ANNO DOM. 1519 to 1564.
Comprising the Discovery of the Philippines.
After the conquest of the Americas, and discovery of the South
Sea, Hernando de Magellan, a Portuguese, affirmed there must be a
communication with that sea by the antarctic pole, and proposed to his
sovereign, to make the discovery by the route of the Moluccas. The
king, Don Manuel of Portugal, either not believing there was such
a passage, or prejudiced against Magellan, received his proposal
with contempt. This disgusted him, and he came into Spain, where,
at Saragossa, he was presented to Charles V., to whom he promised
the complete discovery of the Moluccas, and the adjacent islands,
within the Spanish line of demarcation, by a distinct route from
that used by the Portuguese, pursuing his object by the expected
antarctic passage to the South Sea. By the brief of Pope Alexander
VI., expedited at Rome the 4th of May 1493, Magellan secured a
patent, attaching such discoveries to the crown of Castile. This
brief enjoined, that the globe should be equally divided, by a line
drawn from the north, by the isles of the Azores, towards the south,
embracing the conquests, which formed the western boundaries of the
Atlantic; the portion to the west, to belong to the crown of Spain,
and leaving to the crown of Portugal, the hemisphere to the eastward
of this line. Having discovered the Brazils, however, and the king of
Portugal being desirous of preserving it, he requested his Holiness,
that the line might be drawn, four hundred and sixty leagues more
to the westward of the Azores, in order, that no other power, might
interfere with that valuable acquisition. The line was so drawn on
the map, and the Moluccas, were accordingly, placed out of the line
of territory, thus appropriated to the Portuguese, and within that
of Spain[15]: they were not able, however, at that time, to adjust the
other point as to the route; but the Cape of Good Hope, interposing
in their voyages to India, it was not doubted, that America might
be like this hemisphere, and finish also in a cape, and passage to
the South Sea. The desire of the Spaniards to take possession of the
Spice Islands, or, as they were called, the Moluccas, instigated them
to ascertain the truth of this conjecture; and a squadron of five
ships, was fitted out for that purpose, viz. La Trinidad, in which
Magellan himself embarked; San Antonio, La Concepcion, Santiago, and
La Victoria; the whole manned with two hundred and thirty-four men,
and paid and victualled for two years.
Magellan sailed from Seville with this armament on the 10th of August
1519, and on the 13th of December he arrived at the Brazils, and
coasting the land in quest of the expected passage to the South Sea,
on Easter day, he entered the Bay of Saint Julian, in fifty degrees
of south latitude, where he intended remaining, finding the winter
had commenced in those regions. Here his people mutinied, upon an
idea that their provisions were exhausted, and that it was impossible
to discover the pass they were in search of. Magellan quelled this
mutiny; but immediately after understood, that another had broken out
in the ship San Antonio, and that the crew had murdered the commander,
and confined his cousin Alvaro de Mesquita, who was made captain
on the arrest of Juan de Cartagena. The leader on this occasion
was Gaspar de Quezada, whom he ordered to be hanged; and setting on
shore a Franciscan friar and Juan de Cartagena, on account of their
turbulent disposition, he sailed in prosecution of his voyage, by
the much desired pass to the South Sea. On the 1st of November 1520,
he discovered the straits which bear his name; and having occupied
twenty days in passing through them, he found himself in the South
Sea with three ships, the Santiago having been wrecked, and having
separated from the San Antonio, which his cousin commanded, and which,
by the route of the coast of Guinea, returned to Spain. Magellan, with
fair winds and pleasant weather, ploughed that sea, which never before
had been navigated. Uninterrupted in the pursuit of his object, he
discovered, on the Sunday of Saint Lazarus, a great number of islands,
which he named the Archipelago of Saint Lazarus; and on Easter Day,
he arrived at the island of Mindanao, where he ordered the first
mass which was said in the Philippines. This took place in the town
of Batuan, in the province of Caraga, where he set up the cross,
and took possession of these islands, in the name of the King of Spain.
