Ruy López de Villalobos (Malaga, Spain, 1500 – Ambon Island , Moluccas Islands, Indonesia, 1546) was a Spanish explorer who sailed the Pacific from Mexico to establish a permanent foothold for Spain in the East Indies, which was near the Line of Demarcation between Spain and Portugal according to the Treaty of Saragossa in 1529. Villalobos gave the Philippines their name, after calling them Islas Filipinas in honor of the Infante of Asturias at the time, Philip II of Spain.

Expedition to the Philippine Islands[link]

López de Villalobos was commissioned in 1541 by the Viceroy of New Spain, Antonio de Mendoza, who was the first colonial administrator in the New World, to send an expedition to the Islas del Poniente, meaning Island of the West, now known as the Philippines. His fleet of six galleon ships, the Santiago, Jorge, San Antonio, San Cristóbal, San Martín, and San Juan, left Barra de Navidad, Jalisco, Mexico with 370 to 400 men on November 1, 1542. On December 25, the fleet headed towards Revilla Gigedo Islands off the west coast of Mexico. They sighted Álvaro de Saavedra's Los Reyes galleon ship. The following day they discovered a group of islands at 9° or 10°N which they named Corrales, and anchored at one of these islands. On January 6, 1543, several small islands on the same latitude were seen, and named them Los Jardines (The Gardens). This was the island of Eniwetok, and Ulithi.

Between January 6 to 23, 1543, the galleon San Cristóbal piloted by Gines de Mafra, who was a member of the crew of the Magellan expedition in 1519-1522, was separated from the fleet during a severe storm. This ship eventually reached the island of Mazaua, a place were Magellan anchored in 1521. This was the second visit of de Mafra to the Philippines, which is identified today as Limasawa in the southern island of Leyte. The story of Limasawa was written in 1667 by a Jesuit priest, Friar Francisco Combés. His documents on "Limasawa" has been translated by historians.^[1]

On February 29, 1543, they entered Baganga Bay, which they named Malaga on the eastern coast of Mindanao. López de Villalobos named Mindanao "Caesarea Karoli" after the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V of Spain. The fleet stayed there for 32 days; the entire crew suffered extreme hunger. He ordered his men to plant corn but it failed. On March 31, 1543, the fleet left in search of Mazaua for food. Because of low-winds they could not sail on. After several days of struggle, they reached Sarangani.

The galleon San Cristóbal, which had been driven ashore on Limasawa Island 2 months before, appeared unexpectedly with a load of rice and other foodstuffs for the commander. On August 4, 1543, the San Juan, and San Cristóbal were sent back to Leyte and Samar for more food, with the San Juan to stock up for the Pacific crossing and to proceed to Mexico.^[2] A Portuguese contingent arrived on August 7, and delivered a letter from Jorge de Castro, governor of the Moluccas, demanding an explanation for the presence of the fleet in Portuguese territory. López de Villalobos responded, in a letter dated August 9, that they were not trespassing, and were within the Demarcation Line of the Crown of Castile.

The San Juan left for Mexico on August 27, 1543, with Bernardo de la Torre as captain. Another letter from Castro arrived in the first week of September with the same protest, and López de Villalobos wrote a reply dated September 12, 1543, with the same message as his first. He departed to Abuyog, Leyte with his remaining ships, the San Juan, and the San Cristóbal. The fleet could not make headway because of unfavorable winds. In April 1544, he sailed for Island of Amboyna. He, and his crew members then made their way to the islands of Samar, and Leyte, which he named Las Islas Filipinas (The Philippine Islands) in honour of the Prince of Spain, Philip II. Driven away by hostile natives, hunger, and a shipwreck, López de Villalobos was forced to abandon his settlements in the islands, and the expedition. He, and his crew members sought refuge in the Moluccas, where they quarrelled with the Portuguese, who imprisoned them.

López de Villalobos died on April 4, 1544, in his prison cell on the island of Amboyna, of a tropical fever, or as the Portuguese said "of a broken heart".^[3] Some 117 remaining crew members survived, among them were de Mafra, and Guido de Lavezaris. De Mafra produced one manuscript on the Magellan circumnavigation, and had this delivered to Spain by a friend on board. They sailed for Malacca, where the Portuguese put them on a ship bound for Lisbon. Thirty elected to remain, including de Mafra. His manuscript remained unrecognized for many centuries. It was discovered in the 20th century, and published in 1920.

