[Mindanao—which, as appears from an allusion by Argensola, was not always considered a portion of the Philippines proper—is visited by one of the early Portuguese conquerors, Captain Pinto, being sent there by Tristan de Atayde "and to the neighboring islands, to provide themselves with the necessities of life." There "he visited the king, by whom he was courteously received; and after his credentials were examined, and consultation over his requests was held with the Sangages [271] of the king's council, peace and friendship were made. Pinto sold his merchandise at whatever price he wished, and traded for and bought a cargo of provisions at will." (Book ii, pp. 49-50.) The desire for cloves [272] on the part of the Portuguese is so strong in the Malucos that the natives determine to burn their trees, although "the clove harvest forms the wealth of the Maluco kings," in order to cause them to leave. Although the threat is not carried out, wars prevail constantly between natives and conquerors. The contests become so vindictive and troublesome that they lead to arguments for abandoning the Philippines after Felipe II's accession to the throne. The passages relating to this are as follows:]
The apprehensions of this danger had made the ministers of all those provinces anxious, for their fears were being confirmed by proofs of manifest rebellion. In Goa, Diego Lopez de Mezquita was already a prisoner in the fortress of Benastirim, and under a strong guard, and the viceroy was awaiting the decision from España to dispose of him and of the soldiers; for they feared lest the Ternatans would make use of the great help that could be sent them by the Chinese; which could be sent much more easily if the matters then being discussed in Castilla were made certain. It was reported that the Council of State—having noted that the Filipinas not only did not augment the royal incomes, but were even lessening them, and were the occasion for fruitless expense; and that they were so numerous and so difficult of conservation—had proposed to King Filipo, our sovereign, to abandon them, and withdraw the Audiencia and presidios that sustained them. They added to this argument the example of the Chinese kings and nations, who also had abandoned those islands—although they are so near and can aid them so easily, that the islands may be reckoned as a part of their mainland. They said that as España was governing them, signal detriment was being received, and there were no hopes that any betterment would be obtained in future; for the amount of silver passing thither from Nueva España, both for regular expenses and for merchandise, was immense. For the same reason, and by the same road, that treasure was being sent by the hands of the Chinese to the center of those kingdoms, which, intractable by the severity of their laws, are debarred by those laws, as by arms and fortifications, from all trade with foreigners. They asserted that the monarchy, scattered and divided by so many seas, and climes, could scarcely be reduced to one whole; and that human foresight could not bind, by means of ability, provinces separated by nature with so distant boundaries. These arguments, they said, were born not of the mind, but of experience, a truth manifest to the senses. All other arguments that could be adduced against this reasoning they declared to be honorable and full of generous sound, but difficult of execution. It would be more advisable to increase the power of the king in Europe, where the forces could attend to emergencies without the casualties that militate against them in outside seas and dominions. Each one of these arguments was enforced so minutely by the ministers of the treasury that this proposition merited consideration and examination. Had God permitted the king to exclude the Filipinas from his monarchy, and leave them exposed to the power of whomsoever should seize them first, the Malucans would have so strengthened the condition of their affairs that it would have been impregnable.
