Consequent on the union of the crowns of Portugal and Spain (1581 to 1640), the feuds, as between nations, diplomatically subsided, although the individual antagonism was as rife as ever.
Spanish and Portuguese interests in the Moluccas, as elsewhere, were thenceforth officially mutual. In the Moluccas group, the old contests between the then rival kingdoms had estranged the natives from their forced alliances. Anti-Portuguese and Philo-Portuguese parties had sprung up among the petty sovereignties, but the Portuguese fort and factory established in Ternate Island were held for many years, despite all contentions. But another rivalry, as formidable and more detrimental than that of the Portuguese in days gone by, now menaced Spanish ascendency.
From the close of the sixteenth century up to the year of the “Family Compact” wars (1763), Holland and Spain were relentless foes. To recount the numerous combats between their respective fleets during this period would itself require a volume. It will suffice here to show the bearing of these political conflicts upon the concerns of the Philippine colony. The Treaty of Antwerp, which was wrung from the Spaniards in 1609, twenty-eight years after the union of Spain and Portugal, broke the scourge of their tyranny, while it failed to assuage the mutual antipathy. One of the consequences of the “Wars of the Flanders,” which terminated with this treaty, was that the Dutch were obliged to seek in the Far East the merchandise which had hitherto been supplied to them from the Peninsula. The short-sighted policy of the Spaniards in closing to the Dutch the Portuguese markets, which were now theirs, brought upon themselves the destruction of the monopolies which they had gained by the union. The Dutch were now free, and their old tyrant’s policy induced them to independently establish their own trading headquarters in the Molucca Islands, whence they could obtain directly the produce forbidden to them in the home ports. Hence, from those islands, the ships of a powerful Netherlands Trading Company sallied forth from time to time to meet the Spanish galleons from Mexico with silver and manufactured goods.
Previous to this, and during the Wars of the Flanders, Dutch corsairs hovered about the waters of the Moluccas, to take reprisals from the Spaniards. These encounters frequently took place at the eastern entrance of the San Bernadino Straits, where the Dutch were accustomed to hove-to in anticipation of the arrival of their prizes.
In this manner, constantly roving about the Philippine waters, they enriched themselves at the expense of their detested adversary, and, in a small degree, avenged themselves of the bloodshed and oppression which for over sixty years had desolated the Low Countries.
The Philippine colony lost immense sums in the seizure of its galleons from Mexico, upon which it almost entirely depended for subsistence. Being a dependency of New Spain, its whole intercourse with the civilized world, its supplies of troops and European manufactured articles, were contingent upon the safe arrival of the galleons. Also the dollars with which they annually purchased cargoes from the Chinese for the galleons came from Mexico.
Consequently, the Dutch usually took the aggressive in these sea-battles, although they were not always victorious. When there were no ships to meet, they bombarded the ports where others were being built. The Spaniards, on their part, from time to time fitted out vessels to run down to the Moluccas to attack the enemy in his own waters.
During the governorship of Gomez Perez Dasmarinas (1590-1593), the native king of Siao Island—one of the Moluccas group—came to Manila to offer homage and vassalage to the representative of the King of Spain and Portugal, in return for protection against the incursions of the Dutch and the raids of the Ternate natives. Dasmarinas received him and the Spanish priests who accompanied him with affability, and, being satisfied with his credentials, he prepared a large expedition to go to the Moluccas to set matters in order. The fleet was composed of several frigates, one ship, six galleys and one hundred small vessels, all well armed. The fighting men numbered one hundred Spaniards, four hundred Pampanga and Tagalog arquebusiers, one thousand Visayas archers and lancers, besides one hundred Chinese to row the galleys. This expedition, which was calculated to be amply sufficient to subdue all the Moluccas, sailed from Cavite on the 6th of October, 1593. The sailing ships having got far ahead of the galleys, they hove-to off Punta de Azufre (N. of Maricaban Island) to wait for them. The galleys arrived; and the next day they were able to start again in company. Meanwhile a conspiracy was formed by the Chinese galleymen to murder all the Spaniards. Assuming these Chinese to be volunteers, their action would appear most wanton and base. If, however, as is most probable, they were pressed into this military service to foreigners, it seems quite natural that, being forced to bloodshed without alternative, they should first fight for their own liberty.
All but the Chinese were asleep, and they fell upon the Spaniards in a body. Eighteen of the troops and four slaves escaped by jumping into the sea. The governor was sleeping in his cabin, but awoke on hearing the noise. He supposed the ship had grounded, and was coming up the companion en deshabille, when a Chinaman cleaved his head with a cutlass. The governor reached his stateroom, and taking his missal and the Image of the Virgin in his hand, he died in six hours. The Chinese did not venture below, where the priests and armed soldiers were hidden. They cleared the decks of all their opponents, made fast the hatches and gangways, and waited three days, when, after putting ashore those who were still alive, they escaped to Cochin-China, where the king and mandarins seized the vessel and all she carried. On board were found twelve thousand dollars in coin, some silver, and jewels belonging to the governor and his suite.
Thus the expedition was brought to an untimely end. The King of Siao, and the missionaries accompanying him, had started in advance for Otong (Panay Island) to wait for the governor, and there they received the news of the disaster.