of
the Chinese Pirate Lin
Feng
&
the Spanish Conquistador
Juan de Salcedo
keith harmon snow
In battle confrontation is done directly, victory is gained by
surprise. Those skilled at the
unorthodox are infinite as heaven and earth, inexhaustible as the great
rivers. When they come to an end
they begin again, like the days and months. They die and are reborn, like the four seasons.
Sun
Tzu
With the Chinese junks that sailed to
Manila early in 1574 came a snow-white mare for the conquistador Juan Maldonado
and the news of war on the continent of China. Paid for in advance with gold,
the mareÕs delivery, in good faith, was not at all a sign of the trading times.
It was a calculated gesture intended to normalize tenuous relations: from the
Straits of Malacca to the Sea of the Japans, the oceans were aflame with
treachery and treason. The South
China Sea was boiling with samurai and serpents, conquistadors and pirates.
For
the conquistadors all was business as usual: civil war on the continent of
China was of little consequence.
Having subjugated the Indio savages to the limits of their enlightened
Spanish tempers, plagued by monsoons and malaria, uncontrollably incontinent
and increasingly desperate, the Spaniards hungered to invade China and the
Japans. Cruel and coldhearted, the
conquistadors had become very cocky.
None counted on the Chinese pirate Lin Feng.
Now,
Lin Feng was no ordinary pirate.
The Chinese garrison commander Wang Wang-kao later recounted to the
Spaniards that Lin Feng had killed more than 100,000 Chinese with his own
hands. On one dayÕs rampage, wrote
the Imperial scribe, Lin FengÕs army massacred 60,000 soldiers and peasants. He plundered ships, burned cities,
enslaved eunuchs and women. With
100,000 men, it was said, Lin Feng had devastated much of the continent of
China.
ÒOur
men were unprepared for such an assault,Ó wrote the surviving members of the
City Council of Manila, Òand very negligent. Warned two hours before of the
hordes of enemies attacking the city, marching in squadrons armed with
arquebuses and pikes and Mexican armor, so agile and stealthy, and in such
elegant order, the way it is done in Italy, and even seeing wounded civilians
fleeing the enemy, still our men took it as a joke. The Spanish did not want to believe. This negligence proved fatal.Ó
So
it was, on the 29th of November, 1574, that the well-gunned fleet of
Lin Feng moored under the tropical moon in Manila bay. Juan de Salcedo, the
greatest conquistador of all, was absent.
*
Now,
back in the Kingdom of China, the control of the Ming emperors, in theory,
extended even to the checking of dangerous thoughts. The Imperial palace employed 150,000 guards and servants,
warriors, vagabonds and eunuchs.
Peking was the seat of politics and war. Rice and salt were shipped from
the fertile coast on the Yuan Grand Canal (c. 618 AD) – the spinal cord
of the great Ming dragon.
The
Ming emperors, so the story goes, were quite a spectacle indeed. Early in his
reign, the Chia-ching Emperor (ruled 1522-1566) was infected by the Taoist
quest for immortality and control of the empire fell into the hands of his
sniveling Grand-Secretary, Yeng Sun, a shrewd but unscrupulous man under whom
the empire fell into decay. Truth
struck like lightning in 1543, when the palace maids tried to strangle the
Emperor, and again in 1566, when, staring death in the face, the Emperor saw
the great error of his life: the
Kingdom of China had slid. The
Lung-chÕing Emperor (ruled 1567-1572) was an interminable whiner who lost
himself in a bowl of noodles daily and, therefore, he was abruptly
terminated.
The
Wan-li Emperor (ruled 1573-1620) assumed the throne at the age of ten, and
under sway of the Imperial Tutor and Grand Secretary Chiang Chii-cheng, China
prospered once more. Chiang Chii-cheng died in 1582 however, and seizing full
control that had previously been denied, the Wan-li emperor proved himself the
greediest and most selfish of all the emperors of the Ming dynasty.
From
1520 to 1580 the South China Sea boiled with pirates and robber barons. The Chinese called them Wo-kÕou, ÒWoÓ
translating to Japanese and ÒkÕouÓ to pirates, but many of these so-called
ÒJapanese piratesÓ were Chinese, Siamese or European.
Portuguese
cannon deemed by the Chinese to be Òas terrifying as good generals at the heads
of armiesÓ battered the Chinese in Canton, in 1520, even as Fernando de
Magellanes first sailed the Chilean straits of Terra del Fuego. When the 10 year-old Chia-ching Emperor
ascended the throne in 1522, Magellanes was already dead, speared by the
natives near Cebu, his armor rusting in the salty sea.