From Batuan, Magellan proceeded to Zebu, and, in passing the island
of Dimasaua, he formed an alliance with its chief, who accompanied
him to Zebu. The inhabitants of Zebu, received him with such kindness,
that their king, Hamabar, his whole family, with the chief of Dimasaua,
and many of the people of the island, were baptized. The King of Mactan
alone, a very small island in front of the town of Zebu, resisted
the Spaniards, and was sufficiently confident in his strength, to
challenge Magellan, who was weak enough to accept the challenge. He
selected for the enterprize fifty Spaniards, who attacked the Indians
in morasses, the water up to their breasts, and approached so near
them, that Magellan was wounded with an arrow, and died on the field
with six other Spaniards, the rest saving themselves by flight.
The friar Calancha, an Augustine, remarks in his history of Peru,
that all those engaged in the discovery of the South Sea, came to no
very enviable end: for, that a seaman of the name of Lopez, who was
the first that beheld it from the mast-head, renounced his faith,
and turned Moor. Basco Nunez de Balbua, who took possession of those
regions, lost his head; and Magellan himself, finished his days in the
abovementioned manner. I can add, that almost all those, who have been
concerned in the discovery of the Philippines, have suffered so much,
that the history of these islands, forms a tissue of tragedies.
On the death of Magellan, the Spaniards chose Juan Serrano as
Commander of the expedition; and, alarmed at their defeat at Mactan,
they remained on board their ships, apprehensive of the treachery of
the other Indians. In fact, the people of Zebu, began to think lightly
of the strangers, whom they had hitherto considered as invincible,
and proceeded to plan their destruction. Abundantly deceitful by
nature, they concealed their designs, and succeeded in persuading
our General to be present, with twenty-four Spaniards, at a feast,
which the chief of Zebu had prepared for him. In the middle of the
feast, a great number of armed Indians, whom Hamabar had concealed,
rushed in, and murdered them all, Serrano alone excepted, who escaped
to the sea side, and implored the assistance of his companions; but
they, fearful of some new treason, were witnesses of his massacre,
which the Indians effected in view of the squadron, without their
attempting to relieve him, or revenge the injury. Juan Carvallo now
became General of the armament, and he resolved to go from thence,
in search of the Moluccas: he burned the ship Concepcion, as he had
not men sufficient to man her, and sailed from Zebu with the Trinidad
and the Victoria. On the 8th of November he arrived at Tidore, one
of the Moluccas, and was well received by its chief, who granted him
a factory for the purpose of collecting cloves, &c.; and on the 21st
of December, he loaded the two ships with spices, preparing for the
return to Spain. Gonzalo Gomez de Espimosa commanded the Trinidad, and
it was his intention to proceed to Panama, but he was captured by the
Portuguese. Sebastian del Cano, went in the Victoria, by the way of the
Cape of Good Hope, and, after losing many of his crew on the voyage,
arrived at San Lucar de Barrameda, with only eighteen people, on the
7th of September 1522, three years from the time of their departure
from Seville. He was thus the first, who had sailed round the world;
and on this account, among other honours, the Emperor gave him for
his arms, a terrestrial globe, with this motto, Hic primus geometros.
The account which Sebastian del Cano gave of the expedition, induced
the Emperor, to send other armaments to the Moluccas. The first was
that of Esteban Gomez, who proposed, by the way of Newfoundland, to
discover a shorter passage to the South Sea. A squadron was accordingly
despatched in the year 1524; but in a little time, news was received of
its dispersion by bad weather. In the year following, Don Fray Garcia
Jofre de Loaysa, was despatched from Corunna with seven ships, well
appointed with good officers, and four hundred and fifty picked men;
among these was Andres de Urdaneta, who afterwards became a friar of
the order of San Augustine, and directed the expedition of Legaspi
to these islands. They passed the Straits of Magellan, with the loss
of one ship, and entering the South Sea, they encountered so severe
a storm, that the whole squadron was separated. Loaysa pursued his
course; and in a short time afterwards died. By order of the Emperor,
Sebastian del Cano was to succeed to the command, but he surviving
only a few days, it devolved on Martin Yanez, a Biscayan. They arrived
at Tidore on the 31st of December 1526, as did, in a short time, the
remainder of the squadron, with few men, and those unserviceable. Here
they found, that the Portuguese had declared war against the chief
of Tidore, for having entertained the squadron of Magellan, and it
was deemed on our part proper, to undertake the defence of those
benefactors of the Spaniards. They had several encounters with the
Portuguese, but of no moment, and few were killed on these occasions;
but the number of sick increased considerably, from the length and
hardships of the voyage; and from the humid nature of the climate,
the whole were threatened with rapid dissolution; being therefore
already reduced to one hundred and twenty, they constructed a fort,
and surrounding it with a palisade, placed themselves under the
command of Hernando de la Torre, who was chosen General after the
death of Martin Yanez.
