1

Mastering Boston Harbor: Courts, Dolphins, and Imperiled Waters Harvard University Press Charles M. Haar Year: 2005 Language: english File: PDF, 1.54 MB Your tags: 0 / 0

2

The Roots of Evil Cornell University Press John Kekes Year: 2005 Language: english File: PDF, 866 KB Your tags: 0 / 0

basque studies/philippine history

Praise for Basques in the Philippines

T

he Basques played a remarkably influential role in the creation
and maintenance of Spain’s colonial establishment in the Philippines. Their skills as shipbuilders and businessmen, their evangelical zeal, and their ethnic cohesion and work-oriented culture made them successful as explorers, colonial administrators, missionaries, merchants, and settlers. They continued to play prominent roles in the governance and economy of
the archipelago until the end of Spanish sovereignty, and their descendants still
contribute in significant ways to the culture and economy of the contemporary
Philippines. This book offers important new information about a little-known
aspect of Philippine history and the influence of Basque immigration in the
Spanish Empire, and it fills an important void in the literature of the Basque
diaspora.

Marciano R. de Borja is a career diplomat in the Philippine Foreign
Service. He has served in the Philippine embassies in Japan, Chile, and Spain
and was director for the United States Division in the Department of Foreign
Affairs in Manila. He is currently minister at the Philippine Mission to the
United Nations in New York.

Basques in the Philippines

“This book will throw a lot of light on our Spanish past. . . . It is amazing to read
about the Basque descendants who have thoroughly become part and parcel of
Philippine society.”					
—Philippine Star

De Borja

Basques
in t he
Philippines

Universit y of Nevada Press
Photographs (clockwise from left): Legazpi-Urdaneta Monument;
Puente Colgante; family of Paulino Aboitiz, 1901; and view of Makati.
Courtesy of Filipinas Heritage Library, Philippines; Andoni F. Aboitiz;
and Antonio M. de Ynchausti.
Cover design: Erin Kirk New

Marciano R. de Borja
Nevada

foreword by william a. douglass

The Basque Series

M A R C I A N O R . D E B O R JA

Basques in the Philippines
f o r e wo r d b y w i l l i a m a . d o u g l as s

University of Nevada Press

Reno, Las Vegas

; The Basque Series

The paper used in this book is a recycled

Series Editor: William A. Douglass

stock made from 30 percent post-consumer

University of Nevada Press,

waste materials, certified by fsc, and meets

Reno, Nevada 89557 usa

the requirements of American National

Copyright © 2005 by

Standard for Information Sciences—

University of Nevada Press

Permanence of Paper for Printed Library

All rights reserved

Materials, ansi/niso z39.48-1992 (r2002).

Manufactured in the United States of

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America

and durability.

Library of Congress

University of Nevada Press

Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Paperback Edition, 2012

De Borja, Marciano R., 1966–

21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12

Basques in the Philippines / Marciano R.

5

4

3

2

1

de Borja ; foreword by William A.
Douglass. — 1st ed.

isbn-13: 978-0-87417-590-5

p. cm. — (The Basque series)

(cloth: alk. paper)

Includes bibliographical references

isbn-13: 978-0-87417-883-8

and index.

(pbk. : alk. paper)

isbn 0-87417-590-9 (hardcover : alk. paper)

isbn-13: 978-0-87417-891-3

1. Basques—Philippines­—History. I. Title.

(ebook)

II. Series.
ds666.b33d4 2005
959.9’0049992­—dc22

2004018176

For Atoy, Angel, and Agatha

Contents

List of Illustrations

ix

Foreword

xi

Preface

xiii

Acknowledgments

xvii

Chapter One

The Basque People

1

Chapter Two

Initial Contacts

7

Chapter Three The Legazpi-Urdaneta Expedition

17

Chapter Four

Conquerors

30

Chapter Five

Missionaries

40

Chapter Six

Galleon Traders and Merchants

58

Chapter Seven In Defense of Spanish Sovereignty

75

Chapter Eight

Nineteenth-Century Settlers and Entrepreneurs

84

Chapter Nine

During the American and Japanese Occupations

106

Chapter Ten

Descendants in Philippine Society

116

Conclusion

138

Appendix

143

Notes

149

Bibliography

167

Index

177

Illustrations

Map of The Basque Country xii
( following page 74)
Legazpi-Urdaneta monument
Legazpi tomb
Simón de Anda monument
Banco Español-Filipino
Map of Major areas of Basque immigration and settlement
Puente Colgante
Rope factory of Ynchausti & Company
Port of Iloilo
Marcelo de Azcárraga
José Rizal
Puente de Ayala
Family of Paulino Aboitiz, 1901
Jai alai fronton
Manuel María de Ynchausti
Makati, 1969

Foreword

As quintessential medieval shipbuilders and mariners, Basques played a key role in
Spain’s expeditionary voyages of discovery and conquest—beginning with those of
Christopher Columbus. It is equally documented that Basque mariners, mercenaries, missionaries, and merchants were represented disproportionately (with regards
to Iberian regional demography) in the annals of Spanish colonial history. Furthermore, in disparate times and places throughout the empire, and particularly in several Latin American colonies, Basques displayed a propensity to act as a self-aware and
mutually supporting ethnic group whose interests could diverge from those of distant
Madrid and non-Basque locals alike. In sixteenth-century Potosí and eighteenthcentury Caracas this engendered resentment that culminated in violent anti-Basque
backlashes. In sum, whether Basques acted as handmaidens of empire or its subverter, the contributions of the Basque diaspora in many parts of the globe are now
reasonably well documented.
This scholarly awareness includes the Philippines. However, until the present
study by Marciano R. de Borja, our understanding of the island nation’s Basque
presence has been fragmentary and focused largely on the larger-than-life figures of
a few personages. This is ironic since it might be argued that in no other destination
has the influence of Basque immigration been greater and more sustained. It is a
history initiated by Europe’s first contact with the Philippines as personified in Juan
Sebastián Elcano (from the Gipuzkoan coastal village of Getaria) and reflected in the
continuing importance within Philippine society of the influential Ayala, Elizalde,
and Aboitiz families (among others). The importance of the story is further underscored by the uniqueness of the area within Spanish colonial history. In the aftermath of the successful independence movement in continental Latin America, for
the remainder of the nineteenth century the Philippines (along with Cuba and
Puerto Rico) provided the only “internal” overseas destination for Spanish citizens.
Consequently, it remained an outpost for the continuing flow of Iberian-based administrators, clerics, and businessmen. Since rural Basques were on the losing side
in Spain’s Carlist wars, the Philippines also attracted some Basque political refugees.
In sum, within Basque diasporic history the Philippine experience exhibits certain
particularities that can only be understood in their own terms. The present excellent
work represents the first comprehensive overview of a heretofore missing chapter.

w i l l i a m a . d o u g l as s

The Basque Country

Preface

This work is an initial attempt to reconstruct the story of the Basques in the Philippines from the arrival of the first Basques in the archipelago in 1521 with the
Magellan expedition to the present Basque descendants. It is a study of Basque immigrants in the Philippines and an acknowledgment of their contribution to Philippine nationhood—a significant but unexplored topic in Philippine society and culture.
Most of the people who spearheaded and monopolized the expeditions and the
colonization of the New World and the Philippines came from the Kingdom of
Castille. Thus, in the Philippines the Spaniards are generally called “Kastila” without distinguishing their regional origin. In truth, regional identities are well delineated in Spain. Apart from the castellanos, other groups participated actively in
the enterprise of discovering, colonizing, evangelizing, and finally settling the vast
Spanish possessions overseas. There were the gallegos from Galicia, the catalanes
from Catalonia, the andaluces from Andalucia, and, of course, the vascos, or
euskaldunak, from the Basque Country.
The incorporation of the Basque provinces of Araba, Gipuzkoa, and Bizkaia into
the Kingdom of Castille during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries allowed the
Basques to participate later in the colonial undertakings of the Spanish crown. The
discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492 had a great impact
on the Basque economy and later on the emigrant spirit of the Basques. There was a
great demand for iron from the Basque foundries. The majority of the ships destined
to ply the commercial sea routes of the Spanish colonies were also constructed in
Basque shipyards.
During the rise and fall of the Spanish Empire, the Basques played a decisive role
in the conquest of the Americas and also of the Philippines. They supplied the Spanish monarchy with soldiers, navigators, merchants, bureaucrats, and missionaries.
Some of their descendants heroically defended the interests of the Spanish crown
and fended off the encroachment of foreign powers. Others like Simón Bolívar
would lead the South American colonies to independence.
If we examine the pages of Philippine history books that recount the Spanish
maritime expeditions and colonial regime (1521–1898), we find that the Basques
played a leading role in the colonization, evangelization, and administration of the
archipelago. Men like Juan Sebastián Elcano, Andrés de Urdaneta, Miguel López de
Legazpi, Juan de Salcedo, Martín de Goiti, and Guido de Lavezares represented the

xiv Preface
Basque energy, industry, and audacity that laid the foundation of Spanish sovereignty in the Philippines.
The first bishop of Manila, Domingo de Salazar, was a Basque. Other distinguished missionaries during the early years of Spanish evangelization of the Philippines were Basques, including Andrés de Aguirre, Diego de Herrera, Martín de
Rada, and Pedro Arce. Basque merchants and capitalists actively participated in the
Manila-Acapulco galleon trade. Some of them would form the nucleus of the Royal
Economic Society of the Friends of the Country during the latter part of the eighteenth century. The Royal Philippine Company, a state trading company founded in
1785, was actually a successor of the Royal Guizpuzcoan Company of Caracas, a
Basque trading company that monopolized colonial trade in Venezuela.
During the British invasion of Manila in 1762, a Basque stood out in resisting the
British forces even as the Spaniards surrendered the city. He was Simón de Anda, a
native of Araba. He would later be appointed as governor-general of the Philippines
after the return of the archipelago to the Spanish crown.
The first bank in the Philippines and Southeast Asia, the Banco Español-Filipino
de Isabel II, now known as the Bank of the Philippine Islands, the biggest private
bank in the country, was established by the Basque governor-general Antonio de
Urbiztondo in 1851. The biggest commercial and trading firm in the Philippines
during the second half of the nineteenth century was Ynchausti y Compañía, owned
by the Basque Joaquín José de Ynchausti. During the 1870s, international shipping
in the Philippines was dominated by the Olano, Larrinaga y Compañía, a Basque
shipping firm based in Liverpool, England.
In the two immortal novels of Philippine national hero José Rizal (1861–1896)—
Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo (works that inspired the Philippine revolution against Spain in 1896 and 1898)—the leading character, Crisóstomo Ibarra, is of
Basque ancestry. This is probably a tribute to Basque ubiquitousness within the
Philippine society during his time. During World War II, some Basques such as
Higinio de Uriarte joined the guerrilla movement against the Japanese imperial
forces and provided the Allied forces with valuable intelligence.
Looking at the present, we cannot but marvel at the continuity in leadership provided by Basque descendants in various aspects of Philippine life, particularly in
economic and political spheres. The Aboitiz, Araneta, Arrespacochaga, Ayala, Bilbao,
Eizmendi, Elizalde, Garchitorena, Isasi, Loyzaga, Luzuriaga, Moraza, Uriarte,
Ynchausti, Yulo, Zubiri, and Zuluaga families, among others, continue to occupy
privileged positions in contemporary Philippine society.
The Ayalas, for example, own a chain of blue chip companies with headquarters in
Makati, Manila’s financial center, whose famous avenue bears the name of the
family. The Aboitizes, on the other hand, are a dominating presence in the interisland shipping, energy, and telecommunication sectors. For their part, the
Luzuriagas founded Victorias Milling Corporation, during the American period the