After
a battle in Kwangtung, in 1523, where the Portuguese lost two ships and 77
soldiers, the Imperial palace, on pain of death, banned emigration and trade
with all Òbarbarian devils.Ó The
Emperor rushed to arm China with the weapons of the invaders however, the most
deadly of which Òshot round bullets which were mortal to both horses and
men.Ó By 1536, some 3000 cannon
and 6300 blunderbusses armed the EmperorÕs troops.
The
ban on trade led to smuggling as Chinese lords paid handsomely for pepper,
nutmeg and cloves, rhino horn and ivory, perfumes and aromatic woods. The Portuguese wanted curios, ceramics,
silk and children, and fought for them.
Taxation and famine pushed Chinese peasants and fishermen from smuggling
to war.
From
civil war in Kyushu and Shikoku came Japanese samurai to raid the coasts of
Fukien and Chekiang. Some pillaged
sacred graves in northern Luzon seeking Chinese Sung (c. 960) and Yuan (c.
1279) ceramics for the Japanese tea ceremony. Wrote one contemporary of the obstreperous samurai: ÒTheir manners were rude, their lives
loose, their thoughts low, their tempers hot, their strength great and they all
suspected or were jealous of one another.Ó
To
fight the onerous Wo-kÕou, the Ming formed the Wei, regiments of 5600 men to
occupy strategic coastal forts.
Provincial fleets sprang up.
Anyone was hired – southern aborigines, miners, salt-workers,
local militia, mercenaries and Shao-lin monks – most no better than
pirates themselves. Generals
appointed to suppress the Wo-kÕou were jailed or beheaded for incompetence or
corruption or – as happened with the most honest but envied Chu Wan (c.
1547) who committed suicide in jail – beheaded for the impertinence of
their successes.
Official
relations with Japan were severed (c. 1549) as piracy spread. Walled-cities and rural markets
hundreds of miles inland were plundered, thousands of peasants killed. When the general Hu Tsung-hsien
exterminated notorious Wo-kÕou ringleaders in Fukien and Chekiang, the Wo-kÕou
flowed south to Kwangtung. It was
there, to a family of freebooters and pirates that Lin Feng was born.
Now
Lin Feng was an exceptional loser.
From 1572 to 1574 he plundered the coast, gathered followers, engaged
government forces, suffered defeats.
He repeatedly but unsuccessfully petitioned the Ming court for
amnesty. In 1572, Lin Feng had 500
men. While the Viceroy of
Kwangtung beheaded 1600 pirates and sank 100 ships in 1573, Lin Feng boldly
harassed the coast. By July, 1574,
Lin Feng had 10,000 men, hundreds of ships.[1]
In
October, Lin Feng learned from the Chinese captain of a plundered junk,
returning from Manila, that the city was unguarded, the Spanish soldiers out
conscripting and conquering. With
2000 men and 1000 women, with weapons to fight and implements to farm, with an
armada of 62 ships, Lin Feng sailed for the Philippine Island of Luzon. His battle cry was Òsettle or die.Ó
*
Now,
the Spanish were another breed of ruthless. With the arrival of the Armada of
Admirante Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, in 1565, the Spaniards pumped all for spoils
and secrets. The first traders
encountered were the Moros, near the island of Cebu. Though wizened by earlier raids of Portuguese galliots, the
Moros took the Spaniards for fools when for silver coin they sold them bars of
wax with dirt centers. The Spaniards boasted of their business acumen: the
Moros were warned, the silver coin returned. Bringing wax anew, the Moros told the Spaniards to again
halve the wax bars. The Spaniards
would not be fooled: in corners
were Òchunks of mangrove as heavy as leadÓ.
For
centuries the Chinese and the Moros had traded the Pacific rim, from Siam to
the Japans, Brunei to the Moluccas.
Like the Spaniards, the Chinese wanted native gold, wax and spices. For these and for Spanish silver they
traded fruits, nuts, flour and sugar, curios and painted porcelain, chests of
embroidered silks, precious musk.
In
1570, the Spanish ships sent from Cebu to discover Manila plundered two Chinese
junks without provocation, killing the merchants even as they begged for mercy
on their knees. And while a
Chinese colony grew alongside the Spanish town and the Indio villages in
Manila, life for the Spaniards grew dimmer. Thus did the continent of China grow in the minds of the
conquistadors, and the seeds of conquest grow in their hearts.