In this situation, were the remains of the armament under Loaysa
found, when the Viceroy of Mexico, by orders from court, despatched
to Molucca three ships, under the command of Alvaro de Saavedra,
who arrived at these islands, by the route of the Ladrones, now
called Marianas, of which he took possession, in the name of his
Majesty the King of Spain, in the year 1528. Saavedra pursued his
voyage to Tidore, where he found the hundred and twenty Spaniards,
shut up in their fortress. They considered him, as an angel sent
to their relief, in the extremity of misery: but this joy was of
short duration, new quarrels springing up with the Portuguese, who
had succeeded in destroying, nearly all the Spanish ships. They at
last, however, commenced their voyage to New Spain. Twice they made
the attempt, twice they were driven back; and they suffered so much,
that the General, with many of the crews, fell a sacrifice; the few
that remained, being compelled to submit to the Portuguese. This
was a most lamentable conclusion of the expedition; but all our
squadrons, having represented the Moluccas as extremely valuable,
on account of their spices, war was on the point of being declared,
between the two kingdoms, about the possession of them. The Spaniards
alleged, that it could not be denied, these islands were in the line
of demarcation of Spain; and the Portuguese, were unwilling to quit
the spice trade, of which they were in possession, and which so much
enriched the mother country. These differences were adjusted about
the year 1529, the Emperor, renouncing his right to the Moluccas,
for three hundred and fifty thousand ducats, by way of loan, advanced
by the King of Portugal.
Thus abandoning the Moluccas, the Emperor turned all his thoughts
to the conquest of the Western Isles, or Philippines. He despatched
instructions to the Viceroy of Mexico, to send a squadron for that
purpose, with directions not to stop at the Moluccas, in order to
avoid creating jealousy among the Portuguese. In obedience to these
orders from court, the Viceroy immediately fitted out five ships in
the Puerto de Natividad, and nominated as Commander of the expedition,
Ruy Lopez de Villalobos, directing him, to take with him four Augustine
friars, for the conversion of the conquered inhabitants. The squadron
sailed on the day of All Saints, in the year 1542, and arrived safe
off the Philippines; but they were driven so much to leeward, by the
south-west monsoon, prevalent at that time, that they were compelled
to anchor at the island of Sarragan, which lies on the opposite coast
of Mindanao, and at forty leagues distance. In this miserable island,
they suffered so much from hunger, that Villalobos sent some of the
smaller vessels, in search of provisions, to the other islands: but,
their return being delayed beyond his expectation, he resolved to sail
for the Moluccas, though it was in direct opposition to his orders,
without having effected any other object, than administering baptism to
one child. The Portuguese received him very ungraciously, and compelled
him, immediately to make the best of his way to Spain. In passing
Amboyna, he died of a deep melancholy, arising out of the disasters
of the expedition, and the idea of having disobeyed the orders of
his sovereign, which were, on no account to visit the Moluccas. By
the death of the General, the whole armament was deranged; indeed it
was, eventually, almost all annihilated; and the few Spaniards who
remained, found means to embark in different Portuguese ships. The
Augustine friars went to Goa, from whence they found a passage to
Europe, and arrived at Lisbon in August 1549, seven years after they
had departed from the Puerto de Natividad.
As his Catholic Majesty, was fully determined on the conquest of the
Philippines, it is necessary to notice the title, by which he laid
claim to them. Our writers have brought forward a number of arguments,
to prove the right, which the Kings of Spain have to the Americas,
and the islands they have conquered; but I find them very superficial,
and only one incontestable document, by which our sovereigns hold
these dominions, that is, the concession of the Roman Pontifs. It
is now the received opinion of churchmen, that the Popes have not
the power to make such grants, but at the period in question, the
contrary opinion prevailed, and was generally acknowledged in the
schools. Supported by this idea, then so universal, the Papal See,
granted to the respective Kings, not only what they conquered, but,
as we have seen, assumed the right, of even partitioning the globe.