Chapter 15
San Miguel
Cebu
The first Spanish settlement in the Philippines was founded at Cebu on 8 May 1565, when Legazpi broke ground for a fort and named the town San Miguel. It became the city of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, and is today’s Cebu City.
8 May 1565
The town the Spaniards have taken is shaped like a triangle, with water on two sides and land on the third. Each mess of four soldiers takes a house, and the rest are pulled down. A thick palisade of stakes goes up on the land side, with wells inside it, and the ships’ guns are placed to cover the shore.
On 8 May Legazpi breaks the first ground for a fort, “dedicating it to the most blessed name of Jesus.” The town is called San Miguel, because it is founded on the feast of the appearance of Saint Michael.
That night the people of Cebu come back and set fire to the houses still standing. The whole town is in danger of burning, with all the goods brought ashore from the ships.
May 1565
The house where the image was found is chosen as the site of the church and friary of the Name of Jesus. The Santo Niño is carried there in procession, and every man vows to keep 28 April as a feast day forever. With them in the procession walk some people of Cebu, under two chiefs who have chosen friendship.
Legazpi tries again and again to make peace with Tupas. Once it seems to be agreed, but the chiefs do not come back to settle the terms, and a Spaniard named Pedro de Arana, caught alone, is killed and beheaded. Soldiers go out and capture more than twenty people, among them a niece of Tupas. It is the first thing that brings the two sides back to talking.
16 May 1565
Hungry soldiers roam the country. They bring back chickens, pigs and rice, a soldier wrote, “and some good gold.” Much of that gold comes from graves. The people of Cebu buried their dead in wooden coffins, with their best clothes, their porcelain and their gold jewellery.
On 16 May Legazpi has a proclamation read: anyone who has taken gold from the burial places must declare it, so that the king may have his fifth share. He has brought no stamps to mark the king’s gold, and he wants it all written down.
27 May 1565
The camp is not only in danger from outside. On 27 May Legazpi orders a roll of everyone in the settlement, to be sent to Mexico. Some young gentlemen refuse to serve as his bodyguard; that is servants’ work, they say. The master-of-camp punishes them. That night someone sets fire to the house where Legazpi’s own belongings are stored, and soldiers are burned putting it out.
Two men are arrested. One, Esteban Terra, is found guilty and executed the next morning. “From this it will be seen,” the record says, “that not only are there enemies outside, but even in the very camp itself.”
The *San Pedro* is almost ready to sail.