ÒAs
I gather from both Portuguese and natives who deal with them,Ó wrote the friar Martin
de Rada, in 1569, to the King, Òthe Chinese are not at all warlike. All their trust lies in the multitude
of their people and the strength of their walls. This could be their unmaking if invaded. God willing, they could be subjected
easily. No need of many men to
effect this.Ó
The
reality of China was soon revealed to Friar Martin de Rada by a Chinese lord,
his guest for six months, in 1572.
ÒChina is the largest kingdom in the world,Ó he now wrote, with houses
of lime and stone and brick, and walled-cities protected by artillery. The Chinese Òappear to be a civilized
people, humble and intelligent,Ó though Òvile and effeminate,Ó and Òthe meanest
people in the world when at war, whether on horseback or on foot.Ó Though merchants carried weapons Òof
superior workmanship,Ó in China only the soldiers were armed: The people were forbidden weapons even
in their own homes.
Hearing
such news the Spaniards boasted that 300 conquistadors could overcome 30,000
Chinese. Their horses and
elephants, their great walled cities – China was there for the
taking. In 1572, Admirante Legazpi
marked the galleon Espiritu Santo for a 1573 expedition, but Legazpi died soon
after – old, poor and indebted, proof of his goodness they all said. The first Governor of Manila was not
alone in his poverty.
The
Royal coffers in Manila were empty, the salaries of soldiers and seamen eight
years in arrears. The noblest
conquistadors, like Guido de Lavazares, Martin de Goiti, Juan de Salcedo and
Juan Maldonado, were granted lands with perhaps up to 10,000 Indios. Some had several islands. But the conditions on the Islas
Filipinas were deteriorating.
ÒThey say that without robbing and capturing and selling slaves we
cannot survive,Ó wrote the friar
Martin de Rada, in 1572.
The
Spaniards settled all with gunpowder and fire. To them the Indios were pagan Infidels who painted their
ancestors and invoked the devil.
The wealthier a man, the more gold and women he had, the more he
offended God. Drunk on the wine of
sugar cane the Indios feasted and orgied in nakedness. Some painted their bodies black all
over with charcoal. They were
shameless cheats, said the Spaniards, who sold baskets of rice with sand or
coconut shells hidden inside. Some
ate no pork but had no mosques. They killed with slingshots and poison arrows
and iron spikes hidden on muddy trails.
They were spirited and simple, savage and cunning, wicked headhunters who placed heads on spears
outside their huts.
The
Indio women were pleasant looking, the Spaniards said, but very immodest, and
some, in one Spaniards words, Òlook like mares overfed with hay.Ó Others were brought in canoes for the
taking, Ògiving both the Indio men and women a big laugh.Ó
The
Spaniards took and took. From
every village was demanded peace and tribute as the conquistadors spread over
the islands like locusts. Tribes
of thousands resisted, the Indios killed or driven out, thrown from cliffs,
drown in the sea. The Castilas --
as the Indios called them -- took slaves, gold, women, cloth, rice and more
women. Livestock were slaughtered,
villages burned, a yearÕs tribute demanded in advance. Indios were taken for mines and for
galleys, chained to pick and oar, flogged and beaten.
Rice
was the bread of the land and the land went hungry as the Indios – hoping
to injure the Spaniards – did not plant rice or millet. The Spaniards pillaged elsewhere. When again the Indios planted, swarms
of locusts devoured all. For three
years the locusts came. No
vegetation was spared. ÒIt is GodÕs
will,Ó said the Spanish friars.
By
1573, dead of hunger and not yet dead, bodies were thrown on rafts that floated
down rivers and out to the demons at sea.
Fewer traders came to trade.
Smallpox struck in 1574.
The Spanish locusts ravaged all.
Plagued by an epidemic of violence and sin, the Religious refused to
hear the confessions of the conquistadors.
ÒCastilas,Ó
shouted an Indio from a tall palm tree one night, his fortified village
surrounded by 100 harquebusiers in helmets and coats of mail. ÒWhat do you want? Why do you make war on us? Why do you ask us to pay tribute? What do we owe you? What good have you done us or our
ancestors? We call on our gods and
on yours as witnesses, they will judge the abuses and injustices you commit
against us.Ó
The
village was burned.
Anonymous
reports reached the Royal ears:
ÒThe Indios have come to identify Castilas as robbers, usurpers of what
is not theirs, men with9out a word of honor, cruel individuals who spill human
blood, persons dirty in the flesh.
