The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 — Volume 04 of 55 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 298 pages of information about The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 — Volume 04 of 55.

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 — Volume 04 of 55 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 298 pages of information about The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 — Volume 04 of 55.

Being asked where he learned the worship of Mahoma, and who declared it to him, he said that the ancestors of the Borneans were natives of Meca, as he, the present witness, had heard; for the natives of Balayan, Manila, Mindoro, Bonbon, and that region did not have knowledge of the said worship until the Borneans had explained it to them; they have done so with the natives of these islands, and therefore all these are Moros now, because their ancestors learned it from the said Moros of Borney. [21] Their language, both spoken and written, is derived from Meca; and the said Borneans and natives of Sian and Patan possess and observe their Alcorans—­the law and worship of Mahoma.  He said that in the book of the Alcoran, which the present witness has seen and has heard preached, they say and assert that they are the enemies of the Christians.  Likewise in other books they say that the Borneans have always desired to make Moros of the Christians—­a thing that he has also heard declared by the catip [caliph?] whom the said Borneans regard as a priest, and who preaches the said doctrine of Mahoma.  This said catip, and others, with like expressions preach the said doctrine of Mahoma, so that the said natives observe it.  They declare and publish that the law of the Christians is evil; and their own, good.  The witness knows that, in the former year, seventy-four, the king of Borney undertook to attack Manila, and to plunder and kill the Spaniards, launching for the purpose a fleet of one hundred galleys and one hundred small vessels.  In each large vessel were about fifty, and in the smaller about thirty men—­all together, in the judgment of this witness, making about seven or eight thousand men.  All were of one mind, to kill the Spaniards at Manila.  The said fleet left the river of Borney to begin the said expedition, but, after sailing about twenty leagues, immediately returned, because the son of the king of Borney was taking part in the said expedition; and, in order that the Spaniards might not land at Borney in another part, and kill his father, he did not continue the said expedition, but returned with the whole fleet, without his enterprise having any effect.  The witness has heard that the king of Borney wrote letters to Raxa Soliman and Lacandora, chiefs of Manila, so that they might revolt against the Spaniards, and saying that all would be protected.  Likewise he has heard his relatives and other Moros tell how in former times the king of Borney has sent preachers of the sect of Mahoma to Cebu, Oton, Manila, and other districts, so that the people there might be instructed in it as were those of Borney.  And this witness, in his own time, has heard the said doctrine preached in Balayan, by a Moro regarded among them as a priest, by name Siat Saen.  Also it is well known that the said Borneans are wont to plunder the Calamianes, and enslave the people and take them to Borney.  They do the same in other districts thereabout.  The witness has heard that the said king of Borney holds captive a Spaniard, named Diego Felipe, and two Christian Visayans, whose names he does not know.  This is what he knows, or is currently reported, and what he has seen.  He certified as to its truth, ratified it, and signed it, in his own language, as did the said interpreter.  He was about thirty-one years old.

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The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 — Volume 04 of 55 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.