Andrés de Urdaneta (Ordizia, Spain, November 30, 1498 – June 3, 1568, Mexico City) was a circumnavigator, explorer and Augustinian friar. As a navigator he achieved in 1528 the second world circumnavigation after first one led by Ferdinand Magellan and Juan Sebastian Elcano in 1522. Urdaneta discovered and plotted a path across the Pacific from the Philippines to Acapulco, Mexico (New Spain), which came to be known as "Urdaneta's route."
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Early years
Urdaneta was born in the town of Ordizia in the Basque province of Guipúzcoa, Spain. Urdaneta was one of the few survivors of Loaísa Expedition to reach the Spice Islands, just to be taken prisoner by the Portuguese, but eventually he managed to return to Europe in 1528, achieving the second world circumnavigation in history after an expedition which lasted nine years.[1] King Charles I of Spain did not give him a very favourable reception either, and, wearied by his many adventures, he went to New Spain and entered the Augustinian Order.
Further Seafaring
At the death of the viceroy, Don
After spending some time in the islands, Legazpi determined to remain, and sent Urdaneta back for the purpose of finding a better return route and to obtain help, from New Spain, for the Philippine colony. Urdaneta set sail from San Miguel on the island of Cebu, on June 1, 1565, and was obliged to sail as far as 36 degrees North latitude to obtain favourable winds. With the voyage in trouble, Urdaneta had to assume command in person. The ship reached the port of Acapulco, on October 8, 1565, having traveled 12,000 miles (20,000 km) in 130 days. Fourteen of his crew died; only Urdaneta and Felipe de Salcedo, nephew of López de Legazpi, had strength enough to cast the anchors.
Upon arriving, he discovered that a member of the crew of his expedition, Alonso de Arellano, who had abandoned them just after leaving the port, had actually beaten them across the ocean, arriving at Barra de Navidad in Jalisco on August of the same year. However, Arellano's notes were far less precise and professional than Urdaneta's, and so the latter's route became the famous and trusted one.
From Mexico, Urdaneta went to Europe to make a report on the expedition, and returned to New Spain, intending to continue on to the Philippines, but he was dissuaded by his friends. He wrote two accounts of his voyages; the one giving the account of the Loaiza expedition was published; the other, which gives the account of his return voyage, is preserved in manuscript in the archives of the Indies.
For the remainder of the 16th and 17th centuries, Spanish ships, particularly the annual Manila-Acapulco trading Galleon, used "Urdaneta's route". For a variety of reasons, they never explored much of the Pacific coast of North America, and not all the Pacific Islands, although Spain kept nominal suzerainty over most of the Pacific Ocean well into the 19th century.
He died in Mexico City, 1568.
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Notes
- ^ Kurlansky, Mark. 1999. The Basque History of the World. Walker & Company, New York. ISBN 0-8027-1349-1, p. 64
References
- McDougall, Walter (1993). Let the Sea Make a Noise: Four Hundred Years of Cataclysm, Conquest, War and Folly in the North Pacific. New York: Avon Books.
- "Expedition of García de Loaisa 1525-26." In The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898. Cleveland, Ohio: A.H. Clark Company, 1903-9. Vol. 2, 1529-1561. Pp. 33.
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