They see with their own eyes that Castilas do not spare even friends,
rather they attack and maltreat and force them, they violate their homes, their
wives and daughters, and their property.Ó
ÒFix
it up,Ó yawned the Spanish King, a goblet of palm wine in one hand, a gold
scepter in the other, Òcorrect these Spaniards and reform their bad
habits.Ó To the Manila officials:
ÒI am sending a new Governor. The
following islands and towns are declared seats of government. Send the captured slaves to the silver
mines of New Spain,Ó the King boldly decreed.
ÒBuild
a hospital,Ó the King ordered, Òtreat both Spaniards and Indios: we are told
that many are sick, many have died.
Do not take Indios from one island to another. Befriend the Chinese.
Watch for a chance to preach the Holy Gospel and other good objectives
in China. Keep me informed.Ó
Such
were the Royal decrees of 1574.
*
On
July 26, it was business as usual.
The galleon San Juan departed Manila with the latest news and plunder
for His Sacred Catholic Majesty, Don Felipe II. Kissing his Royal hands and feet, the KingÕs vassals sent a
meager four tons of cinnamon -- San Juan was built not for trade but to fight
and run -- a dash of pepper, a porcelain bowl, fourteen gold earrings and four
daggers with gold hilts. To Her
Majesty, the Queen, went jewels and pearls and flasks of cinnamon water. For His Newborn Highness, Prince
Fernando, a gold crown, two gold chains and four gold daggers used by the
natives.
San
Juan carried a letter from the Governor of Manila, Guido de Lavazares, asking
the King for 500 men of war, for gunpowder and ammunition, for 50 sawyers and
blacksmiths and shipbuilders from the black slaves of New Spain, for men of the
Church. Lavazares described
hardship, justified actions, countered the ÒopinionsÓ of the Religious,
explained recent changes in bilateral relations with the Chinese. ÒSeeing the good treatment they have
always had,Ó he wrote, Òthe Chinese come every year and increase their
trade. They take much of His MajestyÕs
gold.Ó
To
the Chinese traders Lavazares decreed the sovereignty of the King and the
exclusivity of conquest. ÒNo
longer will you be allowed to sell harquebuses and gunpowder to the natives,Ó
he decreed. ÒThe taking of slaves
is prohibited, since I am told that slaves are offered as sacrifice. Beware the selling of bales of silk
cloth where weeds are discovered inside.
Next year you will pay import tax.Ó
Thus
warned, the Chinese departed.
But
from the blood of their desperation the Spaniards drank the idea of China. The bamboo and grass huts, the glass
oven heat, disease and typhoons and famine and those horribly ÒdisrespectfulÓ
natives – China was the escape.
Chinese traders were petitioned to give passage to the Religious. ÒOur possessions would be confiscated,Ó
said the traders, Òwe and our wives and children would be killed if we brought
a Spaniard or any other alien to China.Ó
China
would not wait for the Spaniards to come:
In the moonlight on 23 November 1574, a large fleet of well-gunned ships
was sighted by Juan de Salcedo, Captain of the Infantry, 70 leagues north of
Manila at the Villa Fernandina.
The pirate Lin Feng had arrived.
*
At
the Villa Fernandina, on Luzon, the great conquistador Juan de Salcedo
waited. With 80 men, Salcedo had
been sent north, to Ilocos, in April, to found and settle the Villa in honor of
the Infante, Prince Fernando, and to pacify the natives, the fiercest in the
islands, who wore Òcorselets of iron and buffalo hides and helmets embellished
with fish bones and shells.Ó
Salcedo was after the gold of Ilocos.
Now,
Juan de Salcedo was no ordinary conquistador costumed in cold steel. A daring and hardworking soldier, he
was born of the legitimate union of Pedro de Salcedo, son of Juan de Salcedo,
discoverer and conqueror of the Kingdoms of New Spain (the Americas), and Dona
Teresa Garces, eldest daughter of Admirante Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, discoverer
and conqueror of the Islas Filipinas.
War ran cold in SalcedoÕs blood.
Arriving
in 1567, commissioned Captain of the Infantry in 1568, Salcedo stood with
Admirante Legazpi, Guido de Lavazares, Juan Maldonado and Martin de Goiti when
the Portuguese attacked Cebu.