Preface xv
largest producer of refined sugar in the Philippines. It also became one of the biggest
sugar companies in the world during the American regime.
Jai alai, which literally means “happy feast” in Euskara and is the name of a variant of Basque pelota, was for a long time a popular betting game in the Philippines.
The Manila fronton closed in 1986 and reopened briefly in 1998 only to be padlocked again a year and a half later. Despite a massive effort and protest to save it, the
building was ordered demolished by the Manila city government in September
2000. The controversial Basque sport may still stage a comeback.
Contemplating the current Philippine map, one will be surprised by the number
of Basque place-names. There are provinces, towns, and cities called Anda,
Garchitorena, Lavezares, Legazpi, Mondragon, Nueva Vizcaya, Pamplona, Urdaneta,
and Zumarraga. Many of Manila’s streets also carry Basque names. Among them
are Ayala, Arlegui, Barrengoa, Bilbao, Durango, Echague, Elizondo, Gaztambide,
Goiti, Guernica, Mendiola, Oscariz, and many more. They are only some of the
visible manifestations of the Basque presence in the country. How can we ignore the
contribution of this group who exerted tremendous influence in the political, economic, religious, and social development of the Philippines?
The process of singling out the Basques’ achievements or failures among the several ethnic groups that make up the Spanish population in the Philippines is not a
simple task inasmuch as their actions and interests were intertwined with the general colonial activity and policy of the Spanish crown. Still, their exploits and outlook differentiated them from other Spanish settlers. Despite their small number,
they maintained their strong ethnic identity and never fully assimilated themselves
with others from the Iberian Peninsula. Such aloof and reticent behavior sometimes
facilitated my research.
I wish to clarify from the outset that this book deals mainly with the Basques
from the Spanish side of the Basque Country, covering the four provinces of Araba,
Gipuzkoa, Bizkaia, and Navarre, although there is a sporadic mention of French
Basques and those who came to the Philippines from the Spanish colonies in the
New World. Lastly, aside from learning about the Basques’ presence in the Philippines, it is also interesting to find out how many Filipinos today can trace their roots
to an immigrant Basque ancestor and how many Basques can still identify their own
families’ or their relatives’ descendants in the Philippines.

Acknowledgments

I could have not written this book if not for the valuable assistance of various institutions and people. I wish therefore to thank the Agencia Española de Cooperación
Internacional of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Fundación General
Mediterránea for the scholarships granted to me so that I could undertake graduate
studies at the University of Navarra. Others in Spain to whom I am grateful include
the late Ronald Escobedo Mancilla, my thesis adviser; José Luis Illueca, then vice
president of Philip Morris (España); my relatives Danny and Ester Pascual, for allowing me to stay with them while I did my research in Madrid; Ramón Herrando,
who provided me with moral support and fraternal guidance during my whole stay
in Spain; and Vice Consul Iric Arribas of the Philippine Embassy in Madrid.
I am grateful to several people in Chile, including Rodolfo A. Arizala, former Philippine ambassador to Chile; Pedro Aretxabala, former delegate of the Basque Country in Chile; Pedro Oyanguren, director of the Basque-Chilean Foundation for Development; and Juan Mendicute of the Eusko Etxea (Basque Center) in Santiago. All
of them provided me with useful information, encouragement, and advice.
In the Philippines, I was assisted by Antonio M. de Ynchausti and Andoni F.
Aboitiz, who generously shared information about their families and gave me a
general view of the Basque descendants in contemporary Philippine society. Special
thanks to Maritoni C. Ortigas and the Filipinas Heritage Library in Makati City
(Philippines) for providing me with various references and photos that make up
most of the pictorial section of this book.
I am especially indebted to William A. Douglass, former coordinator of the
Basque Studies Program (now Center for Basque Studies) of the University of Nevada, Reno, in the United States, for writing the foreword for this book and for
providing me with relevant documents and materials. Needless to say, any errors in
and shortcomings of this book are solely mine.
Last, I wish to thank my wife, Espie, for her love and for patiently listening to my
stories about the Basques for years and perhaps for many more years to come.

Basques in the Philippines

Chapter One
The Basque People

To be an authentic Basque, there are three requirements: to carry a sonorous
name that indicates the origin; to speak the language of the sons of Aitor, and
. . . to have an uncle in the Americas.
Pierre Lhande, s.j., L’Emigration basque, 1909

To Lhande’s description of the past emigrant vocation of the Basques, we can add “to
have an uncle in the Philippines,” since the Basque diaspora was not limited to the
Americas. A handful of Basques also migrated to, settled in, and left their indelible
mark on Philippine society. The saga of the Basques in the Philippines is by no
means negligible and is perhaps even more compelling and colorful than that of
their brethren and cousins who settled in Latin America and the American West.
In the Philippines the Basques played a decisive role in the establishment and
maintenance of Spanish sovereignty from 1565 to 1898. They stayed even after
Spain ceded the islands to the United States in December 1898. Even at present,
Basque descendants, while maintaining a low profile, still play a prominent role in
Philippine society. We cannot therefore thoroughly appreciate contemporary Philippine history and society without discussing the role of the Basques. Although they
formed part of the Spanish contingent that colonized the archipelago, the Basques
had a distinct character and remained outside the mainstream. They exhibited a
brand of heroism and ambition, sometimes bordering on the bizarre. Who are the
Basques? What is their character as a people? What makes them different from the
other Spaniards or French? What was their role in the creation of the Spanish Empire?
The Basques refer to themselves as euskaldunak, which means “speakers of
Euskara,” the Basque language. They call their homeland Euskal Herria, although
they have never had their own nation-state. They live in the seven traditional
Basque territories of Araba, Gipuzkoa, Bizkaia, and Navarre, which belong to Spain,
while Behe Nafarroa, Lapurdi, and Zuberoa are part of France. Together the Basque
Country has a total land area of 20,864 square kilometers. In the Basque context, the
territories located in Spain are known as Hegoalde (Land of the South), while those
situated in France are called Iparralde (Land of the North), or what the Anglophones
refer to as French Basque Country.

2

Basques in the Philippines

For centuries, the Basque people have been the object of numerous ethnographic,
historical, and linguistic studies. Some scholars claim that they were the first inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula and even the oldest surviving ethnic group in Europe.
But the Basques’ first claim to uniqueness is their language, Euskara, whose origin
is shrouded in mystery. Linguists are baffled by the fact that it is not related to the
Indo-European linguistic family or to any known language at all, though there were
serious attempts to compare it with such diverse tongues as Hungarian and Japanese. No linguistic affinities have yet been established. Remarkably, Euskara has
survived and even thrived, notwithstanding the strong influences of Latin, Spanish,
and French.
In addition, the Basque language has always been famed for its difficulty. The
Basques say that the Devil came to their country to learn it, but after seven years,
having got no further than bai (yes) and ez (no), he gave it up in disgust. They add
that he forgot even these two words as he was departing.1 Referring to the Basques’
pride in their language, the French writer Victor Hugo said, “The Basque language is
not just the nation, it is almost a religion.”2
Basques are normally identifiable by their sonorous surnames, which often refer
to places, such as Bilbao, Elizondo, Loyola, and Zumarraga. Although this kind of
surname formation is not unique to the Basques, what is surprising is that a great
number of Basque surnames are related to the homestead (eche, or etxe): Echeverria,
Echegoyen, Echegaray, Etcheverri, Echezarra, Echenique, Echeandia, and so forth;
and names of trees: for example, areitz, or aretx (oak), from which hundreds of
Basque surnames are derived: Areizaga, Aretxaga, Aresti, Arismendi, Aritegui, and
so on. Other surnames are rooted in geographical features—mountain (mendi), valley (ibar), prairie (larre), and valley (aran), to name just a few. Prominent examples
are Mendiburu, Ibarra, Larreta, and Arana. Basque surnames can also be a combination of the preceding.
Another distinctive trait of the Basques is the unusually high proportion of blood
type o (57 percent) and blood type a (41 percent), higher than in any European
population, as well as an almost complete absence of blood type b (1 percent) and ab
(nearly 0 percent). The Basques also manifest the highest occurrence of Rh negative
factor (about 42 percent) of any population in the world. Rh negative o blood, which
occurs frequently among Basques, is in high demand since it can be donated to any
individual. Many Basques therefore are in theory “universal blood donors.”
The Basques also exhibit physical features that differentiate them from other
Europeans. They have good height, a strong body, large legs, a wide back, fair skin,
brown eyes and hair, an oval face, aquiline nose, narrow jaw, bad teeth, small chin,
and a large temple behind the forehead. The Basques’ propensity for hard, manual
work and athletic abilities in sports and dances can be partly explained by these
physical attributes. Basques are also widely known for being independent-minded,
stubborn, adventurous, opportunistic, indomitable, and strongly attached to their

The Basque People 3
traditions. Other traits that could be added are hardworking, loyal, religious, courageous, persevering, and cheerful.
Basque culture has survived despite centuries of foreign influence, be it Roman,
Frank, Visigoth, Moor, Spanish, or French. After incorporation of the Basque Country within Spain during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries (although Navarre
remained an independent kingdom until 1512 when it succumbed to Castille),
Basques have continuously enjoyed autonomy for centuries in exchange for loyalty
to the Spanish crown. This arrangement was codified in the fueros (charter of local
laws and privileges). The fueros enabled the Basques to be subjects of imperial Spain
without altering their political system and cultural norms. By tradition, each ascending Spanish monarch had to travel to the Bizkaian city of Gernika and swear his
obedience to the fueros beneath the famous oak tree of the city, before his sovereignty extended to Bizkaia. Inhabitants of other Spanish Basque provinces expected
similar demonstrations of loyalty from the monarch.3
A nation’s character and identity is greatly influenced by geography and historical circumstances. The Basques are no exception. The Basque Country lies in between two great European states with equally glorious imperial pasts. Bounded by
the Bay of Biscay in the northwest, the great mountains of the Pyrenees in the
northeast, and the rugged plains of Castille in the south, the Basques live in a small,
but diverse territory that played a key role in the imperial designs of both Spain and
France.
According to Julio Caro Baroja, the great Basque anthropologist, the smallness
and narrowness of the Basque Country, its rich mineral resources, particularly iron,
its abundant forests in the past, and its access to the sea have made the Basques, from
the Middle Ages up to the present, ironsmiths, fishermen on the high seas, skilled
navigators, shipbuilders, and industrialists.4
The Basques contributed immensely to the conquest of Seville and southern
Spain during the time of King Ferdinand II (1452–1516). They also intervened decisively in the reconquest of the kingdom of Granada, and some Basque sea captains
were charged with transporting to Africa the Moors who chose not to accept the
yoke of the Christian victors. There were also Basque mariners and mercenaries
fighting in France in the service of the English or French during the wars of the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The French Basques sided with the English,
while the Spanish Basques supported the French. There were also Basque merchant
ships trading in the Scandinavian countries and the eastern Mediterranean. And
side by side with the mariners and merchants were the Basque corsairs who raided
the English and French coasts and prowled the waters of the Mediterranean and
North Seas.5 The Basques were also intrepid whalers and were said to have reached
the coast of North America long before the Columbus expedition.
Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia produced arms and supplies for Spain during the fifteenth
century. Later, when swords and crossbows became obsolete because of the introduc-

