The Galleon Santo Tomas

In 1600, 2 merchant ships left Manila for Nueva España:

1. The flagship Sancta Margarita

This had Juan Martinez de Guillestigui as general, who had arrived the year before in the same capacity

2. The San Geronimo

This was under Don Fernando de Castro.

On their way, both ships met with storms in the latitude of 38 degrees and at 600 leguas from the Filipinas, and suffered great hardship.

After 9 months at sea:

• many of the men had died
• much of the merchandise had been thrown overboard.

The “San Geronimo” returned to the Filipinas, off the islands of Catenduanes, outside of the channel of Espiritu Santo. There it was wrecked, although the crew were saved.

The Sancta Margarita suffered the death of the general and most of the crew.

• It ported at the Ladrones Islands and anchored at Zarpana.

The natives took away the survivors to their settlements, where they killed some and apportioned others to various villages, where were better treated.

The natives wore the gold chains and other things of the ship around their necks, and then hung them to the trees and in their houses, like people who had no knowledge of their value. [144]

Santo Tomas

In May of 1601, the galleon “Santo Tomas” arrived at the Filipinas from Nueva España with:

• passengers, soldiers, and
• the return proceeds of the merchandise delayed in Mexico.

Its general was Licentiate Don Antonio de Ribera Maldonado, who had been appointed auditor of Manila.

A small patache had sailed in company with the galleon from the port of Acapulco, but being unable to sail as rapidly as the “Santo Tomas,” after a few days’ voyage, it dropped behind.

When they arrived off the Ladrones Islands, some natives went out, as usual, to meet the ship in their boats, and brought with them 5 Spaniards of the crew of the ship “Sancta Margarita,” which had been lost there the year before.

The loss of that vessel was learned from those men. 26 Spaniards were living in the towns of those islands.

The religious and men with the general tried to persuade him, since the weather was calm, to wait in that place, in order to take these men from those islands, where they had lingered for a year.

Certain more courageous persons even offered to go ashore to get them either in the galleon’s boat or in the vessels of the Ladrones themselves.

But the general would not allow this, believing that time would be lost, and his expedition exposed to peril.

Without leave from the general, Fray Juan Pobre, a lay-brother, who was in charge of the discalced religious of St. Francis, who were coming on that occasion to the Filipinas, jumped into one of the Ladrones’ vessels, and was taken by the Indians to the island of Guan, where he remained with the Spaniards whom he found.

The galleon “Santo Tomas,” without further delay, pursued its voyage, to the great grief and regret of the Spaniards on shore, who saw themselves left among those barbarians, where some of them died later of illness and other hardships.

The galleon reached the Filipinas, making for the cape of Espiritu Santo and the harbor of Capul, at the conjunction of the moon and change of the weather.

The land was so covered with thick fogs, that the ship was upon it before it was seen, nor did the pilots and sailors know the country or place where they were.

They ran toward the Catenduanes, and entered a bay, called Catamban, [145] twenty leguas from the channel, where they found themselves embayed and with so much wind and sea astern of them, that the galleon ran upon some rocks near the land and came very near being wrecked that night with all aboard.

At daybreak, the general went ashore with the small boat and had the ship made fast to some rocks.

As the weather did not improve, and the ship was hourly in greater danger of being wrecked, and the cables with which it was made fast had given way, he determined to disembark the cargo there, and as quickly as possible, by means of the boat.

They went to work immediately and took off the people, the silver, and the greater part of the goods and property, until, with native boats, the Spaniards and Indians of that province carried everything to Manila over a distance of eighty leguas, partly by sea and partly by land.

They left the ship—a new and handsome one—wrecked there, without being able to derive any profit whatever from it.