Pedro de Unamuno was a Spanish soldier and sailor who was active in

New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( ; Nahuatl: ''Yankwik Kaxtillan Birreiyotl''), originally the Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain. It was one of several ...

and

Spanish East Indies The Spanish East Indies were the colonies of the Spanish Empire in Asia-Pacific, Asia and Oceania from 1565 to 1901, governed through the Captaincy General of the Philippines, captaincy general in Manila for the Monarchy of Spain, Spanish Crown, i ...

, particularly the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

, in the second half of the 16th century. He is known for commanding the

galleon Galleons were large, multi-decked sailing ships developed in Spain and Portugal. They were first used as armed cargo carriers by Europe, Europeans from the 16th to 18th centuries during the Age of Sail, and they were the principal vessels dr ...

''Nuestra Señora de la Esperanza'', that in the year 1587 undertook the second trans-Pacific crossing from the

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

n mainland to the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

in history, the first being the one achieved by his contemporary

Francisco Gali Francisco Gali (1539 in Seville – 1586 in Manila) was a Spanish sailor and cartographer, active in the second half of the 16th century transpacific crossing, across the Pacific Ocean and in New Spain and Spanish East Indies, particularly Philip ...

in 1584.

Trans-Pacific journey

The voyage started in

Macau Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...

on July 12, 1587 and reached the

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

n shore on October 18, at 35.5 degrees North latitude, where they went on shore in a bay with sandy beaches (potentially

Monterey Bay Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean located on the coast of the U.S. state of California, south of the San Francisco Bay Area. San Francisco itself is further north along the coast, by about 75 miles (120 km), accessible via California S ...

Morro Bay Morro Bay (''Morro'', Spanish for "Hill") is a seaside city in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. Located on the Central Coast of California, the city's population was 10,757 as of the 2020 census, up from 10,234 at the 2010 ...

) and made contact with some

indigenous Californians Indigenous peoples of California, commonly known as Indigenous Californians or Native Californians, are a diverse group of nations and peoples that are indigenous to the geographic area within the current boundaries of California before and afte ...

. They then sailed progressively southwards along the Western American coast to

Acapulco Acapulco de Juárez (), commonly called Acapulco ( , ; ), is a city and Port of Acapulco, major seaport in the Political divisions of Mexico, state of Guerrero on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, south of Mexico City. Located on a deep, semicirc ...

, reaching the area on November 22 of same year. The main goals of the journey were to find the purported islands of Rica de Oro, Rica de Plata and Armenio (which Unamuno concluded did not exist), and also the profitable transport of Chinese goods to New Spain (which was a violation, like Gali's voyage three years earlier, of the

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek and ) is a market in which one person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service. A monopoly is characterized by a lack of economic Competition (economics), competition to produce ...

accorded by the

Spanish Crown The monarchy of Spain or Spanish monarchy () is the constitutional form of government of Spain. It consists of a Hereditary monarchy, hereditary monarch who reigns as the head of state, being the highest office of the country. The Spanish ...

to the

Manila galleon The Manila galleon (; ) refers to the Spain, Spanish trading Sailing ship, ships that linked the Philippines in the Spanish East Indies to Mexico (New Spain), across the Pacific Ocean. The ships made one or two round-trip voyages per year betwe ...

s). The official trade galleon of 1587 from Manila, the ''Santa Ana'', reached the Californian coast one month later than the ''Esperanza'' but was then captured along with her cargo by two English

privateer A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign o ...

ships commanded by Sir Thomas Cavendish. Unamuno had Alonso Gómez as pilot, a crew of Spaniards and Philippine Indios, and three

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

friars as passengers, namely

Martín Ignacio de Loyola Martín Ignacio Martínez de Mallea, known as Martín Ignacio de Loyola (c. 1550 in Eibar, Guipuzcoa, Spain – 1606 in Buenos Aires), was a Franciscan friar, best known for his two travels around the world in 1580–1584 and 1585–1589, bein ...

, Francisco de Nogueira, and a third one whose name is unknown. De Loyola brought along with him a young Japanese converted to

Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. This last sentence needs definitive source that the Japanese boy had boarded the frigate, Nuestra Senora de Buena Esperanza, because page 144 of the Henry R. Wagner account
,"The Voyage of Pedro de Unamuno to California in 1587" in The California Historical Society Quarterly. Jul. 1923
says "Fr. Martin, nephew of the great Fr. Ignacio (De) Loyola, brought along with him a young Japanese boy whom he was taking to present to the King, “as he had a story to tell;“ but he had only 60 pesos expenses to buy European clothes.”

References

External links

Wagner, Henry R.,"The Voyage of Pedro de Unamuno to California in 1587" in The California Historical Society Quarterly. Jul. 1923

* ttp://www.bibingka.com/sst/esperanza/indios.htm Santos, Hector. "The first Philippine indios in California" in Sulat sa Tansô. US, April 3, 1997.
Santos, Hector. "Did Philippine indios really land in Morro Bay?" in Sulat sa Tansô US, April 9, 1997
{{DEFAULTSORT:Unamuno, Pedro de Spanish explorers of the Pacific Spanish people in the colonial Philippines People from New Spain Colonial Mexico 16th century in the Spanish East Indies Spanish East Indies 16th-century Spanish explorers

Trans-Pacific journey

See also

References

External links