4

Basques in the Philippines

tion of harquebuses, the Basques were quick to manufacture the new weapon, and,
by the seventeenth century, their firearms had gained wide recognition.6
The initial maritime expeditions aimed at reaching the Indies by sailing west gave
Basque navigation a great impetus. By the end of the fifteenth century, Basques and
Sevillians had participated in the first reconnaissance of the Canary Islands, which
eventually became a springboard for future expeditions to the Americas. Soon
Seville and the Basque Country became the main axis of the Spanish Empire. When
the Great Armada of Philip II attacked England, the Basques were counted on to
provide a considerable number of ships.7
The Basques’ participation in Spain’s maritime expedition dates back to the voyage of Christopher Columbus to the New World in 1492. They became fixtures of
succeeding enterprises. The Basques often formed the expeditionary and religious
contingent. Their involvement in the commercial traffic was significant throughout
the colonial period. Thus, the Basque Country was considered the cradle of Spanish
navigators, providing in great part the manpower for the conquest of the Americas.8
The participation of Basque sailors in maritime expeditions can be partly explained by the strong Basque influence in their preparation. Many of those occupying important positions in the Casa de Contratación (clearing house for maritime
ventures) in Seville were Basques who engaged in all aspects of maritime and commercial enterprises. The Basque participation in the Spanish maritime expeditions
and conquests was crucial. Basques were often at the vanguard of these daring enterprises at a time when they were considered “missions with no return.”
The maritime discoveries stimulated the emigrant spirit of the Basque people and
had a great impact on the Basque economy. The demand for iron from Basque
foundries trebled during the first decades of the sixteenth century following the
Spanish advances to the New World, and Basque shipyards almost monopolized the
construction of vessels that plied the commercial routes to Spanish overseas possessions. Traveling to the Basque Country in 1572, the Italian Venturino remarked,
“Here, more ships are built than in the rest of Spain and the people are the most
skillful in the art of navigation. They are very tough and expert seafarers and better
than all other mariners.”9
Although the Basque Country, despite being a region of Spain and France, only
belatedly converted to Catholicism, the Basque embraced the religion with great
zeal and vigor. A Gipuzkoan, Ignatius Loyola (1491–1556), founded the Society of
Jesus. Later, Francis Xavier (1506–1552), a Navarrese Jesuit and a disciple of Ignatius,
would be known as the “Apostle of the Indies.” Thousands of Basque missionaries
and clerics would propagate the Catholic faith worldwide, particularly in the Spanish colonies in the New World and the Philippines.
Basques were also famed calligraphers and amanuenses, at a time when printing
was not yet widely available. The Spanish monarchs Charles I and Philip II, the
Habsburg and Bourbon kings, as well as the nobility, employed personal Basque

The Basque People 5
writers. Aside from their handwriting skills, the Basques were sought after as
trusted and loyal secretaries.10
Furthermore, the Basques have always been famous as stonecutters and were so
employed by Philip II in the construction of the Escorial (a sumptuous palace outside of Madrid). On one occasion when they struck for better pay, the king was
forced to grant their demands, for both he and they knew that nowhere else could he
find such skilled workmen.11 In short, Basques were the pivotal agents of the imperial enterprise.
During the second half of the eighteenth century, the twilight years of the Spanish Empire, the expanded role of the Basques in Spanish administrative and commercial circles was uniquely imbued with the philosophical influences of the Enlightenment. Thus an ethnic network was established that not only pervaded the
totality of the Hispanic world but infused its highest levels of social, political, and
economic life.12 This network was typified by the Royal Basque Society, which inspired, among others, the creation of the Royal Economic Society of the Friends of
the Country in the Philippines toward the end of the eighteenth century.
Economics must have been the overriding consideration of emigrants leaving the
Basque Country. Before the rise of Spain as a world power in the sixteenth century,
there were few choices for young male Basques aside from becoming a “soldier,
priest, or poet.” The standard of living was low and even much lower in the countryside. Basque soil is not fertile, and the iron mines were not fully exploited until the
nineteenth century. For many Basques at the time the future lay beyond the high
seas, particularly in the North Atlantic fisheries and whaling. The newly established
Spanish colonies in the New World and, much later, in the Philippines would provide economic opportunities for the adventurous and daring.
Before the age of discovery, San Sebastian and Bilbao, the two prosperous cities of
Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia today, were small and backward settlements that were still
nurturing an incipient bourgeoisie. They subsisted through maritime trade, construction, iron foundries, arms production, and metal works. Basque families were
large. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, was the youngest of thirteen brothers. Juan Sebastián Elcano, the first circumnavigator of the world, was the
eldest of nine.13
Therefore, another key factor to consider in understanding Basque emigration is
the rule of inheritance. In rural Basque society the practice was to select a single
heir(ess) for the family patrimony. The remaining offspring were dowered but then
forced to fend for themselves. Many of these segundones left in search of fame and
fortune in the far-flung colonies of the Spanish Empire. In later centuries, some left
their homeland to escape military conscription during times of civil wars and international conflicts; some left because of political persecution; while others fled prosecution for criminal and civil offenses.
It is not my intention here to enumerate in detail the causes of Basque emigra-

6

Basques in the Philippines

tion, since the topic is treated more exhaustively in other works. For present purposes what is important to highlight is the background of the Basques, who would
later play a crucial role in the establishment of Spanish hegemony in the Philippines
and its subsequent development.

Chapter Two
Initial Contacts

The Islands of the eastern ocean of the Spanish Crown, adjacent to outer Asia,
are commonly called Western Islands (Islas del Poniente) by those who sail
there; by the demarcation of Castille, and its seas and lands of the Americas,
because one sails from Spain by following the movement of the sun, from East
to West. And by the same reason, they are called Eastern Islands by those who
navigate to India from Portugal, from West to East; making round trips until
reaching these islands, which are numerous, big and small, that are aptly called
the Philippines.
Antonio de Morga, Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, 1609

September 6, 1522. San Lúcar de Barrameda.
Three years after leaving Spain, the ship Victoria docked once again in the bustling
port in Seville carrying the remaining crew of Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition. The
Victoria was one of five ships that in 1519 had embarked westward with the goal of
reaching the Indies and laying claim to the coveted Spice Islands. Only the Victoria,
living up to its name, returned. Of the 275 men who made up the original crew, only
18 survived the expedition.1 Four of them were Basques, including the last skipper of
the Victoria, Juan Sebastián Elcano.2 They achieved the first continuous circumnavigation of the world, confirming Christopher Columbus’s theory that the Orient
could be reached by sailing west, a postulate thought to be ridiculous in Europe at
the time. More importantly for this study, the Magellan expedition unexpectedly
brought the first Basques to the Philippines.
Juan Sebastián Elcano was born in 1487 in Getaria, a fishing village in Gipuzkoa,
at a time when Spain was emerging as one of the leading states in Europe. He was
the eldest of nine children of Domingo Sebastián Elcano and Catalina del Puerto.
Like most men in his village, the sea had a powerful influence on his life and destiny.
He became a seafarer just like his two brothers and many other Basques of his time.
As a novice crewman, he learned the ropes of navigation by ferrying contraband
goods to French ports. Because of Spain’s military engagements in Italy and northern Africa, Elcano, together with hundreds of other Basque sailors and soldiers,
moved from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean Sea. He joined the military cam-

8

Basques in the Philippines

paigns (mainly transporting regular and mercenary troops) organized by Cardinal
Cisneros against the Moors in Algiers in 1509 and by the great Captain Gonzalo
Fernandez de Córdoba in the Italian peninsula.
In his early life, Elcano had never shown much promise or signs of greatness.
Instead, he led a prodigal and wayward life, piling up more debts than he could pay.
Under pressure from his creditors, Elcano sold some of his ships to foreigners. Much
later he found himself persecuted by the Spanish authorities for estafa (fraud). Out
of desperation, Elcano offered his services to whoever was willing to recruit him.
The Magellan expedition became his only option. By enlisting as a crewman, Elcano
hoped to at least receive clemency for his previous offenses while clearing his name.3
Even then Elcano had to use his family connections. He was related to the Gaiza
de Arzaus and the Ibarrola families, whose members occupied important positions in
the Casa de Contratación in Seville. An Ibarrola was the former bookkeeper (more
or less equivalent to the chief accountant in modern business parlance) of the Casa
de Contratación. Undoubtedly his compatriots and relatives facilitated his recruitment. Perhaps his relatives thought that in the event he did not survive the expedition, his huge debts would be forgotten. It is an interesting irony that Elcano, who
felt forced by personal and financial problems to join a daring expedition, would
later succeed, redeem himself, and even receive the honor that Ferdinand Magellan
wanted most.
Magellan was born to nobility in 1480 in Sarbosa, near Oporto, in Portugal. As a
navigator, he first saw action as a member of an expedition to India (1505) led by
Admiral Francisco de Almeida, later viceroy and governor of the Indies. He later
served with distinction in the conquest of Malacca (1511), where he rose to become
a captain. He would form part of the elite circle of Portuguese navigators whose
stunning successes transformed Portugal from a tiny, backward kingdom into a
first-class maritime power.
This transformation could have not been possible without the vision and wisdom
of King Henry (1394–1460). Under his aegis, Portugal occupied the vanguard during
the age of discovery. In 1419 Henry founded a nautical school in Sagres, the first of
its kind in Europe, where he resided for forty years. Henry’s nautical school attracted many talented cartographers, navigators, shipbuilders, carpenters, and other
experts of different nationalities. Their goal was simple—to develop new navigational techniques that would ensure Portugal’s success in maritime exploration. Because of his achievement, Henry earned the title “the Navigator,” although he had
never ventured upon the sea. In time, Portugal began reaping rewards from its investment. In 1449, the Portuguese sailed around Cape Bojeador and in 1457 discovered Cape Verde. Thirty years later, in 1487, Bartholomeu Dias sailed around the
Cape of Good Hope. The following year, Vasco da Gama reached Calicut, India. His
expedition was a huge success because it brought home a large shipment of exotic
Oriental merchandise.

