BIKOL IN THE GALLEON TIMES

BASE MATERIAL FOR

NATIONAL LECTURE-SERIES ON GALLEON TRADE IN KABIKOLAN
THE ROLE OF BIKOLANOS IN THE GALLEON TRADE/Raffi Banzuela
(From my book BIKOL IN THE GALLEON TIMES)
BU Amphitheater/1030-1200 Nn/July 22, 2013


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 of history” available locally; digging in far away archives, in the absence of money and patrons, 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 materiels 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, British, 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 Spanish shipyards in the country 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 was abundant, and more significantly, Bikolanos were very good at shipbuilding; these are the elements for an ideal shipyard. 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 sea crafts 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 (San Bernardino Strait). 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).

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.

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.

Sagawsawan River has the depth where a galleon and other big vessels can berth. I visited the place last week of September 2008. I learned from that visit that it was in Sagawsawan River where a power barge supplying electric power to Masbate 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. It served as the flagship of the Spanish fleet which consisted of seven galleons. 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 were hardly gathered. 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.

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 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.

It is unfortunate that there is no inclusive list of all the sea crafts 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 pirates? 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. 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 magnet for disastrous attacks from the Moros. This astillero was destroyed  by the Moros in 1627. It was rehabilitated. And 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 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 a 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.

At the start of the shipbuilding activities, Bagatao had abundant supplies of hardwood needed for the sea crafts 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 more scarce.

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 sea crafts 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.

Incidentally, the Bagatao-made galleon San Francisco Javier got wrecked 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.

Old map showing the Bikol Peninsula and the 

Galleon route.

The Astillero of Dancalan

The astillero of Dancalan is 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.

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 tree whose timber is prized by shipbuilders.

The Royal Astillero of Pantao

In some accounts, 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 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 lieutenant 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. It sailed from Albay on August 28, 1667. Its  launching was not an easy one for it almost ran aground as it left the harbor. But Diego de Arevalo aided by Chief Pilot Juan Rodriguez, a Portuguese, got it off safely.

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 pataches 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 as slaves including 30 Spaniards with Fray Domingo de los Martirez and Fray Alonso de la Soledad (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 19, 216).

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 was 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.

The Astillero of Dalupaon

Accounts about the astillero of Dalupaon are scanty. Dalupaon is in Pasacao, Camarines Sur not in Ragay as some reports tell us. 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.

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. 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.

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.

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, so many kilometers away, 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 some of the larger galleons such as those built in the astilleros in Bikol. How were all those trees used?

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, Bikol) and Chinese carpenters would work on them. The toughest and 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 by no less than 12,000 men.

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 later. 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? Betis was lost. Parina was lost. Dangkalan became rare.

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).

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).

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 out of abaca, more abaca should be planted for their fibers. To do this, lands for planting had to be prepared. Therefore, land clearing became 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 race.

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?

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).

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).

If galleons and other sea crafts 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 women 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).

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.

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).

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 set back 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.”

Bikol and the Bikolanos were smack in the middle of Spain’s galleon building paroxysm. How come we do not discourse about it? How come we remain to be a footnote in history?

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.

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.

Raffi Banzuela

Pantao Cove, Barangay Pantao, Libon, Albay. Somewhere on the coast of this cove was the Real Astillero de Pantao (Banzuela)

Sagawsawan River, Barangay Fabrica, Mobo, Masbate (Banzuela/2008)

A cannon made of cast iron used by the Spaniards to fortify Ticao Island. There are

two more of this historical gun-types in the grounds of San Jacinto National High

School, San Jacinto, Ticao Island. (Photo was taken by author November 28, 2008)

(MORE PHOTOS RESERVED)