In October 1616, a Sulu fleet of 80 karakoas took down the Spanish shipyard in Camarines, burning three ships under construction there (which included a galleon). Perhaps unsatisfied with this feat, the fleet proceeded to the Cavite shipyard to burn it down as well, taking with them Spanish captives. It was said large sums were paid as ransom for their eventual return.
The new Sulu Sultan, Rajah Bongsu (Bungsu), assumed the Tausug name Muwallil Wasit as his royal name upon being elected by the Sulu datus to succeed the throne in 1610. Prior to this, the throne was contested between Bongsu's predecessor Sultan Batara Shah Tengah and his cousin Adasaolan (Abdasaolan), with the famed Maguindanao ruler Kapitan Laut Buisan (who terrified Spanish seas with his raids) allegedly supporting the latter and was allied to the Maguindanao sultanate by marriage.
Tengah, meanwhile, requested for assistance from the Spanish, who he had opened diplomatic channels with in 1608. The Spanish, however, arrived too late to intervene. Tengah was already killed in battle, but this did not stop the Spanish from attacking Jolo anyway. With no male heir, Tengah's nephew Rajah Bongsu emerged as the next sultan.
Shifting from his predecessor's foreign policy, Rajah Bongsu opened negotiations with the Dutch in 1614, noting how the Dutch established their power in the Moluccas and were in rivalry with the Spanish. While the Dutch had sent no actual assistance to Bongsu's 1616 attacks, the presence of Dutch ships in the Philippines (which would eventually engage with the Spanish fleet off Zambales in 1617) was apparently enough to keep the colonial government from responding well to the Sulu threat. With Buisan's death a few years later, and his son Sultan Kudarat occupied with consolidating his power in mainland Mindanao, it was Rajah Bongsu who took the mantle of Muslim naval campaigns against the Spanish. In 1627, Bongsu's fleet would again attack the shipyard in Camarines.
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