Introduction

n March 7, 2008 we had a meeting about Masbate’s Galleon Festival in Aquinas University of Legazpi. Among those present were Bishop Joel Z. Baylon, D.D., then Bishop of the Diocese of Masbate, Father Ramonclaro G. Mendez, O.P., Rector and President of Aquinas University of Legazpi, and Dr. Danilo M. Gerona. Dr. Gerona noted that we hardly have a fuller account of Bikol history. Bishop Baylon said that what we have are nuggets of history. Bishop Baylon’s observation cannot be any farther from the truth.

My study of the Manila Galleon, particularly on the role of Bikol and the Bikolanos in the Galleon Trade, took me all over the pages of Blair and Robertson’s The Philippine Islands (55 volumes); over so many books about Bikol . . . anything about Bikol; so many authors, and so many websites, too little about Bikol and Bikolanos. Scanty accounts seem to hide from one attenuated page to another, from one rare book to the next, from one website in the middle of nowhere to another. As the exercise turns out, it would be a demonstration of spunk, if only to gather those “nuggets” available locally; digging in faraway archives, in the absence of money, being out of the study’s equation.

The Spaniards had to build ships and other sea craft for compelling reasons. Foremost is the fact that their new colony is an archipelago. They had to cross seas and rivers big and small, deep or shallow, wide or narrow in their explorations and campaigns to subjugate the entire nation. They had to move men and materiel from their base in Mexico to the Philippines. They had to send back to Spain through Mexico anything and everything valuable found in their conquered territory. And Spain had to wage naval battles with their Chinese, Dutch, Moro, English, and Portuguese rivals. On seaworthy ships, therefore, depended Spain’s domination not only of her new colony but also of the seas around it which swelled with equally audacious rubbernecks and carpetbaggers, and the ever rapacious and peripatetic privateers and buccaneers. It meant establishing a good number of robust shipyards.

The first shipyards were established in Cavite and Oton (the Spanish chroniclers placed Oton in Panae; presently, Oton is a town in Iloilo) but vessels were also constructed in Masbate, Marinduque, Camarines, and Yvalon. By 1616, six out of seven galleons stationed in Manila had been built in the islands. They were not just smaller vessels and galleys but large ships (Closman, 2009; 37).

While Cavite and Oton hosted the earlier and bigger astilleros, Governor Juan de Silva got Bikol and Bikolanos to build huge galleons that weighed up to 2,000 tons, unmatched by the rivals of Spain. de Silva’s move to go to Bikol was also triggered by the exhaustion of lumber and labor compounded by a brewing discontent among the workers in Cavite and Panae. All these happened in the seven years that de Silva ruled Las Islas Filipinas as colonial governor.

Kabikolan was not only blessed with good harbors, the lumber needed for shipbuilding were abundant, and more significantly, Bikolanos were very good at shipbuilding. This is not discussing yet the fact that the Acapulco route began in Cavite, cruised in the western coasts of Luzon, and wended through the seas off Bikol. De Silva clearly understood what it meant to set up astilleros in Bikol: build the biggest, grandest, swiftest vessels here while at the same time servicing the needs of galleons in transit to both ends of their voyages; and build the seacraft needed for domestic pursuits such as repelling the attacks of the Moro pirates. The astilleros in Bikol were in their most intense service from 1610 until 1814.

De Silva ordered the construction of about ten big galleons and eight galleys, among them the galleon San Juan Bautista and the almiranta San Marcos in Marinduque; another San Juan Bautista in Mindoro; the Espiritu Santo and the San Miguel, and six galleys in Cavite; two galleys in Manila. Among those he ordered built in Bikol were the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe and the Angel de la Guardia in Dalupaon, Pasacao, Camarines Sur; the San Felipe and the Santiago in Bagatao, Magallanes, Sorsogon; the royal flagship Salvador in Mobo, Masbate.

The early Bikolanos were not only shipbuilders but they were also skilled navigators who were stationed on both sides of the Embocadero. Both the departing and arriving galleons depended on their skills to safely go through the treacherous currents of the strait, a notorious graveyard of ships. Those native maritime navigators had in their hands and skillful judgment the fate of the galleons at this juncture of their voyage (Dery, 1991; 55).

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Marginalia on Masbate

There is much about Masbate to be learned by Masbateños themselves and more especially by Bikolanos in the mainland. O’Brien wrote: Masbate is a province unusual for its many islands, and also many languages. Forty-eight percent of Masbateños speak their mother tongue, Masbateño; 32% speak Visayan; 18% speak Bikol; 8% speak Panay-Hiligaynon. Masbateño is spoken in the municipalities in northern Masbate near the capital. Visayan is used in the southeast. Panay-Hiligay­­non around Milagros. Naga-Bikol in northern Burias. Albay-Bikol in TicaoIsland (O’Brien, 1970; 11).

The town of Cataingan saw the first of the Pulahanes movement during the revolution. On August 19, 1898, the Spaniards feared the Pulahanes, they became apprehensive of the revolution, they all left Masbate by boat to Iloilo.

In Burias, San Pascual appears to be an ignored historical spot. There too are a lot of archeological finds in Burias. Twenty-one ancient burial jars were found in barangay Mabuhay, 36 more were found in barangay Aguada. In barangay Oma, a box of rare Chinese jewelry was found including a little solid gold “book” with Arabic-like inscriptions. In Mabiton, large numbers of dao tree trunk coffins were found in a cave. After a heavy rain, old coins and ancient pottery would occasionally turn up around the town, emerging from the waterlogged earth.

Burias was deserted in 1800. It became a pirate lair. Later, it became a dumping ground for captured cimarones, remontados, and Moro pirates. In my October 2008 visit to Burias Island, I learned from a highly reliable source that the rare Tabon (scrubfowl) bird (Megapodius cumingi) can still be found in the island. The owner of the land where this bird was repeatedly sighted is hesitant to make the information public for fear of poachers or simply of those who may not understand the value of keeping the bird alive in its natural habitat. I had the rare opportunity to hear its cackle one late afternoon.

In The Philippine Islands Masbate was described as “Farther to the north-northeast of this island of Leyte lies the island of Masbate, which is about thirty leagues in circumference, and six leagues wide. It has about five hundred Indians, who belong to one encomendero. It has also gold mines from which much gold was dug, for the natives of Camarines went thither to work them; but they have left the place on account of the Spaniards, and therefore the mines are not worked,” (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 5; 53). It is also reported that: “The Recollects [Augustinians] assumed charge, in addition to the fields already mentioned of the island of Masbate with the neighboring islands of Ticao and Burias. Those islands belong to the bishopric of Nueva Caceres in ecclesiastical matters, and to the alcaldeship of Albay in political affairs. Masbate is sixty leguas from Manila, in a latitude lying between twelve and thirteen degrees. It is about fifty leguas in circumference, nineteen leguas long and five or six broad. It was formerly famous for its rich gold mines, which when they tried to work them, it was found did not produce expense. The island also has fine copper mines, samples from which in very recent times were excellent. Information was given of them by Don Francisco Salgado; and when everything necessary and expert Chinese for working them had been prepared, he abandoned them, for he saw that they had much less metal than he thought.”

“The island of Ticao is about twenty-three leguas in circumference to twenty-six leguas, twelve in length, and four in width. These calculations must be understood only approximately for they had not been exactly determined. All three possess excellent timber, from which pitch is distilled in plenty, and makes excellent pitch for vessels. One of those trees produces the fragrant camanguian (incense or storax) . . . . They have many civet-cats; civet is a drug which was obtained there long before this time, and had a good sale in Acapulco, although that product is not in so great demand now,” (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 41; 241-242). There was that Pulang Duta (literally, Red Earth) in Masbate, a place that served as an exile area for men of the cloth on the sly during the Hispanic times.

On the role of the friars in Masbate, it was reported that, “Protected by arms, Fray Alonso Ximenes, an Observant Augustian, introduced the evangelical law. In that he did excellent work and obtained much fruit in Masbate. Other religious, imbued with the same spirit and of the same insti-tute, followed, and spread the work into Ticao and Burias. By that means a suitable mission field was established, and the Augustinians conserved the administration thereof until the year six hundred and nine. At that time they resigned that district into the hands of the bishop of Camarines, who employed seculars instead of those regulars. There were various seculars in charge of the administration there, until the year one thousand six hundred and eighty-eight (1688). The district handed over by the Augustinian fathers had 250 regular families; but that number was diminished by the terrible invasions of the Moros, so that the corres-
ponding stipend was not sufficient for the maintenance of one cura, and no one could be found who was willing to take care of that district,” (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 41; 243).

On that account, Fray Andres Gonzalez, O.P., their bishop, asked the King of Spain to apportion the curacies in a manner that could bring about just spiritual administration in his bishopric. Part of this arrangement was the assignment of the Franciscans in the Bikol Region. But as it would happen, Masbate was not covered by the Franciscans for it remained in the hands of the Augustinian Recollects. Masbate, therefore, is different from other Bikol provinces, in this account: the other Bikol provinces had the Franciscans, Masbate remained in the hands of the Augustinians. The Franciscans covered the mainland provinces as well as the island province of Catanduanes.

The Augustinian Recollects founded their headquarters in Mobo, a famous village of Masbate in the northeastern part of the province, located along a river a short distance from the capital village called Masbate.  They built a church there, under the advocacy of Our Lady of Remedies. It was a costly edifice adorned with good reredoses, and had a sacristy well supplied with vestments. It had a capacious house with suitable quarters and dormitories for the resident and the transient religious.

It was the Augustinian Fray Ildefonso de la Concepcion who opened a road through the interior of the province from Mobo over rough mountains, to the opposite coast to get away from the dangers of sea travel. It was a yeoman’s task for de la Concepcion who wanted to avoid pirates but had to contend with the violence of the Cimarones. Of course, it was de la Concepcion who laid out the plan, supervised its execution, and saw to it that there would be enough native labor to perform his bidding. What this priest did was one memorable engineering feat.

The religious ministers who were assigned in Masbate reported that, although they have been for many years in other doctrinas and missions, they had not so much to suffer and endure in any of them as in that of Masbate. Masbate then was a difficult assignment even for the spirited and pioneering Augustinians. In this island province, the population centers are scattered at the coastal and in mountainous areas. Merely reaching them on a regular basis would already be a forbidding undertaking.

