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substantial account of the events for a further three years. It was not to be three years when the Philippines continued in isolation, nor three years of relative peace before the storm - there was to be a handful of small forays by various maritime adventurers to the islands prior to the Villalobos expedition of 1543. Yet it was to be another 22 years following his before Philip finally took a much more serious interest in finally securing the islands named in his honour.

It was February 13, 1565 when Lopez de Legazpi and his troops landed on the shores of Cebu and established the first Spanish settlement. It was a Friday!

Legaspi was born in 1502, and was 19 years old when Magellan first landed in the Philippines. In early 1564 Philip II ordered an expedition to follow the Magellan and Villalobos ventures, and Legazpi, who at the time was the governor of Mexico City, was commissioned to undertake the task by the viceroy of Mexico, Luis de Velasco.

In November of the same year Legazpi set sail with five ships and 500 soldiers. He was then 62 years old. He arrived in the Philippines on February 13th 1565. The next 6 years would be a period of establishing small settlements, negotiations and skirmishes with local chieftains, attempts at introducing the Catholic faith, and welcoming reinforcements from Spain and Mexico of additional troops and labourers.

Slowly but surely, bit by bit, over this period, the Spanish planted their roots. On June 24th 1571 Legazpi established Manila as the capital of Spain's new colony. Astounded by the size and excellence of this natural harbour, he built the walled city known as Intramuros. With the help of Augustinian and Franciscan friars he became the first Spanish governor of the Philippines and worked to convert the indigenous population to the Catholic religion. He died of heart failure a year later in 1572 when he was 70 years old.

It was the original Villalobos expedition, and the naming of "the Islas Filipinas", which successfully reasserted the Spanish claims over the Portuguese, who had been disputing their neighbour's claims since Magellan's first footfall. The Portuguese already held the nearby Moluccas Islands, and attempted unsuccessfully to invoke the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas, which essentially reserved the eastern hemisphere to Portuguese colonization.

Nevertheless it was not until Philip also became king of Portugal in 1580, that their threats were totally stifled. The taming of the Portuguese was not to be the end

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