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28. Arellano, “Relación mui circunstanciada”; Landín Carrasco and Sánchez Masiá, “El viaje redondo de Alonso de Arellano,” 490.
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29. The quote is from Arellano, “Relación mui circunstanciada.”
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30. Arellano, “Relación mui circunstanciada.”
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31. Quote from Arellano, “Relación mui circunstanciada.”
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10. Fall from Glory
1. The quote is from Acosta, Natural and Moral History of the Indies, 108. Economic historians Dennis O. Flynn and Arturo Giráldez have rightfully dated the start of the much-debated process of globalization precisely to 1571, when the Spanish established Manila as an entrepôt, and the five continents finally came to be connected. Dennis O. Flynn and Arturo Giráldez, “Cycles of Silver: Globalization as Historical Process,” World Economics 3, no. 2 (April–June 2002): 1–2. On the Anglo-American takeover, see Benito Legarda Jr., After the Galleons: Foreign Trade, Economic Change and Entrepreneurship in the Nineteenth-Century Philippines (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1999), esp. chaps. 5, 8, and 9; John Mayo, Commerce and Contraband on Mexico’s West Coast in the Era of Barron, Forbes & Co., 1821–1859 (New York: Peter Lang, 2006); and Vera Valdés Lakowsky, De las minas al mar: Historia de la plata mexicana en Asia, 1565–1834 (Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1987), 138–48.
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2. The quote is from Juan de Borja, Spanish ambassador in Portugal, n.p., 1565, “Cartas de Juan de Borja,” AGI, Patronato, 46, R. 8. As mentioned earlier, Borja’s letters provide information conveyed through Portuguese channels, often adding unique details. The first published account referred excitedly to the “venturous discovery and marvelous things that have happened” and predicted “a great benefit to the whole of Christendom.” “Copia de una carta venida de Sevilla a Miguel Salvador de Valencia, la cual narra el venturoso descubrimiento,” passim. By 1566, when the letter was published in Barcelona, Urdaneta’s return was also known, so the letter writer refers to both. In his Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas published in 1609, Antonio de Morga raises the possibility that Don Alonso and Lope Martín may have attempted to claim the reward. Antonio de Morga, Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas (Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2007), 17.
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3. On the provisions of the San Pedro, see logbook of Esteban Rodríguez, in CDIU 2, document 34; and above all the “Registro de la nao San Pedro,” transcribed in its entirely in García-Abásolo, “Compañeros y continuadores de Urdaneta,” 455–58. See also Amancio Landín Carrasco and Luis Sánchez Masiá, “Urdaneta y la vuelta de poniente,” in Landín Carrasco, Descubrimientos españoles en el Mar del Sur, 495. On the numbers of deaths and men still able to help, see the logbook of pilot Rodrigo de Espinosa, entry for October 1, 1565, in CDIU 2, document 34.
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4. The first quote is from Esteban de Salazar (1532–1596), who was Urdaneta’s contemporary and knew him well. Esteban de Salazar, Veinte discursos sobre el Credo en declaración de nuestra Sancta Fe Catholica y Doctrina Christiana (Seville: Imprenta de Andrea Pescioni y Juan de León, 1586), 61. The same fragment of Salazar’s work is quoted by Friar Gaspar de San Agustín in Conquistas de las Islas Filipinas, 1565–1615, 374–75. The last two quotes are from Friar Juan de Grijalva, Crónica de la Orden de N.P.S. Agustín en las provincias de la Nueva España, 264.
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5. Quotes from Gabriel Díaz, treasurer of the Casa de Moneda in Mexico City and legal representative of Commander Legazpi, accusation against Don Alonso de Arellano, Mexico City, November 7, 1565, in CDIU 2, document 37.
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6. Gabriel Díaz, legal representative of Commander Legazpi, second accusation against Don Alonso de Arellano and others, Mexico City, November 11, 1565, in CDIU 2, document 37.
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7. Quote from Gabriel Díaz, second accusation against Don Alonso de Arellano and others.
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8. Reference to the Villalobos incident and commentary by editor Martín Fernández de Navarrete in CDIU 3:15–16. For a broader perspective on methods used to discipline the crew, see Pérez-Mallaína, Spain’s Men of the Sea, chap. 5.