This same resolution has been communicated on other occasions, and in the reign of King Filipo Third, now reigning. He, conforming to his father's reply, has ever refused to accept counsel so injurious. Consequently, that most prudent monarch answered that the Filipinas would be conserved in their present condition, and that the Audiencia would be granted sufficient authority so that justice could be more thoroughly administered; for in the completeness and rigor of justice the king based the duration and energy of the state. For the same reason, the military force there would be strengthened, and the royal incomes of Nueva España, or those of any other of his kingdoms, would be expended for that purpose, for all the treasures, and those still to be discovered in the bosom of the mines, must be applied to the propagation of the gospel. For what, he asked, would the enemies of the gospel say, if they should see that the Filipinas were deprived of the light, and of the ministers who preach it, because they did not produce metals and wealth as did other rich islands in Assia and America? He said that the entire power of the sovereigns must minister to this superior end, as sons of the Church and assistants of the apostolic voice, which is being continued in the successes of the first preaching. If he had refused to yield one jot in his severity to his northern vassals, [273] or to grant them liberty for their consciences, why should he relent toward the pagans and Mahometans, who are the harvest that God has assigned him, in order to enrich the Church with those so remote children? By this wise he enjoined silence on the discussion, and with this glorious aim the decision has ever been made when zeal or human convenience has discussed the abandonment of those states…. This religious motive influenced Felipo; but, besides it, those who had experience of those Asiatic sources of wealth urged others. The most abundant wealth consists of diamonds, rubies, large and seed pearls, amber, musk, civet, and camphor, from Borneo and China; vermilion, coral, quicksilver, copper, and white cloth, from Cambaya and Mengala; rugs, carpets, fine counterpanes, camlets, from Persia; brocades, ivory, rhubarb, cardamoms, cassia, [274] incense, benzoin, wax, china, lac for medicine and dyes, cloves, and mace, from Banda; with gold, silver, and pearls, medicinal woods, aroes, eagle-wood, calambuco, [275] ebony, and innumerable other rare plants, drugs, spices, and ornaments. They say that Venecia lost all this when the commerce passed to Portugal [276] (Book ii, pp. 84-86)….
[While the war between the Portuguese and the natives is at its height, a galleon passes which is later found to have been neither Spanish nor Portuguese, as the natives fear, "but a ship of Venetians, private persons, on its way from Manila to China, with various bartered merchandise of those states and of the east" (Book ii, p. 89).
A native envoy visits Felipe II in Lisbon, but fails to accomplish much. The later wars between Portuguese and Spaniards and natives are characterized by assistance for the latter from English and Dutch sources. King Felipe "especially to recover Témate," turns "his eyes to the convenience afforded by all the Filipinas, to a greater extent than India." Later he orders by "his royal decree" that "all the governors of the Filipinas should be instructed to aid the Malucas, and all the Indian states of the Portuguese crown; for this may be done more conveniently from those islands than from India itself" (Book iv, p. 140). Argensola recurring again to the proposition of abandoning the Philippines and other islands, says:]
The reader should also consider, that although avarice is sometimes mixed up in the ministry of the preaching of the gospel, and lawless acts are committed by our captains and soldiers, yet such excesses do not make the cause less just. He should consider also that, supposing that his Majesty should choose, for excellent state reasons (as we said were proposed), to abandon those districts of Asia, as the Chinese did, and to narrow the bounds of his monarchy, the cause of the faith would not permit it. Our kings are ministers of the faith, and sons of the Catholic church, and any war waged for the introduction of the gospel is most important, and of the greatest profit, even though it be to acquire or to gain desert provinces. Besides the Filipinas have shown how docile are their natives, and how thoroughly they benefit by the example and company of the Spaniards—the tokens of the affection with which they have received the faith and aid the religious who are extending the faith and carrying it to China, Japon, Camboxa, Mindanao, the Malucas, and the other places where endures idolatry or friendship with the demons (which the former owners of the country left to them when they excluded those places from their dominion), or the fictions of Mahomet, which those places afterward admitted. This is the chief reason for conserving those provinces. (Book iv, pp. 161, 162.)