Initial Contacts 9
Henry’s dream of sailing around the African continent to Asia thus became a
reality. Portugal soon after succeeded in breaking the dominance of two Italian citystates—Genoa and Venice—in the lucrative trade with the Orient whose prized
items were spices (pepper, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and mace), gold, silver, and
slaves. Portugal, however, had a strong rival in Spain.
The rise of modern Spain began with the union of Castille and Aragon in 1475
and culminated in the conquest of the last Moorish kingdom of Granada in the same
year. Spain, though a latecomer, would sponsor the outstanding maritime expedition
of the epoch, resulting in the discovery of the New World on October 12, 1492, by an
obscure Genoan navigator named Christopher Columbus. Earlier, Columbus, inspired by the Florentine cartographer Toscanelli, vigorously petitioned the Spanish
Catholic monarchs, King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabel of Castille, to finance his daring expedition—to reach the Indies by sailing west. After seeing the
success of neighboring Portugal in its maritime and commercial exploits, the Catholic kings granted the request of Columbus.
Although Columbus staunchly believed that what he discovered in 1492 was the
“Indies,” his successful voyage generated a bitter conflict of interest between the
two Iberian states. King John of Portugal vehemently protested that the maritime
expeditions of Columbus were incursions into the Portuguese sphere of influence.
The intense rivalry between Spain and Portugal required the intervention of the
pope, the ultimate arbiter of disputes among Catholic monarchs at the time.
On May 3, 1493, Pope Alexander VI issued the bull Inter caetera, which awarded
the Catholic kings of Spain the full right to explore and claim the territories that
were to be discovered on the western side of an imaginary line drawn a hundred
leagues from the Azores. Conversely, everything found to the east of this line would
belong to the Portuguese monarch. These concessions, however, were limited to the
lands that were not yet occupied by any Christian ruler. On October 6, 1493, the
pope extended said privileges to territories adjacent to the East Indies and authorized
the Spaniards to settle there any lands discovered in the course of navigating toward
the west.
The Portuguese king questioned the Inter Caetera under the suspicion that certain territories already under his dominion would be adversely affected by the demarcation line. As a result, representatives of the two Iberian monarchs met in
Tordesillas to negotiate a treaty that would redraw the line of demarcation at 270
leagues to the west of the Azores. The Treaty of Tordesillas was ratified in 1494. The
New World thereby passed largely to Spain, while India remained in the hands of
Portugal. However, this treaty was never recognized by other European powers such
as Holland, Britain, and France, who would later challenge the naval and imperial
supremacy of Spain and Portugal. But, in the meantime, the two Iberian states
would lord it over the seas and newly discovered territories. Soon Spanish colonizers and missionaries were all over the Americas, founding settlements, amassing

10 Basques in the Philippines
wealth, and converting the natives to Christianity. But the possession of an extensive colony in the New World did not satisfy Spain’s quest for the much-coveted
Spice Islands.
Magellan vowed to finish the mission that Columbus failed to complete. He was
convinced that Columbus’s goal—of reaching the Indies by sailing west—was possible. However, his proposal to the king of Portugal was flatly rejected as absurd,
aside from being too costly. Why bother to sail west to reach the east when Portugal
already monopolized the route to the Indies under the Treaty of Tordesillas? Failing
to get Portuguese sponsorship of his project, Magellan moved to Seville in 1517 and
met with Diego Barbosa, a compatriot, who had good connections with the Spanish
nobility. Through Barbosa, Magellan obtained an audience with Charles I and convinced him of the merit of his plan. He assured the Spanish king that the Spice
Islands were not located within the Portuguese sphere of influence as fixed by the
demarcation line. On signing the capitulación (royal contract) on March 22, 1518,
and after receiving the prestigious title of Knight of Saint James, Magellan initiated
preparations for his expedition.
Here we can return to Elcano and the Basque role in the Magellan expedition. The
list of Basques involved in the preparation and manning of the expedition was notable. The resolute supporter of Magellan was the Bizkaian Matienzo, who would
later become the abbot of Jamaica. He was then the treasurer of the Casa de
Contratación. The contractor of the expedition was another Bizkaian, Domingo de
Ochandino. Juan López de Recalde was the bookkeeper. Artieta, a native of Lekeitio,
also had an important role in the organization of the voyage. He procured all the
supplies and provisions from Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa. He also bought the flag ship
Trinidad from Lequizamon, another Bizkaian. Others such as the Isasagas, Eguinos,
Moniba-Alberros, Isastis, Urquizas, Onas, Irurruzas, Berospes, and Ibarrolas, also
held pivotal posts.4 Of the 275 men who made up the crew of the expedition, at least
35, or 12.7 percent, were Basques (see appendix 1).5
Interestingly, Magellan was joined by his slave, Enrique de Malaya, whom he had
acquired while leading a Portuguese expedition to the Indonesian island of Ternate.
Filipino scholars believe that Enrique was a native of the Philippines.6 On September
20, 1519, the Magellan expedition left the port of San Lúcar de Barrameda in Seville.
It was plagued by problems from the outset. First, the provisions were discovered to
be inadequate. Second, members of the multinational crew, particularly the Spaniards, were hostile toward Magellan. Juan de Cartagena, appointed as co-leader of
the expedition, started ignoring Magellan’s orders the minute they left the Canary
Islands after a brief layover.
Later, the Portuguese captain had to quell a mutiny led by Cartagena himself at
the Bay of San Julian in southern America. The plot was discovered beforehand, and
the culprits were promptly executed. One of those who died during the mutiny was
Juan de Elorriaga, a trusted man of Magellan’s and the Basque master of the San

Initial Contacts 11
Antonio. Others were pardoned in order to maintain the operation of the fleet.
Among those spared was Elcano, who had played a minor role in the uprising. He
had helped the mutineers take control of the San Antonio.
The expedition also lost two ships nearly halfway through the voyage. The
Santiago was shipwrecked in the port of San Julian, and the San Antonio, with
eleven Basques aboard, is believed to have perished as it headed back to Spain. In
spite of the loss of these vessels and the threat of another mutiny by some restless
crewmen, Magellan cruised through the strait that now bears his name. Later the
expedition crossed a vast ocean whose unusual calmness led the expeditionaries to
mistakenly call it the “Pacific.” Death and starvation hovered over the expedition
until a group of islands (the present-day Guam) was finally sighted on March 6,
1521. The Spaniards called it Islas de Ladrones (Islands of Thieves) because the inhabitants stole a boat from the flagship Trinidad.
After reprovisioning, Magellan and his crew hastily left the place, confident that
the Moluccas were somewhere nearby. On the morning of March 16, 1521, they
sighted the island of Leyte. It was the first glimpse by Europeans of the Philippine
archipelago. Convinced that divine intervention had saved them from imminent
death, Magellan christened the islands the Archipelago of Saint Lazarus because it
was the feast day of the man Jesus Christ raised from the dead. Two Basques, Juan de
Aroca and Martín de Barrena, would later die and be buried in Philippine soil.
On March 31, Easter Sunday, the first Catholic mass was celebrated in the Philippines. The natives, led by local chieftains Kolambu and Siagu, attended the celebration. Magellan erected a cross on top of a hill that faces the sea and took possession
of the territories in the name of Spain. However, he would not live to harvest the
fruits of his labor. On April 27, he was killed during a clash with the warriors of
Lapu-Lapu, the chieftain of Mactan. In an attempt to impress Humabon, a chieftain
of Cebu, with the might of Spain, Magellan led several soldiers to confront LapuLapu. It was clearly a display of arrogance, overconfidence, and imprudence. Foolishly attacking a whole tribe with a handful of men in an unfamiliar territory,
Magellan and his men were killed. Magellan’s defeat also shattered the tenuous
alliance that he had forged with Humabon, as the Cebuanos ambushed and killed
other crewmen, including the Basques León de Espeleta and Rodrigo de Hurrira.
Only two ships, the Trinidad and Victoria, managed to escape, and both sailed to
the Moluccas. However, King Manuel of Portugal, regarding the Magellan crew as
pirates operating within Portugal’s sphere of influence, had ordered their capture.
As the Magellan expedition passed by Borneo, Domingo de Urrutia, a Basque mate
of the Trinidad, was one of those taken prisoner by the Portuguese.
Gómez de Espinosa, who had taken over as leader of the expedition and captain of
the Trinidad, ordered Elcano to proceed with the expedition, while Espinosa and fifty
others remained in Tidore. When the Trinidad and its crew were eventually captured
by the Portuguese, the prisoners included the Basque Antonio de Basozabal.

12 Basques in the Philippines
At this point Elcano finally assumed the command of the expedition and ordered
the repair of the Victoria and procurement of provisions that would last for five
months. On February 13, 1522, Elcano, together with a crew of forty-six Europeans
and nineteen Malays, left the island of Timor to head back home. The crew faced two
dangers, navigating the Indian and Atlantic Oceans and the possibility of being captured by the Portuguese fleet plying the route. Thus the challenge to Elcano and his
men was to steer the Victoria to a nonstop crossing of the Indian Ocean, round the
Cape of Good Hope, sail up all the coast of Africa without calling on any of the ports,
and reach Spain.
While navigating the Indian Ocean, their provisions, consisting mostly of unsalted meat, begun to spoil and had to be thrown away to prevent pestilence. So the
crew subsisted on only stale rice and water. Disease and death plagued the expedition. By May, some of the crew clamored Elcano to change route and, once near
Mozambique, they thought of giving themselves up to the Portuguese rather than
die of hunger. But Elcano remained firm about not surrendering the Victoria to their
enemies. On reaching the African coast, they could not find water and provisions. At
the Cape of Good Hope, a violent storm destroyed the main mast of the ship.7 By the
time the Victoria rounded the Cape of Good Hope, four Basques had died: Lorenzo
de Iruña, Martín de Isaurraga, Juan de Santelices, and Lope de Tudela.8
On reaching Cape Verde, the crew consisted of thirty-one Europeans (including
six Basques) and three Malays. Since Cape Verde was a Portuguese colony, the
Victoria was in grave danger of being captured. Elcano took the risk of sending two
men to buy provisions from the Portuguese stationed on the island. The two were
careful not to identify themselves as survivors of the Magellan expedition. Out of
camaraderie and without verifying the true condition of the damaged Victoria, the
Portuguese welcomed them as guests and gave them water and food. The disguise,
however, was later discovered when some of Elcano’s men were caught exchanging
spices for wine.9 When a Portuguese contingent approached to seize the Victoria,
Elcano gave the order to embark even with only eighteen men aboard. Two Basques,
Pedro de Chindurza and Pedro de Tolosa, were among those left behind on Cape
Verde as the Victoria escaped the pursuit of the Portuguese.
Finally, on September 6, 1522, the eighteen survivors of the expedition arrived
triumphantly at the port of San Lúcar de Barrameda. Among them were four
Basques: Elcano, thirty-five years old, captain; Juan de Acurio, thirty years old, warrant officer; Juan de Arratia, twenty years old, cabin boy; and Juan de Zubileta, no
more than eighteen years old, page.10 When Elcano requested provisions, Domingo
de Ochandiano, then the treasurer of the Casa de Contratación, quickly sent a boat
with a crew of fifteen, including the Basque Juan de Heguirar.
The success of the Victoria invalidated the prevailing nautical and scientific
knowledge of the time. It forced European cartographers and navigators to revise
their maps and calculations in order to explain a world much more extensive than