The Royal Astillero of Mobo

Masbate had all it took for an ideal astillero—good supply of lumber, safe ports, and native labor. The town of Mobo, aside from being then the seat of the church, also became the province’s shipyard. The shipyard was at the Sagawsawan River in what is now barangay Fabrica. The name Fabrica (factory in English)arouses curiousity. Fabrica of what, galleons, galiots, brigantines, other seacraft? Fabrica is a Spanish word which can refer to factory, structure, or church maintenance fund.

While the Salvador appears to be the only galleon built in Mobo, there are accounts that in this astillero were repaired some galleons which have been damaged. But smaller vessels were reportedly constructed here. A popular account was that of a Spanish frigate, the Polayabat, which sank, was salvaged, towed, and then repaired in Mobo. To Polayabat’s credit was a town street so named Polyabat. The street carries the name to this day.

The location of the astillero was at the Sagawsawan River in barangay Fabrica. The river has the depth where a galleon and other big vessels can berth. I visited the place last week of September 2008 in the company of Prof. Simon Listana of Aquinas University of Legazpi. We learned from this visit that it was in Sagawsawan River where a power barge supplying electric power to Masbate was berthed on November 23, 1977. The presence of this huge vessel attested to the river’s capability to accommodate a galleon in the historical past.

There is no conclusive finding yet as to when the Real Astillero de Mobo was established. One thing is definite though, at the time Governor Juan de Silva launched his attack against the Dutch in the battle of Playa Honda, the galleon Salvador was ready to sail from Mobo, Masbate.

The Salvador saw action in the celebrated 1609 battle of Playa Honda off the coast of Zambales. She served as the flagship of the Spanish fleet which consisted of seven galleons armed with fifty large, twenty-five-, thirty-five-, and eighteen-pound artilleries. The Bikol-made Salvador and the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe were the mainstays in that battle. The Salvador would also serve as de Silva’s flagship in the latter’s expedition against the Dutch in the Moluccas.

The Royal Astillero of Bagatao

Bagatao’s glory as an astillero seems to have escaped the native’s memory. Its written historical accounts are hardly collected and comprehensive. A researcher has to turn to the thousands of pages of Blair and Robertson’s The Philippine Islands to dig and gather nuggets of knowledge strewn here and there. Today, this historical site has been ravaged by cultural scavengers, systematically stripped of its precious artifacts. In fact, it has been reduced to a mere picnic island and a naval reservation. A lighthouse is all that marks its moment in the country’s maritime history.

Bagatao is an island in the coast of  Magallanes, at the mouth of Sorsogon Bay. The island is so named, according to folk stories, because, viewed from above, it conjures an image of a man floating on water. Bagatao was reputed to be the biggest astillero in Bikol. It was here that the grandest, largest, costliest, swiftest, and much celebrated vessel that ever plied the open seas was built, the Santisima Trinidad y Señora del Buen Fin. This galleon, completed in 1751, was in service for eleven years in the 18th century. It was also called “El Poderoso” (The Mighty). This galleon was built long after de Silva died in 1616.

The Santisima Trinidad y Señora del Buen Fin was decreed built by Governor Francisco de Ovando in 1750. The project was completed in 1751 costing the royal treasury an estimated 191,000.00 pesos. Her size allowed her to carry a crew of “384:40 gunners, 100 sailors or common seamen, 100 native Filipino seamen, and 44 soldiers,” (Reyes, 1991; 131).

This galleon plied the Manila-Acapulco run until Admiral Cornish, commander of the British frigate “Panther” captured her in October 1862 in the Embocadero. Her capture was said to be one of the “fabulous naval exploits of that era.” At that time, Spain and England were tightly engaged in the so-called Seven Years War. The English report had it that, “She was a large vessel, she lay like a mountain in the water, and the Spaniards trusted entirely to the excessive thickness of her sides, not altogether without reason; for the shot made no impression upon any part except her upper works,” (Reyes, 1991; 131).

The following narration of Reyes with reference to an account by William Lytle Schurz is interesting. This summarizes how impressive the Santisima Trinidad y Nuestra Señora del Buen Fin was. Even the British who also built very good galleons were awed by its sheer enormity, “she lay like a mountain in the water,” said Admiral Cornish.

“After her capture the galleon was towed up to Manila, where her cargo, estimated to be worth two million pesos, was taken out of her hold. William Lytle Schurz later reported that ‘on the 9th of June of the next year (1863) she entered Plymouth Road, the harbor that had been associated with so much misfortune for the galleons.’ Shortly afterwards, the Scots Magazine announced: ‘The Santisima Trinidad’ is now advertised for sale at Plymouth. This ship is one of the largest ever seen at Britain. She is upwards of 2,000 tons burden; the gundeck measures 167 feet, 6 inches; the breadth 50 feet 6 inches; the depth of the hold from the top deck, 30 feet, 6 inches; her drought of water at Plymouth, 28 feet. People came from all over Southern England to gaze upon the mightiest of the galleons, which ended her long odyssey of troubles in the ignominy of alien captivity. By irony of fate she was also called Nuestra Señora del Buen Fin—Our Lady of Good Ending,” (Reyes, 1991, 131).

The astillero of Bagatao built not only galleons but also warships (gruesos navios) that were said to have weighed up to 2,500 tons. Some of these vessels, notably the San Felipe and the Santiago, figured prominently in the battle at Playa Honda against the Dutch in 1616-1617. Again, it is unfortunate that there is no inclusive list of all the seacraft built in that shipyard and in other Bikol astilleros as well.

The galleons Nuestra Señora de Loreto, the Nuestra Señora del Rosario y Los Santos Reyes were also built in the astillero of Bagatao. This shipyard goes down to history as the builder of the grandest, largest, costliest, swiftest, and most celebrated galleon, the Santisima Trinidad y Señora del Buen Fin, at the price of tremendous sacrifice and loss of lives among the early Bikolanos. This is not counting yet those killed and captured by the Moro pirates who incessantly attacked the astillero.

And why did not the natives resist the marauding Moros? In 1636, Governor Hurtado de Corcuera offered a direct answer: “I do not know whether I can say that they even care any longer for the damage inflicted by the enemies, one reason being that they are badly paid and badly treated,while their wives and children are left to starve to death, and their crops go to ruin,” (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 18; 333). Fray Coronel added: They were treated like dogs. Therefore fighting the pirates or fighting for the Spaniards would have the same consequence—they had nothing to gain. There’s no sense in choosing between the devil and the deep blue sea. Indifference was an option. They submitted to whatever befell them.

Even before the heyday of the Galleon Trade, the Spaniards had been calling at the Gulf of Sorsogon in their voyages going to or coming from Nueva España. In the times of the Galleon Trade, San Jacinto in Ticao Island, just across the Gulf of Sorsogon, served as an alternate port of call for the galleons. In these ports, the galleons docked for repairs and victualing. There is a report which says that a royal order was issued exempting the people of Ticao Island from paying tributes in exchange for servicing the needs of the galleons that called on San Jacinto (Dery, 1991; 55).

The Spaniards often referred to the Bagatao shipyard as “the port and shipyard of Bagatao,” “the port in Ybalon,” or “the Sorsogon Port.”

Like the other astilleros, the Real Astillero de Bagatao did not escape the devastating raids of marauding Moros. The shipbuilding activities in the island seemed like a mother lode for disastrous attacks from the Moros. This astillero was destroyed by the Moros in 1627. It was rehabilitated. And then raided once more in 1635. Every raid meant untold destruction, violent death for the natives, and for those who survived—captivity for slavery. Damages from the 1627 raid were ordered repaired by Governor Juan Niño de Tabora. He served as governor from June 29, 1626 to July 22, 1632.

That 1627 raid was under the command of Datu Ache who had 2,000 men in thirty caracoas. First, Ache captured a vessel carrying supplies for Bagatao. Then he captured another vessel with a crew of sixty natives and two Spaniards. Ache proceeded to the astillero in Bagatao and caught the Spaniards by surprise. Only twelve of the Spaniards escaped from Ache’s violence. The shipyard was abandoned leaving the raiders for several days “eating and drinking as if in their homes.” They took the artillery pieces and all the booty they could find including a Spanish woman named Doña Lucia who would later become Datu Ache’s favorite, personal secretary, and interpreter. She was made a “half queen.” The raiders also took 1,000 fanega of rice (estimated to be equivalant to about 500 cavans at 50 kilograms per cavan) but threw them to the sea because they no longer have space for the commodity. In 1635 Datu Ache returned to once more terrorize Bagatao. His raids netted him huge booties: 2,000 ounces of gold, an equal amount in silver, numerous firearms, 1,500 natives; 30 Spaniards were killed with five of them being friars (Dery, 1991; 61). The Spaniards seemed to be very slow learners.

One account has it that the Real Astillero de Bagatao was said to have started its operations in 1609 (Gerona, “The Bikol Galleons,” <www.adnu.edu.ph/elibrary/ibhc/article/BIKOL%20REPORTER %ARTICLE%GALLEONS.pdf.> October10, 2011). Fray Felix de Huerta (1865) wrote that “Dicha isla de Bagatao, donde el Superior Govierno establecio un astillero real . . . el siguente de 1610 libro el Superior Gobierno cantidad de pesos para la iglesia y ornamentos sagrada.” (In the island of Bagatao, the government established a royal shipyard . . . according to a chapter in a book of 1610, the government gave money and sacred vessels/ornaments for the church (Escobal, 2006).

There is no question that the royal astillero of Bagatao was established at the start of the rule of Governor Juan de Silva. The astilleros in the Bikol Region were afterall set up by de Silva. Workers in this astillero were conscripted from Albay and Catanduanes who Fray Francisco Colin described as “unrivalled in their shipbuilding skills.”

At the start of the shipbuilding activities, Bagatao had abundant supplies of hardwood needed for the seacraft being constructed. These materials were initially adequately sourced from the forests of the island. A unique specie of hardwood locally known as parina was extensively used until this specie vanished. There also were narra, molave, yakal, lauaan, and guisok right in the forests of the island. Bagatao had the harbor, the lumber, and the labor. Governor de Silva couldn’t ask for more. But as more and bigger vessels were built, lumber sourced in the island became scarcer.

