Chapter 23
Pereira’s Galleys
Cebu and Panay
In October 1568 a Portuguese fleet under Gonzalo Pereira came from the Moluccas to Cebu and demanded that Legazpi leave the islands, which Portugal claimed. Legazpi refused. The Portuguese blockaded the settlement for months before giving up, and in 1569 the Spaniards moved their main base to Panay.
October 1568
In the autumn of 1568 a Portuguese fleet sails into Cebu: galleys and ships from the Moluccas, under the command of Gonzalo Pereira.
At first he is all courtesy. He has been trying to reach Legazpi for two years, he says, to help him in his need, “as was my duty as a Christian.” But on 14 October, aboard his galley the *San Francisco*, he writes out a formal protest, and the next afternoon his notary carries it into the Spanish camp and reads it aloud to Legazpi.
The Spaniard is building a fort, Pereira complains, and making the people of the islands pay tribute to the king of Spain, in “this our island of Cebu.” All this region, he says, belongs to the king of Portugal. Legazpi must show what authority he has, or join the Portuguese fleet, or leave “this land and archipelago of ours forthwith, with all his camp, fleet, and munitions of war.”
Winter 1568–1569
Legazpi will not go. The two commanders trade letters and protests through their notaries, each insisting that the islands belong to his own king. When words fail, the Portuguese blockade the harbour.
The Spaniards are few and hungry, but they have a fort, guns, and allies among the people of Cebu. They hold on. In the end, after months, the Portuguese give up and sail back to the Moluccas.
1569
The siege has taught Legazpi that Cebu is too exposed, and too short of food. In 1569 he moves most of his people to the island of Panay, to the mouth of a river in a rich rice-growing country, and makes his camp there.
From Panay his captains raid and explore the islands to the north. The Muslim traders of Luzon and Mindoro have told him about a rich town on a great bay in the north, where the Chinese come to trade every year. It is called Maynila.
In August, in Madrid, the king confirms Legazpi as governor and captain-general of the islands. The news will take a year to reach him.