is made by Moros against the fort at Zamboanga, but it is repulsed; those from Joló and Mindanao then come, professing friendship, but treacherously turn against the Spaniards and attack the fort; after a two months' siege, they are finally driven away, with considerable loss. [46] The Moros afterward ravage the Calamianes and other islands, carrying away many captives, and killing a Recollect missionary, Fray Manuel de Jesús María.] Letter from Diego de Otazo, S.J. I will not omit sending a relation to Madrid, on this occasion when letters are sent from Manila to that court, of the tumultuous changes [here], of which your Reverence probably knows--if perchance (even though my influence be little and my authority less) my letter, when communicated to the father confessors of his Majesty and Highness, may contribute to the greater glory of God, and the welfare of these islands and of the souls who are converted in them, and those who may yet be converted when this community is established in tranquillity and order; it is this alone which I regard as the only object for which I can and ought to strive, since this alone has brought me to these islands. Father Procurator: Don Fernando Bustillos y Bustamante (whom may God have forgiven) began his government of these islands with so much violence that, as he carried it to the extreme, this very thing deprived him of life. Blinded by the two mighty passions, greed and pride, and exercising the absolute power that the government of these islands confers on him, and taking advantage of the great distance from his sovereign master, [the result was that] all the citizens had to follow him and comply with his purposes, which were directed to his own interests, and measured only by his own desires. The dungeons of the jails and castles came to be filled with those persons who opposed or might oppose him; and the churches and convents were full of those who had sought refuge there, dreading lest they too might be imprisoned. The few Spaniards (and they were very few) who were outside went about--let us say, by way of explanation--with one foot on the street and the other in the church; and with the fear that if they lay down at night in their homes they would awake in a dungeon.