A summary from different reports on the galleons built in Bagatao yield the following: the Santisima Trinidad y Señora del Buen Fin (1751), the San Felipe and the Santiago (the first galleons reportedly built there), the San Juan Bautista, the Nuestra Señora del Rosario y Los Santos Reyes, the San Francisco Javier, the Sta. Rosa, the Sto. Niño, and the Santo Cristo de Burgos (Escobal, 2006). Galleys and other smaller seacraft were also built in Bagatao and brought to Mexico and sold for huge profits.

There seems to be no clear account as to when this astillero was set up but Fray Felix de Huerta reported that it was in 1610, a year after Governor Juan de Silva assumed office. This seems more plausible than the information that it was set up in 1609. Juan de Silva could not have set up this astillero immediately in the year he became governor of the colony but he could have issued orders to immediately build the San Felipe and the Santiago. The order to set up the astillero could have just followed since it needed royal dispensation from the king in Spain. It is apparent, however, that the Real Astillero de Mobo was set up before the Real Astillero de Bagatao.

Incidentally, the Bagatao-made galleon San Francisco Javier got wreck-ed in the “port of Boronga in the island of Leyte” in 1655. “The wreck was looked upon by people generally as a punishment from Heaven for the cruelties practiced on the natives in the building of ‘San Francisco,’ ” (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 37; 213). Boronga could be Borongan and it is not in Leyte but in Samar. But what catches more interest is the mention of the cruelties to the natives.

The Astillero of Dancalan

Farther westward of Bagatao was located the astillero of Dancalan in what is still called barangay Dancalan, Donsol. The astillero is located just across the town’s wharf. While records are silent on whether a galleon was built in this astillero, the facility significantly provided the metal works needed by the galleon-building astilleros set up in other parts of Bikol. Nevertheless, in this astillero were built vessels that plied the Philippine seas for purposes of local trade and commerce and for running after and fighting against the Moro marauders.

Archeologists seem to agree that the astillero of Dancalan is the only of its kind in the entire country. Studies started in December 1995 succeeded in unearthing a rectangular concrete structure said to be part of a smelting shop. Oral history has it that Donsol was once populated by metalworkers and smelters. In fact, donsol is Bikol for anvil. But still, sea crafts were built in this place given the barangay’s name Dancalan, from dangkalan, a hardwood tree whose timber is prized by shipbuilders.

The Royal Astillero of Pantao

In some documents, Pantao was mentioned as part of Sorsogon (Dery, 1991; 53). It would even be lumped with Calaguimi and Panlatuan as villages in Bagatao Island of Magallanes, Sorsogon.

Pantao is a coastal village in a sheltered cove in the western coast of Albay. Pantao is a barangay of the municipality of Libon. It is presently the site of the multi-million-peso worth Pantao International Port project, also known as Pantao Regional Port, which the typhoons “Milenyo” and “Reming” des-
troyed late in 2006 due to perhaps the materials of doubtful standards used in its construction. Todate, this project remains to be a slumbering if not a badly injured white elephant. It is in the vicinity of this port where the Real Astillero de Pantao was set up by the Spaniards.

 It was in Pantao where the biggest of all the galleons, the Nuestra Señora del Buen Socorro, was built in 1667, almost eighty-four years before the celebrated Santisima Trinidad y Señora del Buen Fin was built in Bagatao in 1751.

The Nuestra Señora del Buen Socorro was built under the instructions of Governor Don Diego de Salcedo (de Salcedo served as colonial governor from 1663 to 1668). The execution of the project was entrusted to Diego de Arevalo who was a noted shipwright and popular for his mastery of maritime matters. Diego de Arevalo was promised the command of the galleon upon its completion. To expedite timber cutting and put pressure on Arevalo to do the best he can, he was appointed Alcalde Mayor of the province of Camarines. Governor Diego de Salcedo also sent Master-of-Camp Agustin de Cepada Carnacedo as chief overseer to help Diego de Arevalo (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 37; 251).

In over a year, the galleon was put to sea, “the largest and best galleon that had yet been seen in the islands . . . very few so large has been seen in European seas and extremely few that are larger,” (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 37; 251). The Nuestra Señora del Buen Socorro immediately set sail for Acapulco that same year. She sailed from Albay on August 28, 1667. Her launching was not an easy one for she almost ran aground as she left the harbor. But Diego de Arevalo aided by Chief Pilot Juan Rodriguez, a Portuguese, got her off safely.

“The galleon was the best that was ever built thus far in this (sic) islands; and its (sic) size, beauty and swiftness were amazing . . . . It (sic) had two tanks of water, so large that one of them was more than enough for the entire voyage to Acapulco, and the other served for the return,” reported Fray Casimiro Diaz, OSA (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 37; 250). On her maiden voyage to Acapulco, Nuestra Señora del Buen Socorro was escorted by the patache San Diego. This galleon was last mentioned to have journeyed to Acapulco in 1670.

There is no clear account yet as to how many galleons or galleys or pa-taches were built in Pantao. But there is this documented occurrence of a Moro raid in the astillero of Pantao when a galleon and two pataches half way through completion were torched; 200 native workers were killed, and 400 more were captured and made as slaves including 30 Spaniards with Fray Domingo de los Martirez and Fray Alonso de la Soledad (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 19; 216). The Real Astillero de Pantao was garrisoned and protected by artillery but the Spaniards were reportedly lax so that sixty caracoas of the Moros surprised them on October 18, 1616. More than one million pesos worth of properties, guns, and supplies were either taken or destroyed by the raiders. Such serious threats, hardships ,and immense sacrifices suffered by the natives did not deter nor slow down galleon building activities.

Governor Juan de Silva was wise in his decision to set up the Real Astillero de Pantao for in its geographic environs abundantly grew the famous Philippine molave (Vitex parviflora) whose hardwood was prized and extensively used for building galleons (Schurz, 1959; 198-210).

It is interesting to imagine how lumber needed for shipbuilding were felled and hauled down to Pantao from the forests of Libon, Albay; from San Miguel Island in Tabaco for narra; Ragay, Camarines Sur for lauaan; Pasacao, Camarines Sur for the narra; and elsewhere in the vastness of Ibalon. As Nee reported . . . the forests of Ibalon were “impenetrable.”

Fray Hernando de los Rios Coronel reported to the King in 1621 that there was “immense labor, hardship, and cost to the Indian.” It was noted that one galleon alone “required 6,000 inhabitants of Laguna three months to drag them (timber) from the mountains to the shipyards of Cavite.” It is certain that the natives of Albay underwent similar if not harsher sufferings. Captain Sebastian de Pineda reported in 1619 that many have died through severe work in the shipyard in Pantao (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 18; 174).

It is engaging to consider at this point that in the 1720’s, Libon, where Pantao is located, was the center of abaca trade in the Camarines. The movements of abaca prices in this town dictated movements of the prices of this commodity elsewhere. The ropes and riggings of the galleon Santo Cristo de Burgos needed for its voyage to Acapulco came from this place. This galleon was built in the astillero of Bagatao.

When Libon became the center for abaca trading, fifty-three years have passed since the Nuestra Señora del Buen Socorro was taken to the high seas. But ropes from abaca fibers started to find their way to the galleons in about 1636 when colonial authorities decided that those ropes were of importance to the navy yards where the King’s ships were constructed. The ropes were used as tacos de artileria (gun stopper), ayustes (cable splicers), betas (pieces of cordage for serving all sorts of tackle), calabrotes (stream cable), and for riggings of galleons. Abaca fibers then found their way to the vessels’ hawsers, from the thinnest to the thickest.

It was on March 27, 1722 when a decree was issued that abaca ropes should be used in all galleons and other Spanish ships. The order came about after an aborted disaster that befell the galleon Nuestra Señora de Begonia in 1717 off Mariveles due to a typhoon (Dery, 1991; 106). This means that abaca ropes made by Bikolanos for the Nuestra Señora del Buen Socorro was already of significant quality. Earlier, cordage for the Spanish vessels constructed in the country were supplied from Cavite.

Abaca became a form of tribute which the natives had to pay the colonial rulers. “In 1616, the inhabitants of Libon petitioned the colonial government that they be relieved from paying abaca fibers as tributes as well as from its cultivation on the ground that they were required to work in the shipyards in Camarines,” (Dery, 1991; 107).

Building the galleons considered, abaca production and abaca rope making—to comply with the order to pay tributes in these forms—must have been a tremendous burden for the early Bikolanos. Of course, it was not only in the astillero of Pantao where abaca ropes were needed. There were many other astilleros which had to be supplied. Meanwhile, European markets had started inquiring about “Manila hemp” and “Manila rope.” That could only mean more torment for the early Bikolanos.

It taxes the imagination in drawing up a mental picture of the early Bikolanos simultaneously engaged in abaca production and post-production activities, rope making, and galleon building. For all those efforts, the early Bikolanos got nothing in return—for his person, for his family, for his community.

Fray Fernando de los Rios Coronel had this to say in a letter to the King, “Inasmuch as the ships in the Filipinas cause your Majesty great expense, and have ruined and exhausted the natives; and inasmuch as your Majesty owes them a great sum of money from the time of Don Juan de Silva, for their personal services and things that he took by force from them: it is advisable, not only for your royal service, but also for your royal conscience, to relieve them from great oppression,” (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 18; 294).

The Astillero of Dalupaon

Accounts about the astillero of Dalupaon are scanty. Dalupaon is in Pasacao, Camarines Sur not in Ragay as some reports ascribe. It is at the boundaries of Ragay and Pasacao thus perhaps the seeming confusion. The place is situated at the rugged coasts of the vast Ragay Gulf between Jamuraon Bay and Caima Bay. It is somewhere between Wagas and Bagulayo Points of Pasacao town.

In the 17th century, Pasacao itself, between what are now called as Tanawan and Pasacao Points, was observed to be a difficult port for sailors. “Neither was it safe for ships. The anchorage was rather deep but small and dangerous. Its ebb tides were irregular and sunken shoals lay close to the shores,” (Malanyaon, 1991; 245). Between Pasacao Point and Sibano Point now lies the Port of Pasacao. Pasacao was not spared by the Moro pirates such as those devastating attacks of 1757 and October 4, 1779.

