Manila Galleons

The west coast of Mexico has one of the finest natural anchorages in the world - a deep, semicircular bay, nearly landlocked and accessible by land. On a narrow strip of land between the bay and the steep mountains encircling it, Acapulco was founded in 1565. As a town it never amounted to much-a few shacks, a small chapel, and a small fort. It was not a popular place to live, and most of the year the only inhabitants were a small number of soldiers manning the fort and a few slaves. The atmosphere-except from December to April, when the weather was mild and pleasant-was hot, humid, and infested with mosquitos. Moreover, the area was subjected to frequent earthquakes. Acapulco, situated on the Pacific Ocean, was not a link in the chain of seaports that conveyed the silver from either Mexico or Peru to Spain, and at first glance it seems mystifying that a town should have been built in such a place at all.

To handle the traffic, from 1565 on, a fleet of between two and four galleons-called the "Manila galleons," averaging between 700 and 1000 tons (by far the largest ships used for Spanish commerce)-was sailing annually from Acapulco to Manila and back again. The voyage from Acapulco to Manila was generally uneventful, lasting anywhere from eight to ten weeks and disturbed only by an occasional storm. The return voyage was another matter-was, in fact, renowned as one of the most difficult voyages in the world. In the latitude of the Philippines the winds come from the east, and the galleons leaving Manila had to sail against them, making a laborious progress northward until within sight of Japan in order to reach a belt of westerly winds- on this leg of the voyage the galleons were regularly subjected to typhoons. When the galleons entered the belt of westerly winds, which lay in forty degrees of northern latitude, they sailed due east, until within sight of what today is the coast of California; on this leg of the voyage they were subjected to frosty weather and rough seas. Once land was sighted, the worst of the voyage was over, and the galleons worked their way down to Acapulco, hugging the coast all the way

The long hazardous voyage usually took anywhere from four to eight months, depending on the luck the ships had. Quite often it was bad luck, and a number of ships were lost on the Manila to Acapulco run. The loss of life was considerable too. Between 3oo and 6oo men, inhumanly crowded together, sailed aboard each galleon, and on an average more than a hundred men perished from epidemics, scurvy, starvation, or thirst. In 1656 all of the 450 persons aboard one of the two galleons making the voyage perished from an epidemic; on the other galleon, 200 lives were lost.

To Manila came a dazzling array of luxurious products of the Orient. As soon as the city was founded, trade with Canton and other ports of China began. The Chinese item most eagerly coveted by the Spaniards was, as might be expected, silk, and the Manila galleons always returned to Acapulco laden with silk of many weaves-taffeta, crepes, velvet, and damask among them-and of many colors and designs. The cargo also consisted of fans, combs, porcelain, exquisitely carved objects of ivory and sandalwood, sword hilts of precious metals studded with jewels, a wide variety of rings, bracelets, pendants, and earrings delicately fashioned by the finest jewelers in China. From the Manila trade there arose a new Chinese industry, that of manufacturing Christian devotional objects.

China soon became the main supplier of vestments worn by the colonial clergy; and crucifixes, rosaries, and reliquaries were always to be found aboard the Acapulco-bound galleons. Before long the eastern trade expanded beyond China: Persian rugs came to Manila via India, and spices came from Java, Ceylon, and the Moluccas (today often called the Spice Islands).