Initial Contacts 13
previously thought. The feat of Elcano and his Victoria crew gave Spain the impetus
to launch a series of maritime expeditions to uncharted regions of the globe. The fact
that the expedition brought home samples of spices and exotic items from the Orient made the Spanish crown realized that the maritime expeditions, although costly
and risky, were full of commercial opportunities. The cargo brought by Elcano from
the Indies not only covered the entire cost of the expedition but even made a modest
profit. More importantly, the Magellan expedition accidentally reached an archipelago that stretches along the southeastern fringe of the Asian continent. It was the
prelude to the conquest of this chain of islands that would later be known as the
Philippines.
Charles I of Spain (also known as Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire)
honored Elcano with an annual pension of 500 ducats—which he actually never
received. The Spanish monarch also awarded Elcano an elaborate seal on which a
globe is depicted with the words Primus Circundediste Me (The First That Circumnavigated Me). Elcano, however, was not without detractors. Antonio Pigafetta, the
Italian chronicler of the expedition, never mentioned Elcano in his memoir and thus
did not recognize his achievement in steering the Victoria back to Spain.11 He was
apparently wary of the Basques, including Elcano, who plotted and mutinied against
Magellan—and never forgave them. Stefan Zweig, a famous Swiss biographer of
Magellan, in his book Magallanes: El hombre y su gesta (first published in German
in 1957), even accused Elcano of secretly destroying Pigafetta’s journal to hide any
unflattering references from the Spanish king. He also attributed the mysterious
loss of Pigafetta’s original chronicles to those who wanted to obscure the Spanish
crew’s opposition to Magellan in order “to exalt the feat of the Basque Elcano.”12
Elcano’s achievement, though widely applauded, did not translate into personal
greatness. He was given a place in the annals of navigation only belatedly. According
to Mitchell Mairin, a British historian, the first statue raised in Elcano’s memory
was not in his native Getaria, or even in Spain. It was a wooden one found in Cavite,
in the Philippines, although Mairin does not specify the date of its erection. The
memorial was sent to Washington, d.c., after the surrender of Cavite to Commodore George Dewey in the Spanish-American War in 1898. Despite the epic achievement of the first circumnavigator, no statue was erected to him in his native land
until 1800.13
Nonetheless, Elcano had not only redeemed himself but become a celebrity. The
fame of this Basque navigator spread far and wide. More importantly, he was able to
settle his financial accounts, and his previous mischiefs were largely forgotten. At
thirty-five years old, he still had a long, promising career ahead of him. But it seems
that he could not keep himself out of trouble. Moving to Valladolid, Elcano had a
romantic escapade with a certain Maria de Vidaurreta, with whom he sired a daughter. When the relationship soured, Elcano avoided marriage. Vidaurreta and her kin
threatened Elcano with death unless he faced up to his obligations. Elcano soon

14 Basques in the Philippines
found himself fearing for his own life and begged the Spanish king for two special
armed bodyguards to provide him protection. This was granted on May 20, 1524,
mainly because Elcano’s safety and services were vital to Spain. His knowledge of
the Moluccas was badly needed by Charles I, who eventually appointed him as a
special envoy to the important meetings held in Badajoz and Yelbes that tried to
settle the disputes between Spain and Portugal on the status of the Spice Islands.
Nothing came out of these talks, however, and the bitter rivalry between the two
Iberian powers continued.
The new maritime route traced by Elcano further stimulated Spain’s desire to
control the lucrative spice trade and expand foreign commerce. Since there was a
growing demand for spices and Oriental goods in northern Europe, the Spanish authorities decided to transfer the Casa de Contratación from Seville to the Galician
port city of La Coruña in order to attract other European traders and financiers. The
new location would also be closer to the northern markets. It was in La Coruña that
the second expedition to the Moluccas was organized in 1524.
The Spanish monarch ordered a second expedition to establish the sovereignty of
Spain in the territories reached by Magellan and initiate the colonization and exploitation of the islands, still thought to be the Moluccas. The leadership of the expedition was given to the Basque monk Fray Garcia Jofre de Loaysa of the Order of
Saint John and the Knight of Barbales.14 Little is known about his life and nautical
knowledge. Nonetheless, Loaysa was ably assisted by Elcano, who served as assistant
captain and chief navigator of the expedition. Besides, Elcano wanted to prove to his
critics that his first feat was not a fluke.
Seven ships comprised the Loaysa expedition: the Santa María de la Victoria,
Sancti Espiritus, Anunciada, San Gabriel, Santa María de Parral, San Lermes, and
Santiago. Three of them, the Santa María de la Victoria, Sancti Espiritus, and
Santiago, were commanded by Basques—Loaysa, Elcano, and Santiago de Guevara,
a native of Arrasate.
Other Basques who participated in the expedition were Martín de Leriarte, first
mate; Juan de Areizaga, priest from Gebara and brother-in-law of Elcano; and fifteen
others, among them the Elcano brothers, Martín Péres Elcano, serving as first mate,
and Antón Martín Elcano, assistant first mate.15 Andrés de Urdaneta, a young sailor
from Gipuzkoa, joined Elcano as a page on the Sancti Espiritus.
The Loaysa expedition was better prepared and equipped with provisions and
arms than the Magellan expedition. It set sail on July 24, 1524, and anchored at
Gomera in the Canary Islands. After resting for twelve days, the expedition continued its voyage. Like Magellan, Loaysa seemed doomed to fail. After four months at
sea, the expedition lost the flagship Santa María de la Victoria and the San Gabriel.
While traversing the Strait of Magellan, the Sancti Espiritus sank during a violent
storm. Only four ships remained to navigate the Pacific Ocean. Their nightmare was

Initial Contacts 15
aggravated when they discovered that there was nothing pacific about this vast
ocean, contrary to the experience of the Magellan expedition.
On July 30, a year after the start of the expedition, Loaysa died, leaving the command in the hands of Elcano. But Elcano was in no condition to duplicate his previous achievement of circumnavigating the world. He also succumbed to scurvy and
died barely a week after Loaysa. Elcano was succeeded by Alonso de Salazar, another
Basque, whose leadership was likewise ephemeral. He died before reaching the Philippines. After the chain of deaths, the command of the expedition was passed on to
another Basque, Martín Iñiguez de Carquizano, a native of Egoibar.
Under Iñiguez, the expedition arrived in Mindanao, the largest island in the
southern Philippines. He and his men were received cordially by the natives. But the
scarcity of provisions and the absence of spices forced them to abandon the island.
They tried sailing northward, but the strong currents pushed them in the direction
of the Moluccas. In Tidore, Iñiguez died mysteriously of poisoning, and the crew
were later captured by the Portuguese. Only a handful survived the disastrous enterprise. Among them was Andrés de Urdaneta, whose valuable experience and nautical knowledge would serve him well in the Legazpi expedition forty years later.
Despite the dismal failure of the Loaysa expedition, Charles I ordered Hernando
Cortés, the conqueror of Mexico, to organize an expedition to the Moluccas from
Mexico. Cortés commissioned his cousin Alvaro de Saavedra to command a fleet. On
the eve of All Saints’ Day of 1527, the ships Florida, Santiago, and Espíritu Santo
left the port of Zihuatenajo in Mexico. It was the first Spanish expedition launched
from the American continent with the mission to reach the Indies. It had a small
contingent of forty-five men, with an ample supply of gunpowder and medicine.
Another objective of the expedition was to rescue the survivors of the previous expeditions to the Philippines.
But the voyage was worse than Loaysa’s. While crossing the Pacific, two ships, the
Santiago and Espíritu Santo, sank with a great loss of life. Only the Florida was left
to continue the journey. With tremendous difficulty it arrived in Mindanao, but a
storm impeded its sailing to Cebu. Saavedra desperately tried to find a return route
to Mexico but failed. He died on the high seas on October 9, 1529. Much later, the
rest of the expedition fell into the hands of the Portuguese. The degree of Basque
participation in this undertaking is not known.
The repeated incursions of the Spaniards in the Moluccas became a source of
bickering between Spain and Portugal. Their dispute was finally was settled in 1529.
Armed with full powers, representatives of both kingdoms convened in Zaragoza in
April and concluded a pacto de retroventa, an agreement whereby Spain would relinquish its rights over the Moluccas in exchange for Portugal’s payment of the
amount of 350,000 gold ducats. Spain’s main reason for renouncing its claim to the
Spice Islands was its financial woes and the need to make payment on maturing debts.

16 Basques in the Philippines
The disastrous expeditions of Loaysa and Saavedra and the 1529 pact did not,
however, deter Spain from attempting to take possession of the rest of the Spice
Islands. On November 1, 1542, an expedition led by Ruy López de Villalobos left the
port of Navidad in Mexico. The fleet consisted of five ships: the San Jorge, San Juan
de Letrán, San Antonio, San Cristobal, and San Martín. Three hundred sailors and
eight missionaries joined the voyage.
After three months of sailing, the expedition reached Mindanao, which Villalobos
called Cesareo Caroli in honor of Charles I. Like the Loaysa crew, they suffered
starvation and were forced to leave the island. Some of the men headed north and
reached the island of Tandaya, where they met friendly natives. Bernardo de la
Torre, one of the members of the group, gave the name Felipenas to the chain of
islands that presently form Samar and Leyte as a homage to the then prince of
Asturias and later King Philip II. The name would later be extended to the whole
archipelago.
Contrary winds blew the expedition toward the Moluccas, where its crew was
captured by the Portuguese. According to legend, Villalobos later died in the arms of
Saint Francis Xavier, the Navarrese Jesuit, hailed as the Apostle of the Indies. The
Basque participation in this voyage included Guido Lavezares, a native of Bizkaia,
who served as the bookkeeper of the expedition. Like Urdaneta, he would be an
integral part of the Legazpi expedition. It is interesting to note that another Basque,
Iñigo de Retes, captain of the San Juan, discovered Papua New Guinea, bestowing
that name because the inhabitants resembled those of African Guinea.16
There was a hiatus of twenty-two years before Spain again attempted to conquer
the Spice Islands. King Philip II’s ascent to the throne gave a new impetus to the
almost forgotten expedition to the Moluccas, which he steadfastly believed the papal
bull of 1493 put within the Spanish sphere of influence. A new plan was conceived to
establish Spanish sovereignty in that part of the world, and the Basques would play
a vital role in its success.