Hispanic royal orders or even American legislative enactments are somewhat hard to come by to pinpoint the date of the establishment of Pasacao as a public corporation but church records show that the present town’s church was established in 1885. That could offer some clues. Nevertheless, documents confirm that in Dalupaes (Dalupaes, Spanish reports; Dalupaon, present-day name of the place) existed an astillero. The astillero was set up during the governorship of Juan de Silva. Dalupaes was described to be fifty leguas from Manila (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 18; 173-174). In this astillero were constructed the galleons Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe and the Angel de la Guardia. These galleons plied the Galleon Trade. These also figured prominently in the battle of Playa Honda against the incursive Dutch naval force which suffered heavy losses. Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe was under the command of Captain Juan Bautista de Molina with Salvador, made in Mobo, Masbate being the flagship, under the command of Don Juan Ronquillo. These galleons performed gallantly. The battle of Playa Honda occurred in 1617 (Blair & Robertson, Vol. 19; 226-228). Records or reports are silent on whether other galleons or other vessels of note were constructed in Dalupaon.

It will be interesting to inquire as to whatever happened to the enormous source of lauaan in Ragay after two galleons were built in Dalupaon.

Building the galleon

This was how a galleon was built. It starts with a royal commission from the King implemented by the governor-general. A Spaniard was designated and commissioned to initiate the works in any of the royal astilleros. In the early part of building the galleons, the person commissioned to build a galleon was compensated by giving him ten or more tons of cargo space once the galleon sailed for Acapulco. Some were given as much as 40 tons of cargo space, especially the favorites of the governor-general.

That system of compensation was stopped because it occasioned “great thefts” and what we now call smuggling. It spawned a number of graft and corrupt practices. It injured the royal treasury and endlessly harassed the natives. One chronicler noted that “this system unduly enriched the builder who would fill his assigned tonnage with gold forcibly purchased from the natives at 40 reals per tae in order to afterwards sell it at 96 reals per tae in the flourishing markets of the New World.” That system also allowed the person commissioned to build the vessel to sell the space allotted to him at exorbitant prices.

Losing a galleon

One notorious practice in the Galleon Trade was brought to light by the loss of Nuestra Señora de la Concepcion on September 20, 1638. That vessel foundered in a storm and was crushed on a reef off the south coasts of Saipan. Most of the 400 people on board perished while her precious cargoes—Chinese silk/rugs, porcelain, cotton from India, ivory from Cambodia, camphor from Borneo, cinnamon, pepper, and clove from the Spice Islands, jewels from Burma, Ceylon, and Siam—spilled to the sea.

In 1644, an inquiry was made on the Concepcion’s loss. The investigators found out that Manila colonial governor Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera misappropriated treasures in the Philippines and was shipping them back to Spain as personal cargo.

Corcuera faced about 59 charges one of which was that he shipped personal bounty—treasures of gold and jewelry procured as bribes for granting special favors and appointments. He was also charged of appointing his nephew, Don Juan Francisco, to be in command of the galleon to protect his cargo. Francisco was about 22 to 24 years old and “of little age or experience in military or naval matters,” (National Geographic Magazine, Vol. 178 No. 3, September 1990).

By another decree of the King, malpractices were attempted to be eradicated. The decree provided, among others, that those who build galleons will now be paid from the royal treasury in the same manner as the other crown officials in the royal service, by fixed stipends or salaries. There were occasions when in consideration for supervising the building of a galleon, the master-builder designated was promised its command as in the case of the Bikol-made Nuestra Señora del Buen Socorro.

Galleons could be lost to typhoons or hurricanes or other force majeure as they could also be lost due to human error and abuses. Captivity by rival naval forces or by privateers would also be another way. Typhoons wrecked many galleons, pilot errors dashed them to pieces on forgotten shoals or grounded them on sandbars and shallow waters due to inadequate knowledge of ebb tides in some places. In several instances, galleons were lost because they were entrusted to unqualified commanders for reasons personal to the governor of the colony. Galleons could be lost to mutinies.

The Dutch and British naval forces and even privateers hunted and haunted the galleons for the treasures they carried as much as for their respective claims of naval supremacy and over territorial conquests. How- ever a galleon may be lost, the natives grieved more than the Spaniards for in them would lie the agonizing task of building a replacement. The Spanish royal treasury would only have to appropriate from 40,000 upwards to not more than 200,000 pesos to build a new galleon but the natives had to pay with their family solidarity and their priceless dreams and hopes without any prospect of a fair return on their “investments.”

It is tempting to ask if it is possible that the concept of what we now have as Export Processing Zone came from the system of building galleons in the royal astilleros. Afterall, an export processing zone is a specialized industrial estate located physically or administratively outside customs territory, predominantly oriented to export production. Enterprises located in export processing zones are allowed to import capital equipment and raw materials free from duties, taxes, and import restrictions. The astilleros could have been like that, understanding, of course, that ownership and operations were in the hands of the colonial powers.

12,000 needed to build a galleon

The astilleros had two principal work activities: cutting and hauling of lumber from the mountains and the actual building of the galleon. Cutting and hauling lumber from the mountains was notoriously dubbed as the dreaded corte de madera. At this point, Mandaon offers a grim reminder. Imagine the hardship of hauling molave lumber from Mandaon to Mobo, when at that time there were no roads yet, no carabaos or other beasts of burden to help in the hauling. A four-foot in diameter, 15-foot in length molave lumber, hard wood that it is, could weigh so many hundreds of kilos. Hauling one log to the astillero in Mobo could be a very intimidating enterprise.

Presently, the distance between Mandaon and Mobo is no less than 68 kilometers through a paved highway—uphill all the way to Mandaon, downhill towards Mobo. This is today. How far could Mandaon be from Mobo during the galleon times? How were lumber hauled through thick forests? How long did it take? How long did it also take to fell a huge and very tall tree using axes only?

It took more than 2,000 trees to make one of the larger galleons such as those built in the astilleros in Bikol. How were all those trees used? How were the lumber processed?

Galleons were designed with a high forecastle and poop giving it an impression of being top heavy, the forecastle standing high up above the water. But that seeming top heaviness was offset by their breadth of beam which sometimes run up to forty-nine feet across and a displacement of 1,534 tons (Reyes, 1991; 136). That’s a lot of space to be given shape by lumber.

Reyes puts it this way, “A typical galleon of the seventeenth century was 125-140 feet in length with a cargo capacity of 600-800 tons. The heavier galleons, however, like the Santisima Trinidad y Nuestra Señora del Buen Fin had a cargo capacity of 2,000 tons. Its beam was broad, anywhere from thirty to forty-five feet across, while the tallest of its masts often exceeded a height of 120 feet. Perhaps the most characteristic features were the two multi-level structures or castles, extending from the weather deck. The forecastle was usually two levels and built around the foreward mast while the stern castle was an elaborate three or four-tiered affair sweeping upward aft of the mainmast at a rakish angle. On some of the largest galleons of this period the highest level (poop deck) of the stern castle housed se-veral small cabins for the captain, pilots, and important passengers whose wealth and or position merited private quarters. Such a top heavy vessel required considerable ballasting in the form of tons of boulders, rocks, and stones laid along the keel during construction. For this purpose the craftsmen most often used smooth egg-shaped granite river boulders ranging from six inches to three feet across. The resulting draft was anywhere from ten to eighteen feet depending on the ship’s beam,” (Reyes, 1991; 136-137).

An astillero required no less than 8,000 cutters and haulers of lumber who were mostly natives placed under corvee or forced labor each identified through the so-called repartimiento system. The repartimiento is a list containing the names of the natives who would render the polos y servicios. It also indicates where those listed could be located. This means that those in the list could not escape forced labor. Reports on polos y servicios are never short on accounts of horrifying oppression and dehumanizing operations.

When the lumber was brought down to the shipyards, Filipino pandais (kagallanes in the native tongue) and Chinese carpenters would work on them. But still, the roughest of works in the shipyards fell in the hands of the natives. They sawed the lumber into flitches and planks. And to think too, that not only a galleon would be completed but also a galiot, a patache, an almiranta, or a brigantine which act as consorts to the galleon. There were no less than 4,000 carpenters in the shipyard. This means that in one galleon building project, no less than two to three vessels of different weights and sizes had to be worked on.

The woodcutters, or hewers or planers of wood were each paid seven or eight reals a month and were given daily rations of one-half celemin of rice. The pandais or kagallanes generally earned ten to twelve reals a month. Those who were masters—the ones who laid-out, prepared, rounded and made the masts, yards and topmasts were each paid three to four pesos or eight reales a month and double rations (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 18; 174). A real is equivalent to 25 centimos (centavos). A half celemin of rice would be about four kilograms.

The starvation wages considered, the Spanish task masters often left their native laborers to fend for themselves. Fray Casimiro Diaz cited the construction of the galleon San Diego where “some 1,200 natives were drafted from the (province) of Tondo, Bulacan, Batangas, and Tayabas. Only 500, however, were used while the rest were allowed to go after paying an exemption fee. The San Diego cost the royal treasury 50,000 pesos and the natives another 150,000 extorted from them and which went to the pockets of the men supervising the construction of the galleon,” (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 37; 211-212).

The galleons were stoutly built that it was said that each was a “strong castle in the sea.” But the French called them “bailles” (tubs), and the Spanish sailors dubbed them as “pajaros puercos” (flying pigs) (Reyes, 1991; 137).

The lumber needed for building galleons

The records on the construction of galleons reveal an interesting survey of the wealth of Philippine natural resources. The hard woods, according to Fray Casimiro Diaz were “the best that can be found in the universe . . . if it were not for the great strength of the galleons and the quality of their timbers such dangerous voyage could not be performed,” (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 37; 251).

William Lytle Schurz wrote, “the framework was often made of teak, while other native woods were used in the remainder of the ship. For ribs and knees, the keel and rudder and inside work the hard Philippine molave was generally employed. The sheathing outside the ribs was usually of lanang, a wood of great toughness, but of such peculiar nature that small cannon balls remained embedded in it while larger shot rebounded from a hull made of this timber,” (Schurz, 1959; 196).

