In the entry"History of Mindanao,Part VII: Spanish Geopolitics in Southeast Asia, the Late 16th Century" I outlined Spain's regional dalliances during the early 1590s. Facing depredations from both Japan and China, the Spanish were trying to gain a foothold on Mainland Southeast Asia with a serious intervention in Cambodia against the Siamese (Thai) invaders. The Governor-General of the colony, Gomez Perez Dasmarinas was personally leading a large expedition to capture Ternate, in Moluko (Mollucas), in what is today Indonesia, in 1593 when Chinese oarsmen mutinied, killing most of the Spaniards aboard the campaign's flagship, including Dasmarinas. After jockeying for succession Dasmarina's son, Don Luis Perez Dasmarinas assumed leadership and became the new Governor.
One of the colony's leading military commanders, Esteban Rodriguez de Figueroa, had been in discussions with the elder Dasmarinas, Gomez Perez, about leading an expedition to pacify Mindanao. Eventually, right before the murder of Gomez Perez Dasmarinas, they had agreed that de Figueroa would lead an expedition and in exchange for de Figueroa outfitting the campaign at his own expense, he would be awarded the governorship of the island for two generations. In other words, after de Figueroa died one of his children would assume the governorship and would retain it until his own death. All that was required then was the assent of the Crown. Gomez Perez Dasmarinas dispatched a letter to the King endorsing the scheme and asked for the King's assent.
Not long after sending the letter to Spain, in 1593, Governor-General Gomez Perez Dasmarinas prepared for the aforementioned expedition. Both the younger Dasmarinas, Don Luis Perez, and de Figueroa were taking part as well, hovering due south in what is today the Visayas Region, in control of the bulk of the fleet which had been deployed south ahead of the Governor-General, and was waiting to link up with the main body sailing from Cavite on Luzon. On the second evening out they experienced strong head winds and Dasmarinas ordered the fleet to drop anchor near a small offshore island, Caca, in Southern Luzon. Because there was an extreme shortage of able bodied Spaniards in the colony the larger ships had hired crews of Chinese oarsmen. The usual protocol in such situations was to ensure that such contracted labour was without weaponary and then, for further security, to chain them either in place or else to barricade the galley where they worked at propelling the ship.
Since arriving as Governor-General in 1590 Dasmarinas had endeavoured more than anything to capture Ternate and when he finally was able to outfit the massive expedition in 1593 he was in incredibly good spirits. Not only did he leave the galley insecure, he also inexplicably allowed some of the Chinese to carry weapons. This would be his undoing. Shortly before dawn on the third day out the Chinese killed the two guards on either end of the ship and then began slaughtering any Spaniard and Filipino in sight. Governor-General Dasmarinas though was safely in his cabin with two Filipino slaves. A scant few of the Spaniards were able to dive overboard and swim towards other ships at anchor nearer to the offshore island, even fewer were able to swim to a small skiff tied to the ship and rowed themselves to safety so that the main body of ships became aware of the mutiny, albeit too late to do anything about it.
Meanwhile, Dasmarinas heard the commotion and apparently thought the ship had drifted onto a shoal and hurried from his quarters and up the stairs, only to run into a pack of mutineers who cleaved his skull. Tumbling back down the stairs his two slaves dragged him to the safety of his cabin and barricaded themselves inside. It didn't do much good however because he died almost immediately. The two slaves themselves were soon murdered as well, apparently speared through gaps in the ships planking. Two Spaniards were spared only by refusing to leave their more secure cabin in the middle of the ship; Juan de Cuellar who served as Dasmarina's secretary and a Franciscan Priest, Father Montilla. They were able to escape alive when, as the ship sailed north for China the mutineers realised that they didn't have sufficient stores of fresh water. Dropping anchor off of what are now the two provinces of Illocos del Norte and Illocos del Sur, they sent the two ashore hoping that the Illokano Tribesmen would offer fresh water in exchange.
From there the ship flew north but in turning west they misjudged the drift and came ashore in Cochinchina's Kingdom of Tongking, in what is today Vietnam. There the king stole everything that they themselves had stolen and whether by neglect or by design the mutineers were allowed to escape. This is the same ship whose standard and artillery were being sought by Gallinato when he anchored off of the Cochinchinese Kingdom of Tongking, an incident I discussed in great detail in my aforementioned History entry on Spanish Geopolitics in Southeast Asia.
The mutiny and bloodletting put an end to Dasmarinas' campaign but brought both de Figueroa and the younger Dasmarinas, Don Luis Gomez back to Manila, both with expectations that each would be chosen to succeed the fallen Governor-General. Upon departing on his grand campaign the elder Dasmarinas had left his second in command, Aide de Camp, Diego de Ronquillo, and his chief administrator, Licentiate (Assesor), Pedro de Rojas in charge of military affairs and administration of the colony, respectively. With the murder of the Governor General in October of 1593, the leading citizens of Manila gathered in de Rojas' home and not suprisingly, voted that de Rojas should assume the mantle of leadership. To negate any possible challenge by de Ronquillo, he was deployed to track the stolen ship and the murderers of Dasmarinas.
It was a well known fact in Manila that when the late Governor-General had arrived in 1590, he had with him a letter from the King authorising him to designate a successor in the event of his own demise. As I mentioned in that Geopolitical History entry, Dasmatinas himself made sure that the colony's leading citizens knew of this provision. Dangerously, he used it as a way in which to manipulate those he perceived to be competitors or threats. In his manipulation though, he had left many powerful people imagining that they themselves were the person so chosen.de Rojas of course was well aware of this and knew that he had a very limited opportunity to find any written decision left by the elder Dasmarinas, in which he had named that successor.
On the 40th day after the murder both the younger Dasmarinas, Don Luis Perez, and Esteban Rodriguez de Figueroa appeared in Manila Bay. Combining forces, Dasmarinas and de Figueroa delayed their entry into the city and instead made their way to a monastery, Saint Augustine, in an outlying area. This particular monastery had been endowed by the elder Dasmarinas and it was widely believed that the proclamation declaring the successor lay there among a collection of the late Governor-General's papers. Indeed, de Rojas had seized a good many documents from the collection before a monk loyal to the elder Dasmarinas concealed the rest, among them the proclamation in which his son, Don Luis Gomez Dasmarinas, was declared successor...or so the story goes since of course a 40 day delay would have been more than enough time to fabricate such a document. Of course that last thought is merely conjecture but all things considered it is more than plausible.
The death of the elder Dasmarinas, Governor-General Perez Gomez Dasmarinas, is one of those little known events that changed the face of history on a multitude of levels. Had Dasmarinas not been murdered there is general agreement that his campaign to Moluko (Mollucas) would have been successful. Had it been so then both the Portugese AND the Dutch would have never had lain an indelible stamp in Southeast Asia. Indonesia, Malaysia and probably Brunei as well would have become bastions of Hispanic Culture, as indeed the Philippines became. Spain, already fabulously rich, would have become the pre-eminent nation in Europe. All this changed because of the Governor-General's laissez faire attitude towards his contracted Chinese labour.
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