‘Requeiro huma duas e tres vezes’: the confrontation between Ruy López de Villalobos and Jorge de Castro over the Maluku Islands in 1543-4

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines in detail the exchange of letters between Ruy López de Villalobos, captain general of a significant Spanish fleet, which landed on the island of Mindanao in February 1543, and the captain of the Portuguese fort on the Malukan island of Ternate, Jorge de Castro. In his letters and formal injunctions, Castro warns Villalobos not to enter the Maluku islands as these are under Portuguese jurisdiction while Villalobos attempts various arguments to justify his movements between the future Philippine islands of Mindanao, Samar and Leyte, and the northern Malukus. The exchange ceases with Castro’s rotation from his post on Ternate in the late Spring of 1544 and in effect only covers the first year of Villalobos’ presence in the Philippine and Malukan archipelagos. Nevertheless, the letters provide an interesting insight into how an experienced Portuguese governor dealt with a neophyte Spanish naval expeditionary at a turning point in the balance between Spanish and Portuguese power in these islands. The letters, while mediated by the intervention of legal clerks, copyists and advisors, provide a flavour of each man as an individual, palpable in the language and tone they struck.