Who’s who in Legazpi’s expedition

The records of Legazpi’s expedition name hundreds of people, nearly all of them Spaniards. Here are the ones who matter most to the story, on both sides, and what each did. The people of the islands appear only through Spanish eyes, and often only by the names the Spaniards heard.

The leaders

Miguel López de Legazpi (died 1572)

A Basque gentleman from Zumárraga, in Gipuzkoa, who had spent nearly thirty years as an official in Mexico City. In 1561 the viceroy, who described him as fifty years old, chose him to command the expedition, although he was no sailor. He founded the Spanish settlements at Cebu in 1565 and Manila in 1571, was named the islands’ first governor and captain-general, and spent much of his own fortune on the venture. He died in Manila on 20 August 1572 and never went home. (Chapter 3 and Chapter 28)

Andrés de Urdaneta (1508–1568)

A Basque from Villafranca de Oria, now Ordizia. As a teenager he sailed with Loaísa’s fleet in 1525, lived eight years in the Spice Islands and came home by way of Portugal, and in 1552 he became an Augustinian friar in Mexico City. The viceroy called him “the best and most accurate cosmographer in Nueva España.” He led the expedition’s friars and guided the San Pedro home in 1565 by sailing north to find the westerly winds, the route the galleons followed for 250 years. He died in Mexico City in 1568. (Chapter 1, Chapter 3 and Chapter 17)

Captains, pilots and officials

Felipe de Salcedo

Legazpi’s grandson, still a young man when the fleet sailed. He captained the San Pedro on the voyage back to Mexico in 1565, and Legazpi asked the king to reward him for discovering the return route. He came back to the islands, and in 1568 commanded the San Pablo, wrecked at Guam on her way to Mexico. (Chapter 16 and Chapter 19)

Juan de Salcedo (about 1549–1576)

Felipe’s younger brother, about twenty when he went to Manila with Goiti in 1570 as second in command. He was wounded by a poisoned arrow near Taal, took Cainta in 1571 and crossed Luzon to the gold mines of Paracale. He later explored the north of Luzon, helped defend Manila against the corsair Limahong in 1574, and died at Vigan in 1576. (Chapter 24 and Chapter 27)

Martín de Goiti (died 1574)

In charge of the fleet’s guns in 1564, and from 1567 master-of-camp, the commander of the soldiers, “for he was entirely trustworthy, and had much experience in matters of war.” He led the expedition of 1570 that made a blood compact with Rajah Sulayman and then burned Maynila, and commanded at Bangkusay in 1571. He was killed when Limahong attacked Manila in November 1574. (Chapter 22, Chapter 25 and Chapter 26)

Mateo del Saz (died 1567)

The first master-of-camp, who commanded the San Pablo, led the raid at Guam and brought back shiploads of rice from Mindanao. He died of fever on the coast of Mindanao. (Chapter 7 and Chapter 22)

Guido de Lavezaris

The accountant of Villalobos’s fleet in the 1540s, who went home by way of India and planted ginger in Mexico. He came back with Legazpi as royal treasurer, and governed the islands after Legazpi’s death, from 1572 to 1575. (Chapter 2 and Chapter 28)

Esteban Rodríguez (died 1565)

The chief pilot. He scouted Negros and Cebu in the frigate and kept the chart that measured the way home, but died at sea on 27 September 1565, ten days before the San Pedro reached Acapulco. (Chapter 12 and Chapter 19)

Rodrigo de Espinosa

Pilot of the San Pedro, whose log of the voyage back to Mexico survives. (Chapters 17–19)

Hernando Riquel

The notary who wrote down the act of possession on Samar in 1565, the voyage to Luzon in 1570 and the founding of Manila. (Chapter 8, Chapter 24 and Chapter 27)

Alonso de Arellano and Lope Martín

Captain and pilot of the San Lucas, which left the fleet in November 1564 and reached Mexico first, in August 1565. Legazpi had them charged with desertion. In 1566 Lope Martín led a mutiny on the San Gerónimo, and was marooned with twenty-six others in the Marshall Islands. (Chapter 5, Chapter 18 and Chapter 21)

Juan de Camus

The sailor named in the official record as the finder of the Santo Niño on 28 April 1565. The chief pilot’s account says it was “a sailor named Mermeo.” (Chapter 14)

