Reëstablishment of the Audiencia.--The Audiencia was reëstablished with great pomp and ceremony. The royal seal was borne on a magnificently caparisoned horse to the cathedral, where a Te Deum was chanted, and then to the Casas Reales, where was inaugurated the famous court that continued without interruption down to the end of Spanish rule. Dr. Morga was one of the first oidores, and the earliest judicial record which can now be found in the archives of this court is a sentence bearing his signature.
The Rise of Moro Piracy.--The last years of De Guzman's governorship were filled with troubles ominous for the future of the Islands. The presidio of Caldera was destroyed by the Moros. Following this victory, in the year 1599, the Moros of Jolo and Maguindanao equipped a piratical fleet of fifty caracoas, and swept the coasts of the Bisayas. Cebu, Negros, and Panay were ravaged, their towns burned, and their inhabitants carried off as slaves.
The following year saw the return of a larger and still more dreadful expedition. The people of Panay abandoned their towns and fled into the mountains, under the belief that these terrible attacks had been inspired by the Spaniards. To check these pirates, Juan Gallinato, with a force of two hundred Spaniards, was sent against Jolo, but, like so many expeditions that followed his, he accomplished nothing. The inability of the Spaniards was now revealed and the era of Moro piracy had begun. "From this time until the present day" (about the year 1800), wrote Zuñiga, "these Moros have not ceased to infest our colonies; innumerable are the Indians they have captured, the towns they have looted, the rancherias they have destroyed, the vessels they have taken. It seems as if God has preserved them for vengeance on the Spaniards that they have not been able to subject them in two hundred years, in spite of the expeditions sent against them, the armaments sent almost very year to pursue them. In a very little while we conquered all the islands of the Philippines; but the little island of Jolo, a part of Mindanao, and other islands near by we have not been able to subjugate to this day." [32]
Battle at Mariveles with the Dutch.--In October, 1600, two Dutch vessels appeared in the Islands; it was the famous expedition of the Dutch admiral, Van Noort. They had come through the Straits of Magellan, on a voyage around the world. The Dutch were in great need of provisions. As they were in their great enemy's colony, they captured and sunk several boats, Spanish and Chinese, bound for Manila with rice, poultry, palm-wine, and other stores of food. At Mariveles, a Japanese vessel from Japan was overhauled. Meanwhile in Manila great excitement and activity prevailed. The Spaniards fitted up two galleons and the "Oidor" Morga himself took command with a large crew of fighting men.
