As for the estates of the friars, Señor Sumulong was quite right, to judge from the facts in this royal decree, in asking for an ample and complete investigation of the legality of the titles to property which the friars could bring forward. It is to be observed that there was no opportunity here for [ascertaining] the real right of prescription, for it was impossible to protest against usurpations if one did not wish to be deported or shot as an anti-Spaniard or a filibuster.--"Ambut." An interesting commentary on the above opinions is found in the recent action (December, 1906) of the French government in regard to the Roman Catholic church in France, the separation of Church and State there, and foreign interference with the proceedings of that government.--Eds. [8] Bolot (borot): an arrow with a hook or barb (Noceda and Sanlucar's Vocab. Tagal). [9] The year 1754 was especially disastrous to the Philippines on account of the Moro raids; thousands of people were slain, and other thousands carried away captive; even the coasts of Luzón were ravaged, and the population of the Visayas suffered a notable diminution. See account of these losses in Concepción's Hist. de Philipinas, xiii, pp. 190-250; and Montero y Vidal's Hist. de pirateria, i, pp. 309-317. In July of that year, Ovando was succeeded in the government of the islands by Arandía, who at once instituted reforms in the military service, and did what he could to defend the islands from their enemies; he died on May 31, 1759, worn out with the cares and fatigues of government. [10] Forrest says (Voyage to New Guinea, p. 302) in describing the pirate raids by the Moros: "The Spaniards not allowing the Bisayans fire-arms, the latter prove less able to defend themselves." Also (p. 303): "On Celebes, they take, if in Dutch territory, even those of their own religion: a decent musselman, with his wife and four children were brought to Mindanao, by this very prow." "The Sooloos have in their families many Bisayan, some Spanish slaves, whom they purchase from the Illanon and Magindano cruisers. Sometimes they purchase whole cargoes, which they carry to Passir, on Borneo; where, if the females are handsome, they are bought up for the Batavia market. The masters sometimes use their slaves cruelly, assuming the power of life and death over them. Many are put to death for trifling offences, and their bodies left above ground." (Ut supra, p. 330.) [11] The archbishop of Manila, Don Miguel Garcia Serrano, wrote to his Majesty that in the period of thirty years during which there was no fortified post in Mindanao, twenty thousand Christians had been made captive by the Moros. (Torrubia, Dissertacion, p. 49.)