Ruy López de Villalobos

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Ruy López de Villalobos
Bornc. 1500
Portuguese East Indies
Known forSometimes credited with naming the Philippines

Ruy López de Villalobos (Spanish pronunciation:

Philippine Archipelago and its nation. (Other sources credit the name to one of his captains, Bernardo de la Torre
.)

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

The plaque in Málaga, Spain, Villalobos's home town, commemorating his naming of the Philippines.

Villalobos was commissioned in 1541 by

by marriage.[2]

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]

The large number of passengers included a unit of soldiers and a number of gentlemen, who brought

priests and 4 or 5 deacons.[4]

The fleet first encountered the

Revilla Gigedo Islands off the west coast of Mexico, among which the sighting of Roca Partida was reported for the first time. On 26 December 1542 they sighted a group of islands in the Marshalls that they called the Corals (Corales), which most probably are those of the Wotje Atoll. They thought these to be the Islands of the Kings (Los Reyes) previously charted by Álvaro de Saavedra in his 1528 expedition. They anchored at one of the islets, which they named San or Santo Esteban ("St. Stephen").[2] They left on 6 January 1543 and that same day they sighted several small islands on the same latitude as the Corals, which they named the Garden Islands (Los Jardines),[2] now the Kwajalein Atoll. On 23 January 1543,[2] the expedition found Fais in the Carolines, which they charted as the Sailors (Matelotes).[b] On 26 January 1543, they charted some new islands as the Reefs (Los Arrecifes) which have since been identified as the Yaps, also part of the Carolines.[5][6]

According to

pilot Juan Gaetan, credited by La Perouse for the discovery of Hawaii.[7] Gaetan's voyage was described in similar terms in 1753 with the same sequence of islands and no identification of any others known by the time of the account.[8] In 1825, the Portuguese geographer Casado Giraldes stated that the "Sandwich Islands"—i.e. the Hawaiian Islands—were discovered by Gaetan in 1542 and did not even mention James Cook.[9]

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

crown prince Philip
(later King Philip II).

On 7 August a Portuguese ship arrived with a letter from Jorge de Castro, governor of the

Moluccas. De Castro demanded an explanation for the presence of the Spaniards in Portuguese territory, in response to which Villalobos drafted a letter dated 9 August. His letter repeated the Spanish claims to the islands, saying they were within the Demarcation Line of the Crown of Castile under the relevant treaties.[15]

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

Abuyog on Leyte[citation needed] with the San Juan and San Cristóbal, his two remaining ships,[citation needed] but again failed to make headway against unfavorable winds. The natives refused to provide any supplies even for sail, fearing Portuguese retribution.[11]

In April 1544[

Moluccas
but, quarrelling with the Portuguese, were imprisoned.

Villalobos died of a

Some 117 of the crew survived, including De Mafra, Juan Gaetan, and

circumnavigators
of the world, although the expedition itself did not accomplish that.

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

  1. ^ 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]
  2. ^ 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]
  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

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