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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 December 2024
Abstract
The following texts are part of the dossier sent to the Council of the Indies in 1584 by Alonso Rodríguez, a soldier who was born in Santo Domingo, resided in Mexico, and traveled to the Philippines. Rodríguez was hoping to be granted a conferral of royal grace as a reward for his services in Asia. The dossier includes two memorials outlining his services in the Philippines and in the South China Sea, as well as two separate proposals for the conquest of Aceh, the sultanate in north Sumatra.
Keywords: Malacca Strait, South China Sea, Sumatra, Brunei, arbitrio, New Spain.
Our knowledge of the soldier Alonso Rodríguez derives entirely from papers which he presented to the Council of the Indies between February and March 1584, at the end of his long voyage from the Philippines to Madrid via Malacca; that is, along the Portuguese Carreira da Índia. In petitioning for a conferral of royal grace and favor as a reward for his services in Asia, he presented two memorials setting out his services in the Philippines and his misadventure in the South China Sea, as well as two separate proposals. The first memorandum, in which he asked for the position of captain and harbormaster (guarda mayor), dealt with the administration of the port of San Juan de Ulúa. The second urged the king to sponsor a campaign, with Rodríguez as captain, to be launched from New Spain to conquer Sumatra.
The texts can be classified as belonging, in a broad sense, to the categories of both probanza de servicios and arbitrios. The probanza de servicios was a kind of administrative autobiography presenting to the king the career and services rendered in order to obtain a reward or a promotion. Arbitrios were reform projects or extraordinary plans presented to the king as a means to improve the machinery of government or the revenues of the Crown, in return for an act of royal favor. It is interesting for a variety of reasons. First, the author is a Spanish soldier without commission or title. Second, the proposal to conquer the Strait of Malacca can be set within a series of similar projects elaborated in Portuguese India between 1560 and 1590. Third, it makes the eye-catching suggestion that the Spanish armada be prepared and readied in New Spain.
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