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9. The quotes are from piloto mayor Esteban Rodríguez’s logbook, entry for December 1–3, 1564, in CDIU 2, document 33; pilot Pierres Plín’s logbook, same dates, “Derroteros y relaciones de los pilotos del viaje a Filipinas,” AGI, Patronato, 23, R. 16; and pilots Jaymes Martínez Fortún and Diego Martín’s logbook, same dates, AGI, MP-Filipinas, 2. See also the very reasonable analysis in https://ilustresmarinos.wordpress.com/2014/01/10/el-pleito-que-perdio-arellano-i-los-derroteros-que-exoneran-al-san-lucas/#sdendnote14sym. The final quote is from Arellano, “Relación mui circunstanciada.” Throughout this book I have identified this last document as Don Alonso’s account. Strictly speaking, the signatories of this account included pilot Lope Martín, boatswain Juan Yáñez, and sailor Juan de Bayona as well as Don Alonso. Even a cursory reading of this account, however, makes clear that it was written from Don Alonso’s perspective and always refers to the pilot and the others in the third person.
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10. The contingency plan appears in Commander Miguel López de Legazpi, Pacific Ocean, November 25, 1564, AGI, Patronato, 23, R. 16. For a full transcription, see document 20 in Hidalgo Nuchera, Los primeros de Filipinas, 138–39. See chapter 4 for more details about this part of the voyage. It is possible to make the argument that by going to between eight and nine degrees of latitude, the San Lucas remained a tad too far south of the agreed route. It probably never climbed to ten degrees, as Don Alonso and Lope Martín themselves declared that they had struck Mindanao at nine degrees. In my view, if they had truly wished to abscond, they would have steered either farther north or farther south and never have remained within a range where they could actually have been found.
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11. The quote is from Arellano, “Relación mui circunstanciada.” Mariano Cuevas arrives at the same conclusion. “In truth, we do not find any fault in Arellano’s conduct,” he writes, later adding that the men’s actions reveal a sincere desire to rejoin the fleet, “and it could not have been any other way because the hunger, thirst, the sick men, and the lack of arms forced them to such a course.” Cuevas, Monje y marino, 235–37.
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12. “Relación muy circunstanciada de lo ocurrido en el Real y Campo de la Isla de Zubu de las Islas Philipinas desde el 1 de junio de 1565 . . . hasta el mes de julio de 1567,” Cebu, Philippines, 1567, transcribed in CDIU 3, document 38. In all likelihood, the very capable French pilot Pierres Plín suggested such a destination, as he was one of the ringleaders, along with a Venetian corporal named Pablo Hernández and another man simply identified as Jorge the Greek.
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13. The quote is from “Relación muy circunstanciada de lo ocurrido en el Real y Campo de la Isla de Zubu de las Islas Philipinas desde el 1 de junio de 1565.” From this scant evidence, later historians have affirmed the existence of a cabal of conspirators, including Lope Martín, bent on “carrying out their piratical design before the sailing of the expedition.” Sharp, Adventurous Armada, 20.
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14. Although no document has surfaced clearing Don Alonso and Lope Martín of all charges, such an outcome can be inferred from the subsequent actions of the two men. Don Alonso was allowed to go to Spain, and Lope Martín was advanced an enormous sum of money. Mariano Cuevas also raises the possibility that Don Alonso’s high social standing may have swayed the Audiencia but concludes that its members were “honorable and just men,” adding, “To assume that they were closing their eyes to reality and shirking their duty is to give them too little credit.” Cuevas, Monje y marino, 236. I do not share Cuevas’s confidence in the Audiencia members, especially given earlier accusations of corruption as well as their secretive and deceptive proceedings at the start o
f the voyage.
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15. This part of the story is very difficult to piece together and is based on a few but very telling sources. The first quote is from Juan Martínez, a soldier aboard that follow-up expedition, “Relación detallada de los sucesos ocurridos . . . ,” Cebu, July 25, 1567, in CDIU 3, document 47. The second quote is from Juan de Borja, Spanish ambassador to Portugal, n.p., 1565, “Cartas de Juan de Borja,” AGI, Patronato, 46, R. 8. The initial plan of the Audiencia members was to repair the San Lucas and the San Pedro, recently arrived from the Philippines. The vessels were in such a state of disrepair, however, that by early November 1565, the Audiencia countermanded their previous order and decided to look for another vessel. See José Ignacio Rubio Mañé, “Más documentos relativos a la expedición de Miguel López de Legazpi a Filipinas,” and Rubio Mañé, “Más documentos relativos a la expedición de Miguel López de Legazpi a Filipinas, II (Concluye),” Boletín del Archivo General de la Nación 11, 2nd ser. (Mexico City, 1970): 83–156 and 453–556, respectively; and Salvador Bernabéu Albert, “Descubrimientos y desventuras del primer galeón del Pacífico: El San Jerónimo (1566),” in Filipinas y el Pacífico: Nuevas miradas, nuevas reflexiones, ed. Salvador Bernabéu Albert, Carmen Mena García, and Emilio José Luque Azcona (Seville: Editorial Universidad de Sevilla, 2016), 98–99.
