food. Three days after this the troubles with the Portuguese began, with the arrival of the deputy sent by Jorge de Castro. Meanwhile the numbers of the Spaniards and the Indian slaves brought from New Spain were being decimated through the famine they experienced. Expeditions were sent out to gather food, but resulted disastrously. The Portuguese intrigued with the natives not to sell provisions to the Castilians, and to do them all the harm possible. On the arrival of the ship sent to the Philippines for food, it was determined "to go to the Felipinas, to a province called Buio,"[1] a salubrious land, "and abounding in food." Further misfortunes met them through stormy weather and the hostility of the natives, who treacherously killed eleven of the Spaniards in one vessel sent ahead to procure provisions. Further trouble with the Portuguese followed at the island of Gilolo, the king of which was hostile to the Portuguese. In these straits, Villalobos determined to appeal to the king of Tidore for aid and supplies, as he was formerly friendly to the Spanish; but his hopes were disappointed. Then he sent to Terrenate, at the instance of the king of Gilolo, to demand from the Portuguese the Castilian artillery in that island.[2] Finally treaties were made between the two kings and the Castilians. Alvarado was sent (May 28, 1544) to the Philippines to conduct back certain of
- ↑ On old maps Abuyo; the aboriginal appellation of the island of Leyte (Retana edition of Combés's Mindanao, p. 749).
- ↑ Probably the cannon belonging to Magalhães's ship "Trinidad," which the Portuguese seized in October, 1522; they had built a fortified post on the island of Ternate in the preceding summer, their first settlement in the Moluccas. Ternate, Tidore, Mutir, and two others, are small islands lying along the western coast of Gilolo; on them cloves grew most abundantly when Europeans first discovered the Moluccas.
