Note 1 — Chapter VII · Period of Conquest and Settlement, 1565–1600.
Reading edition
It was Urdaneta’s plan to colonize, not the Philippines, but New Guinea; but the Audiencia of Mexico, which had charge of fitting out the expedition, charged it in minute instructions to reach and if possible colonize the Philippines, to trade for spices and to discover the return sailing route back across the Pacific to New Spain. The natives of the islands were to be converted to Christianity, and missionaries were to accompany the expedition. In the quaint language of Fray Gaspar de San Augustin, there were sent “holy guides to unfurl and wave the banners of Christ, even to the remotest portions of the islands, and to drive the devil from the tyrannical possession, which he had held for so many ages, usurping to himself the adoration of those peoples.”1