Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/515

 OF THE ARCHIPELAGO. 471 number of Spanish stations might be established to command respect. These garrisons ought to be independent of the governor of Manila, and ought to have a chief who should reside there, di- recting his whole attention to the improvement of the settlement, by the extension in the country of Spanish influence, by temperate measures." * It were useless and endless to recount all the at- tempts made by the Spaniards to subdue the neigh- bouring islands, or the invasion and incursions of the inhabitants of these upon the Spanish territo- ries. In I6'i8 and l6'i9, two great expeditions were sent for the conquest of Sooloo, both of which utterly failed, and in the last the governor lost his life. In the year 1637, the Spaniards made a tem- porary conquest of Sooloo and Mindanao, which they were soon compelled to abandon. In 1645, the Malays of Borneo, and the people of Sooloo, ravaged the coasts of the Spanish islands, and the Spaniards committed reprisals, having burnt the city of Borneo, and carried off many of the inhabit- ants as slaves. In the year 17^1, the Spaniards made their last great attempts against Sooloo, and were disgracefully beaten. The natives of those islands being joined to their Mahomedan neigh- bours, invaded the Philippines in their turn, and successfully desolated and laid waste the Spanisjbi
 * ^uniga, Vol. [. Chap. XU.