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16. Pericón’s characterization is from Martínez, “Relación detallada de los sucesos ocurridos.” The second quote is from Juan de Borja, n.p., 1565, “Cartas de Juan de Borja,” AGI, Patronato, 46, R. 8.
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11. Survival and Revenge
1. Juan Martínez, soldier aboard the San Jerónimo, Cebu, July 25, 1567, “Relación detallada de los sucesos ocurridos durante el viaje de la nao San Jerónimo que salió de Acapulco . . .,” transcribed in CDIU 3, document 47. The original is at AGI, Patronato, 24, R. 2. For the likelihood of an El Niño event in 1565, see Ross Couper-Johnston, El Niño: The Weather Phenomenon That Changed the World (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 2000), xiii. The ship’s name is sometimes spelled San Gerónimo, a vessel of between 100 and 150 tons that had been in the water for about sixteen years—very old for ocean passages. Previously the San Jerónimo had been plying the Mexico–Peru route. See the discussion in Bernabéu Albert, “Descubrimientos y desventuras del primer galeón del Pacífico,” 100. It was sometimes referred to as a “galleon.” See Luis Sánchez Masiá, “La dramática aventura del ‘San Jerónimo,’ ” in Landín Carrasco, Descubrimientos españoles en el Mar del Sur, 519. For the number of travelers aboard the San Jerónimo, see the discussion in the text.
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2. All the quotes are from Martínez, “Relación detallada de los sucesos ocurridos durante el viaje de la nao San Jerónimo que salió de Acapulco.” On some of Captain’s Pericón’s antecedents in Málaga, see Bernabéu Albert, “Descubrimientos y desventuras del primer galeón del Pacífico,” 102. According to Martínez, the rumor was that Captain Pericón initially intended to go along with Lope Martín.
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3. All references are from Martínez, “Relación detallada de los sucesos ocurridos durante el viaje de la nao San Jerónimo que salió de Acapulco.” Martínez observes that Lope Martín may have been hurrying Captain Pericón because he feared that new orders from Mexico City would remove him as pilot of the San Jerónimo. This seems unlikely. On the preparations, see Rubio Mañé, “Más documentos relativos a la expedición de Miguel López de Legazpi a Filipinas, II (Concluye),” 540–43. On the sailing routes out of Acapulco and optimal timing, see Cornell, World Cruising Routes, 286.
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4. There is no consensus about the number of travelers aboard the San Jerónimo. Reporting on the voyage a few months after the fact, the Spanish ambassador to Portugal put the number at one hundred, split between sixty soldiers and forty sailors. Juan de Borja, n.p., n.d., “Cartas de Juan de Borja,” AGI, Patronato, 46, R. 8. By contrast, the soldier Martínez’s narrative, the main source for this voyage, implies that there may have been as many as 170, of whom 136 arrived in the Philippines, twenty-seven were marooned in the Marshall Islands, and at least five died along the way, although the author never provides an overall number. Martínez, “Relación detallada de los sucesos ocurridos durante el viaje de la nao San Jerónimo que salió de Acapulco.” Of the same opinion are Andrew Sharp in Adventurous Armada, 115, and Bernabéu Albert, “Descubrimientos y desventuras del primer galeón del Pacífico,” 104. The documentation regarding the provisioning of the San Jerónimo in Acapulco mentions seventy soldiers and fifteen additional travelers. Adding the crew, we would get to about 130. See José Ignacio Rubio Mañé, “La expedición de Miguel López de Legazpi a Filipinas,” Boletín del Archivo General de la Nación 5, nos. 3–4, 2nd ser. (Mexico City, 1964), documents 36 and 37. Given the overall dimensions of the San Jerónimo and the fact that Martínez never specifies the total number of men traveling aboard, I believe that 130 is the most reasonable figure. See also the discussion in Sánchez Masiá, “La dramática aventura del ‘San Jerónimo,’ ” 519.
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5. Martínez, “Relación detallada de los sucesos ocurridos durante el viaje de la nao San Jerónimo que salió de Acapulco.”
