Discovered return sea route in 1565

Andrés de Uraneta (1498-1568) was a Spanish Augustinian friar, born in Villafranca de Ordizia, Spain. He was an author, navigator, seaman, and sailor, but was best known as the man who discovered the Tornaviaje, or the return sea route from the Philippines to the Americas. The Spanish galleons and ships could navigate from America to the Philippines, but the return voyage proved difficult because ships would face the prevailing easterly winds. Urdaneta would later discover that by climbing to the higher latitudes of thirty degrees to forty degrees north ships could catch the westerly winds and avoid the prevailing easterly winds.

Every expedition sent from New Spain (Mexico) was lost on their return, or was forced to detour to the Moluccas, where they were caught and taken as prisoners by the Portuguese.

From sailor to missionary

Urdaneta enrolled as a young sailor on the expedition of Loaysa and Elcano in 1525. The expedition was unable to find the return route to Mexico and pulled into port in the Portuguese-controlled Moluccas where eventually they were taken prisoners. Urdaneta spent his time in the Moluccas observing the stars, the currents, and the winds, taking notes and writing his conclusions in diaries, memoirs and on maps.

Urdaneta arrived at Lisbon, Portugal on June 26, 1536. He planned to continue on to the Spanish Court to present the King with his findings, but at the last moment the Major Guard of the Port of Lisbon, aware of the methods that explorers used to protect their maps, recorded all of Urdaneta’s personal belongings and packages. Urdaneta’s valuable navigational charts and travel diaries, which could have been used by the Spanish and future expeditions, were discovered and confiscated, although many were disguised as private letters. Urdaneta eventually escaped from the Portuguese, and crossed the border into Spain where he arrived at Valladolid. He was able to record by memory all his observations and conclusions.

Urdaneta was later invited to command the expedition to the islands of the East, but refused because the Philippines and the Moluccas were on the Portuguese side of the world, according to the line of demarcation drawn by the Papal Bull of 1493 and confirmed the following year by the Treaty of Tordesillas. The expedition was eventually commanded by Ruy Lopez de Villalobos.

Urdaneta joined the Augustinian order in 1553, in a Mexican convent, and when the viceroy of Mexico was preparing the expedition to colonize the Philippines, which was commanded by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi (who officially claimed the Mariana Islands for the Spanish Crown), Urdaneta was asked to participate. He accepted under condition that they would not cross the Portuguese line, meaning that the expedition would not attempt to take over the Philippines or the Moluccas. He accepted only to help rescue survivors of past expeditions, and to begin the evangelization of New Guinea.

Trade & colonization established

Urdaneta was needed for the expedition because his experience and knowledge were indispensible for finding the Tornaviaje and the Spanish Crown apparently accepted his conditions just to convince him to embark. The Spanish Crown intended to colonize the Philippines and adjacent islands, even though the territories’ locations were still in dispute.

The Legazpi expedition arrived at Guam on January 21, 1565. The pilots thought that they had reached the Philippines, but Urdaneta realized where they were when he heard an old Chamorro asking for “Gonzalo”, a cabin boy named Gonzalo de Vigo who had deserted ship during the Magellan expedition, but was later retrieved by a passing Spanish fleet. Legazpi officially took possession of the archipelago before sailing for Cebu, Philippines.

On June 1, 1565, Legazpi sent the San Pedro from the Phillipines to New Spain with Urdaneta aboard, who navigated to the north and was able to ride the Kuroshio Current to forty-two degrees north, then sailed east and arrived at Acapulco, Mexico on October 8, 1565. This sucessful voyage finally made possible the establishment of the galleon trade and the Spanish colonization of the Philippines.

By Carlos Madrid, M.A.

For further reading

Hezel, Francis X., S.J. The First Taint of Civilization: A History of the Caroline and Marshall Islands in Pre-Colonial Days, 1521-1885. Honolulu: Pacific Islands Studies Program, University of Hawai`i Press, c.1983.

Kurlansky, Mark. The Basque History of the World. New York: Walker & Company, 1999.

Rogers, Robert F. Destiny´s Landfall: A Complete History of Guam. Honolulu: University of Hawai`i Press, 1995.