Fighting Moro pirates in the Philippines

[Spanish Philippines - Ducós, José]. Compendio de los sucesos, que con grande gloria de Dios, lustre y honor de las Catholicas Reales Armas de S.M., en defensa de estas Christiandades, e islas de Bisayas, se consiguieron contra los Mahometanos enemigos [...].

€ 28,000.00

First edition. Rare printing from the Jesuit press of Manila: the oldest printed account of the Misamis Campaign of 1754 against the Muslim raiders of the Maranao, describing the defence of the Jesuit missions and the counterattack by the Spanish against the Moros in the Visayan Islands led by Jesuit missionary José Ducós (b. 1724). The report was reprinted in Barcelona later that same year.

The early 1750s were known as a time of great suffering for the inhabitants of the coastal towns and villages in southern Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao: marauding pirates would burn the houses, crops, and carry off as many of the people as they could catch to be sold as slaves in Maguindanao, Sulu, Borneo, or Indonesia. To counter this scourge, a flotilla was created by the Spanish government, and a Spanish Jesuit missionary, Father José Ducos, was appointed as its commander. All in all, almost 160 enemy vessels were taken and five hundred Christian slaves were freed between July and December of 1754. The Spanish sources report that two thousand enemies were slain, while - allegedly - not a single man was lost on the Spanish side. When peace was restored, the Spanish authorities endorsed the construction of a stone fort in Misamis to block all Maranao traffic permanently. Ducós was confirmed in his position as captain-general of all naval campaigns, which was approved in Madrid - although with some astonishment regarding the military rank bestowed on the Jesuit missionary. By 1756, the stone fort, named Triunfo, was finished and the Pangil Bay campaigns continued with some success until 1759.