MIGUEL Lopez de Legazpi[i]
and his men were getting hungry and desperate when they anchored in Cabalian on
the fifth day of March, 1565. Their
earlier search for food had been futile, and they were met with hostility by
the natives wherever they landed.
After
sailing for 62 days from Spain, they made it to the islands called ‘Ladrones’,
anchored for 11 days in an unsuccessful bid to provision themselves, then set
sail again for 11 days, till they were finally within sight of Filipinas. They
anchored in the beautiful bay of the land known as ‘Cibabaw’ (Samar), made
contact with the natives and again tried to negotiate for food. In the
historian Medina’s[ii]
account, ‘the natives showed themselves very well satisfied at everything, and
agreed to everything without repugnance or opposition.’[iii]
He said the natives promised Legazpi the food ‘generously and willingly,’[iv]
which the latter probably understood in the Castilian palabra de honor.
They
waited till the next day, believing that the natives would be true to their
word, ‘since the promise had been made with so many appearances of affection.’[v]
Sure enough the natives came, but brought no more than one cock and an egg, saying
they were collecting the other food in their towns. The best present they gave
Legazpi was a suckling pig and a piece of cheese which, unless a miracle
happened, was impossible to feed the entire fleet.[vi]
So after five days, Legaspi
set sail again, rounded the southern tip of Cibabaw, and went some 30 leagues
(144 kilometers) west, then anchored on a bay they named San Pedro. Here as in
the previous two landing sites, they had tried to make friends with the
natives, cultivate friendship with the
nephew of Tandayag and went through the customary blood compact with the hope
of getting provisions through barter.
Because the young man demonstrated
friendship, they had no reason to doubt his sincerity. So Legazpi sent him home
with plenty of gifts, hoping he would return with the chief of the place. But the nephew of Tandayag did not return and
Tandayag himself never showed up. So he sent Captain Martin Goiti in his
frigate down the coast of the island to find out if there were better ports to
anchor.[vii] (To be continued)
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[i]
Miguel Lopez de Legazpi was born in Zubarraja in Guipuzcoa in the early part of
the 16th century, of an old and noble family. He went to Mexico in
1545, where he became chief clerk of the cabildo of the city of Mexico. Being
selected to take charge of the expedition of 1564, he succeeded by his great
wisdom, patience and forbearance, in gaining the good will of the natives. He
founded Manila where he died of apoplexy August 20, 1572. Navarete says that
Legazpi was 59 years old when the fleet set sail in 1564. [Emma Helen
Blair and James Alexander Robertson, The
Philippine Islands, 1493 – 1803,
Volume II, p. 83]
[ii]
Fray Juan de Medina was born at Sevilla, and entered the Augustinian convent of
that city. On reaching the Philippines, he was assigned to the Bisayan group,
and was known to those natives by the name ‘the aposle of Panay.’ A zealous
worker, he was wont to preach to his flock in three languages – Bisayan,
Chinese and Spanish. He was minister at Laglag in 1613, at Mambusao in 1615, at
Dumangas in 1618, at Panay in 1619, and at Passi in 1623; prior of the convent
at Cebu in 1626 and definitor in 1629. After 23 years of missionary work, he
asked to return to spring. He died while at sea in 1635 three years later after
he was prevented to make a trip earlier due to bad weather. Medina composed
many things, but only his work on history and four volumes of manuscript
sermons in Panayana have survived. [1629 – 1630, Medina’s Historia, Emma Helen Blair
and James Alexander Robertson,
The Philippine Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume XXIII, p. 121.]
[iv]
Ibid
[v]
Ibid
[vi]
de Legazpi, Miguel Lopez, “Relation of the Voyage to the Philippine
Islands, – 1565,” Emma Helen
Blair and James Alexander Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1493 – 1803,
Volume II, p. 196
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