Conquest of the Malucas Islands
Book Fifth
After the Luzones or Manilas Islands—both these being ancient names—had been discovered by Magallanes, Sebastian Cano returned to España, after the former's death and the successive deaths of his companions, in that venerable ship which—as if significant of its voyage, which contains more of truth than of probability—they called "Vitoria." Sebastian Cano was a mountaineer, from the hamlet of Guetaria in the Pyrenees Mountains, according to Mapheo, [277] in his Latin history. In his history he devotes much space to the great courage of Cano, and his skill in the arts of navigation. He recounts the universal respect and admiration bestowed upon Cano, since he was the first in the age of mortals to circumnavigate this globe. And in truth, what estimation can remain to the fabulous Argonauts, Tiphys and Jason, and the other navigators whom the elegance or the daring of Grecia extols, when compared to our Cano? He was the first witness of the commerce of the seas, and nature opened to his eyes what had been reserved until then for them; and he was allowed to explore it all, and to furnish a beginning in so arduous endeavors for the law that saves and renders eternal. After the death of Magallanes, the Lusones Islands—which ought to have inherited his name, as being his sepulcher, as the strait did because of his passage through it—changed that name for that of Filipinas, [278] in the year one thousand five hundred and sixty-five; although those islands of that eastern archipeago are also called by that name. Adelantado Miguel de Legaspe, who was sent from Nueva España by Viceroy Don Luys de Velasco with a Spanish fleet, made port in those islands. He conquered first the island of Zebu and those in its vicinity, where he remained six years. That region is called by another name, Pintados, still preserved by different portions of that coast, because the Indians at that time went about naked, and with their bodies adorned and painted [i.e., tattooed] in various colors. Legaspe left a guard there and went to occupy Luzon, one hundred and fifty leguas from Zebû. He fought the barbarians, whom, after the surprise of our ships, weapons, and faces had worn off, the same novelty encouraged. Legaspe anchored in a bay four leguas wide, which shows an island midway in its entrance, now called Marívelez. The bay has a circuit of thirty leguas to the city of Manila, and is eight leguas wide from north to east. The inhabitants of that city resisted him with greater courage than the Pintados, for they had artillery and a fort. But after the Spaniards had taken that, the defenders of it surrendered. This was done quickly, and allowed no time for the inhabitants to unite. Thus did Legaspe enter Manila, a place fortified by nature. At one point of it (which is surrounded by the water of the bay) is a river of considerable volume, whose source is the great Lake of Vay [Bay], five leguas distant. This point, narrow and slender at first, becomes wider immediately, for the seashore turns toward the southwest, and the bank of the river toward the east, so that a very considerable space is left for the city. The city is entirely surrounded with water, except that part between the west and south. Legaspe founded the city then with wooden buildings, for wood is produced abundantly in those regions. The roofs of the houses were covered with nipa leaves, which resemble our mace-reed, [279] and which form a sufficient defense against the rains. It is, however, an inflammable material, and is the occasion of the great fires that have happened there so often. Luzon is more densely populated than any of the many islands—which are called Filipinas in honor of King Filipo II, and which, as is affirmed, number eleven thousand. Luzon has a circumference of three hundred and fifty leguas. Beyond the bay it runs one hundred leguas to the north, as far as Nueva Segovia; from the beginning of that province (namely, Cape Bojador), it runs for thirty leguas east to the promontory of El Engaño. Thence the coast runs south for eighty leguas, and then with another changed direction for forty leguas to what they call Embocadero ["the channel">[, that is, the strait opposite the island Tandaya, which is distant eighty more leguas from the bay. Consequently the island has the shape of a square; it has many harbors, but few capacious ports. Manila is in slightly more than fourteen degrees of northern latitude, and in longitude (reckoning from the Canarias) one hundred and sixty. The most northern part of Luzon lies in nineteen degrees [of latitude]. With the sea between them, the great kingdom of China lies on that side of it, seventy leguas away; while the islands of Japon lie to the northeast, at a distance of two hundred and fifty leguas. On the east is the open ocean, and on the south the greatest of the archipelagos of the ocean, which is divided into live archipelagos. These are broken up into so many islands, kingdoms, and provinces, that one would believe that nature did not desire men to ascertain their number. Both Javas, our Malucas, Borneo, and Nueva Guinea are known; on the west, and at a distance of three hundred leguas, Malaca, Sian, Patan, Camboxa, Cochinchina, and other different provinces on the mainland of Asia. The Chinese