The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803, Volume II, 1521-1569, by Emma Helen Blair

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Title: The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803, Volume II, 1521-1569

Author: Emma Helen Blair

Release Date: August 25, 2004 [EBook #13280]

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, ***

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The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803

explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the beginning of the nineteenth century

Volume II, 1521-1569

Edited and annotated by Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson with historical introduction and additional notes by Edward Gaylord Bourne.

Contents of Volume II

    Preface
    Expedition of García de Loaisa—1525-26

[Résumé of contemporaneous documents—1522-37]

Voyage of Alvaro de Saavedra—1527-28.

[Résumé of contemporaneous documents—1527-28]

Expedition of Ruy Lopez de Villalobos

[Résumé of contemporaneous documents—[1541-48]

Expedition of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi—1564-68.

[Résumé of contemporaneous documents—1559-68]

Warrant of the Augustinian authorities in Mexico establishing a branch of their brotherhood in the Philippines—1564

Act of taking possession of Cibabao, Fernando Riquel; Cibabao, February 15, 1565

            Proclamation ordering the declaration of
            the gold taken from the burial-places of the
            Indians. M.L. de Legazpi; Çubu, May 16, 1565

            Letters to Felipe II of Spain. M.L. de
            Legazpi and others; Cubu, May 27 and 29,
            and June 1, 1565

            Letter from the royal officials of the
            Filipinas to the royal Audiencia at Mexico,
            accompanied by a memorandum of the necessary
            things to be sent to the colony. Guido de
            Labecares and others; Cubu, May 28, 1565

            Relation of the voyage to the
            Philippines. M. L. de Legazpi; Cubu, [1565]

            [1]Copia de vna carta venida de Seuilla a
            Miguel Saluador de Valencia. (Barcelona,
            Pau Cortey, 1566)

            Letters to Felipe II of Spain. M.L. de Legazpi;
            Cubu, July 12, 15, and 23, 1567 and June
            26, 1568

            Negotiations between Legazpi and Pereira
            regarding the Spanish settlement at
            Cebú. Fernando Riquel; 1568-69

Bibliographical Data

Illustrations

    Portrait of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi; photographic
    reproduction from painting in Museo-Biblioteca de Ultramar,
    Madrid. Frontispiece

    Portrait of Fray Andrés de Urdaneta; photographic reproduction
    from painting by Madrazo, in possession of the Colegio de
    Filipinas (Augustinian), Valladolid.

    Signatures of Legazpi and other officials in the Philippines;
    photographic facsimile from original MS. of their letter of
    June 1, 1565, in the Archivo general de Indias, Seville.

    The Santo Niño of Cebú (image of the child Jesus found there
    by Legazpi's soldiers in 1565); from a plate in possession
    of the Colegio de Filipinas, Valladolid.

Preface

The next attempt to reach the Spice Islands is made by García Jofre de Loaisa. A synopsis of contemporary documents is here presented: discussion as to the location of the India House of Trade; concessions offered by the Spanish government to persons who aid in equipping expeditions for the Moluccas; instructions to Loaisa and his subordinates for the conduct of their enterprise; accounts of their voyage, etc. Loaisa's fleet departs from Spain on July 24, 1525, and ten months later emerges from the Strait of Magellan. Three of his ships have been lost, and a fourth is compelled to seek necessary supplies at the nearest Spanish settlements on the west coast of South America; Loaisa has remaining but three vessels for the long and perilous trip across the Pacific. One of the lost ships finally succeeds in reaching Spain, but its captain, Rodrigo de Acuña, is detained in long and painful captivity at Pernambuco. The partial log of the flagship and an account of the disasters which befell the expedition are sent to the emperor (apparently from Tidore) by Hernando de la Torre, one of its few survivors, who asks that aid be sent them. Loaisa himself and nearly all his officers are dead—one of the captains being killed by his own men. At Tidore meet (June 30, 1528) the few Spaniards remaining alive (in all, twenty-five out of one hundred and forty-six) in the "Victoria" and in the ship of Saavedra, who has been sent by Cortés to search for the missing fleets which had set out from Spain for the Moluccas. Urdaneta's relation of the Loaisa expedition goes over the same ground, but adds many interesting details.

Various documents (in synopsis) show the purpose for which Saavedra is despatched from Mexico, the instructions given to him, and letters which he is to carry to various persons. Among these epistles, that written by Hernando Cortés to the king of Cebú is given in full; he therein takes occasion to blame Magalhães for the conflict with hostile natives which resulted in the discoverer's death. He also asks the Cebuan ruler to liberate any Spaniards who may be in his power, and offers to ransom them, if that be required. Saavedra's own account of the voyage states that the time of his departure from New Spain was October, 1527. Arrivingat the island of Visaya, he finds three Spaniards who tell him that the eight companions o Magalhães left at Cebú had been sold by their captors to the Chinese.

Undaunted by these failures, another expedition sets forth (1542) to gain a footing for Spanish power on the Western Islands—that commanded by Ruy Lopez de Villalobos; it is under the auspices of the two most powerful officials in New Spain, and is abundantly supplied with men and provisions.