On the quality of wood used for the galleons made in Bikol, Pedro Calderon Enriquez had this to say, “the English put 1,080 eighteen- and twenty-four-pound balls without penetrating her sides.”  Woods Rogers, a competent critic, said that the Manila Galleons, the Bikol-made ones included, had very thick sides, much stronger than those built in Europe.

The Bikol forests offered an ample supply of needed quality lumber.

Captain Sebastian de Pineda in his 1619 report on ships and shipbuilding in the Philippines rendered an interesting description of the timber used in building the galleons. He described what lumber would be used for particular parts (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 18; 169).

From the wood maria would be fashioned the capstans, gears, stringer plates (trançailes) that would be fitted to the carved parts of the prows, the snatchleats for the wales, and all the knees and compass-timbers of all sizes required. Maria could probably be another name for dangkalan also known as bitanhol, bitanjor, and dincalin since it was described to generally grow close to the water, which is characteristic of dangkalan. (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 18; 169). It cannot be palo maria (Calophyllum inophyllum). Palo maria was also used for yards and topmasts. The dang-kalan are trees of ordinary size but are said to grow to huge dimensions in Mindanao. The botanists Delgado and Blanco claimed that  aside from the tree’s use for shipbuilding, “an oil or balsam could be distilled from (its) leaves, or obtained from the trunk, which has medicinal uses, in both external and internal application. This oil sometimes serves to give light, but the light is dim, and to anoint the hoofs of horses,” (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 18; 169). The wood, which is reddish in color, is light but exceedingly tough. Palo maria is white in color and not very tough. Dangkalan has limited use for the tree is normally short and not straight. The wood’s durability is noted. Pineda wrote that once a nail is hammered into it, it is impossible to withdraw the nail without breaking it. “If a ball is fired into it of the size of eight libras or less, it does not pierce the wood; and if the ball is large, the wood is not splintered. On the contrary, the hole is stopped at its entrance and egress with the chips forced out by the ball in its passage. That wood is very light, and has a very poor grain for working,” (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 18; 170).

The wood mangachapuy (Dipterocarpus mangachapoi) was preferred for waterways and deck timbers. The topmasts, keels, beams, false keels, wales, heads (calcetes) and pumps of various sizes are fashioned from the wood arguijo or guijo (Dipterocarpus guiso) locally called guiso or guisok but which the Spaniards corrupted to guijo. The wood is reddish in color, strong, durable, tough, and elastic. The trees can yield logs of up to seventy-five feet in length by twenty-four inches square. Guiso grows very high and straight as a pine would. The wood is also good for gun-stocks, gun carriages, and wheels for the artillery.

Lawaan also called laguan, lauan, and sándana (Dipterocarpus thurifera) was used for planking, sheathing, masts, topmasts, and yards. This wood was popular among the natives for their canoes. Ancient barangays (the boat) built in the Philippines used lauaan for the sides of the vessels. Lauaan has a reddish white or ashy wood with brown spots. A fully grown tree is straight and thick. It can yield a timber 75 feet long by twenty-four inches square. It is of two species: red (Shorea negrosensis) and white (Pentacme contorta). It is claimed that this tree yields a fragrant, hard white resin which is used instead of incense in the churches. This wood does not chip when hit by canon balls. Lauaan was used as mainmast for flagship galleons which had to be seventy-two codos long (cubit; geometrical codo is equivalent to 418 mm while the codo real was equal to 574 mm) and 15 palmos in circumference, all in one piece. Tanguile (Shorea polysperma) was also used as planks like lauaan. This wood also did not chip against cannon balls.

Banaba (Lagestroemia speciosa) which today is more recognized for its medicinal value, was used for exterior planking as it does not rot and is resistant to shipworm and the elements as well. This tree can grow from thirty to fifty feet. The wood color varies from reddish white to dull red. It bears flowers that usually bloom in March.

For the stringer plates, chocks of bowsprit, coamings of the hatchways, strakes and stanchions for the deck, roof-timbers, and keels the dungon or dongon or dúngol wood (Sterculia cimbrifonis) was used. The tree can yield logs fifty feet in length and twenty inches square. It is pale reddish in color. It is strong but does not resist sea worms. It was said that this tree should be cut at the conjunction and decrease of the moon and seasoned for one year for it to become more durable and lasting (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 18; 172).

There was another wood called maria de Monteguas from which were made timbers (latas) for the decks of the vessel and oars for the galleys which can last for a long time. Maria de Monteguas could have been a colloquial name given by the Spaniards or it could be a corruption of a native name.

The U.S. Gazetteer mentioned other kinds of wood used for shipbuilding. These included yakal or saplungan (Dipterocarpus plagatus); betis (Azaola betis); ipil or ypil (Eperna decandra) for keels and stern-posts; antipolo (Artocarpus incisa) for keels and outside planking; molave (Vitex parviflora) for futtock-timbers and stern crooks, and frameworks; batitinan (Lagerstroemia batitinan) for keelsons and clamps; and amuguis (Cyrtocarpa quinquistila) for upperworks and partitions.

Sheathings and planks from lauaan measure one palmo (about the size of the palm, 4 inches) in thickness, three or four palmo in width, and in the minimum of twelve brazas (arm’s length) long. Planks from banaba are one and a half palmo in width.

Pineda claimed that many of those wood varieties had observed seasons for gathering and must be tempered for a year to make them last longer. But, “For all the vessels built during the term of Don Juan de Silva, the galley which was longest in building did not take six months; and all the timber was hewn and put in place when green, for the vessels were being built while the wood was cutting,” (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 18; 171). And because the timber used was not properly seasoned, the galleon’s decks had to be replaced every two years for they have become rotten. The planks along the sides had to be changed too (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 18; 172-173). This meant that work on the galleon never ended. The polos y servicios went far beyond the 40-day limit. The astilleros had to employ the same skills that built and would rebuild or replace parts of the galleons which used substandard materials.

If properly seasoned and tempered, these woods can withstand the sea and the elements for fifty or sixty years (Closman, 2009; 37). That would already be a very long time for a marine vessel. But as it happened, Governor Don Juan de Silva was in a great hurry to build his ships. There are accounts about freshly sawed lumber being used to build boats in the astilleros. He could not wait for the wood used to build them to mature and get seasoned.

Deforesting Bikol

With all those timber being used in building galleons, Gat Jose Rizal noted in a footnote in The Philippine Islands that, “It seems that some species of trees disappeared or became very scarce because of the excessive shipbuilding that took place . . . . One of them is the betis.” The betis (Ganua manticola) was a treasured timber for constructing rudders also for jetties, bridges, and foundation plates. The wood is noted for its resistance to termites and shipworms (Fish, 2011; 235).

If it would take no less than 2,000 trees to build a galleon of not less than 1,000 or more than 2,000 tons and there were over a dozen of these galleons built in the astilleros of Bikol that can easily sum up to a minimum of 30,000 trees, the wood needed to build the smaller vessels not being factored in yet.

Perhaps in those times, cutting down over 30,000 trees at any one time could not alarm anyone. That number could not certainly denude the lush forests of Kabikolan. But what about the particular species identified as requirements for galleon building? Gat Jose Rizal observed that some species were disappearing or have become scarce such as that of betis. In Bagatao, parina was lost. Dangkalan became rare because, “There is much of this timber from which to select, although, because of the ships built by Don Juan de Silva, the supply of it is now obtained from a distance,” Pineda wrote (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 18; 170).

It is interesting to note that Alonso Fajardo de Tensa who succeeded Juan de Silva as Governor (July 3, 1618 – July 1624), lamented in 1618 that it became impossible for him to build a fleet that can defend the colony because de Silva “had impoverished the wealth . . .of the wretched natives to such an extent that many are now in the most dire need,” (Closman, 2009; 32). Incidentally, in 1621 de Tensa killed his wife for adultery.  He would later die of melancholy (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 17; 290).

Shipbuilding was not the only frenzied activity that required large volumes of wood. Pueblos and poblaciones, especially those at the coasts, had to be fortified against Moro pirate attacks. There were simply vast spaces needing forts, watchtowers, and similar structures for defense. So that by 1680 complaints about scarcity of lumber became palpable (Closman, 2009; 32). In fact, as the fortifications in the coastal areas became stronger and covered more places, the Moro raids became less effective and less feared. Consequently, more forts were built. More trees were cut.

On February 23, 2011, there was a newspaper report of numerous “square old logs or timber and lumber flitches” of hard wood dug up in a private property in sitio Pecadero, barangay Sula, Bacacay, Albay. “When the (Philippine Daily Inquirer) visited the site, there was a clear picture of the quarried land and the logs remaining on the ground.” And then, “When the maritime divers inspected the waters, they said there were still big logs underneath . . . residents claimed seeing big and old logs floating especially during low tide, but did not show any interest in what they believe are natural wonders that should not be touched. (Benjamin) Belbes (Sula Barangay Chairman) believed that the logs have been buried since the Spanish times . . . .” The report continued, “. . . DENR stated that the logs found along the shorelines of Pecadero had been buried from 1650 to 1950 based on carbon dating conducted by Beta Analytics, Inc. . . . . Media reports said the square logs including (sic) talisay, narra, apitong, molave, and makiling were centuries old . . .” (Maricar Brizuela, ‘Centuries-old’ logs found in Albay, Philippine Daily Inquirer, February 23, 2011).

Intimations in the report of a presence of an astillero in that area during the Spanish colonial times is, of course, purely conjectural. There is no document that can reveal that an astillero of the Bagatao or Pantao or of lesser status was ever established in the locality.

If the “square old logs or timber and lumber flitches” were intended to build big vessels, e.g., galleons or pataches or galiots, then it could be that those logs were for hauling or were being hauled to an astillero somewhere in the western coast of the Bikol Region. The kinds of wood found—narra, apitong, molave—were mentioned as preferred materials for galleons. While talisay and makiling have not been identified in the category of woods used for the galleons, they could have been useful for smaller vessels. Or, were those flitches not intended to build some fortifications? The Moro marauders repeatedly attacked the pueblos of Albay. Kagraray Island, where Sula is located, was among the first places to bear the brunt of those attacks which were carried out for quite a long time.

