Ruy López de Villalobos
| Ruy López de Villalobos | |
|---|---|
| Born | ca. 1500 Málaga, Spain |
| Died | April 4, 1544 (aged 43–44) Ambon, Moluccas Islands, Indonesia |
| Known for | He gave the name Las Islas Filipinas to the Philippines to honor Philip II of Spain |
Ruy López de Villalobos (ca. 1500 – April 4, 1544) was a Spanish explorer who sailed the Pacific from Mexico to establish a permanent foothold for Spain in the East Indies, which was near the Line of Demarcation between Spain and Portugal according to the Treaty of Zaragoza in 1529. Villalobos gave the Philippines their name, after calling them Las Islas Filipinas in honor of Philip of Austria, the Prince of Asturias at the time, who later became Philip II of Spain. In 1542 he also discovered a Pacific group of islands, most likely Hawaii, but the Spaniard kept the discovery secret.
López de Villalobos was commissioned in 1541 by the Viceroy of New Spain, Antonio de Mendoza, who was the first colonial administrator in the New World, to send an expedition to the Islas del Poniente, meaning Islands of the West, now known as the Philippines. His fleet of six galleon ships, the Santiago, San Jorge, San Antonio, San Cristóbal, San Martín, and San Juan, left Barra de Navidad, Jalisco, Mexico with 370 to 400 men on November 1, 1542. The fleet first encountered the Revilla Gigedo Islands off the west coast of Mexico, among which the sighting of Roca Partida was reported for the first time. On 26 December 1542 they sighted a group of islands in the Marshalls that they called Corales (Corals in Spanish), which most probably are those of the Wotje Atoll. They thought these to be the Los Reyes islands previously charted by Álvaro de Saavedra in his 1528 expedition. They anchored at one of the islets that they named San Esteban (St. Stephen). They left on 6 January 1543 and that same day they sighted several small islands on the same latitude as the Corales, which they named Los Jardines (The Gardens), which were those of Kwajalein. On 23 January 1543 the expedition found Fais in the Carolines that they charted as Matelotes. On 26 January 1543 they charted some new islands as Los Arrecifes (The Reefs) which have been identified as the Yaps also in the Carolines.
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