From now on trouble came thick and fast upon the Spanish colony in the Philippines. Some of it was due to the wild and troubled times through which all the civilized world was passing, but most of it was caused by the short-sighted folly of the home government.

In 1599, when Antonio Morga (än tō´nē ō mor´gä) was governor-general, the first real attempt was made to occupy Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago. For this purpose an expedition started from Manila under the leadership of Estevan Roderigues (es´tā vän rō dārēg´ēs), a Portuguese nobleman, who had received permission from Spain to set up a colony in Mindanao. He was to be governor of that island, and, from his headquarters there, was to try to conquer the Moros of Sulu, who had never submitted to Spain’s rule.

This expedition was a sad mistake, and failed from the beginning. The Mindanao Mohammedans resisted all efforts of the Spanish to land, and Roderigues lost his life in the very first battle. His body was taken to Manila for burial. Several other expeditions were sent out, from time to time, to punish the Moros and force a settlement upon the island; but none of them succeeded.

The efforts of the Spanish only aroused the anger and hatred of these people. For two hundred and fifty years after that Moro pirates harried the shores of all the islands where the Spanish dwelt. They killed and robbed both Europeans and Filipinos; they burned towns and villages, and carried off the people to be their slaves. For fear of them the coasts were deserted. No one dared live near the sea; fishermen dared not follow their calling, nor farmers till their fields. Traders dared not come to the island ports to buy or to sell, and the coastwise trade of the country was all but ruined.

While the Spanish were busy trying to gain a foothold in the south, there came to Manila two visitors who were the innocent cause of still more trouble in the country. These were two high mandarins of China, who reached the city in the year 1603. Their story was that the emperor of China had heard that there existed, near the city of Cavite, a great mountain of pure gold. The emperor, they said, could hardly believe this to be true; so he had sent them to see this mountain, that they might come back and tell him about it.

At that time Bravo de Acuña (brä´vō dā ä kön yä) was governor-general. He received the mandarins politely, and sent them with an escort to Cavite, to see for themselves that no such mountain was there. The visitors were royally entertained during their stay in Manila, and at last went home with their report to their emperor.

This visit caused a great fright in Manila, for the Spanish at once suspected that there was a plot behind it for the Chinese to seize the city. They believed, or pretended to believe, that the mandarins had come merely to spy out the land and prepare the way. At once the city was made ready against invasion. The garrisons were increased, new ones were formed, and every Spaniard armed himself. The Filipinos were much excited over the stories told of coming trouble; while the Chinese, suspected and insulted by all, could not but understand that some danger threatened them.

At last the Chinese, wild with fear, took matters into their own hands. They began to fortify places outside the city, and one evening opened the battle by firing upon some Filipinos inside the city walls. They followed up this act by crossing the river and making a savage attack on Binondo (bē nón´dō), then only a small village on the river bank. After that they gathered their forces at Tondo, and kept up the siege of Binondo all that night.

Next morning a strong force of Spanish marched out against them. This force was led by Luis Perez Desmarinas, and in it were the pick of all the young Castilian gentlemen in the country. The best of the Spanish soldiery were there also, as well as a body of native troops. These troops were Pampangans, who were then the best trained of the Filipino soldiers.

On the other hand were thousands of frightened Chinese, ready to fight to the death, and there was awful work in the streets of Binondo that day. Neither side gave or got any quarter, and by night, of all those brave young Spanish gentlemen scarce one was left alive.

But at last the Chinese gave way. They had neither weapons to carry on war, nor food to help them withstand a siege. They began, therefore, to fall back toward the interior; but they were hotly chased, and as they fled nearly 25,000 of them were killed. It was sad business, and all the more sad because it is likely that neither side really knew what the fighting was about.

Besides trouble with the Moros in the south and with the Chinese in the north, the colony had much to bear from Spain’s old-time foe, the Dutch. At this time there were really very few Spanish in the islands. There had been less than a thousand when the battle with the Chinese was fought. Many were killed on that fatal day, so that in the new trouble the Spaniards would have fared ill, had it not been that the army of the colony now numbered many Filipino soldiers in its ranks.

From the end of the sixteenth century down to the year 1763, there was war between Spain and the Dutch, and this war caused much hardship in the islands. It was Spain’s short-sighted method in dealing with her colonies to restrict their trade whenever it was likely to interfere with that of her home merchants. So harsh were the measures by which she held in check the trade of her colonies that she kept all her dependencies poor, so that in the end the mother country lost more than she gained.

At this time the Philippine merchants were allowed to trade only with Mexico. Once a year, usually in July, a state galleon left Manila carrying goods to that country. The goods were sold in Mexico, and the money and other goods were sent back by galleon to Manila.

The galleons also carried the mail, and great sums of money which Mexico sent over to meet the expenses of the island government. They were always rich prizes, and Spain’s enemies knew this all too well. They would lie in wait for them, to capture and despoil them. The Dutch ships, in particular, often did this. From first to last they captured a good many of the royal galleons.

Every capture meant calamity to the islands. It meant for Manila merchants the loss of a whole year’s business. To the State and to the Church it meant loss of income, of salaries, and of money to carry on all public work. To the natives it meant harder and longer tasks, deeper poverty, heavier burdens which they must endure in raising the extra tribute, and heavier taxes by which the loss was made good.

For a hundred and fifty years there was fighting over the royal galleons. At one time, when Spain and England were at war, there were six years during which no galleon reached Manila. The country was in such sore straits that even the Chinese revolted, and the Spanish were nearly starved.

Spain, however, seemed to learn no lesson from these experiences. She went on as of old, sending one galleon a year, richly laden, at the mercy of the enemy, “putting all her eggs into one basket,” as the saying is, and when the “one basket” came to mishap all was lost.

Besides keeping a lookout for the galleons, the Dutch ships were wont to lie in wait outside Manila harbor, to catch Chinese and Japanese trading junks coming into port. In this way they often captured rich prizes, and made still greater drain upon the islands. It was necessary for the colony to raise large sums of money and many bodies of fighting men to go against these ships in order to protect the harbor from them. Many battles were fought with the Dutch in Philippine waters, and many times the efforts of the natives brought victory to the Spanish side.

But it was a hard and bitter experience. The colony lived in a state of constant danger and of real want from this source. Not until the middle of the eighteenth century, when peace was made with Holland, had the people of these islands any security of life or commerce.

Summary.—In 1599 the first real attempts were made to settle in Mindanao. An expedition was sent south, but failed, and its leader was killed. The Spanish only stirred up the Moros against themselves, so that the pirates came north and laid waste the coast towns. In 1603 two Chinese mandarins came to Manila, looking for a mountain of gold which they had heard was near Cavite. This visit awakened a fear that the Chinese meant to seize Manila, and the city was made ready against invasion. The Chinese of Manila were driven by abuse to make an attack on some natives, and the Spanish then fell upon them, killing over 25,000. The Spanish themselves lost the pick of their soldiers and cavaliers that day. Owing to Spain’s war with the Dutch, the islands at this time, and for many years after, suffered great losses and hardships. The Dutch used to lie in wait to capture the galleons that carried merchandise and money back and forth between Manila and Mexico. Whenever a galleon was lost, the whole country suffered; but the weight fell heaviest upon the natives, who, by extra tribute and taxes, had to make the loss good.

Questions.—Tell about the first expedition to settle Mindanao. What did the Moros do to avenge what they deemed Spanish invasion? Give an account of the battle against the Chinese. What led up to this battle? How was trade carried on between the islands and Mexico? What was the result of the capture of a galleon by Spain’s enemies? Why was Spain’s restriction of her colonies’ trade a bad thing for her?