abandoned living in our Filipinas, but not its trade; nor did the cultivation or the fertility of the islands for that Reason cease. Wheat and other necessary grains are produced there in abundance: deer, Cattle, buffaloes, goats, and wild boars; and fruits and spices. If there be anything lacking, the Chinese from Chincheo bring it, such as chinaware and silks. The wine always used and drunk there is made from palms, by cutting off the clusters of fruit that they produce, when green—that fruit is called cocos—from which, after cutting the leaf stalks, they gather the liquor that flows forth, and boil it in jars, until it becomes so strong that it causes intoxication and has the same effects as the strongest Spanish wine. Of native fruits, there are oranges, lemons, and very sweet citrons; while they have fig and pear-trees introduced from España. They rear sparrow-hawks, herons [martinetes], and royal eagles in great abundance. They have a great many different kinds of parrots, and other birds, large and small. In the rivers and lakes are many horrible caymans or crocodiles; these kill the Indians very easily—and especially the children, who go carelessly to their haunts—as well as the cattle when they go to drink. Not a few times has it happened that they have seized the cattle by the muzzles and pulled them beneath the water, and drowned them without power to resist, however large the animal may be. Then the carcass is dragged ashore and devoured … Indians are found so courageous that, notwithstanding the fierceness of those animals, they kill them with their hands. They cover the left hand and arm with a glove made from buffalo hide, and hold therein a stake or peg, somewhat longer than a tercia, [280] and about as thick as the wrist, and sharpened at both ends. Then they enter the river until the water reaches the waist. The crocodile rushes upon the Indian with open mouth to devour him. The latter presents to it his protected arm and the hand with the stake, so that the beast may seize it, and runs it into the animal's mouth in such a position that it cannot shut its mouth or make use of its strong teeth to attack its slayer. Feeling the pain of the sharp stake the crocodile becomes so docile that it neither resists nor attacks, nor dares move, for the slightest movement causes it pain. Thereupon the barbarian, pulling strongly on the stake, wounds the beast repeatedly with a dagger (carried in the right hand) in the throat, until it bleeds to death. Then it is drawn ashore with lines and ropes, with the aid of other Indians who unite to drag it in; and many are needed, because of the huge bodies of those crocodiles. They resemble lizards, but are furnished with scales so strong that scarce can an arquebus-shot dent them. The only vulnerable spots are the throat and under parts of the legs [i.e., where they join the body], where nature has given them a certain sweet odor, which the Indians use. Besides cattle, all the animals of Africa and more are found in those islands—tigers, lions, bears, foxes, monkeys, apes, squirrels—and in some of them are many civet-cats. These last are wont to be hunted extensively, in order to take them to different nations with the other merchandise of China—linens, silks, earthenware, iron, copper, steel, quicksilver, and innumerable other things, which are transported annually from those provinces. Religion and government are the same as those of España; but in those islands that are still unsubdued, foolish idolatry prevails. They attribute immortality to their souls, but they believe that souls wander from one body to another, according to that ridiculous [doctrine of] transmigration invented or declared by Pythagoras. Trading is much in vogue, and is advanced by the Chinese commerce. The Filipinos are more courageous than their other neighbors. The Spaniards and creoles do not belie their high origin.
By order of King Filipo an army was formed from all this people, in order to attempt to take the forts of Maluco. Don Gonçalo Ronquillo de Peñalosa was governor. Although he had received beforehand certain information by way of trade and the spies that had gone there, he was not satisfied with them, and sent another soldier to Maluco. The latter changed his clothes, and then with that and his aspect, which was not unlike that of the natives, and their language, which he spoke fluently, went to Tydore. He found our men very desirous of the enterprise, and the king of that island ready to push it with his forces. He went to Ternate with the merchants, and saw the fortresses and the reefs about the ports; and sounded their friendship with the English. He found that the latter landed and traded securely—or rather, as if by right. Nor was the multitude of secret Christians unknown to him, who would take up arms in due season; nor any of the other things, that, as an experienced spy, it was necessary for him to report. Thereupon Ronquillo prepared about three hundred Spaniards and more than one thousand five hundred Filipinos, with ammunition, food, and sailors. With three large vessels and a considerable number of smaller ones, he set sail toward Maluco at the proper season. Pedro Sarmiento was general, an energetic and experienced man, who still lives in Manila. He set out courageously and