But this recent find can make us imagine the travails the galleon builders would undertake to provide the project with the necessary wood. Perhaps if experts could identify the species of the woods found in barangay Sula and their manner of processing into flitches determined, it will not be hard to figure out whether they were intended for a galleon or some other vessel then for construction or under construction in the astilleros of Bikol or for some other works.

It must be noted that once upon a time San Miguel Island off Tabaco City used to have forests of naga trees (Pterocarpus indicus). San Miguel Island is in the vicinity of Sula Channel.

Could it be too that the said “square old logs or timber and lumber flitches” were from other places outside Kabikolan? Sula Channel is popular for providing refuge to vessels in times of weather disturbances. It still serves the purpose up to these days. The inference is that there was a vessel or several vessels carrying those materials but which unfortunately got into an emergency situation. Either the cargo was dumped to save the vessel/vessels or the vessel/vessels went down with its/their cargo. Well, apparently answers will be long in coming as much of the said materials having been filched by scavengers of cultural artifacts (foreign, again, it was reported) since 2006 until recently when truck loads of said materials were intercepted and a news story published. In the meantime, no historical value is being attributed to this discovery except the guess on the age of those materials. This story seem to have found its ending: silence.

Aside from timber, galleons needed a lot of cordage. Riggings for the foremast, main mast, and mizzen mast had to be provided. There were two kinds of fibers used: one made from the fiber called gamu (Arenga saccharifera) also known as cabo negro or black cordage; the other is made from abaca (Musa textilis). It must be noted that rope making was assigned to villagers in the vicinity of the astilleros in Bikol. Abaca fiber was required as a form of tribute from the natives.

Everyone in the vicinity of an astillero appears to being tasked to do something for the galleon. This also meant that since there was a burgeoning need for cordage made of abaca, more abaca should be planted for their fibers. To do this, lands for planting had to be prepared. Abaca grows best on slopes or mountainsides or hills where rain water can freely flow. Abaca cannot healthily thrive in a forest. Wild abaca was of limited productivity. Therefore, land clearing becomes a necessity. At that period, how else could clearing be done more conveniently but by the slash and burn approach.

While today our sentiments are focused on environmental preservation, the early Bikolanos must have agonized on how they can survive for another day under the whiplash of the galleon building supervisors and the horrendous slavery they were subjected to. Today we talk of saving vanishing species of flora and fauna; yesterday early Bikolanos thought about saving their very own specie.

The deprivations in the astilleros were exceedingly unbearable. Many workers who survived the inhuman conditions and the predations of the Moro marauders caused them to seek the protection of the darkness of the forests. “And because they have been paid for five years nothing except little aid, many fled from the land . . . in 1618, there were not 200 of those Indians in Cabite,” reported Captain Sebastian de Pineda. Fray Fernando de los Rios Coronel recommended to the King that galleons be built in India and China because there were no more wood and shipbuilders in the islands and “save a great sum of ducados and the natives will be relieved of so much hardship,” (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 18; 294-295). That recommendation fell on deaf ears

So was the Salvador built in Mobo, Masbate and all the other galleons, galiots, pataches, brigantines, and other vessels constructed in the other astilleros in Bikol for whatever use the Spaniards might have wanted to put them to. We have no account as to what other kinds of vessels were built in Mobo. But because a patache or a galiot or a brigatine always accompanied a galleon, we can safely assume that one or two or even more of those were also built together with the Salvador. Were there other war ships built in Mobo? That has yet to surface.

It is also claimed that Spanish authorities frequented the towns of Guiom, Palanas, Mobo, Masbate, Baleno, and Aroroy. Galleons enroute to the northern provinces of Cebu and Panay dropped anchor in Baleno and Aroroy. Thus, the name Baleno which evolved from the Spanish “va lleno” meaning, “we are fully loaded,” often shouted by the ship’s captain to discourage residents who wanted to board the galleon for Aroroy (Malanyaon, 1991; 349).

If that happened, it is not impossible that there were natives who succeeded in boarding galleons. Were they accounted for? Were their presence noted in the galleon’s manifests or logbooks? Did they reach Acapulco instead of Cebu or Panay or came back to Masbate? Who knows?

The historian Lorraine Crouchette noted that Cebuanos sailed on the galleon San Pablo bound for Acapulco in 1565. This matter has remained largely untold. Reyes mentioned that there were about 100 native seamen, most likely early Bikolanos, impressed with galleon duties on the Santisima Trinidad y Nuestra Señora del Buen Fin.

One thing is confirmed: Natives who reached Acapulco jumped ship to try their luck on dry land instead of casting their fate to the mercy of the vast Pacific Ocean. Those before them sought them out at the ports once a galleon anchors to entice them to help in their flourishing palm wine distilling ventures that rivaled the wines or liquor from Spain.

From pandais to ocean-going seamen

With over a dozen galleons built in Bikol, how many of the early Bikolanos could have gone overseas at that time either as conscripted deck hands or seamen? How many were stowaways? With all the Manila Galleons calling on the ports of Masbate and Sorsogon, how many adventurous natives could have cast their fate to the waves and the winds?

We can imagine the number of “Indians” who were in the galleons as they sailed to the other end of the world based on an account by Schurz with Santisima Trinidad y Nuestra Señora del Buen Fin as reference. Schurz wrote, “The proportion of Spaniards to Malays in the crews varied from one to two, to one to five, but was generally nearer the latter ratio. . . .In 1724 hardly one third were said to be of Spanish birth” (Schurz 1939; 210). 

In other words, if it were on a one to five ratio, the bigger the galleon the more would be the need for “Indians.”

The natives were not only exploited in the astilleros but they too were harnessed to man the galleons for the voyage from Manila to Acapulco. As a result many died from the rigors of the voyage. Fray Hernando Rios de Coronel pleaded to the King in 1619, he asked him, “that it is ordered that the common seamen who serve in the said ships, who are always Indian natives, be all men of the coast, who are instructed how to navigate; and that they be made to wear clothes, with which to shelter themselves from the cold; for because they do not, most of them die in high altitudes of which he (Coronel) is a witness. Inasmuch as the factor enrolls other Indians who live in the interior and who do not know the act of sailing, and as they are a wretched people, they are embarked without clothes to protect them against the cold, so that when each new dawn comes there are three or four dead men (a matter that is breaking his heart); besides they are treated inhumanly, are not given the necessities of life, but are killed with hunger and thirst. If he were to tell in detail the evil that is done to them, it will fill many pages,” (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 18; 299-300).

Coronel keenly observed the goings on in the astilleros as well as how the natives were used and treated as galleon hands. He was then serving as Procurator-General when he rendered this report to the King.

The native galleon builders were not only hauled off for an ignominious voyage to Acapulco, they were impressed with responsibilities to man the galleons when they undertook naval expeditions. One graphic account was rendered by Captain Sebastian de Pineda when in 1619 Governor Juan de Silva went on an expedition to Ternate (the Moluccas expedition) with natives manning the galleons. Of those natives, 400 were carpenters. They were captured. Some 200 others, also carpenters not seamen, were killed (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 18; 182).

Incidentally, for all the sacrifices of the native workers in the astilleros, there were occasions when Manila Galleons would sail fromCavite to Acapulco to be sold for huge profits. One such galleon was the 400-ton San Martin. That galleon was  built at the cost of less than 15,000 ducats and sold for about 100,000 ducats (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 4; 74). The profit from that transaction was certainly huge with nothing being shared with the natives who built it. A ducat is either a gold or silver coin which circulated in Europe. It had various values or equivalents. It could not be ascertained whether this galleon was the same San Martin which brought the first bishop of Manila Don Domingo Salazar, O.P. to the Philippines in 1581. This galleon was engaged in the Manila-Acapulco run from 1581 until its last recorded voyage to Macao in 1587.

If galleons and other seacraft were profitably sold in Acapulco, so were the native slave women who Spanish seamen and even officers brought with them. Fray Coronel lamented in a letter to the King that, “Slave wo-men be not conveyed in this (sic) ships by which many acts offensive to God will be avoided. Although that is prohibited by your royal decree, and it is also entrusted to the archbishop to place upon them the penalty of excommunication and to punish them, this evil has not been checked; and many sailors—and even others, who should furnish a good example—take slave women and keep them as concubines.”

He (Fray Coronel speaking on personal knowledge) knows of a certain prominent official who carried with him fifteen of these women; and some were delivered of children by him, while others were pregnant, which made a great scandal,” (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 18; 300-301).

Survival instincts

The natives who survived the travails of crossing the Pacific Ocean, would jump ship once the galleon docks and secures its anchors. They would prefer the challenges in a strange dry earth over disease and death in anonymity in the dark blue Pacific (Reyes, 1991; 141). The experience in the high seas must be so unnerving they wouldn’t have any more of it.

The native deserters were enterprising. They started to distill palm wine (lambanog) along the Mexican sea coasts for a living. The wine they produced was so good; the Mexicans preferred it over the wine from Spain. It will be informative to mention at this juncture that the word “Mexico” was first used in a letter printed in 1566. “Mexico” was used to refer to the non-Indian inhabitants of Nueva España.

The Spanish wine merchants in Nueva España as well as the wine makers in Spain were so threatened by the “Indian” distilled lambanog that they petitioned the King to ship back “all Indian natives of said Filipinas Islands . . . all the palm grooves and the vessels with which that wine is built be burned . . . the palm trees be felled and severe penalties imposed on whomsoever remains or returns to make that wine,” (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 18; 185).

But the King appeared to have failed to act on the petition. And Filipino wine making in Mexico flourished so that, “all the Indians who have charge of making that wine go to the port of  Acapulco when the ships reach there from Manila and lead away with them all the Indians who come as common seamen. For that reason scarcely any one of them returns to said Filipinas Islands,” (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 18; 185).

Our 17th to 19th centuries “OFWs” in Mexico set up their communities in the place known as Costa Chica of Guerrero and Colima. They left to this day some 200,000 Mexican people who are descendants of or possess Filipino ancestry. Along the Costa Chica of Guerrero in Mexico one will find strong Malayan physical characteristics in a great proportion of the inhabitants (Reyes, 1992; 141-142). Among those of Filipino ancestry who carved names in Mexico was Isidoro Montes de Oca who became a Mexican general and lieutenant commander.

