The insolence of the Sooloo men has at various times drawn down on them the wrath of the Spanish authorities, who, in 1848, and also shortly after I left Manilla, towards the end of 1850, were making arrangements for punishing them, as they afterwards did, with some severity, about the beginning of this year.

The Datos, and their families, are like the old Danes, or Norsemen, born to be seamen; and the barbarous state of their native country preventing the establishment of a mercantile marine, their energies have marked out a scheme of warlike adventure on the sea, to succeed in which their natural quickness and duplicity of character eminently qualify them.

A young Sooloo chief, whose ambitious or restless temper will not permit him to remain an idle man at home, where his passions for cruelty and voluptuous excess could scarcely fail to ruin him in a few years—surrounded as he is there by slavish dependents, and fearless of any higher power, whose authority might act as a check on his temper, or force him to control his passions—finds that the activity of his mind and body demand more scope for excitement than exists at home; and having a bias for the sea, he becomes a pirate chief, and scours the neighbouring waters in search of honour as well as gain. Under proper influences these men might be taught to divert their roving propensities into more peaceful channels. Fitting out large and fast-sailing proas, manned by their slaves, and officered by kinsmen, their warlike excursions take a wide range, and on some occasions their audacity has led them up even to the Bay of Manilla, landing on the shores of which, they have plundered the people, and carried off some of them to increase the number of their slaves, who constitute their principal wealth and power—daring to do this when so near as to be almost under the very walls of the capital, on which waves the banner of Castile.

On the coasts of the provinces these predatory inroads were not uncommon, till General Claveria, in the beginning of 1848, determined to punish them severely, and to intimidate them so signally, as to prevent any repetition of these offences. Accordingly, having secretly fitted out an expedition from Manilla on the 13th February, 1848, the steamer on board of which the Governor himself was, anchored between the islands of Parol and Balanguinguy. Next day the transports arrived, and on that and the following day they reconnoitred the islands, and did all the damage they could, by way of reprisal, demolishing several piers, and destroying a large quantity of paddy which they discovered concealed in a cave in a retired place.

At daybreak, on the 16th February, the troops were disembarked before Balanguinguy under cover of a fire from the ships, and after a little resistance from the Sooloo men—who were excessively frightened by the appearance of the steamers, whose facility of movement they were quite unprepared for—the fort, consisting of bamboo, was taken by escalade after a brave resistance. The attacking force, consisting of about 4000 men, behaved with great coolness and decision, when exposed to the enemy’s fire and missiles of all sorts, such as arrows, javelins, &c. About eighty of the defenders of the place were slain, many of them with the desperate bravery—or ferocity if you will—of men who neither would give or accept of quarter, having first stabbed their wives, children, and useless old men and women. On seeing the success of the Spaniards, they formed themselves into a band, nearly all of whom perished on the points of the soldiers’ bayonets, fighting bravely to the last; when the few survivors, seeing their companions dead and dying around them, with all the desperation of pirates, threw themselves from the walls, which were lofty, preferring certain death to the chance of falling into the hands of their enemies alive. Fourteen pieces of artillery were found within the place, which was destroyed, and preparations were made and acted upon for attacking the forts of Sipac and Sungap, both of which were successful.

The Governor, General Claveria, gained at the time a good deal of reputation from his soldierly management of the forces at his disposal; and when the news reached Spain, he was created the Conde of Manilla, &c.

On his return from this expedition, a great deal of absurd parade was, as is usual with the Spaniards, prepared to welcome him; and the General was forced to march under triumphal arches, &c., all of them bearing the most glowing inscriptions to the conqueror of the three bamboo forts from a race of barbarians, most of whom were unprovided with better arms than bows and arrows, spears, &c.; for although they had some small cannon, they could not make a proper use of them. Truly it was a pity to see the good deeds of the Balanguinguy expedition burlesqued by these ridiculous pageants.

The lesson then taught the Sooloo chiefs did not, however, linger long in their memories; for their old habits of piracy, and kidnapping people for slaves, were resumed almost so soon as the Spaniards returned to Manilla.

In 1850, Don Antonio de Urbistondo, Marques de la Solana, came out to Manilla as Governor of the Philippines. He was a man whose whole life had been passed in the camp, but his reputation had been gained during the civil wars in Spain, where he fought for legitimacy by the side of Don Carlos against the present queen. Nor did he give up the cause in which he had drawn his sword, until Don Carlos himself lost heart and forsook it, after which Don Antonio took advantage of the clemency of the queen, and swore allegiance to her as his sovereign. His talents as a soldier, although they had been displayed against herself, were rewarded by a marquisate, and afterwards by the government of the Philippines. A person of his character and military education was, of course, a most unlikely one tamely to permit an insult to be offered to the Spanish flag, or an outrage to be perpetrated in the Philippines by the Sooloomen; accordingly, when an instance occurred near the end of last year, prompt satisfaction was immediately demanded from the Sultan and Datos, who, as usual, accused some of their neighbours, with whom they were at variance at the time, of being the authors of it; and invited the Spaniards to seek reparation from them sword in hand. Accordingly an expedition was fitted out, and, with the Governor at its head, sailed for Sooloo in order to awe them, by the alacrity and force which the occasion at once called forth, and to establish a new treaty which would prevent the recurrence of such acts, and the necessity for such expeditions; and it was proposed to punish with no light hand those Tonquiles and others of the Samales whom the Sultan had accused as the perpetrators of the late aggression.

However, on reaching the principal fort of the Sultan Mahomet Pulalon, he found that the Sooloomen would have no communication with him, and that they even threatened the envoys sent among them; and at last, some guns were, I believe, fired on one of the ships. Immediately after this, measures of retaliation were arranged, and were acted upon at once; the place off which the fleet was, being attacked and taken, and all the forts and villages in the neighbourhood burnt within forty-eight hours after the Spanish flag had been insulted. After this severe lesson the Sultan and Datos fled, leaving in the hands of the Spaniards eight bamboo forts and one hundred and thirty pieces of artillery, besides several other warlike stores. All this took place very recently, no longer ago than on the last day of February of this year (1851). General Urbistondo published to his troops a general complimentary order, dated from the fortified residence of one of the most powerful Datos; and on the 1st of March the Spaniards were in possession of the principal fort of the Sultan. The particulars of this expedition I cannot give, having left Manilla shortly before the preparations for it began, although, I believe, it consisted of three war-steamers and some transports, who carried about 4000 men down to Sooloo.

The loss of the Spaniards in the whole affair was 34 men killed, with 84 wounded. A very unpleasant circumstance to the army was connected with this expedition. Two field-officers, both of them acting lieutenant-colonels of separate regiments, showed the white feather at the moment of danger; for which, I believe, they have since been cashiered, and not shot, as they might have been, had their chief not been as merciful as he is brave.

Although this chastisement to the Sooloo men has been severe, it is unlikely to restrain the chiefs from their predatory expeditions, at least for any length of time; as under the present state of things prevailing among them, they have no other objects to exhaust their idleness and energetic characters upon, than piratical adventure. But were commerce and its emoluments displayed before them, from some place in the vicinity of Zamboanga, or from that place itself, the civilizing influence which the arts of peace always engender would so pervade their minds in a very few years, that their habits would be changed, and the blessings of education, religion, and peace, might be expected to civilize and elevate their minds. Their energies and seamanship would then be in requisition as the navigators of all the Archipelago, and to carry in their native vessels the produce of the fertile inland districts of Mindanao, and of Northern Borneo, to the great mart which Zamboanga would become, should it fortunately be made an open port of trade for the people of all nations.