energetically, in order to destroy any of the enemies then sailing those seas. Several days previous his Majesty had appointed Pablo de Lima to the charge of Ternate, if it were gained; and had allowed his brother, Francisco de Lima, the concession of two voyages to Maluco, in consideration of their services and those of Henrique, their father. Pablo had married a Christian woman, and a devout one, although she was a relative of the king of Tydore, who is not a Christian. For this reason, and because he possessed in Ternate the ancient inheritance to the towns of Guita, Mofaquia, Mofaguita, Pauate, Pelueri, Sansuma, Tahane, Mayloa, and Soma; and in the island of Maquien, Sabele, Talapao, Talatoa, Mofabouaua, Tabalola, Tagono, Bobaba, and Molapa—of the majority of which the Ternatan king had dispossessed him, as well as Bitua and other towns in Tydore, on the pretext of his having abandoned them—he went to Manila, where he discussed with the governor the method of facilitating the conquest, on the very eve of its execution. His counsel was favored, and he gave it as it was his own cause. For, in addition to the inheritance that the king of Ternate had usurped from him, he expected to get the island of Moutil, which had belonged to his ancestors. The expedition was also authorized by the presence of Don Juan Ronquillo, the governor's nephew, who held equal authority by land and sea with Sarmiento. If there were anything wanting, it was thought that it would be supplied easily by the valor of the soldiers, together with the shortness of the voyage and the carelessness of the enemy. But the divided command proved an obstacle to that hope. Their voyage was not stormy, but neither was it so favorable that they were enabled to anchor exactly at Ternate, as was necessary in order to deprive the enemy from using their own vigilance. They went to Moutil to anchor, and within sight of the inhabitants of the land, fought with some hostile janquas. [281] These were captured, and the Christians found within them were set at liberty. As Pablo de Lima knew the harbors, and as the people of the island did not possess the forces necessary to defend themselves against a fleet, and as it was easily attacked on the sides, it surrendered. The natives came with branches of palms, citron-trees, and gariofylos [i.e., caryophyllus], or clove-trees, as tokens of peace, and to beg pardon. They obtained both, and for master, Pablo de Lima. However the vesting him with that domain proved cf little utility; for a few days after, all the people slipped away, either considering themselves more secure in Ternate, or to meet the enemy—who must necessarily carry the war to that island, as happened. Sarmiento repaired his vessels on that island [i.e., Moutil], and without the loss of a single soldier, and flushed by his first victory, went to Talangame, passing through the hostile caracoas, which had been fitted up hastily and without order. The fort and the king, in possession of our artillery—especially the rampart, which was enlarged and afterward called Cachil Tulo, after the king's uncle, who built it—were in readiness long before, and were threatening some great disaster. Our men landed on that side, but their landing was opposed by the Ternatans. However night put an end to battle, and each side retiring to safety, our men finished landing and mounting their artillery, in the position and manner counseled by Pablo de Lima, who ever since then has been general of artillery in the fort of Tydore. The king of that island wished to join our troops, as was shown by certain actions, and by his promises to Alférez Dueñas; but he doubted the fortune of the Castilians, as if he had not had many experiences of it. Now the occasion persuaded him and fidelity bound him, but he still hesitated. The doubt of that king is believed to have hurt the outcome of the affair. Sarmiento, after having mounted the artillery and securely fortified himself, and after having taken some captives (from whom he learned the food supply and arms of the besieged), commenced to hem in the enemy, and to bombard them furiously. However he did not scare them, for they answered boldly. It became necessary to seize the high places, from which, as from commanding eminences—which were leveled later—our men harassed the enemy. Had they persevered in this, it would have sufficed to end the war. But to such an extent did sickness reign in our camp, that no better medicine was found than that of absence, and deferring this undertaking to another time. The assistance from Tydore was of no consequence. They proved lukewarm friends, and all the rest was spiritless. Heaven knows the other reasons. There must have been some stronger ones; for, in reality, the camp was raised, and after embarking returned to Manila, without having had any greater effect than to increase the confidence of the enemy.
Then only the English nation disturbed Spanish dominion in that orient. Consequently King Filipo desired not only to forbid it with arms near at hand, but also to furnish an example, by their punishment, to all the northern nations, so that they should not undertake the invasions that we see. A beginning was made in this work in the year one thousand five hundred and eighty-eight, as is related in the following discourse.