Ruy López de Villalobos
Ruy López de Villalobos | |
---|---|
Born | c. 1500 Portuguese East Indies |
Known for | Sometimes credited with naming the Philippines |
Ruy López de Villalobos (Spanish pronunciation:
Background
Ruy López de Villalobos was born in Málaga, Spain sometime between 1505 and 1510. He was a member of a distinguished family and his father was a close associate of the king, Ferdinand II of Aragon. He was well educated and may have studied law. At some point he became an experienced mariner and Pedro de Alvarado referred to him as "a very expert and practical gentleman in things of the sea."[1]
Philippine Expedition
Villalobos was commissioned in 1541 by
Villalobos's fleet of six ships left Barra de Navidad, Jalisco, in New Spain (now Mexico) with 370–400 men on 1 November 1542:[2]
- His flagship (capitana) was the Santiago of 150–200 pilot (piloto mayor).[4]
- The second ship—the fleet's almiranta—was the 120-tonelada galleon San Jorge, equipped with a cutwater (espolón) and under the command of Bernardo de la Torre and his pilot Alonso Fernández Tarifeño.[4]
- The third ship of 90–100 toneladas is variously referenced as the San Anton, the San Antonio, the San Felipe, and the Siete Galigos ("Seven Greyhounds"). It was captained by Francisco Merino and piloted by Francisco Ruiz.[4]
- The fourth ship of 70 toneladas was the San Juan de Letrán under Alonso Manrique, piloted by Ginés de Mafra,[4] who had been a member of the 1519–1522 Magellan expedition.
- The fifth was the galley San Cristóbal under Pedro Ortíz de Rueda, piloted by Antonio Corço and powered by sails and 20 pairs of oars.[4]
- The last was the fusta San Martín under Juan Martel, piloted by Cristóbal de Pareja and powered by sails and 14 pairs of oars.[4][a]
The large number of passengers included a unit of soldiers and a number of gentlemen, who brought
The fleet first encountered the
According to
From 6–23 January 1543, the galley San Cristóbal—now piloted by De Mafra—was separated from the other ships after a severe storm. It eventually reached the island of Mazaua, where Magellan had anchored in 1521. The area has since been identified as Limasawa in southern Leyte. Its history was subsequently recorded in 1667 by the Jesuit priest Francisco Combés.[10][failed verification]
Although he was attempting to reach
On 7 August a Portuguese ship arrived with a letter from Jorge de Castro, governor of the
On 27 August the San Juan left for New Spain under De la Torre, directed to explain the expedition's difficulties and request additional supplies and reinforcements. A second letter from De Castro arrived in the first week of September; Villalobos's reply dated 12 September repeated the same claims as before. The San Juan—having passed the
In April 1544[
Villalobos died of a
Some 117 of the crew survived, including De Mafra, Juan Gaetan, and
The inaccurate accounts of Villalobos and his men led Spain to believe that the Pacific was much smaller than it actually was for the rest of the 16th century.[20]
Notes
- ^ At some places in the surviving accounts, the name Santiago is also used for both the San Cristóbal and the San Martín. Similarly, the San Martín is sometimes confused with the San Cristóbal.[4]
- ^ Quite surprisingly for the Spaniards, upon their arrival to Fais the local people approached the ships in canoes making the sign of the cross and saying "Buenos días, matelotes!" ("Good day, sailors!") in Spanish or Portuguese, probably due to missionaries sent by António Galvão.[3]
- ^ Villalobos is sometimes—entirely incorrectly—credited with the discovery of Iwo Jima, the other Volcano Islands, and/or the Bonin Islands[16][17] but was not part of the San Juan's voyage.
References
Citations
- ^ Shaw.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Dunmore (1991), s.v. "Villalobos".
- ^ a b c Spate (1979), p. 97.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Kelsey (2016), p. 63.
- ^ Coello (1885), pp. 82–87.
- ^ Sharp (1960), pp. 26 & 29.
- ^ Spate (1979).
- ^ De Hondt (1753).
- ^ Giraldes (1825), p. 26.
- ^ Bernad (2004).
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Spate (1979), p. 98.
- ^ Villamor & al. (1920), p. 260.
- ^ Agoncillo & al. (1975), p. 78.
- ^ Nuval & al. (1986), p. 18.
- ^ Scott (1985), p. 51.
- ^ Cholmondeley (1915), p. 5.
- ^ Dobson (1998).
- ^ Scott (1985), p. 54.
- ^ Quanchi (2005), p. 247.
- ^ Spate (1979), p. 100.
Bibliography
- Agoncillo, Teodoro A.; et al. (1975), History of the Filipino People, Quezon City: R.P. Garcia.
- Bernad, Miguel Anselmo (2004), The Great Island—Studies in the Exploration and Evangelization of Mindanao, ISBN 9789715504690.
- Blair, Emma Helen, ed. (1903). The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803, Volume 02 of 55, 1521-1569. The Arthur H. Clark Company.
- Cholmondeley, Lionel Berners (1915), The History of the Bonin Islands..., London: Constable & Co.
- Coello, Francisco (1885), La Cuestión de las Carolinas: Discursos Pronunciados en la Sociedad Geográfica de Madrid... (in Spanish), Madrid: Imprenta Fontanet.
- De Hondt, Peter (1753), Histoire Generale des Voyages... (in French), vol. 16.
- Dobson, Sebastian (June 1998), "A Chronology of the Bonin Islands", Nihongo Kenkyu Sentaa Hokoku [Reports of the Japanese Language Research Center], vol. 6, p. 21.
- Dunmore, John (1991), Who's Who in Pacific Navigation, Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, ISBN 9780824883942.
- Giraldes, Joaquim Casado (1825), Tratado Completo de Cosmographia e Geographia (in Portuguese), vol. 1.
- Kelsey, Harry (1986). "Finding the Way Home: Spanish Exploration of the Round-Trip Route across the Pacific Ocean". The Western Historical Quarterly. 17 (2): 145–164. ISSN 0043-3810.
- Kelsey, Harry (2016), The First Circumnavigators: Unsung Heroes of the Age of Discovery, New Haven: Yale University Press.
- Noone, Martin J. (1986). The discovery and conquest of the Philippines: 1521 - 1581. General history of the Philippines. Manila: Historical Conservation Society. ISBN 978-971-10-2410-9.
- Nuval, Leonard Q.; et al. (1986), The Claretians in the Philippines, 1946–1986, Claret Seminary Foundation.
- Quanchi, Max (2005), Historical Dictionary of the Discovery and Exploration of the Pacific Islands, Scarecrow Press, ISBN 0810853957.
- Scott, William Henry (1985), Cracks in the Parchment Curtain, ISBN 971-10-0073-3.
- Sharp, Andrew (1960), The Discovery of the Pacific Islands, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Shaw, Carlos Martinez. "Ruy Lopez de Villalobos". Real Academia de la Historia (in Spanish).
- Spate, Oskar Hermann Khristian (1979), The Spanish Lake, Canberra: Australian National University Press, ISBN 9781920942168.
- Villamor, Ignacio; et al., eds. (1920), Census of the Philippine Islands..., Vol. I: Geography, History, and Climatology, Manila: Census Office of the Philippine Islands.