Salcedo and Martin de Goiti conquered Manila. Salcedo begged his grandfather, Legazpi, to let him explore
and conquer Luzon. Funding the
expedition himself, building eight ships, sailing 200 leagues around the
island, crossing raging rivers and skirting volcanoes, surveying the mines of
His MajestyÕs richest provinces, pacifying the savage natives, Juan de Salcedo – not yet
twenty-five years old – was undoubtedly the greatest conquistador of them
all. The mere sound of his name
burned the ears of the Indios.
Nor
was Salcedo an ordinary murderer.
No other conquistador was so often and so highly recommended to the
King. Bound by the cross to truth,
even the most pious Religious revered Juan de Salcedo as a good soldier and a
good Christian who was loved and deserving. ÒThough at the outset he was very young and I was displeased
with him,Ó wrote Governor Lavazares, in 1574, Òafterwards I recognized his
quiet strength of purpose. He has
excelled in all he has been asked to do for His MajestyÕs service.Ó
Thus
did Juan de Salcedo prepare for war with the unidentified but approaching
Chinese ships. He and his men
watched from afar as the pirates pillaged a galley returning with the essential
supplies for the Villa: the cannon
were taken, the Indio slaves killed, the galley burnt. But the unidentified armada passed by
without a fight: Lin Feng wanted
Manila. Onward did the Chinese sail.
Horrified
at the obvious intent of the mysterious fleet, and with 59 harquebusiers in
seven small boats oared by Indio slaves, Captain Juan de Salcedo sailed the
high seas in a race to defend the imperiled city of Manila. He would arrive one day late.
Lin
Feng raided and conscripted along the coast of Luzon until 29 November, when
the armada moored off Cavite, eight leagues from Manila, and a force of 200 men
in native bancas sailed under the moon to attack at dawn.
ÒIt
was GodÕs will that they were hit by a gale which did not blow in this city,Ó
wrote the dispirited City Councilors who escaped with their tongues. ÒMany ships were lost. The attack came at ten in the morning.Ó
That
such a force could attack Manila was blasphemous.
Soldiers were collecting tribute or fortifying Villas elsewhere, many
were sick. The city was Òdirty and
unhealthful,Ó a swamp of intolerable heat, where canoes floated from house to
house after a rain, where drinking water was brown. Fort Santiago built of wood in 1570 by then Governor Legazpi
[2]
had collapsed, cannon lay unmounted on the ground.
On
the feast day of Saint Andres, the pirate Lin Feng ate the Spaniards for
breakfast.
ÒThe
Spaniards made fun of those who brought the news,Ó wrote the City Council,
Òsaying the Borneyes who were known to attack this city could not come. Most skeptical were the Maestre de
Campo, Martin de Goiti and the Governor, Guido de Lavazares.Ó
Martin
de Goiti was first to die. In bed
with his wife, asleep, awake, sipping wine for breakfast – the accounts
differ. Meeting no resistance the
pirates entered his house killing servants and soldiers, all but his wife,
Lucia Sanchez, who escaped with her cheek slashed to the neck. Wrote one witness: ÒThey killed Martin de Goiti and burned
him, after cutting off his nose, his ears, his genitals and upper lip with the
mustache.Ó
Led
by a Japanese samurai the pirates plundered a path to the GovernorÕs
house. After a three hour
ÒskirmishÓ with Spanish forces the pirates turned back, robbing and burning
houses in an orderly retreat to their ships. ÒIt was GodÕs will that the enemy retreated,Ó wrote the City
Council, Òthey could have killed us all in their fury.Ó
The
first day of December was blessed with miracles. As the desperate Spaniards dug in behind sandbags and
crates, the pirates rested. Early
that evening, after six days and six nights and 180 miles on the iron waves of
monsoon, Captain Juan de Salcedo arrived with his 59 harquebusiers. When later that night the armada moored
off Corregidor Island and traded volleys with shore, half of Lin FengÕs ships
were lost. At sunrise, with 1000
pirates, Lin Feng hit the beach.
The natives came behind him.
ÒThere
were 5000 rebellious natives with raised flags,Ó wrote one Spanish survivor,
Òbeheading and killing the servants and slaves who were fleeing this city in
fright.Ó
Entrenched
in their meager fort with their mighty harquebuses the outnumbered Spaniards
fought like frightened rats. After
eight hours the Chinese penetrated the Royal houses, where women and children
and casualties were taken, but the Spaniards rallied and drove them back. When Lin Feng signaled his ships for
more men, and more men came, the Spaniards ran back to their hole. But Òit was GodÕs will to favor the
Christian camp,Ó wrote Governor Lavazares, and with superhuman effort we
withstood the attacks.Ó
Sounding
bells and whistles and marching in columns through the town, robbing and
burning and killing, Lin Feng withdrew to the beach for the night. There were 600 Chinese dead and
hundreds wounded. In terror the
Spaniards waited. At dawn, Lin Feng
returned to his ships, hauled anchors and sailed into the sunrise. Manila was burning.