Publications[link]

• de Jesus, Vicente C. (2002). Mazaua Historiography. Retrieved February 27, 2007.
• De la Costa', Horacio. 1958. "The Villalobos Expedition 1542-1546." In: The Bulletin of the Philippine Historical Association, No. 5, September.
• Escalante Alvarado, García de. 1546. Colección de documentos inéditos relativos al descubrimiento, conquesta y organización de las antiguas posesiones españolas en América y Oceania (42 v., Madrid, 1864-1884), tomo v, pp. 117–209.
• Howgego, Ramond John. 2002. Encyclopedia of Exploration. Sydney: Hordern House.
• Lach, Donald. 1965. Asia in the Making of Europe. Vol. 1, Chicago, p. 643.
• Noone, Martín J. The Discovery and Conquest of the Philippines 1521-1581. Ireland, 1983.
• Rebelo, Gabriel. 1561. Historia das ilhas de Maluco. In: Documentação para a História das Missões do Padroado Português do Oriente: Insulíndia. Lisboã: Agencia Geral do Ultramar. 1955. Cited by José Manuel Garcia in As Filipinas na historiografía portuguesa do século XVI,Centro Portugués de Estudos do Sudeste Asiático, Porto: 2003.
• Santisteban, Fray Geronimo de. 1546. Colección de documentos inéditos relativos al descubrimiento, conquesta y organización de las antiguas posesiones españolas en América y Oceania (42 v., Madrid, 1864–1884), tomo v., pp. 151–165.
• Sharp, Andrew. 1960. The Discovery of the Pacific Islands. London: Osford University Press.

References[link]

External links[link]

• The First Discovery of Australia and New Guinea by Roque Santacruz, Chapter IV
• Pacific Maritime History Mazaua: Magellan's Lost Harbour

Ruy Barbosa de Oliveira
Rui Barbosa
Born	(1849-11-05)November 5, 1849 Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
Died	March 1, 1923(1923-03-01) (aged 73) Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Occupation	Writer, jurist, politician, diplomat

Ruy Barbosa de Oliveira (November 5, 1849 – March 1, 1923) was a Brazilian writer, jurist, and politician.

Born in Salvador da Bahia, he was a federal representative, senator, Minister of Finance and diplomat. For his distinguished participation in the Hague Peace Conference of 1907, he earned the nickname "Eagle of the Hague". He ran unsuccessfully for the presidency of Brazil in 1910 and again in 1919.

Ruy Barbosa gave his first public speech for the abolition of slavery when he was 19. For the rest of his life he remained an uncompromising defender of civil liberties. Slavery in Brazil was finally abolished by the Lei Áurea ("Golden Law") in 1888. Part of Barbosa's legacy to history is that he authorised, as minister of finance on December 14, 1890, the destruction of most government records relating to slavery^[1]. The avowed reason for this destruction, which took several years to be enacted and was followed by his successors, was to erase the "stain" of slavery on Brazilian history^[2]. However, historians concur to say, today, that Barbosa aimed by this measure at impeding any possible indemnization of the former slave-owners for this liberation^[2]. Indeed, eleven days after the abolition of slavery, a law project was deposed at the Chamber, proposing some indemnization to the slave owners^[2].

Barbosa's liberal ideas were influential in drafting of the first republican constitution. He was forced into exile in 1893 by President Floriano Peixoto for two years before returning and being elected as a Senator. He headed the Brazilian delegation to the Second Hague Conference and was brilliant in its deliberations. As candidate of the Civilista Party in the presidential elections of 1910, Barbosa waged one of the most memorable campaigns in Brazilian politics. He was not successful and lost to Marshal Hermes da Fonseca.

He was a supporter of fiat money, as opposed to a gold standard, in Brazil. During his term as minister of finances, he implemented far-reaching reforms of Brazil's financial regime, instituting a vigorously expansionist monetary policy. The result was chaos and instability: the so-called fiat experiment was a dismal failure. An orthodox backlash followed under the Murtinho program later in the decade.

Barbosa died in Petrópolis, near Rio de Janeiro in 1923.

Notes[link]

Further reading[link]

• Turner, CW (2005) [1945], Ruy Barbosa: Brazilian crusader for the essential freedoms, New York: Kessinger Publishing, ISBN 1‐419‐10424‐1 , originally Abingdon-Cokesbury Press.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ruy Barbosa

• Mendes Silva, Professor Raul, "Haia: Rui Barbosa e a delegação brasileira à segunda conferência de paz [The Hague: Rui Barbosa and the Brazilian Delegation to the Second Peace Conference]" (in Brazilian Portuguese), Missões de Paz [Peace Missions], Brazil: Ministério das Relações Exteriores, http://www2.mre.gov.br/missoes_paz/ing/capitulo5.html .
• Fundação Casa de Rui Barbosa [Rui Barbosa House Foundation], BR: Brazilian government, http://www.casaruibarbosa.gov.br/ .

Preceded by Evaristo da Veiga (patron)

Brazilian Academy of Letters — Occupant of the 10th chair 1897–1919

Succeeded by Laudelino Freire