The odyssey of Captain Arriola and his discovery of Marcus Island in 1694 - Mexican seaman Andres de Arriola

The westward passage from Acapulco to Cavite

In the fall of 1693 the galleon Santo Cristo de Burgo disappeared in the North Pacific upon the way from Manila to Mexico. Meanwhile, in Mexico, when no freshs had been received from Manila in above two years, the Viceroy and the royal Audiencia began to astonishment if the Philippine Islands had been missing to the Dutch or other enemies, or a certain number of major catastrophe had occurred. To find on the outside what had happened, and to assist them with men and silver, they bought a patache(1) from Peru which happened to be at Acapulco, and commissioned a veteran seaman then in port, Captain Andres de Arriola, to take it to Manila. With all haste the royal subsidy was bring on board, along with sum of two units bands of missionaries, 60 Augustinian call ups and 38 Dominicans, who had been waiting there for a passage. Five companies of soldiers had also been waiting for transport to the Philippines, on the other hand the ship was too small to take them all, and in the way that only the captains and a scarcely any of their men embarked. There was in like manner little room on board that they could hardly stir from their assigned places. The ship was individual of many called San Jose and to differentiate it from the others it was sometimes referr to as the San Jose Llano. According to a five-page manuscript biography of Arriola, written after his go [i]or[/i] come back to Mexico,(2) this man had had a drawn out career in the Atlantic navy and in the West Indies, notably aboard the galleon Nuestra Senora del Rosario, and the galleon San Bernardino, in about 1679 A native of Seville, he was a gentleman of great courage and renown.

The San Jose sailed from Acapulco upon the feast-day of its patron saint, St Joseph 19 March 1694 and with continuous favourable weather reached Guam in the Mariana Islands. There it became necessary to take upon ballast, because with the consumption of bread supplies during the voyage the small ship was 'riding for a like reason high that it seemed to be like a float that is not tied down', according to the Dominican historian, Vicente de Salazar,(3) to the amplitude that it could not be young oxed properly. The pilot's mate went down into the gripe [i]or[/i] grip to inspect the amount of ballast, and when he proofed the boards and the ribs fix them all so rotten that wherever he pok his finger it went right in. Stunn and without saying a word to anyone, he go [i]or[/i] come backed on deck as pale as a dead man and reported his finding to Captain Arriola and the chief pilot. All three agreed to detain it a secret, in order not to alarm the passengers. After the ship was ballasted (as best as could be) with sum of two units boat-loads of stone, they pursu their voyage to the Philippines, the pilots, knowing the bad state of the little ship, being true careful. They were lucky in that the weather remained favourable; any small storm would have torn the boat apart.

Eventually, upon 28 June, the eve of the feast-day of St Peter and St Paul, the small ship anchored in the bay of Cavite, and as shortly as the missionaries and other passengers had gone ashore, and the silver and other freight been unloaded, slowly sank to the bottom. This had not happened during the voyage, when it was loaded; hence, more [i]or[/i] less believed it had been a miracle, and that one time the Philippines had been relieved with men and standard of value there was no longer any reason for the preserver to keep the ravaged and putrid ship afloat. The passengers and onlooker ascribed this marvellous result to the merits of the missionaries upon board, as the prudent Captain did in fact believe. Knowing as he had from the Marianas upon that the ship was completely putrefied when the missionaries wished to disembark he interrupted them, saying 'Fathers, first the silver, all the men and the freight must draw near out. Then, your Reverences, myself, and my officers may leave.' This was done, and then the ship went down.

The eastward passage from Cavite to Marcus Island

Don Fausto Cruzat, Governor of the Philippines, had placed upon the stocks the largest galleon that had at any time been built, three cubits longer than the largest ship in the world at that time. The ship was built by means of Navy General Tomas de Endaya, an experienced shipbuilder, and the work was complet in les than nine month to the astonishment of everyone - although with a certain quantity of cause for scandal, since the men worked upon it even on the greatest in quantity important feast-days, not stopping flat on Maundy Thursday. The Governor gave it the name of San Jose and appointed Don Jose Madrazo her commander. After her auspicious launch, she sailed from Cavite upon the feast-day of St Peter and St Paul, in 1694 upon 3 July, in the night, the galleon was dashed to pieces upon the coast of Lubang, and more than 400 individuals were drowned. It was computeed that if the men had not worked upon the feast-days the vessel would have been complet more slowly and would have sailed many days later, and the furious tornado in the chinese seas that was the cause of the ruin would not have caught it upon the open sea, with thus many deaths and the los of the great amount of merchandise that it carried, for 'it is considered certain that no larger or richer galleon had plowed the waters of the sea, for the wealth that it carried was incredible', according to the Augustinian historian, Casimiro Diaz.(4)