A History of the Philippines

by David P. Barrows

The Failure of the Expedition.—The Portuguese were at this moment fighting to reduce the native rajas of these islands to subjection. They regarded the Spaniards as enemies, and each party of Europeans was shortly engaged in fighting and in inciting the natives against the other. The condition of the Spaniards became desperate in the extreme, and indicates at what cost of life the conquests of the sixteenth century were made. Their ships had become so battered by storm as to be no longer sea-worthy. The two officers, who had successively followed Loaisa and El Cano in command, had likewise perished. Of the 450 men who had sailed from Spain, but 120 now survived. These, under the leadership of Hernando de la Torre, threw up a fort on the island of Tidor, unable to go farther or to retire, and awaited hoped-for succor from Spain.

Relief came, not from the Peninsula, but from Mexico. Under the instructions of the Spanish king, in October, 1527, Cortes dispatched from Mexico a small expedition in charge of D. Alvaro de Saavedra. Swept rapidly by the equatorial trades, in a few months Saavedra had traversed the Carolines, reprovisioned on Mindanao, and reached the survivors on Tidor. Twice they attempted to return to New Spain, but strong trade winds blow without cessation north and south on either side of the equator for the space of more than twelve hundred miles, and the northern latitude of calms and prevailing westerly winds were not yet known.

Twice Saavedra beat his way eastward among the strange islands of Papua and Melanesia, only to be at last driven back upon Tidor and there to die. The survivors were forced to abandon the Moluccas. By surrendering to the Portuguese they were assisted to return to Europe by way of Malacca, Ceylon, and Africa, and they arrived at Lisbon in 1536, the survivors of Loaisa’s expedition, having been gone from Spain eleven years.

The efforts of the Spanish crown to obtain possession of the Spice Islands, the Celebes and Moluccas, with their coveted products of nutmeg, cinnamon, and pepper, were for the time being ended. By the Treaty of Zaragoza (1529) the Emperor, Charles V., for the sum of three hundred and fifty thousand gold ducats, renounced all claim to the Moluccas. For thirteen years the provisions of this treaty were respected by the Spaniards, and then another attempt was made to obtain a foothold in the East Indies.

The Second Expedition to the Philippines.—The facts that disaster had overwhelmed so many, that two oceans must be crossed, and that no sailing-route from Asia back to America was known, did not deter the Spaniards from their perilous conquests; and in 1542 another expedition sailed from Mexico, under command of Lopez de Villalobos, to explore the Philippines and if possible to reach China.

Across the Pacific they made a safe and pleasant voyage. In the warm waters of the Pacific they sailed among those wonderful coral atolls, rings of low shore, decked with palms, grouped in beautiful archipelagoes, whose appearance has never failed to delight the navigator, and whose composition is one of the most interesting subjects known to students of the earth’s structure and history. Some of these coral islands Villalobos took possession of in the name of Spain. These were perhaps the Pelew Islands or the Carolines.

At last Villalobos reached the east coast of Mindanao, but after some deaths and sickness they sailed again and were carried south by the monsoon to the little island of Sarangani, south of the southern peninsula of Mindanao. The natives were hostile, but the Spaniards drove them from their stronghold and made some captures of musk, amber, oil, and gold-dust. In need of provisions, they planted the maize, or Indian corn, the wonderful cereal of America, which yields so bounteously, and so soon after planting. Food was greatly needed by the Spaniards and was very difficult to obtain.

The Naming of the Islands.—Villalobos equipped a small vessel and sent it northward to try to reach Cebu. This vessel reached the coast of Samar. Villalobos gave to the island the name of Filipina, in honor of the Spanish Infante, or heir apparent, Philip, who was soon to succeed his father Charles V. as King Philip the Second of Spain. Later in his correspondence with the Portuguese Villalobos speaks of the archipelago as Las Filipinas. Although for many years the title of the Islas del Poniente continued in use, Villalobos’ name of Filipinas gradually gained place and has lived.

The End of the Expedition.—While on Sarangani demands were made by the Portuguese, who claimed that Mindanao belonged with the Celebes, that the Spaniards should leave. Driven from Mindanao by lack of food and hostility of the natives, Villalobos was blown southward by storms to Gilolo. Here, after long negotiations, the Portuguese compelled him to surrender. The survivors of the expedition dispersed, some remaining in the Indies, and some eventually reaching Spain; but Villalobos, overwhelmed by discouragement, died on the island of Amboyna. The priest who ministered to him in his last hours was the famous Jesuit missionary to the Indies, Saint Francis Xavier.

Twenty-three years were to elapse after the sailing of Villalobos’ fleet before another Spanish expedition should reach the Philippines. The year 1565 dates the permanent occupation of the archipelago by the Spanish.