Chapter Three
The Legazpi-Urdaneta Expedition

It is clear that the Basques have contributed, in a large measure, to propagating
Western culture and religion, and played an important role in the historical
development of our people.
E. B. Rodriguez, former director, Philippine National Library

Anyone strolling in Rizal Park at the corner of Roxas and Padre Burgos Boulevard
in Manila will not fail to see a majestic monument of a proud conquistador hoisting
a flag and a friar raising a cross with the open Scriptures at hand. Many Filipinos
regard the monument as a symbol of Spanish hegemony over the Philippines. On
the other hand, nationalists assert that it is a glaring emblem of the duplicity of
Spanish colonial rule—the combined use of military might and religion to subdue
the native population. In fact, the memorial was conceived by Basque residents in
Manila in 1892 as a tribute to two outstanding Basques—Miguel López de Legazpi
and Andrés de Urdaneta. Initially, they wanted to pay homage to just Legazpi as the
founder of the city of Manila, but the plan was changed to include Fray Andrés de
Urdaneta, the Augustinian monk who guided Legazpi during the voyage to the Philippines.1
Agustín Querol y Subirals, a famous Catalonian sculptor, was commissioned to
design and cast the bronze statue.2 But by the time it was finished and shipped from
Barcelona to Manila, the Philippines was already a colony of the United States. The
disassembled pieces of the monument languished for decades in the customhouse
until they were finally erected during the time of American governor General
Dwight F. Davis (1929–1931).3 Amazingly, the memorial later survived unscathed
during the fierce fighting between the American and Japanese forces that devastated
Manila toward the end of World War II.
Legazpi and Urdaneta belong to an exclusive circle of great Basque navigators and
conquerors of the sixteenth century, which includes, among others, Juan Sebastián
Elcano, the first circumnavigator of the world; Juan de Garay, founder of Buenos
Aires, the capital of Argentina; Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, founder of Montevideo,
the capital of Uruguay; and Domingo Martínez de Irala, founder of Asunción, the
capital of Paraguay.
Legazpi occupies a special place in Philippine history as founder of the first per-

18 Basques in the Philippines
manent Spanish settlement in Cebu, founder of Manila as the seat of Spanish power
in the country, and first governor-general of the archipelago. He is the most famous
Basque in the Philippines not only because of his achievements but because he died
and was buried there. The inscription in the Capilla de Legazpi in San Agustin
Church in Intramuros, Manila, where his remains are entombed, reads as follows:
“Here lies a Basque captain and mariner, a Spaniard of whom destiny made a conquistador, although his calling was that of a man of peace. Spain pays homage to the
memory of Legazpi and to the Order of Saint Augustine which in this historic
temple has preserved through centuries the validity of the mission that brought
Legazpi and Urdaneta to these Isles.”
The epitaph largely ignores Legazpi’s previous career, although the phrase “his
calling was that of a man of peace” is suggestive. For his entire life prior to his naval
expedition to the Philippines, he actually practiced a land-based civilian profession. To
be exact, he was a bureaucrat turned businessman who spent most of his time in the
relative comforts of an office, in contrast to the typical conquistadors of his generation
who distinguished themselves by annexing territories through often bloody military
campaigns. Interestingly, Legazpi is remembered as a captain and navigator. A closer
look at his curriculum vitae shows that he was not even qualified for both positions.
Legazpi was born in the Gipuzkoan town of Zumarraga in 1503. He was the second
son of Juan Martínez de Legazpi and Elvira de Gurruchategui. His father was a royal
scribe in Areria, one of the three districts of Gipuzkoa. On his father’s death in 1527,
Legazpi inherited the position but held it only briefly.
The following year finds Legazpi in Mexico working as a secretary of the colonial
administration—the Ayuntamiento. Many historians claim that he was greatly influenced by the famous Franciscan from Durango, and much later bishop of Mexico,
Fray Juan de Zumárraga, who strongly encouraged Basque emigration to New
Spain. With hard work and dedication, he prospered, becoming a town mayor, a high
official of the Casa de la Moneda (Minting House), and a rich landowner. During the
course of thirty-six years (1528–1564), Legazpi amassed great wealth and fortune.
He married Isabel Garces and fathered nine children—five boys and four girls. This
relatively peaceful and prosperous period of his life contrasts with what he would
undertake in his twilight years—the conquest of the Philippines. This was an unusual task for someone who was never considered a colonizer. His election as commander of the expedition despite his advanced age (he was sixty-one when the expedition was launched) can only be explained through his close links with another
man whose destiny was intimately intertwined with his and the future venture—
Andrés de Urdaneta, a fellow Basque and a contemporary.
Urdaneta was born in the town of Ordizia in Gipuzkoa in 1498. His parents were
Juan Ochoa de Urdaneta and Gracia de Ceraín. His father served as mayor of their
village for a long time. As a boy, Urdaneta is said to have studied Latin and philoso-

The Legazpi-Urdaneta Expedition 19
phy, since his parents wanted him to be a priest. But he became an orphan at an early
age. And since he found military life more attractive, he enlisted as a soldier and
joined in Spain’s military campaigns in Italy and Flanders, where he rose to the rank
of captain. It was during this period that his interest in navigation intensified, leading him to dedicate himself to the study of mathematics and astronomy. He was
among the first to approach the study of navigation in a scientific and methodical
manner rather than merely learning it by experience as most mariners did during
his time. His combined knowledge of Latin, philosophy, cosmography, and military
science qualified Urdaneta for various professions, since he was a “good soldier, good
navigator, and good friar.”4
As previously noted, he was recruited for the Loaysa expedition in 1525 and
served as a page to Juan Sebastián Elcano, the circumnavigator, in the ship Sancti
Spiritus. He was captured by the Portuguese in Moluccas when the rest of the illfated expedition accidentally sailed there. There, while a prisoner of the Portuguese
in Ternate for seven years, he learned the Malay language, an asset that would serve
him well upon his return to the Philippines.
Toward the end of February 1535, Urdaneta left the Spice Islands for India aboard
the aptly named Maluco. From there he took another ship for Portugal. He finally
landed in Lisbon on June 26, 1536. He was said to have confessed that he had fathered a daughter whom he abandoned in Lisbon to escape persecution by the Portuguese monarch, although there is no clear proof that he ever contracted marriage.
During the eleven years that he was away, he kept copious notes of the Loaysa
voyage and his personal experience but unfortunately lost them. Nevertheless,
when he was summoned by Charles I, he was able to submit a detailed and comprehensive account entitled La relación de la armada de Loaysa (The History of the
Armada of Loaysa).5
In Spain, Urdaneta met Pedro de Alvarado, the conqueror of Guatemala, who recruited him to join the expedition he was preparing to go to the Moluccas and China.
Urdaneta went with Alvarado to Guatemala, where Alvarado outfitted an expedition
consisting of thirteen ships with the ultimate goal of conquering China. Alvarado
also drafted another Basque captain, Martín de Islares, to the enterprise. In 1536, the
Alvarado expedition left the port of Acajutla and arrived on the coast of Jalisco,
Mexico, where the governor, a certain Cristobal de Oñate, a Basque, was facing an
Indian revolt. Oñate requested Alvarado’s assistance in suppressing the rebellion.
Alvarado agreed but perished during the battle. Then viceroy of Mexico Mendoza,
who had a stake in the expedition, proposed that Urdaneta be the new leader of the
mission, but he refused the offer.6
Urdaneta eventually settled in Mexico in 1538 and got a job in the colonial government. In 1552 at the age of fifty-four, tired of his military and naval career, he
finally fulfilled his parents’ dream. He joined the Augustinian order and retired to a
monastery in Mexico where he spent his first years as a teacher of the novices. He

20 Basques in the Philippines
was committed to pious and religious work for the rest of his life when, in September 24, 1559, he received an order from King Philip II that forced him out of retirement. His mission entailed the preparation and direction of a maritime expedition to
the Western Isles. In a letter dated May 28, 1560, Urdaneta expressed his willingness
to follow Philip II’s order and thanked him for the trust accorded him despite his age
of “sixty-two winters and failing health.” He also submitted a navigational chart
and a description of the ports of Acapulco and Navidad. Philip II’s ascent to the
throne in 1555, after the abdication of Charles I, gave a new impetus to the almost
forgotten expedition to the Moluccas. Philip relished the conquest of the much coveted Spice Islands and the opportunity to establish Spanish sovereignty in the archipelago that was to bear his name.
As a veteran army and naval officer with valuable experience in the waters of the
Pacific Ocean during the Loaysa expedition, Urdaneta’s services were crucial to the
success of the mission. The four previous expeditions (by Magellan, Loaysa,
Saavedra, and Villalobos) failed dismally in their attempts to establish a foothold in
the archipelago. The Spanish crown could not afford another disappointment.
Philip II gave the order to colonize the Philippines to Don Luis de Velasco, Spanish viceroy of Mexico in 1559, but it took five more years before an expedition could
be launched. The reason for the delay was that Velasco’s mind was set on another
goal. When news was brought by the expedition of Ponce de León of the existence of
the so-called Fountain of Youth in Florida, Velasco shelved the Philippine mission
and instead assembled and headed an expeditionary force consisting of two thousand men. The Florida expedition turned out to be a complete disaster, and Velasco
subsequently died of illness and despair.
Nonetheless, Urdaneta continued preparing for the maritime venture. Being a
friar, Urdaneta could not be made head of the expedition. So, he recommended
Legazpi to the Spanish king. The Real Audiencia of Mexico, the colonial supreme
court that took over the reigns of government after the death of Velasco, was
shocked by the choice given that the aging but well-respected Legazpi had neither
naval nor military experience. Indeed, taking into account the dangerous nature,
high cost, and slim chance of success of an expedition to the Philippines at that time,
the opposition to Legazpi’s appointment was understandable. As a Basque writer
correctly observed: “The designation of Legazpi as leader of the expedition was due
to other circumstances and not to the aptitude that he had demonstrated in navigation, for neither did he have any experience in this field nor did he understand anything of ships since he could not even distinguish one from the other. His appointment could probably be attributed to Urdaneta, whose acceptance of the position of
pilot was considered indispensable because he was the most qualified among the
navigators who were residing in Mexico at that time.”7
Urdaneta threatened not to board any ship unless Legazpi, his friend and compatriot, assumed command of the expedition. In the end, he prevailed. Moreover, to

The Legazpi-Urdaneta Expedition 21
allay the fears of the Real Audiencia, Legazpi committed himself to spending his
personal fortune to finance the expedition. Already a widower, Legazpi auctioned all
his properties, with the exception of his house, to raise money for the project—with
the assumption, of course, that he would be compensated for his labor and financial
investments if the mission succeeded.8
The fleet consisted of 380 men with three ships and one patarche (a flat-bottomed
boat): the San Pedro, San Pablo, San Juan de Letrán, and San Lucas. Legazpi and
Urdaneta selected a number of fellow Basques to man the key positions of the expedition. Mateo de Saz, captain of the San Pablo, was at the same time master of camp
(roughly equivalent to colonel) and second in command of the expedition. In the
San Pedro, the 500-ton flagship, were Martin de Ibarra, a native of Bilbao, master;
Francisco de Astigarribia, boatswain; Esteban Rodriguez, first mate; and Pierre Plin,
a French Basque, second mate. In the San Juan de Letrán were Juan de la Isla, possibly a Bizkaian, and his brother Rodrigo, a mate; Andrés de Ibarra, a Mexican Basque,
first lieutenant; Martín de Goiti, captain of artillery; Luís de la Haya, master sergeant; Andrés de Mirandola, nephew of Legazpi and auditor of the Royal Treasury;
Felipe de Salcedo, grandson of Legazpi; Guido de Lavezares, treasurer of the expedition; and Andrés de Carchela, accountant. Martín de Rada and Pedro de Gamboa,
both Navarrese, and Andrés de Aguirre and Diego de Herrera made up the contingent of Augustinian Basque missionaries.9
Other Basque crew members were Juan de Lazcano, secretary for Legazpi; Pedro
de Guevarra, ironsmith; Amador de Arriaran, pilot; Juan de Aguirre, Pedro de Arana,
and Alberto de Orozco, all soldiers; and Juan de Camuz, mariner.10 Moreover,
Ortuno de Ibarra, a Basque agent, was commissioned to procure the provisions and
supplies for the expedition. Thus, on the whole, the Legazpi-Urdaneta expedition
was mainly a Basque enterprise, with Basque leadership, Basque manpower, and
substantial Basque capital.
Instructions from the Real Audiencia gave the enterprise two goals: to bring to
the native inhabitants the knowledge of the Catholic faith and to discover the return
route to Mexico.11 The mission did not start well. Ten days after the ships left the
port of Navidad, on November 21, 1564, the San Lucas deserted. Captain Alonso de
Arellano and the ship’s mulato navigator, Lope Martín, straggled behind, supposedly to go to Mindanao to fetch gold and spices and to head back to Mexico. Three
months later, they anchored again in the port of Navidad and spread tall tales about
their exploits in the Philippines and how Legazpi and his men perished.12
Actually, Legazpi and his crew navigated the Pacific without trouble and easily
reached the island of Samar on February 15, 1565. Legazpi ordered Urdaneta, Mateo
de Saz, and Martín de Goiti to search for a port or estuary and to initiate contacts
with the natives. Their attempts to acquire provisions failed when the natives remained hostile despite the expeditionaries’ show of goodwill. Andrés de Ibarra took
possession of the island but to no avail. They left Samar on February 20, 1565, and

