Villalobos Expedition

villalobos expedition
In spite of Villalobos Expedition, however, Charles I made one more effort to obtain a foothold in the East. Heartened by the return of the survivors  of the Loaysa Expedition in 1536 and the glowing report of Andres de Urdaneta , the chronicler of the expedition, he dispatched  an expedition headed by Ruy de Villalobos, which sailed in 1542 from Natividad, Mexico. The expedition was instructed to establish permanent settlement in the Islas del Poniente (the Western Islands) or the Philippines. In 1543, Villalobos reached the island of Sarangani, south of Mindanao, where he attempted to establish a settlement. The hostility of the natives in the region, the scarcity of provisions, and the mutinous threats of coming to the East, forced Villalobos to withdraw and sail southward to the Moluccas where he was forced to surrender to the Portuguese.

Villalobos also touched at the island of Leyte and Bernardo de la Torre, a member of the expedition, gave to the Samar-Leyte region the name Felipinas, in honor of Philip, the Spanish Crown prince and later, Philip II, successor to Charles I. Later on, the name was applied to the entire archipelago.