dition. If the promised help of the Dutch had come over and above
the boldness of the Indians, it is inferred that what had taken so
many years to conquer would have been lost in a few days. But God
who always punishes as a father those who try to serve Him, measured
the times so accurately, that amid the echoes of the insurrection,
the proclamations of the peace which had been arranged between Espana
and Olanda resounded in Manila. With that the Catholic arms were freed
from their chastisement, and all things returned to their pristine
quiet. That was not the case with the Moros, who were then and for
many years after, the perennial enemies of that afflicted field of
Christianity. Barbarously blinded in their treacherous gains as if it
were a thing done, they made a practice of going every year to take
captives in the islands of our administration, often outraging the
temples sacrilegiously and not a single one that was near the beach
escaped profanation and they utterly abused everything intended for
religious worship, with great scorn to the name of Christian. They
cut the sacred vestments, into robes and other garments [capisayos],
and they destined the ciboriums and sacred chalices to the dirty use
of their wine, tobacco, and buyo.

315. But it did not so happen, I return to say. For notwithstanding
that they were a terror every year from that of 1649 to 1655 because
of their piracies, now in some and now in other parts, they remained
without the due punishment although so sacrilegious insults demanded
it so justifiably. Without fear of our arms, they overran those
seas at will, trusting their security to their swiftness; for their
boats were built on purpose for piracy, and ours compared to theirs
of lead. It happened not once only that they were taken because of
carelessness between the bars of the rivers with forces sufficient to
make one consider their destruction sure; but they got out laughing
on one side or the other, amid the discharge of their artillery. And
the forces of Manila, Zebu, Zamboangan, and Carhaga, which were not
despicable squadrons, served no other purpose than to scare off the
evil, so that the persecution might be enormously expanded. They
carried their insolence so far that two small vessels with but
small crews, dashed into the bay of Manila one of the above years,
and almost in sight of that capital, seized a caracoa from Iloilo
with the rich cargo aboard it. Then they went out haughtily