22 Basques in the Philippines
landed on Leyte the following day. As on Samar, the natives met them with hostility.
In March, they landed on the island of Bohol, where Legazpi first succeeded in making friends with the inhabitants.
Legazpi befriended the locals by entering into a blood compact with the local
chief, Sikatuna. The blood compact (sika sika in Cebuano and sandugo in Tagalog,
meaning “one blood”) is a ritual performed by two men who draw blood from their
arms, mix it with native wine or water, and drink the blood of the other to symbolize
their newfound alliance or friendship. Legazpi’s blood compact with Sikatuna was
immortalized in a painting by Juan Luna, a famous nineteenth-century Filipino
painter. It hangs to this day on the wall at the entrance to Malacañang, the presidential palace. It is a reminder to foreign guests and dignitaries that the Filipinos are
open and friendly to those who respect their culture and tradition. It also highlights
the pre-Hispanic Filipinos’ form of diplomacy.
Since the island of Bohol could not serve as a permanent settlement because of
lack of provisions, the expedition decided to transfer to Cebu on April 21. There it
was met with hostility by Datu Tupas, the Cebuano leader, and his people, who immediately assumed that the Spaniards came back to exact revenge. As the Cebuanos
learned from oral tradition, Datu Humabon and their forebears feted several members of the Magellan expedition (after Magellan fell), then hacked them to death.
Legazpi sent emissaries to Datu Tupas, who tried to hold the Spaniards at bay while
his people fled to the hinterland, taking with them everything of value. Legazpi
ordered three rowboats under the command of the Basque trio of Mateo de Saz,
Martín de Goiti, and Juan de Isla to attack, while the San Pedro and San Juan de
Letrán bombarded the deserted settlement. The conflagration produced by the cannon shots destroyed most of the nipa (thatch) village. One of Legazpi’s men, Juan
Camuz, a Basque, discovered the image of the child Jesus in one of the abandoned
huts. The Flanders-made icon is venerated in the Church of San Agustin in Cebu
City to this day.
While the expeditionaries occupied Tupas’s village, Legazpi strictly prohibited his
men from venturing alone outside camp, for fear of enemies lying in ambush. Ignoring the command, the Basque Pedro de Arana strolled along the beach on his own
with his harquebus. Before he could use his firearm to defend himself, his body was
pierced by a spear and his head was cut off and carried away by his native assailants.
Angered by the brutal killing, Legazpi ordered Mateo del Saz and some men to chase
the perpetrators of the attack, who successfully eluded apprehension.13 Through his
recklessness and insubordination, Arana went down in history as the first Basque
casualty of the expedition.
Despite his military superiority, Legazpi chose to negotiate peace with Tupas. He
needed the natives to provide the expedition with food and as future allies. Fortunately, Sid Hamal, a Bornean settler in Cebu, approached Legazpi’s camp to volunteer to act as an intermediary between the Spaniards and the Cebuanos. In the end,

The Legazpi-Urdaneta Expedition 23
Legazpi succeeded in persuading Tupas to stop resisting. The Cebuano chief agreed
to recognize Spain’s sovereignty and to pay tribute, while the Spaniards promised to
conduct trade fairly. Legazpi also provided Tupas’s wife with gifts and gave her special treatment, which the latter ostentatiously showed off to her subjects.14
Tupas himself tried to win the trust of Legazpi by offering him his widowed niece
as wife and other women to serve him. The Basque commander instead introduced
Tupas’s niece to one of his men, who later married her. Legazpi initially gave the
name San Miguel to their Cebu settlement and ordered the construction of a palisade fort and a bamboo chapel. In January 1571, shortly before he transferred his
base to Panay and later Manila, he formally declared the place a permanent Spanish
town, calling it Villa del Santísimo Nombre de Jesús, after the holy icon retrieved
there.
Although lacking in nautical and military expertise, Legazpi was a gifted diplomat
and administrator. His main assets were tact, patience, and a clear mind even under
extreme pressure. As much as possible, he insisted on peaceful negotiations, always
preferring them to outright armed conflict. Many of his men resented his pacifist
style, but they respected him because of his firm leadership. His wise decisions were
based on a realistic assessment of their situation. Besides, combat and disease had
already caused expeditionary numbers to dwindle. Their provisions were running
out, too. Legazpi knew very well that to avoid the dismal failure of previous Spanish
expeditions, they had to hold out and await the arrival of reinforcements and supplies from Mexico. However, Legazpi’s authority was defied and challenged several
times by his men, some of them Basques. He had to quell one mutiny by the
gentilhommes of the expedition, led by the Basque Pedro de Mena and a group of
disgruntled non-Spanish crew that included Pierre Plin, the French Basque pilot.
A few days after the expedition landed in Cebu, Pedro de Mena challenged
Legazpi’s authority and bluntly told the Basque commander that he was fed up being a bodyguard for him, calling it “a job fit only for servants.” As members of the
upper class, the gentilhommes resented performing menial chores and guarding
Legazpi while he slept (Legazpi also distrusted many of his crew). Mateo de Saz, the
Basque aide-de-camp, relieved them of their positions. But unfazed and
emboldened, Mena and his cohorts staged a revolt, signaling it by setting fire in one
of the cabins of the flagship, which almost gutted some royal properties. The ringleaders, Mena and a certain Terrasan, were later captured and executed.15
Another incident involved a number of other Europeans, mainly Italian, Greek,
and French, who grew restless after enduring hunger and deprivation during their
time on Cebu. They were frustrated with Legazpi’s inclination to build settlements
and befriend the natives rather than seize and plunder wealth from them. They
plotted to escape with the San Juan, bore holes in the other ships so that they could
not be pursued, undertake piracy, and hopefully retire in France with their booty.
Fortunately, Legazpi foiled the planned escape when one of the plotters confessed

24 Basques in the Philippines
the matter to Mateo de Saz. The mutineers were all rounded up and many were
punished with death, including the French Basque Pierre Plin and Jorge the Greek,
both of whom were hanged.16
Legazpi’s decision to settle in Cebu to wait for relief from Mexico and forge an
alliance with the native population proved wise. The arrival of ships loaded with
men, arms, and ammunition as well as news from New Spain augmented the dwindling ranks and effectively raised the morale of the troops. Then a powerful Portuguese fleet consisting of three big galleons and two small ones, two ketches, and
twelve small boats appeared in Cebu on September 17, 1568. The squadron was led
by Commander Gonzalo de Pereyra. The Portuguese resented the Spaniards for
breaching the Treaty of Zaragoza. Fortunately, Legazpi and his men had already
built a strong defense. Pereyra offered them assistance back to Mexico if the expedition would proceed to Ternate. Legazpi knew that if he agreed to the offer they
would be as good as captives of the Portuguese. Pereyra occasionally ordered the
cannons to be shot at the Spanish fortifications as a sort of target practice and to
scare off the Spaniards. The Portuguese naval blockade of the port also deprived
Legazpi of supplies from native traders of the neighboring islands. Again, Legazpi
adroitly employed diplomacy in confronting the much better armed Portuguese. He
dispatched Martín de Rada, the Navarrese Augustinian friar, to negotiate with
Pereyra. The Portuguese commander took it as a sign of surrender, not knowing that
the Basque leader had other plans. Legazpi insisted that he and Pereyra could not
resolve the issue on their own and that the dispute must be submitted to the Spanish
and Portuguese monarchs. This was actually a ploy to gain time. The talks dragged
on until December, when the Portuguese finally realized they were exhausting most
of their provisions. By that time Legazpi had already buttressed his defenses for any
Portuguese assault and recruited more native troops to reinforce them. When conflict erupted, Legazpi’s men successfully repelled the Portuguese attack. Thus
Pereyra, seeing that his chances of victory were slim and not willing to risk losing
more men in attacking Legazpi’s fortress, retreated to the Moluccas in disgust.
Andrés de Urdaneta’s involvement in the expedition was essentially confined to
navigation. He barely conducted apostolic work in the Philippines since he had been
ordered to accomplish what other navigators had never done—find a return route to
Mexico. In June 1565, Urdaneta, accompanied by Felipe de Salcedo, Legazpi’s grandson, Fray Andrés de Aguirre, and several men, embarked on the San Pedro, sailing
north for the return voyage to Mexico. Salcedo was designated captain of the ship,
although in reality Urdaneta was in command.17
Despite great odds, Urdaneta never lost hope and determination. By experience,
he inferred that the prevailing wind in that part of the Pacific could take them back
to Mexico. It was just a matter of traversing the correct latitude. For four months,
the San Pedro navigated through rough and treacherous waters, drifting aimlessly

