Magalat's Rebellion in Cagayan

Captain and Sargento-mayor Gallinato returned to Manila from Cochinchina and informed Don Francisco Tello whom he found governing, of:

• the events of his expedition.
• how Blas Ruyz and Diego Belloso had gone by land to Lao from Cochinchina in search of King Langara of Camboja.

Thus by their absence he avoided the blame of leaving Camboja, although there were not wanting many of his own followers who angrily gave information of the opportunity that he had lost by not showing himself or staying in Camboja when he had so good an opportunity;

They stoutly asserted that if he had done so, all that had been hoped in that kingdom would have been attained.

He made Alférez Luys Ortiz the commander of the other ship of his convoy.

• It could not return to Manila because of heavy storms.
• SO it had been assigned to Malaca.

Some of the Spaniards remained there, and Ortiz with the rest of the crew, was able to set sail after a few months, and returned to Manila.

At the start of Don Francisco Tello’s administration, 2 Indian chiefs of the province of Cagayan, the more powerful of whom was called Magalat, were detained in Manila.

This is because they, with their kinsmen and followers often incited the Cagayan settlements to rebellion.

They did the daily murder of many Spaniards and other injuries inflicted on the peaceful natives and their crops.

It had cost no little trouble to subdue them.

Magalat was captain and leader of these men. His arrest in Manila made Cagayan more secure.

Some Dominican religious bound for Segovia, the capital of that province, where they give instruction, moved with pity, persuaded the governor to let Magalat and his brother return to their country with them.

To such an extent did they importune the governor, that he granted their request.

Having reached Cagayan, the chiefs went inland by the Lobo River and again incited the whole country to rebellion.

With the help of other chiefs of Tubigarao, and other settlements, they so stirred up things, that it was impossible to go to those settlements or a step beyond the city.

Magalat was the leader of the rebels, and he committed cruel murders and injuries even upon the natives themselves, if they refused to rise against the Spaniards.

This reached such a point that the governor was obliged to send the master-of-camp, Pedro de Chaves, from Manila with troops, in order that he might suitably remedy the evil.

In spite of many difficulties, the latter had so good fortune that he seized many insurgent leaders upon whom he executed justice and public punishment.

As for Magalat himself, the governor caused him to be killed in his own house and land where he had fortified himself, by the hand of his own Indians, who had offered to do it for a reward; for in no other way did it appear possible.

Had Magalat not been killed, the war would have dragged on for many years, but with his death the province became quiet and the peace secure.

In April 1595, Adelantado Alvaro de Mendaña de Neira sailed from Callao de Lima in Peru, to colonize the Salomon Islands, which he had discovered many years before in the South Sea, [66] the principal one of which he had called San Christoval.

He took four ships, two large ones—a flagship and an almiranta—a frigate, and a galliot, with four hundred men in all.

He was also accompanied by his wife, Doña Ysabel Barreto and his three brothers-in-law.

On the way he discovered other islands at which he did not stop; but not finding those which he had previously discovered, and as his almiranta had been lost, he anchored with the other ships at an island near Nueva Guinea, inhabited by blacks, to which he gave the name of Santa Cruz [Holy Cross].

There he settled—little to the satisfaction of his men. The adelantado, two of his brothers-in-law, and many of his people died there. Doña Ysabel Barreto abandoned the colony, on account of sickness and want, and embarked the survivors aboard her flagship, frigate, and galliot.

But while they were sailing toward the Filipinas the frigate and galliot disappeared in another direction.

The flagship entered the river of Butuan, in the island of Mindanao, and reached Manila after great want and suffering.

There Doña Ysabel Barreto married Don Fernando de Castro, and returned to Nueva España in his ship, the “San Geronymo,” in 1596.