Joaquim Magalhães de Castro
Francisco Gali, captain of the ship San Juan, took along Alonso Gomez as a pilot and, among his crew, several Portuguese sailors. After getting together, on the high seas, with another ship named San Martin, San Juan carried out reconnaissance quests along the North American coast before arriving in Acapulco in December of 1584.
The Archbishop of New Spain gave Gali the command of two ships and the mission, on his return to Manila, having the duty to unveil the shortest route. Gali was also the depository of a high amount of money, assembled by several Mexican merchants, intended for the purchase of “unspecified goods,” but which everyone knew was silk and other refined Chinese merchandise.
However, before the scheduled return trip to Acapulco, Gali died, and Pedro Unamuno, until then his right-hand man, assumed command of the expedition.
Turning a deaf ear to the warnings of the Royal Manila Audience, “that he should not stop in Macau, under penalty of death,” Unamuno did not resist the entrepot’s appeal… He had prepared, however, a plausible excuse – a strong storm had dragged them there – but that did not prevent the ship’s arrest by the Portuguese authorities who immediately informed Manila.
Captain Juan de Argumedo departed from this city, ready to recover the vessels (he managed to do so) and to arrest Unamuno, who was hiding there, with the help of the Portuguese with whom he had done business.
After Argumedo’s departure, Unamuno bought a small ship, the Nuestra Señora de Buena Esperanza, and loaded it with the purchases acquired with the remaining cash. His entourage would be joined by three Franciscan priests, disgusted by the inhospitable atmosphere created around them, since it was China considered to be an exclusive Jesuit domain. It is ironic that one of them, Martin Ignacio de Loyola, who was in charge of a young Japanese convert to Catholicism, was the nephew of Ignacio de Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus… The other friars were of Portuguese nationality; Francisco de Nogueira the name of one of them. The rest of the passengers were sailors, soldiers and natives of Luzon.
Once again it was the experienced hands of Alonso Gomez who on 12 July 1587 took them from Macau to the coast of California. On October 18, they landed on a beach (perhaps Morro Bay), 35.5 degrees North latitude, coming into contact with the locals. The cabotage would progress towards the Bay of Acapulco and, upon arrival, on 22 November, Fra Martin, taking advantage of his religious status, would declare, in his honor, to the local authorities, that all the goods belonged to a Portuguese from Macau (one of the passengers) and to a Japanese neophyte.
Finding the mythical islands Rica de Oro, Rica de Plata and Armenia (which Unamuno proved not to exist) was one of the objectives of the journey, in addition, of course, to the profitable sale of lucrative Chinese products in New Spain.
Manila’s official commercial galleon, the Santa Ana, would arrive on the California coast a month after Nuestra Senora de Esperanza; and it could not have been at a worse time, for it would have been captured and plundered by the English pirate Thomas Cavendish.
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