HOM.02

Prelude to Conquest, 1561-1595, is the second volume of the History of Micronesia: A Collection of Source Documents (HOM), compiled and edited by Rodrique Levesque.

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File:HOM.02.pdf The History of Micronesia: A Collection of Source Documents was complied, edited and published by Rod Levesque from 1992 to 2002. Copyrights were obtained by the Habele Outer Island Education Fund, a US nonprofit, in 2022, which digitized the content to facilitate noncommercial access to, and use of, the twenty-volume series. The PDF file for HOM.02 is roughly 65MB.

Levesque's Summary

Volume 2 contains 100 chapters, about 142 documents, covering all the Spanish voyages and expeditions made in the Pacific during this period (Legazpi, Arellano, Urdaneta, Pericon, Mendana, Gali, Unamuno, Cermeno, and Ordonez), those by the Portuguese (Da Gama), and by the English (Drake and Cavendish).

There are many new documents, conveniently placed in their proper chronological order. Also Part 3 of the early cartography of the Pacific.

The mutiny on the galleon San Geronimo was the first bloody mutiny in the annals of the Pacific Ocean; it was not surpassed in atrocity until the 19th-century. The Boxer Codex was the first document depicting the natives of the Marianas.

—List of 125 illustrations, starting with maps of Oceania and Micronesia, others showing the tracks of the important voyages of discovery, sketches of newly discovered islands, etc.

—A foreword recapitulating the major historical events of the period and giving their main sources.

—27 chapters on the Legazpi expedition and its aftermath. While on the way to conquer and colonize the Philippines in 1565, Legazpi crossed Micronesia and took possession of it for Spain. Two of his ships found the return route to New Spain, thus establishing the galleon trade between the Philippines and New Spain.

—The first bloody mutiny in the Pacific occurred in 1566 during the Pericen relief expedition. Many of the mutineers were later marooned on either Ujelang or Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands.

—In 1567, a Spanish soldier was almost kidnapped at Guam. A few years later, the would-be kidnapper was himself kidnapped.

—If the decrees of the King of Spain had been obeyed, the Ladrones would have been settled one century before they were.

—5 chapters on the first Mendana expedition that discovered Namu atoll in the Marshalls on 17 September 1568, and Wake Island on 3 October. There are 5 different narratives given.

—Document 1573D quotes from royal orders for the discovery, settlement and pacification of the Indies, which resulted in religious, rather than military, conquests.

—Part 3 of the cartography of the Pacific reproduces the Velasco maps, ca. 1575, that guided other map-makers, like Juan Martinez. The origin of the information contained therein is commented upon.

—One chapter is about the famous English pirate, Francis Drake, and his discovery of Palau in 1579.

—For those interested in ships and shipbuilding, a short treatise on the evolution of the galleon is included.

—The circumnavigation of a relative of St. Ignatius of Loyola, via Guam, is brought to light.

—Also featured are Gali’s voyage of 1584 and that of Unamuno in 1587. Both were looking for the mythical islands of gold and silver in the north Pacific.

—Two eyewitness accounts of the voyage of Captain Thomas Cavendish, another English pirate.

—The semi-fictitious voyage of a conquistador who became a priest and ship captain, Ordonez de Cevallos. He bought a ship in Acapulco and had many ad-ventures in the Pacific.

—The Boxer Codex, containing the first relation of the Ladrone Islands (Rota & Guam), is here reproduced with permission, and fully transcribed and translated. The author was with the galleons of 1590.

—In 1592, an embassy came from southern Japan to Manila. In 1594, the Spansh responded in kind.

—In 1594-95, Cermerlo make a round-trip through the Pacific, in order to explore the California coast.

Publication Details

Lévesque Rodrigue. History of Micronesia : A Collection of Source Documents. Vol. 2 Prelude to Conquest: 1561-1595. Gatineau Québec: Lévesque Publications; 1992.

ISBN-10: 0920201024

ISBN-13: 978-0920201022

LCC: DU500 .H58 2000

HOM.02

Contents

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Levesque's Summary

Table of Contents

Publication Details