OF THE ARCHIPELAGO. 46j capable, after many trials, of subduing, they have ever been in a state of almost perpetual hostility. The most considerable of these neighbours are the Malays of Borneo, — the people of the Suluk or Sooloo group, and those of Mindanao. As early as the year 1589, but 1 8 years after their establishment in Manila, the Spaniards made an unsuccessful attempt to conquer Sooloo and Mindanao, but met with a complete defeat. In their turn the people of those islands fitted out predatory expeditions against the Philippines, and committed the most extensive ravages on their coasts. There is a passage in Zuniga, containing reflections on the subject of these expeditions, which, for its good sense, and the soundness almost of the opinions delivered in it, deserves to be quot- ed. *' From that time to the present," * says he, " the Moors have not ceased to infest our colonies* It is incredible what a number of Indians they have made prisoners, what towns they have plun- dered, what villages they have annihilated, and what ships they have taken. I am inclined to think that Providence permits this as a punishment on the Spaniards, for delaying the conquest for no less a period than two hundred years, notwithstand- ing the expeditions and fleets that have almost an-
- The period of the expedition just meotioned,
