An Early Transpacific Account of the Spice Islands by Andrés de Urdaneta (1536)
Andrés de Urdaneta (1508?–1568) tells the story of the ill-fated expedition of Jofre García de Loaysa (1490–1526), which was meant to consolidate the Spanish claim to the Spice Islands in the aftermath of the Magellan expedition. Urdaneta, a participant in the expedition who later made important contributions to Pacific navigation, covers the ill-fated voyage of Loaysa’s fleet as well as the armed conflict that ensued when the Spanish arrived in the Moluccas only to find the Portuguese already ensconced on the island of Ternate. This brief narrative provides an insight into a complex political and military situation, in which the rivalry between the two Iberian empires overlaps with the local rivalries of sixteenth-century insular Southeast Asia. Jorge Mojarro provides the necessary historical context.