If the Filipinos reached Mexico so did the Mexicans come to the Philippines. They were those who came and went either as sailors, crews, slaves, prisoners, adventurers, and soldiers on board the Manila Galleons.

How many of those “Indians” were from Masbate or Sorsogon or were Bikolanos? There was no accounting. They were faceless, nameless, non-entities in the rigorous voyages of the Manila Galleons. There go our incipient OFWs riding out strange climates, unprotected by fair “labor laws,” never visited with humanitarian interests.

William Lytle Schurz in his The Manila Galleon, a product of twenty-seven years of research, writes that the Manila Galleon is more than a story of ships: the “. . .whole history of the Pacific Area revolved around these lonely voyages. They supplied the central theme of Philippine history; they were the original motive for the exploration and settlement of California; they brought the Chinese and Japanese to the Philippines” (Schurz, 1959).

How the Manila Galleons were built must be something to marvel at for how can they be the most glamorous in the history of the seas? For two hundred and fifty years, from 1563 to 1813, they regularly made the five-to-eight-month voyage across the Pacific between Manila and Acapulco. As Schurz also noted, “The largest and richest merchandise ships of their age, the galleons carried to Mexico all the fabulous luxuries of the Orient and returned to the Philippines laden with silver ingots. Their capture was the ultimate ambition of every pirate and privateer. Many were lost at sea;  one drifted down the Mexican coast without a living soul on board; the mutiny on the San Geronimo surpassed in drama that on the Bounty.”

The Manila Galleon is also a story of the ability of native shipbuilders, their indigenous resources and resourcefulness.

One Way Ticket

The roles that Bikol and the Bikolanos played in building the Manila Galleon and in the Galleon Trade cannot be gainsaid. While not every galleon was built in this region, the biggest, the grandest, the fastest, the costliest, and the cannon ball-resistant ones were constructed in the astilleros in the Bikol Region. The ancient forests of the region provided the galleon builders with the lumber required for the vessels’ repeated arduous voyages in the Pacific Ocean. Abaca fibers were exhaustively used to provide the ropes for riggings that secured each galleon, not only those built in Bikol but also those in the other astilleros in the archipelago. And over 12,000 Bikolanos labored in the astilleros under the oppressive polos y servicios system to build one galleon. In those times, 12,000 would mean settlements and communities being deserted in order to be in the astillero.

Some of the natives who worked in the astilleros would become galleon hands on deck and most of them would die being unprovided to survive the weather and climate the voyages inevitably go through.

While only Salvador was reportedly built in the royal astillero of Mobo in Masbate, we have no account of how many galleons were repaired in its dockyard. We have no account of the smaller vessels built there. We have no idea as to how many vessels used for warfare were built there. We have no idea how many natives starved and died or were maimed or killed building those vessels.

Aside from the construction of vessels, Masbate provided anchorage for galleons as they began to embark on the perilous voyage across the Pacific Ocean which would last for five to even eight months. San Jacinto was a stopover to wait for better weather in the Embocadero. It was also there where supplies were replenished or augmented.

In the astillero of Bagatao, Magallanes, Sorsogon, nine galleons were built. These were the galleons Santisima Trinidad y Señora del Buen Fin (1751), the San Felipe and the Santiago (the first galleons reportedly built here), the San Juan Bautista, the Nuestra Señora del Rosario y de los Santos Reyes, the San Francisco Javier, the Sta. Rosa, the Sto. Niño, and the Santo Cristo de Burgos.

The astillero of Pantao, Libon, Albay had the galleon Nuestra Señora del Buen Socorro (1667) and another together with two pataches half way through completion, which were destroyed by marauding Moros.

In the astillero of Dalupaes (Dalupaon), Pasacao, Camarines Sur two galleons were built. These were the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe and the Angel de la Guardia.

While there is no account of any galleon built in the astillero of Donsol in Sorsogon, that shipyard was said to have provided the metal works needed by the other astilleros.

And what happened to Bikol and the early Bikolanos when those astilleros were set up?

Fray Pedro de San Pablo, OFM reported to the King in 1620 that, “The native Indians of the Philippine Islands enjoyed great temporal prosperity and peace until the year 1609, when Governor Don Juan de Silva established in these islands the shipyards for constructing the fleets that he built. For that purpose he imposed very burdensome taxes, and made repartimientos among the natives of said islands—not only personal, but for wine, oil, timber, and other supplies and materials, in the greatest quantity. That has remained and been established as a custom. Those materials and supplies have been taken by some without payment, while others have paid the fourth or third part of the just and current value. Hence, his majesty owes them a great sum, but he cannot pay it, nor he has the money to pay it in these islands. When personal services are commanded, the Indian, in order not to go to the forests to cut and haul the wood, subject to the cruel treatment of the Spaniard, incurred debt and borrowed some money at usury; and for the month falling to him, he gave another Indian six or seven reals or eight at his own in order that he should go on his stead. He, who was taxed as his share one-half arroba (equivalent to 5.75 kilograms) of oil went, if he did not have it from his own harvest, to the rich men who gathered it; and not having the money wherewith to buy it, he became the other’s slave or borrowed the money at usurious rates. Thus, in a space of ten years, did the country become in great measure ruined,” (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 19; 71-72).

In 1701, Fray Jose Villa rendered a graphic account of the injustices committed against the native workers. He wrote, “. . . those who are de-signated for the repartimiento of wood cutting search for others who can take the place of each one; and the cost of these substitutes usually reaches five or six pesos, and sometimes ten. For the payment of this, the former pledge, or sell, or enslave themselves; and from this cause result very serious evils—thefts, withdrawing to the mountains to roam as vagrants and other crimes (and) other burdens which the natives miserably suffer and which ordinarily fall on the poorest and most wretched . . .” (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 44; 126).

For all the hope that went with every galleon made in the Bikol astilleros, with the anticipation among the Spaniards for every successful trip to Acapulco and back to Manila, the “Indios” were left with nothing more than their stinging and bleeding palms, wrecked dignity, and feverish anxiety for an afterlife in paradise.

A galleon built, a lifetime forfeited

Galleon building became the biggest setback to the development of the native population. In his letter to King Philip III in 1618, Governor Alfonso Fajardo de Tensa, successor of Governor Juan de Silva, noted, “The shipbuilding carried on in these islands on your majesty’s account is the total ruin and death of those natives, as all tell me. For, in addition to the danger carried by it in withdrawing them from the cultivation of their lands and fields—whereby the abundance of foods and fruits of the country is destroyed, many of them die from severe labor and harsh treatment. Joined to this is another evil, namely, that every Indian  who takes part in the shipbuilding is aided by all the neighborhood where he lives with a certain number of pesos on account of the small pay that is given them in behalf of your Majesty. Hence, many are being harassed and worn out by these methods.”

Fray Pedro de San Pablo and Fray Jose Villa bared a most sinister practice imposed on the wood cutters. So many natives would thus be recruited much in excess of the actual number needed. Because not all those summoned cannot or would not perform the job, they would be required to either pay a certain sum of money or look for others who could be their proxy. The proxy will have to be paid by the one who recruited him. Those who had no money to pay the proxy would be forced to enslave themselves as a form of payment. Those who did not want to become slaves sought the protection of the darkness of the mountains. That was extortion at its most sinister and ugliest. As Friedrich Nietzche puts it, “Man is the cruelest animal.” The practice was abetted by both the alcalde mayor, who was a Spaniard, and the gobernadorcillo, often a native appointed by the Spanish authorities to the position. The former padded the number of needed manpower. From the excess number of “workers” the alcalde mayor summed up the expected payoffs. The gobernadorcillo collected the money. The gobernadorcillo also established a store where supplies supposed to be distributed to the workers were instead sold. But with no wages being paid to the workers how could purchases be made? Again, indebtedness resulted. It meant perpetual work in the astillero. That, aside from the tribute of abaca fibers, one-half arroba of oil, wax, and whatever the colonial authorities wanted from them which they could not produce as they worked for very long hours in the astillero.

Maria Fernanda G. de los Arcos has a more graphic description of this anomaly in her “Remonstrance addressed to the governor and captain-general of Filipinas Islands, on October 1701, by the provincial of the religious orders, in regard to the wrongs and abuses that are committed in the said islands.” It was noted that . . .

 “. . . although the building [of the galleon] costs his Majesty the amount of 40,000 pesos for the wages of the Indians, besides the poor of these provinces, [they] carry among themselves a burden more than 100,000 pesos—or even more—because those who are designated for the repartimiento of the woodcutting search for others who can take the place of each one; and the cost of these substitutes usually reaches five or six pesos, and sometimes ten. For the payment of this, the former pledge or sell, or enslave themselves; and from this cause result very serious evils—thefts, withdrawing to the mountains to roam as vagrants, and other crimes.

“Other burdens which the natives miserably suffer, and which ordinarily fall on the poorest and most wretched, arise from the fact that the alcalde mayor who makes his apportionment of men and adds to it a greater number as is necessary, and those who are thus added redeem themselves from this oppression by money, and then the [list of] repartimiento goes to the gobernadorcillo, in order that the heads [of barangay] may summon for the woodcutting six or eight men even though only four may be necessary.

“The gobernadorcillo collects in money that amount in excess, as a redemption from an imaginary woodcutting, a proceeding which does not impair the number of those assigned. Still more, after all the men go to woodcutting, if any are lacking the [native] overseer pays the superintendent of the work at the rate of two reals a day for the failure of each man. To this is added that the superintendent himself is wont to grant exemptions of his own accord, with injust [sic] benefit to some, to the great injury of the main work, [the burden] of which falls on those who remain; moreover, he usually establishes shops, and this the fund which his Majesty provides to aid these poor peoples by the purchase of some of their commodities remains therein.

“His Majesty orders that the men be called out and paid for one month; but many poor creatures do not get away from the woodcutting in a month and a half, during which time they are so overtaxed and harassed that they hardly have time to eat, and of sleep they will have some three hours, as a result of their labors on the account of his Majesty and outside of his account. Such is the sorrowful course of experiences and the injust [sic] acts which they encounter in the wood cutting, . . .” (Maria Fernanda G. de los Arcos, La Construccion de los Galeones Transpacificos: Una Historia Social, September 18, 2008).