Rebellion
spread through the islands like smallpox and up to 60 Spanish soldiers and
thousands of Indios died. Seeing
the Spanish victory, the Indios again pledged their loyalty, and soldiers were
recalled to Manila to build and arm a fort. But churches were desecrated, icons destroyed, hogs and
goats beheaded on the altars, boiling water poured on the friars – this
was only fair, shouted the Indios -- their spirits broken by the Spanish
victory -- since the friars baptized with cold water. Clothes and food and gunpowder were scarce.
From
Pangasinan, 50 leagues north of Manila, an Indio loyal to the Spaniards brought
the dreaded news: the pirate Lin
Feng was building two forts at the mouth of the Agno River.
Four
months of worsening hardship later, two Spanish galleons and 67 native boats sailed
forth from Manila with 250 soldiers and 2500 native conscripts to Pangasinan
Bay. There, on 21 March 1575, the
indefatigable Juan de Salcedo, now Maestre de Campo, held a Council of War. So began the four-month siege of the
tyrant Lin Feng and, inadvertently, the King of SpainÕs opening to China.
*
It
was a dark day for Lin Feng. Taken
by surprise, his entire fleet was burnt and sunk. The Spaniards took one fort, killing 200 men, capturing 70
women and children, burning houses.
The tyrantÕs main fort, built on a rise between two rivers, armed with
Spanish cannon of superior range and trajectory (pillaged from the Spanish
galliot off Ilocos) was impregnable:
Spanish artillery and stone-throwers battered it; soldiers waded the
river and stormed it; men and artillery were lost to it; only once did Salcedo
attempt to take it. Instead, he
decided, they would starve the pirates out. Lin Feng would not have it.
ÒMany
days the Maestre did not know where the pirate was,Ó wrote one soldier. ÒOne night he left with 25 soldiers to
wait in ambush, but the shrewd tyrant had many sentinels and spies and he
ambushed and encircled the Spaniards three times. Not satisfied with this, he set up, for all to see, 500 harquebuses
at the entrance to his fort.Ó
The
pirates repeatedly sallied forth to attack the Spaniards. Friendly Indios brought food and
firewood. Spies and double agents
proliferated. Thus in earnest did
the commanders Juan de Salcedo and Lin Feng wage a guerrilla war in the
tropical forest: It was bloody,
protracted and horrible. No shield
guarded against ambush or disease.
*
Now
the Chinese garrison commander Wang Wang-kao was tracking Lin Feng like a
dog. With two Imperial war-junks
he arrived at Pangasinan two weeks into the fray. Assuring Wang Wang-kao of Lin FengÕs eventual defeat, Juan
de Salcedo sent him to Governor Lavazares, in Manila, who received him with the
grace of the aging dignitary he had become. Lavazares pledged allegiance against the pirate Lin Feng and
delivered the Chinese women and children who had been kidnapped by Lin Feng and
liberated by the Spaniards.
Sufficiently
impressed – and promising great reward for Lin FengÕs head – Wang
Wang-kao departed Manila on 12 June 1575, anxious to inform the officials of
Fukien and Chekiang of the pirateÕs imminent defeat. On his ships went the first Spanish mission to China: two friars and four soldiers [3]
bearing presents and letters to the Emperor. Thus did the door to the House of China decisively swing
open.
*
The
first Spanish mission to China was documented in detail by the industrious
scholar and Holy spy, the friar Martin de Rada. The ships landed at Amoy and Chang-chou. The Spaniards were draped in silk and
carried on palanquins through Òthrongs of people we could not deal with,Ó wrote
Rada, who Òswarmed up walls and roofs of houses and sometimes stayed staring
until late in the night.Ó
Squadrons of Imperial troops marched them, sounding drums, trumpets and
cornets, every soldier and servant on a horse with coolie to look after
it. A banner at the fore announced
the guests of the Emperor, ordering that every man and woman attend to their
needs at the expense of the royal exchequer.
To
Friar Martin de Rada, China was Òthe most populous country in the world.Ó Houses grew thicker than weeds on the
shores of rivers. Every crack and
crag of land was sown with seed.