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6. The first quote is from Martínez, “Relación detallada de los sucesos ocurridos durante el viaje de la nao San Jerónimo que salió de Acapulco.” The other quotes are from Commander Miguel López de Legazpi, “Relación muy circunstanciada de lo ocurrido en el real . . .,” Cebu, July 10, 1567, in CDIU 3, document 52. Eventually when the San Jerónimo made it to Cebu, Legazpi was able to interview some of the survivors about what had happened. On Captain Pericón’s greed, see Bernabéu Albert, “Descubrimientos y desventuras del primer galeón del Pacífico,” 103.
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7. All the quotes are from Martínez, “Relación detallada de los sucesos ocurridos durante el viaje de la nao San Jerónimo que salió de Acapulco.”
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8. Martínez, “Relación detallada de los sucesos ocurridos durante el viaje de la nao San Jerónimo que salió de Acapulco.”
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9. The first two quotes are from Legazpi, “Relación muy circunstanciada de lo ocurrido en el real.” The remaining quotes are from Martínez, “Relación detallada de los sucesos ocurridos durante el viaje de la nao San Jerónimo que salió de Acapulco.”
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10. Martínez, “Relación detallada de los sucesos ocurridos durante el viaje de la nao San Jerónimo que salió de Acapulco.”
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11. Martínez, “Relación detallada de los sucesos ocurridos durante el viaje de la nao San Jerónimo que salió de Acapulco.” Pentecost marks fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, when, according to the Bible, the Holy Spirit descended on his disciples and urged them to evangelize.
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12. Quotes from Martínez, “Relación detallada de los sucesos ocurridos durante el viaje de la nao San Jerónimo que salió de Acapulco.”
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13. Martínez, “Relación detallada de los sucesos ocurridos durante el viaje de la nao San Jerónimo que salió de Acapulco.”
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14. The quotes are from Martínez, “Relación detallada de los sucesos ocurridos durante el viaje de la nao San Jerónimo que salió de Acapulco.” Rodrigo del Angle is sometimes rendered as Rodrigo del Langle. See also Bernabéu Albert, “Descubrimientos y desventuras del primer galeón del Pacífico,” 103.
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15. Martínez, “Relación detallada de los sucesos ocurridos durante el viaje de la nao San Jerónimo que salió de Acapulco.”
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16. Martínez, “Relación detallada de los sucesos ocurridos durante el viaje de la nao San Jerónimo que salió de Acapulco.” See also Sharp, Adventurous Armada, 123–24.
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17. The quotes are from Martínez, “Relación detallada de los sucesos ocurridos durante el viaje de la
nao San Jerónimo que salió de Acapulco.” Pablo Pérez-Mallaína was the first to call Lope Martín a “true ‘Lope de Aguirre’ of the Pacific.” Pérez-Mallaína, Spain’s Men of the Sea, 41.
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18. Martínez, “Relación detallada de los sucesos ocurridos durante el viaje de la nao San Jerónimo que salió de Acapulco.” The San Jerónimo had remained at nine or ten degrees of latitude. Earlier in the voyage it had passed very close to Clipperton Island. See the discussion in Sánchez Masiá, “La dramática aventura del ‘San Jerónimo,’ ” 524–26; and Bernabéu Albert, “Descubrimientos y desventuras del primer galeón del Pacífico,” 108.
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19. Martínez, “Relación detallada de los sucesos ocurridos durante el viaje de la nao San Jerónimo que salió de Acapulco.” See also Sharp, Adventurous Armada, 123–24.
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20. Martínez, “Relación detallada de los sucesos ocurridos durante el viaje de la nao San Jerónimo que salió de Acapulco.” The identification of Ujelang Atoll as the place where the San Jerónimo came to rest is the most standard interpretation. For example, see Sharp, Adventurous Armada, 127–28; Sánchez Masiá, “La dramática aventura del ‘San Jerónimo,’ ” 528; and Richard V. Williamson and Donna K. Stone, Archaeological Survey of Rongelap Atoll (Majuro Atoll: Republic of the Marshall Islands Historic Preservation Office, 2001), 5.
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21. All quotes are from Martínez, “Relación detallada de los sucesos ocurridos durante el viaje de la nao San Jerónimo que salió de Acapulco.” See also Legazpi, “Relación muy circunstanciada de lo ocurrido en el real”; and Sharp, Adventurous Armada, 129–31.
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22. Martínez, “Relación detallada de los sucesos ocurridos durante el viaje de la nao San Jerónimo que salió de Acapulco.” See also Sharp, Adventurous Armada, 128–31. Lope Martín reportedly said that Cortés had “burned” the ships when in fact he had had them sunk; he was already getting some of the details of the story wrong.
Conquering the Pacific Page 29