The Legazpi-Urdaneta Expedition 25
in the northern Pacific until it reached the thirty-ninth parallel. There they found
the westerly winds that carried them to the California coast. The ship made its way
down to New Spain and finally reached the port of Acapulco on October 30, 1565. By
the time of their arrival, scurvy had ravaged the crew, claiming sixteen victims, including a captain and two assistant pilots. The crew were so weak they could not
even throw the anchor of the ship upon arrival in Acapulco. Four more men died of
scurvy on reaching land. Urdaneta’s tornaviaje was an impressive feat in the field of
navigation, almost comparable to Elcano’s first circumnavigation of the world.
More importantly in the short term, Urdaneta’s success ensured the survival of
Legazpi’s forces in Cebu and Manila, since reinforcements were hastily dispatched
from Mexico. Had he failed, the fragile Spanish settlements in Cebu and Manila
could have been wiped out by hostile natives, the Portuguese, or the hordes of Chinese pirates that would later attack Manila. Mutinies and internal squabbles among
the expeditionaries themselves also could have ruined their mission. The people in
Mexico were overjoyed by the return of Urdaneta and his companions, whom they
thought had perished based on the fabricated news disseminated by Captain Alonso de
Arellano and Lope Martín of the San Lucas. When Urdaneta and Aguirre visited the
court, they chanced upon the two deserters there, deceitfully claiming their rewards
for having discovered the return route from the Philippines. They almost succeeded in
getting it. Urdaneta’s appearance exposed their wickedness, and the two were immediately arrested.18 As punishment for their perfidy, they were to be sent with an expedition to the Philippines, where Legazpi himself would decide their fate.19 It was said that
Hernando Cortés, the famous conqueror of Mexico, thought of the idea.
In the Mexican capital, Urdaneta presented the viceroy and the Real Audiencia
with a letter from Legazpi and a navigational map that must be followed by subsequent mariners on their way to the western Pacific and back to Mexico. After a brief
rest, Urdaneta, accompanied by Fray Andrés de Aguirre and Melchor López de
Legazpi, Legazpi’s son, sailed to Spain to report their achievements to Philip II.
Urdaneta neither solicited nor received compensation (unlike Melchor López de
Legazpi who lobbied hard to get his father’s rewards). Urdaneta was promised a
reward for his feat, but in the end nothing materialized. He returned to the Augustinian cloister in Mexico. He thought of making another voyage to the Philippines,
but his superiors opposed his plan because of his advanced age and failing health. He
died on June 3, 1568, at the age of seventy. Arturo Campión, author of El genio de
Nabarra (The Genius of Navarre), exalted him in almost mythical fashion: “The
Basque is born with wings. No one of his race in that era adventured over so many
fields as Urdaneta.”20
Soon after the Portuguese squadron left Cebu in December 1568, Legazpi knew he
would have to move his base from Cebu to another settlement to ensure a supply of
provisions and if possible a defensible port. Again Legazpi entrusted the search to

26 Basques in the Philippines
his Basque officers. He ordered Felipe de Salcedo, his grandson, and Captain Luis de
la Haya to explore Panay; Captain Andrés de Ybarra reconnoitered Masbate, while
Martín de Goiti remained in Cebu to prepare the patarche San Lucas for its voyage
to New Spain. Legazpi also promoted Goiti to master of camp after Mateo de Saz
died of malaria while exploring Mindanao looking for spices. On July 10, 1569,
Felipe de Salcedo left for Mexico aboard the San Lucas, accompanied among others
by Fray Diego de Herrera, the first Augustinian provincial of Cebu, to recruit more
clergy for the Philippine mission.
In 1569, Martín de Goiti, together with a selected group of men, left for the island
of Panay and founded a new colony at Iloilo. The place was originally called Irong
Irong until the Spaniards, possibly Goiti himself, modified it to suit Spanish phonology. Iloilo would become a center of Basque business activity and immigration
during the late nineteenth century. From Panay, Goiti’s expeditionary forces sailed
toward the island of Mindoro where they captured two Chinese junks. (Some versions of the story claim they aided the Chinese.) From their Chinese captives they
learned of the existence of a bay settlement in the north that was said to be easily
defensible and possessed a good port. The place was none other than Manila, the
future capital of the Philippines. Manila’s name was derived from the Tagalog
phrase may nilad (there are nilad). Nilad is a mangrove that was abundant in the
area at the time. Goiti must have interpreted the presence of Chinese traders in the
archipelago as a clear sign of regular commercial relations between the northern
islanders and the Chinese. He promptly reported his findings to Legazpi, who lost
no time in outfitting an expedition.
In May 1570, Legazpi sent an expedition to Manila under the command of Martín
de Goiti and his seventeen-year-old grandson, Juan de Salcedo (who had arrived
with the expedition of his elder brother, Felipe de Salcedo, in 1569), 120 Spaniards,
and hundreds of Cebuano and Ilonggo warriors. At first they were cordially received
by Rajah Matanda, the elderly chief of Manila, and his nephew Rajah Sulayman.
Rajah Sulayman must have learned about the Spaniards’ presence in the Visayas
and deeply suspected their aims. Soon, conflict broke out. Matanda’s people fought
valiantly against the foreign invaders and their Visayan allies, but they were
soundly defeated.
On June 23, 1570, several ships from Mexico arrived in Cebu. The leader of the
expedition was Juan de la Isla, one of the original members of the expedition that
successfully returned to New Spain. Legazpi excitedly received the royal letters and
orders instructing him to defend the Spanish settlement at all cost and awarding
him the title of “Adelantado de las islas de los ladrones” (Ruler of the Islands of
Thieves). The name “Philippines” apparently had not yet gained currency. He was
also granted the position of governor-general for life of all the islands and territories
that would be conquered for the Spanish crown. The expedition also included the

The Legazpi-Urdaneta Expedition 27
Basque Augustinian Diego de Herrera, with two Augustinian missionaries, Fray
Diego de Ordoñez and Fray Diego de Espinar.
After spending five years on Cebu, Legazpi decided to leave for Manila. On the
first day of 1571, he erected the Villa del Santísimo Nombre de Jesús and appointed
Guido de Lavezares, the Basque royal treasurer, as regidor (councillor). Legazpi arrived in Manila in early June, and on June 24, 1571, the feast of St. John the Baptist,
he established a permanent Spanish settlement in Manila and proclaimed it the
“Distinguished, Most Noble, and Ever Loyal City,” with its own coat of arms. He
also renamed the island of Luzon as New Castille.21
Manila’s geographical situation was indeed crucial to the maintenance of a permanent Spanish settlement. The city is situated on a beautiful bay of the same
name, which at one end protrudes between the sea and the mouth of a river called
the Pasig. With its fine harbor, it would be a magnificent location for conducting
future relations with China, Japan, and Southeast Asia. It would also serve as a perfect outpost from which to establish regular communications with Mexico. Once the
island of Corregidor was converted to a naval garrison guarding its bay, it was also
easily defensible. Legazpi quickly began the construction of the city, laying out an
extensive perimeter that would last for two centuries before being revised and extended.
Seeking to convert Manila into a trading entrepôt, Legazpi welcomed foreign
merchants, whether Chinese, Moslems, or pagans of any nation, by providing fair
dealing, security of persons and goods, and freedom from exactions by councillors
and deputies. All of this was ensured in the first draft ordinances proposed to the
Manila City Council on June 28, 1571, reiterating that special care should be taken
to give good treatment to natives and foreigners alike.22 The actual practice, as we
shall see later, never followed Legazpi’s original objectives.
In August 1571 further reinforcements arrived from Mexico in two ships, the San
Juan and Espíritu Santo, under the command of another Basque, Juan López de
Aguirre, a famous Bizkaian soldier. Aboard the ships were Diego de Legazpi, the
founder’s nephew, and other relatives, as well as the wife of Martín de Goiti.23
Once a permanent settlement in the archipelago was established, what remained
was the military and spiritual conquest of the Philippines. Legazpi, however, did not
live to see the realization of this project. In August 1572, he suffered a heart attack
after reprimanding a subordinate. Ironically, Legazpi, the rich man who gambled his
fortune to seek more fame and glory, died destitute, although he received royal honors and titles. His men found only 460 pesos among his personal possessions, an
amount he actually borrowed days before his death. He never enjoyed the 2,000
ducat salary that Philip II granted him as governor-general for life. However, his son
Melchor petitioned the Spanish king to transfer the land grants of his father in
Luzon to Mexico. He also inherited Legazpi’s title of Adelantado.24

28 Basques in the Philippines
Contemplating Legazpi’s place in Spanish history, a Basque writer declared: “Perhaps it is worth reiterating the fact that the expedition to take possession of and to
conquer the Islas Ponientes (Western Isles) of the Pacific Ocean was one of the most
memorable events in Spanish history, and the primacy of this glory corresponds to a
handful of distinguished Basques led by Legazpi.”25
A contemporary Filipino scholar, on the other hand, sums up the greatness of
Legazpi in the following way:
Legazpi’s enterprise cannot be looked on as simply the fifth of the various expeditions that reached the Philippines. It was of transcendental importance in the
country’s development. . . . Spanish historical writing has been, as expected,
uniformly laudatory of Legazpi’s work. American historians of the early twentieth century, from the perspective of a different culture, seem to have been in
substantial agreement. The editors of the largest compilation of Philippine historical material, Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson, opined
that his expedition “begins the real history of the Philippine Islands.” Writing
the historical introduction of this collection of documents, Edward Gaylord
Bourne said: “The work of Legazpi during the next seven years entitles him to
a place among the greatest colonial pioneers. In fact, he has no rival.”
Two generations later, less Eurocentric historians from the former colonies,
the Philippines and Mexico, have weighed in with their own evaluations, which
reinforce the high regard in which Legazpi has been held. The Filipino editors
of a collection of source documents compiled on the occasion of the quadricentennial of the Christianization of the Philippines wrote: “There is no incontrovertible fact on which all historians agree than that the expedition, more
than any other events, served as the turning point that changed the course of
our history. The great enterprise . . . laid the foundation of our present-day
political and social organization. . . .” In the introduction to his work, the Mexican diplomat, writer and scholar Rafael Bernal wrote: “It was an extraordinary
moment in the history of the Philippines because, in those first ten years of
Hispanic settlement here, the die was cast. . . . In those years the actual boundaries of the nation came into being. In those few years of history, the Philippines were molded in a cast that has solidified in time, never to be destroyed or
thrown away . . . The documents in this volume reveal the action and thoughts,
and the hopes of the men that made possible that conquest, with so little bloodshed, in comparison with the conquests done by other western nations.
More recently, a Filipino historian has put it succinctly: “Before Legazpi there
were no Philippines and no Filipinos. Some anthropologists have discerned a latent unity, based on shared cultural characteristics, among the numerous political
units of the pre-Hispanic Philippines, but it was the positive act of Legazpi’s expedition that gathered most of them together within a short span of time.26

The Legazpi-Urdaneta Expedition 29
The success of the Legazpi-Urdaneta expedition laid the foundation for Spanish
hegemony in the Philippines.27 The Basque contingent of the expedition clearly
played a leading role in its accomplishment. The subsequent conquest of the archipelago can be considered the apex of the incredible expansion undertaken by Spain
starting with the colonization of the Americas in 1492. Legazpi’s belated aspiration
to be a great colonizer came true, and Urdaneta’s trust in his abilities to successfully
lead the expedition was likewise vindicated.
Urdaneta’s name is also immortalized in the annals of navigation because of his
discovery of the return route to Mexico. This route would serve as the only line of
communication between the Philippines and Mexico and would also be the basis of
the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade that lasted for two and a half centuries. Equally
remarkable is the fact that Urdaneta never really intended to sail to the Philippines.
Under strict orders from the Real Audiencia, Legazpi did not open the sealed letter
of instruction until they were crossing the Pacific. The instruction stipulated that
the expedition was to split into three groups, bound for New Guinea, the Luzones
(Philippines), and the Moluccas. Urdaneta’s original choice was not the Philippines
but New Guinea.28

Chapter Four
Conquerors

The weapons that they [native Filipinos] use are three-wedged spears, in daily
life, and during war a stack of lances, a bunch of sticks, blow guns, and some
bows and arrows that they use with little accuracy and consistency. They have
wars between them where they either kill or enslave each other. They showed
great fear of our ships.
Miguel López de Legazpi

Many scholars characterize Spain’s conquest and pacification of the Philippine