Markets were walled with fish, cities walled with marble, cut by canals. Garrisons of 5000 soldiers presented
arms, mandarins and magistrateÕs held banquets in their honor. Taken overland to Foochow, they were
humbled at the feet of the Governor of Fukien, Liu Yao-hui. Resisting the ceremonial Òthree
kneelings and nine head-knockings,Ó the soldiers complained. (They later reported their impression
that Wang Wang-kao and the Chinese interpreter had told lies about them.) The Viceroy Òasked many and very
curious question,Ó wrote Friar Rada.
ÒHe was much astonished at our replies, since the China nation is so
presumptuous that they consider themselves to be the first in all the world.Ó
The
letters asked that a port in Fukien be designated for Spanish ships to trade
safely, as the Portuguese had at Macao,[4]
and permission for the friars to remain in China to preach the Gospel
freely. Liu Yao-hui forwarded these
requests to Peking, explaining his lack of authority, promising many favors for
the head of Lin Feng.
ÒThe
said tyrant has no one to help him nor give him food,Ó wrote ManilaÕs Governor
Lavazares to the rulers of China.
ÒIn my opinion he will be captured or killed in two months. If captured alive he will be taken to
your presence and if dead only his head preserved in salt will be sent.Ó
Lin
Feng was not one to lose his head.
No ships and no sleep, four-months under siege, an exceptional loser,
Lin Feng was not lacking in audacity and genius. He was greatly underestimated by his adversary, the
conquistador Juan de Salcedo. He
was a master of camouflage and engineering. He distracted Salcedo with unorthodox guerrilla tactics
while his own men sailed upriver in small boats and floated logs to build big
boats. In the darkness on 4 August
1575, the pirates sailed in 37 ships from secretly dug canals and rammed the
Spanish barricade on the Agno River.
Lin
Feng sailed by the light of his victorious soul.
The
wind which filled the sails of Lin FengÕs ships soon carried rumors to the ears
of the garrison commander Wang Wang-kao:
The plague of Lin Feng was again devastating coastal China. Ordered to investigate, Wang Wang-kao
sailed with ten warships and 500 soldiers on 14 September 1575. With him went the Spanish mission and
gifts for the governor and Captains in Manila. From his ship he pointed to
Wu-hsu Island in the Bay of Amoy, the trading post to be given the Spaniards if
all went well.
All
went badly. After two months of
typhoons on the high seas the Imperial armada arrived in Luzon to find Lin Feng
gone. Wang Wang-kao threw a
tantrum. To make matters worse,
the new Governor had arrived from New Spain. He was impertinent and obstreperous. Indignant, disgusted at the loss of Lin
Feng, his faith in the Spaniards shaken, Wang Wang-kao insisted that the gifts
from the authorities of Fukien go to Lavazares.
ÒThe
Chinese were so greatly displeased with the [new] Governor,Ó wrote the old
Governor, Lavazares. ÒThey were
forced to give more than they had brought and received little affection and
meager gifts. They brought sixty
bales of silk, two umbrellas, sunflowers, a chair of rare wood, and out of
appreciation, a horse. The
discovery of China was made upon my orders, but Governor Sande has appropriated
these gifts for himself. These
things are mine and they belong to me.Ó
*
Doctor
Francisco de Sande arrived in Manila, in August, just two weeks after Lin
FengÕs escape. Some said he did
greater damage to the Spaniards than Lin Feng. He was an overzealous administrator with a vitriolic
tongue. He was hated by all but
the most corrupt. He ruthlessly
investigated the most loyal. He
confiscated properties and titles.
He forbade the former Governor, Guido de Lavazares – whose grace
and chivalry had earned the respect of Wang Wang-kao – all communication
with the Chinese. And he was
a military idiot.
The
Imperial Chinese troops overstayed their welcome, many in the homes of
Spaniards. On 4 May 1576, after
six months of diminishing provisions and increasing animosity, Wang Wang-kao
left Manila for Fukien. With him
– or forced on him by the impudent Dr. Sande – went the friars
Martin de Rada and Augustin de Albuquerque. With him – to validate Lin FengÕs demise to his
superiors – went every human skull and skeleton his soldiers could scrape
up from the tropical battlegrounds.
Wang Wang-kao was discontented and hostile.