Now, we can talk about labor laws, usury laws, and even include value added tax. This is what we can idiomatically imply as “ginisa sa sadiring taba” (fried with one’s own fat).

How is it possible then that we Bikolanos do not exhaustively discourse about the Bikol Peninsula being the zone for and at the forefront of galleon building since it did not only cause ruin to the Bikolanos but that in a space of ten years it caused the collapse of the entire country in great measure? If it caused ruin to the entire country, what then happened to the Bikol Region which had four very big royal astilleros and one more with a noted foundry shop? Bikol and the Bikolanos were smack in the middle of Juan de Silva’s galleon building paroxysm. To say that it is rather unfortunate  for this significant matter to not even being taught in our local colleges and universities is a grim understatement.

From valiant warriors to docile vassals

Today, the Bikol Region is reportedly only a little better off than the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in terms of economic development. The Bikolanos are wanting while living in a land of plenty. This is an unsettling paradox, no, an enigma. We are wanting in a land of plenty. Does the Manila Galleon still have something to do with it? Is the trauma of corvee labor in the astilleros still haunting us? Has it created a psychological block even among us the 21st century Bikolanos so that we tend to treat life with indifference, with alienation? Afterall, 1815, when the Galleon Trade was stopped, is only 193 years away or so. Memory has uncanny ways of defying time.

When a galleon was lost, the “Indians” became more distraught than the Spaniards. The Spaniards might only be thinking of lost investments or lost cargoes. They did not lose everything. They could soon get into business again. The “Indians” thought of the hardships of building a replacement galleon.

The misery of the early Filipinos, Bikolanos included, was described in a report by Fray Fernandez Navarette, O.P., in 1776. He wrote, “the loss of so many ships caused us great sadness of heart. The greatest hardship fell to the Indians, for they cannot live without ships. When one is lost it is necessary to build another and that means the cutting of wood. Six or eight thousand Indians are assembled for the task and go to the mountains. On them fall the hard labor of cutting and dragging the timber in. To that must be added the blows that are rained down upon them, and the poor pay and bad nourishment that they receive. At times, religious are sent to protect and defend them from the infernal fury of the Spaniards.”

Aside from the harshness of the conquistadores running the astilleros, the “Indians” were often under threat of abduction and execution from the Moro pirates. The astilleros were like magnets for the Moro pirates. In 1617, the royal astillero of Pantao, for one, was raided by the Moro pirates burning one galleon and two pataches—these were already half-completed, capturing more than 400 workmen, killing more than 200 others (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 18; 186). In late November 1616, Moro pirates burned three ships in the dockyards of Masbate (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 18; 105).

From 1565 until 1815, the Galleon Trade spawned all sorts of rackets and corrupt practices. There were contraband, smuggling, misdeclaration of goods, over shipment, and under payment of ship dues.

There was that account of the galleon Nuestra Señora del Pilar, which, of course, stopped at San Jacinto, Ticao Island. While the galleon was anchored, there arrived four champans (Chinese vessels) loaded with merchandise. The ship captain loaded the unregistered merchandise over the opposition of the shippers on board even to the extent of locking up one of them. Due to the overloaded condition of the galleon it had difficulty navigating and was exposed to great danger of sinking (Reyes, 1992; 142).

Of course, forest denudation is not new to us. It came about as the first galleons rolled off the Real Astillero de Cavite.

Also, if only the Internet and computers were not invented, we can endlessly talk about globalization in our own language and in our own terms, as early as the arrival of Magellan in the company of his Malay slave Enrique. Magellan perished in a battle in Mactan. Incidentally, Enrique de Malacca or Henry the Black is an interesting subject in relation to galleon travels. Did he accompany Magellan from Europe or was he fetched/picked up by Magellan somewhere in Asia? Did he go back to Europe with Juan Sebastian Elcano who continued Magellan’s voyage or did he remain in Cebu? Did he have any role in the circumnavigation of the world? There appears to be no definitive study yet on Enrique de Malacca.

Archarya and Asiqin have the following account about Enrique de Malacca. There is no question that Enrique is from Southeast Asia. He was born in Sumatra and resided in Malacca. He started to explore the world in 1511 but there is no record when he put an end to his wandering. It is reported that he circumnavigated the world starting westwards from the Malay Peninsula, and back.

“When we talk about the first man to circumnavigate the Earth, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan readily comes to mind. However, in fact, although Magellan planned the epic voyage, he didn’t complete it, instead dying at the hands of Lapu-Lapu, ruler of the Filipino island of Mactan. So if Magellan wasn’t the first, who was? Some maintain that a Malay man, who was Magellan’s slave, should hold that prestigious title. Enrique de Malacca accompanied Magellan on all his voyages, including his attempt to circumnavigate the Earth. Some historians suggest that when Magellan was killed in 1521, Enrique continued on other ships back to the Malay Peninsula, where he had first been enslaved by the Portuguese a decade before. No documents can verify the claim, but it is heartening to conclude that a Malay slave became the first person to circumnavigate the globe,” (Archarya and Asiqin, 2014; 70).

There is also one thing which is being sorely missed in all the studies of the Manila Galleon: the records on weather and climate as the galleons travelled, taken from the Philippine perspective. The data which could be generated may be very helpful in understanding wind, ocean currents, weather, El Niño, and even the now phenomenal climate change. Urdaneta had no name for what is now known as Kuroshio or Black River Currents but he knew it was there and found it. Records in the galleons could assist in better understanding the present climate through historical records. How and where to get the galleons’ logbooks would certainly be an enormous challenge.

On April 23, 1815, the Governor and Captain-General of the Philippines received the following order, “It being the King’s purpose to provide means for prosperity and development of commerce in those Islands and considering the representations made by your deputy, Don Ventura de los Reyes, His Majesty has graciously approved the parts of the decree of the so-called extraordinary Cortez of September 14, 1813 in which they determined the suspension of the Acapulco ship, leaving the people free to engage in commerce in private ships.” The Galleon Trade reached its last port of call.

But earlier, in 1785, Charles II, the reigning monarch, authorized the establishment of the Royal Philippine Company which eliminated the Acapulco Trade Route. At that period, British, Dutch, and American businessmen were already allowed to set up trading posts in Manila effectively ending the monopoly of the Galleon Trade. The power of the wind was also giving way to the magic of the steam engine. And in 1810 the Mexican war of independence was a dangling sharp sword on the Spanish Empire and definitely on the profitability of the Galleon Trade.

The Magallanes would be the last of the Manila Galleons. It left Manila in 1811. In 1814, The Magallanes raised its rusting anchors, unfurled its yellowed sails to the wind and diffidently sailed out of Acapulco Bay toward the setting sun, never to return.

The tempest still seethers?

Until the yellowed, frayed, and tattering sails of the last of the galleons fluttered in the winds of the high seas, there was no joy in the broken spirits of their builders—the native pandais, the tree cutters, and lumber haulers whose lives were in utmost jeopardy in the dreaded corte de madera, the planers, the rope spinners who never saw the end of what they were doing, the sail weavers. The mothers and children who were left by their husbands and fathers to render forced labor; they who had to bear sorrow and penury in lonely isolation.

Galleon building sealed the fate of the natives as subjugated people, divested of hope, dreams, and futures. The tolling of church bells were all they would be sensitive to; their peals were hymns that begot images of an afterlife in a paradise of song and liberty, free from the padron general de almas (general population list), free from the cracking whips of the conquistadores, free from their tongues that spat venom with a virulence that could snuff out even the life still aborning in dreams. It was that padron general de almas which conveniently located each “Indian” ensuring the systematic utilization and abuse of every native manpower and resources for the sustenance of the conquistadores. The repartimiento sealed any route for escape. Polos y servicios, on which galleon building was entrenched, were all for the use and benefit of the colonial rulers. Nothing was there for the natives in the astilleros but pain, agony, and surrender. And later, well into this modern times, that pain, that agony, that surrender would translate to the Bikolano’s sense of alienation to a vigorous pursuit of a satisfying life afterall the Cross is the only way to an afterlife of bliss and gratification.

We Bikolanos are wanting while living in a land of plenty. Such a distressing paradox: Wanting in a land of plenty? Has the Manila Galleon trauma still have something to do with our state of mind somehow passed on by generations past to the present? Has the anguish from harrowing corvee labor in the astilleros impacted so hard so that the 21st century Bikolano still reels from it, so that we tend to treat life with malignant insouciance as a coping device? Whatever happened to the Bikolano psyche? Que sera sera / whatever will be, will be as a line in a popular song goes. Afterall, when the galleons sailed their last was only some 193 years past, perhaps not long enough yet to mend severely shattered hearts; not time enough to recover lost spirits.

About the author: 

RAFFI BANZUELA (Rafael A. Banzuela Jr.) is an essayist, fictionist, poet, translator, historian. He studied at the Divine Word College and Aquinas University of Legazpi; taught at the Bicol University and Aquinas University; and did stints in government work, journalism, and radio broadcasting. His radio program “Satuya Ini” (This Is Ours) was named the Best Program Promoting Culture and the Arts, Radio Provincial Area category, at the 8th KBP Golden Dove Awards. 

His published works also include: Selebra (Celebrate), 2011, a collection of poems, and Albay Viejo (Old Albay), 2010, a collection of prose works on Albay. His recent book for Bansay Bikolnon is a mini biography of Potenciano V. Gregorio Sr., the composer of the song Sarong Banggi. He also edited works by known Bikol poets and an anthology by young writers. He was honored with these awards: Outstanding Albayano Artist (Literary Arts) in 2013; the NCCA Writers’ Prize in 2013; Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas in 2015 by the Unyon ng nga Manunulat ng Pikipinas; and Gawad Kampeon ng Wika by the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino in 2017. 

Fellow Bicol writers look up to Banzuela as living proof that writing in Bicol can persevere. His writing, rooted in his love for Bicol, is notable for his rich vocabulary and blend of reminiscence, folktale, history, and essay, sharpened by untiring historical research.