[91] Concepción says (xii, pp. 345-352) that the master-of-camp in command of the fleet (who was Antonio Ramón de Abad y Monterde) was undecided whether to attack Joló, but was persuaded to do so by the Jesuits, who told him that the very sight of the Spanish squadron would ensure the surrender of the Joloans. The attack was made at the beginning of June, 1752, and was unsuccessful; Abad was angry at the Jesuits, who had led him into this difficulty, and quarreled with them. They retorted by accusing him to the governor, of conduct (in modern phrase) "unworthy of an officer and a gentleman"--that is, of neglect of official duty, mismanagement of the campaign, unnecessary sacrifice of his men's lives, and licentious behavior at Zamboanga. This was believed, until Abad was reported much more favorably by other officers of his fleet. See full account of his residencia (ut supra, xiii, pp. 36-85), in which he was acquitted from the charges made against him, but sentenced to pay the costs of the residencia. [92] These hostilities broke out in 1752, and for several years scourged the unfortunate Visayans. Concepción records many of these attacks in considerable detail (Hist. de Philipinas, xiii, pp. 5-36); the missions of the Recollects, as also those of the Jesuits in Mindanao (except those under the shelter of the fort at Zamboanga) were the frontier outposts most exposed to the pirates, and it is these missions that Concepción chiefly mentions. The fort at Iligan, Mindanao, was besieged by two thousand Moros for two months; but a Spanish fleet was sent from Cebú, which obliged the enemy to raise the siege, after a great loss of men. This defense was conducted by the Jesuit in charge there, Father José Ducós, whose father had been an officer in the Spanish army; and this same priest rendered valiant service in other Moro raids in that region. Tagoloan and Yponan, in the province of Cagayan, Mindanao were besieged by the Moros; but the mountain Indians were called down to their aid by the Jesuit missionaries, and compelled the enemy to retreat. In Caraga, Surigao was attacked, and the Christian inhabitants, with their two Recollect missionaries, were compelled to take flight and seek refuge in the mountains; they were hunted there for weeks by the enemy--one of the priests being finally captured and taken to Lanao--all this time, enduring terrible hardships and suffering, which caused the other (Fray Roque de Santa Monica) to become hopelessly insane; he was afterward brought to Manila, but died there in a demented condition. "The district of Surigao, rich through its famous gold-mines, and now in most wretched condition," was devastated and ruined. The enemy did the same in the island of Siargao, where the Recollect missionary, Fray Joseph de la Virgen de el Niño Perdido, was slain while endeavoring to lead his followers against the pirates. Nearly all the population--of Surigao, more than 2,000 souls; of Siargao, more than 1,600--were