Chapter 4
Navidad
Mexico City and Puerto de la Navidad
Legazpi’s fleet of four ships sailed from Puerto de la Navidad, on the Pacific coast of Mexico, three hours before dawn on 21 November 1564. About 380 people were aboard, among them six Augustinian friars led by Andrés de Urdaneta.
Summer 1564
By 1564 the fleet is nearly ready, years late. Then, on 31 July, the viceroy Luis de Velasco dies, and the judges of the royal *Audiencia* of Mexico take charge.
They do not like Urdaneta’s plan. He wants to sail first to New Guinea, a great island south of the equator that Spaniards had sighted but never explored. The judges think that is a long, dangerous detour. They decide the fleet should go straight to the Philippines, by the route Villalobos took.
An old pilot, Juan Pablo de Carrión, who was named admiral and then dropped, agrees with them, and complains to the king. Urdaneta, he says, refuses to go if the fleet takes any route but his own. And Legazpi, his friend and countryman, “has no experience in these things, nor does he understand anything of navigation,” so he “embraces the father’s opinion in everything.”
The judges say nothing to Urdaneta. They write their orders, seal them, and give them to Legazpi, to be opened at sea.
1 September 1564
The orders are long and careful. Legazpi is to go to the Philippines and nearby islands, but never into the Moluccas. He is to make friends with the people, trade fairly, learn their customs and their rulers, and take possession of their lands for the king. He must not let his men enter their villages without leave, or take anything against their will.
If the land is rich enough, he may settle there. Either way he is to send ships back to Mexico at once, with Urdaneta aboard, “in order that the return route hither may be known and learned; for this latter is the chief thing attempted, since already it is known that the journey thither can be made in a brief time.”
There is even a small box, carefully sealed, holding the name of the man who will command if Legazpi dies, and a second box in case that man dies too.
19 November 1564
At Navidad four ships wait. The flagship is the *San Pedro*. The *San Pablo* is commanded by the master-of-camp, the soldier Mateo del Saz. Two small, fast *pataches* go with them: the *San Juan* under Juan de la Isla, and the *San Lucas* under Alonso de Arellano. A little brigantine rides on the *San Pedro*’s stern, to be put together when needed.
Aboard are about 150 seamen, 200 soldiers, and six Augustinian friars, Urdaneta at their head: about 380 people in all, counting servants. The chief pilot is Esteban Rodríguez. Martín de Goiti has charge of the guns. Guido de Lavezaris, who sailed with Villalobos, is treasurer. Legazpi has brought his grandson, Felipe de Salcedo, still a young man.
On 19 November the fleet’s banner and standard are blessed, and the men swear their oath.
21 November 1564
They sail, as one of them wrote, on “Monday, November 20, two hours before midnight, or rather on Tuesday, November 21, three hours before daybreak.”
On 18 November Legazpi wrote to the king. He hopes for a good voyage, and he begs him to remember them and send help “to us who go before.”