Wrote
one soldier of the departed Chinese:
ÒThe Sangleys are big-bodied, brawny, scant-bearded, slit-eyed, broad of
forehead and not bad or unpleasant looking. They have an alphabet and print but the characters are not
so good. They have books on
philosophy, astrology, music and the arts, physiognomy, even on mechanics. They are very dissolute in their food,
more so in their luxurious way of living, and, obviously, they are great
sodomites.Ó
The
door to the House of China swung briefly in the wind of Wang Wang-kaoÕs
Imperial despair. To return to
China without the head of Lin Feng was to gamble with the Imperial whim. Further, there was not one valuable
present to bribe the Imperial greed.
From this we can infer the fate of the Chinese garrison commander sent
to Manila to capture Lin Feng:
Wang Wang-kao, quite literally, lost his head.
En
route to China he killed the Chinese captured by the Spaniards so that none
could tell the truth about Lin Feng.
On an island in the province of Ilocos a conquistador patrol found the
friars Martin de Rada and Augustin de Albuquerque. Said one soldier, Òthey were tied to a tree, naked and
bleeding.Ó Thus was the door to
China decisively slammed shut.
The
fate of the pirate Lin Feng is uncertain.
One historian has it that Lin Feng harassed the coast of China until 15
January 1576, when the Fukien naval forces of Hu Shou-jen sunk twenty of his
ships, and that he fled to Siam, where he and 1712 followers were pardoned, 688
prisoners freed. It is said that
Lin Feng never again sailed in the South China Sea.
ÒRegarding
the conquests of China,Ó wrote an embittered Dr. Sande, the new Governor of
Manila, Òit should be done resolutely if your Majesty is to be served. It is not right to hesitate. With a few armadas this land could
swell with enough men to overthrow and easily take possession of China.Ó
But
settlers and soldiers would not come.
Malaria, Denghe fever, intestinal parasites and venereal diseases were
all, most likely, amongst the maladies of the Islas Filipinas. Reports had reached Spain and Mexico of
the great hardship and scant profit for those who risked their lives on the
track of the Manila galleons. The
loss of the Espiritu Santo, on 20 May 1576, confirmed the horrors: the galleon was shattered by typhoon on
a reef near Ilocos and Òthose who did not drown were pursued by the natives and
pierced with lances.Ó
ÒAnd
the land is so little conquered,Ó wrote Don Sancho Diaz de Caballos, a new
arrival, Òthat only one league from this city hostile enemies come to kill
soldiers and pierce them through with spears as a pastime. And the Spaniards are depreciating and
content themselves with vain words saying from this distance that every mere
man can kill all of China and one out of every two, I swear to God, claims more
strength than Hercules.Ó
So
demanding were the Islas Filipinas on the conquistadors however, that even the
proverbial Hercules could not sustain forever: On 11 March 1576, Juan de Salcedo, rumored to be the
greatest conquistador of them all, died mysteriously on route to the gold mines
of Ilocos in northern Luzon. Not
yet 30 years-old, Salcedo, the Maestre de Campo, some said, was poisoned. Buried on a mountain, fire over his
grave, Juan de Salcedo instructed that his estate be returned to the Indios.
ÒThat
is what all those who die here do,Ó wrote the conquistador Don Sancho Diaz de
Caballos, Òbecause that is the only way they can be absolved of their great
sins. And this is another misery
of the land – that they live without really living. In the end, I think, the devil comes to
take their souls, and Saint Anthony to take their clothes.Ó
end.
[1] From the Ming Biography of Lin Tao-chÕien,
another pirate, we find that the ancient Chinese Ming shih-lu confuses
Lin Tao-chÕien with Lin Feng, believing it was Lin Tao-chÕien, not Lin Feng,
who attacked the Spaniards in 1574.
This is the take by historian Eugene Lyon, Ph.D., whose ÒTrack of the
Manila Galleons,Ó in the National Geographic, reads ÒLin Tao
KienÉattacked [Manila] in 1574.Ó
Per the Ming Biography of Lin Feng, by Jung-pang Lo, both,
apparently, have it wrong. At some
time in 1574, Lin Feng may have defeated and absorbed the forces of the pirate
Lin Tao-chÕien. But it was Lin
Feng who attacked Manila.
[2] The walled city of Intramuros, in Manila, was not built until some time after 1580.
[3] Members were obviously chosen very carefully for their intellect and experience. The friars were Martin de Rada and Jeronimo Marin. The soldiers were Miguel de Loarca, an old companion of Legazpi, Pedro Sarmiento, Juan de Triana, Nicolas de Cuenca. See C.R. Boxer, ed., South China in the 16th Century.
[4] The Portuguese officially established bases in Macao 1557; and in Nagasaki, Japan in 1571.