HOM.03

First Real Contact, 1596-1637, is the third volume of the History of Micronesia: A Collection of Source Documents (HOM), compiled and edited by Rodrique Levesque.

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The History of Micronesia: A Collection of Source Documents, Volume 3, First Real Contact

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.03 is roughly 65MB.

Levesque's Summary

Volume 3 contains 89 chapters totalling 144 documents covering all the voyages and expeditions made in the Pacific during this period by the Spanish (Mendana, Quiros, Vivero, Rios Coronel, Vizcaino, Cardona, etc.), by the Dutch (Mahu, Van Noort, Speilbergen, Schapenham), by Italians (the Carlettis), by an Austrian (Femberger), and previously-unknown voyages by the Japanese (Hosuke, Hasekura and Shogen). There are many “new” documents, conveniently placed in their proper chronological order.

While passing by the Marianas, some missionaries wished to stay with the natives. Two of them succeeded. Fray de los Angeles in 1596 and Fray Juan Pobre in 1602. The latter spent almost 9 months in Rota Island and wrote a narrative of his adventures, including the story of the shipwreck of the galleon Santa Mar¬garita. Two Spaniards met with adventures of their own in Japan: former-Governor Rodrigo Vivero and Sebastian Vizcaino.

—A foreword introducing the concept of the Chamorro cultural scratch and summarizing the important events of the period.

—All the versions of the narratives about the second expedition by Mendafia (the first by Quirds) and their discovery of Pohnpei Island on 23 December 1595. Stranger as it may seem, this high island was not to be re-discovered by Europeans until the 1828.

—Period maps of China and Japan to illustrate their trade with the Philippines and New Spain, the missionary activities in Japan and galleon shipwrecks and other visits there, the piratical activities of the Dutch and English against the Spanish and Portuguese in those waters.

—The first Dutchmen in Micronesia, the Mahu expedition, had some members kidnapped and did some kidnapping of their own. It also brought the English pilot William Adams to Japan.

—The second Dutchmen in Micronesia belonged to the fleet of Oliver North. The texts of the original Dutch and Latin editions of this voyage are presented.

—The most important chapter, as far as Micronesian native customs are concerned, is the extensive report by Father Fray Juan Pobre who spent almost 9 months at Rota Island in 1602. He was not the first friar to have jumped ship there, however; the first missionary to have done so was Fray de los Angeles in 1596.

—The second expedition by Quirds crossed Micronesia in 1606 and discovered Butaritari Island in the Gilberts. Documents by Zaragoza and Fray Munilla, and the log¬book by chief pilot Leza, are quoted from.

—The full narrative of ex-Governor Vivero’s unplanned visit to Japan in 1609-10 is given. It occurred as a result of the shipwreck of the galleon San Francisco. Details about this and other 1609 disasters are given.

—The full story of the first European-type ships built in Japan are presented, along with the interesting events of the second Japanese embassy to Rome between 1613 and 1619. The causes of the seclusion of Japan that followed are analyzed in various docu¬ments of the period.

—Sebastian Vizcaino, famous in the history of California, tried to find a way-station for the galleons in mid-Pacific and ended up in Japan twice. His full report is translated here, perhaps for the first time.

—The Nassau Fleet, then under Admiral Schapenham, was the largest fleet to visit Micronesia until the 20th century. The dozen or so ships included the Pearl, a Spanish frigate captured near Acapulco.

—There are many other stories by the first Italian and Austrian visitors, about naval battles between the Spanish and the combined Dutch-English fleets, etc.

Publication Details

Lévesque Rodrigue. History of Micronesia : A Collection of Source Documents. Vol. 3 First Real Contact: 1596-1637. Gatineau Québec: Lévesque Publications; 1993.

ISBN-10: 0920201032

ISBN-13: 978-0920201039

LCC: DU500 .H58 2000

HOM.03

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Levesque's Summary

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Publication Details