The people of the islands

Calayan

A man who said he was a chief on Samar. He went ashore with the Spanish ensign for the first act of possession, at Cibabao, on 15 February 1565. (Chapter 8)

Sikatuna and Sigala

Chiefs on Bohol who made the blood compact with Legazpi in March 1565. Legazpi did not trust them at first, but they went with his men in a boat to Cebu to look for his missing frigate. (Chapter 11, Chapter 12 and the blood compact)

Tupas

Ruler of Cebu after Humabon. In April 1565 he would not trade with the fleet, and his people left their town to the Spaniards. On 4 June 1565 he made peace with Legazpi in the Treaty of Cebu. He was baptised in March 1568, taking the name Felipe. (Chapter 13 and Chapter 16)

Simaquio

Tupas’s brother, who gave himself up in June 1565 to be with his captured wife and daughters, and helped bring about the peace. (Chapter 16)

Isabel

Tupas’s niece, the first person baptised by Legazpi’s friars, in 1565. She married a Greek caulker of the fleet, Master Andrea. (Chapter 16)

The Bornean pilot

The pilot of the trading junk captured off Bohol, whose name was not written down. He told Legazpi about the Portuguese raids, guided the frigate sent to scout Negros and Cebu, and was killed ashore on that voyage, in April 1565. (Chapter 10 and Chapter 12)

Juanes

A Mexican Indian left behind by Villalobos’s fleet, found in 1566 living on the coast between Leyte and Samar after more than twenty years, married to a chief’s daughter and tattooed like any warrior of the islands. (Chapter 20)

Rajah Sulayman

The young ruler of Maynila, with his uncle. In 1570 he told Goiti that “the Moros were not painted Indians,” and made a blood compact with him; fighting broke out soon after, and the town burned. In May 1571 he made peace with Legazpi. What became of him afterwards is not certain. He is often confused with the young chief of Macabebe killed at Bangkusay, but they were different men. (Chapter 25, Chapter 26 and the founding of Manila)

The elder rajah

Sulayman’s uncle, who also bore the title of rajah and ruled Maynila with him. He is known today as Rajah Matanda, from the Tagalog word for old. He made the blood compact with Goiti in 1570 and peace with Legazpi in 1571, and died in 1572. (Chapter 25 and Chapter 26)

Mahomete

A trader of Maynila who had dealt with the Spaniards for years at Cebu and been baptised. He guided Goiti’s fleet into Manila Bay in 1570. (Chapter 25)

Lakandula

Ruler of Tondo, across the Pasig River from Maynila. When Legazpi’s fleet arrived in May 1571 he came out in a small boat to welcome him “in peace and friendship,” and asked him to pardon Sulayman and the elder rajah. He was baptised soon afterwards, helped the Spaniards against Limahong in 1574, and died in 1575. (Chapter 26)

The young chief of Macabebe

He led the war boats of the towns north of Manila Bay against the Spaniards at Bangkusay on 3 June 1571, and was killed. The Spanish records do not give his name. He is remembered as Tarik Sulayman, a name given in the 1800s by people who said they were his descendants, and in 2016 the National Historical Commission honoured him at Macabebe as a nameless hero. (Chapter 26)

Others

Felipe II (1527–1598)

The prince after whom Villalobos’s men named the Felipinas in 1543, and, as king of Spain from 1556, the man who sent Legazpi. (Chapter 2 and Chapter 3)

Ruy López de Villalobos (died 1546)

Led the expedition of 1542 from Mexico, whose men gave the name Felipinas to Samar and Leyte. It could not find the way back, and he died at Amboina. (Chapter 2)

Luis de Velasco (died 1564)

Viceroy of New Spain, who prepared the expedition and chose Legazpi, and died in July 1564, before it sailed. (Chapter 3 and Chapter 4)

Gonzalo Pereira

The Portuguese commander who came from the Moluccas in 1568, demanded that Legazpi leave islands Portugal claimed, and blockaded Cebu for months. (Chapter 23)

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Quotations follow the English translations in Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson’s The Philippine Islands, 1493–1898. About the sources →

More about the voyage: Timeline · How the Philippines got its name · The blood compact · The galleon trade · The founding of Manila