Chapter 27 — The Southern Cross Voyages
The monsoon winds had changed, and with them, destiny's breath filled the sails of Aragon.
From the royal shipyards of Manila, three great galleons — Santa Valeria, San Ignacio, and Nuestra Señora del Sol — set forth into the southern seas. Their hulls gleamed with fresh pitch and gilded carvings of saints; their decks bristled with cannon and compasses, their holds laden with rosaries, trade goods, and dreams.
The mission: to seek new lands beyond the equator, where the Cross had never cast its shadow.
The Council of Exploration
In the great hall of the Real Casa de Navegación, Emperor Leon I stood before his gathered captains.
"Beyond the southern isles," he said, pointing to a vast blank upon the map, "lies a sea where God has yet to be named. Go forth not as conquerors, but as bringers of the Word. Where you plant the Cross, let it also be the seed of civilization."
Admiral Juan de Estrella, now an old yet unbroken explorer, bowed deeply.
"Your Majesty," he said, "by the grace of God, we shall chart the lands where no Christian has prayed. If the heavens allow, we shall bring back both faith and fortune."
Leon blessed each ship with holy water, marking their bows with the sign of the Cross. "Sail under heaven's eye," he said, "and remember: we bear the empire of light, not greed."
The Voyage South
Weeks turned to months as the fleet ventured past the Celebes Sea, crossing waters that shimmered like molten glass beneath the tropical sun.
They passed islands fragrant with clove and nutmeg, where parrots filled the air like bursts of living color.
At last, they sighted a vast green coastline rising from mist — Borneo's northern edge.
"Land!" cried the lookout. Bells rang, sailors fell to their knees. They named it Santa Gloria de Bornea del Norte — Saint Glory of Northern Borneo.
Here, they built a fort and chapel beside a river mouth, the first stone laid by Admiral Estrella himself. Missionaries baptized the local chieftain and his family, who took the names Don Miguel and Doña Maria de Santa Gloria in gratitude.
The Isles of the Eastern Cross
From Bornea del Norte, the fleet pressed eastward through uncharted waters. A chain of islands glittered before them — volcanic peaks and coral shores.
"These," Estrella wrote in his log, "are the jewels of the Lord's crown, cast into the sea."
They named the northern Moluccas Las Islas de Santa Catalina, after the patroness of scholars and seafarers.
Further east, they reached the rugged lands of Sulawesi, christening its northern cape San Raimundo del Norte, where they raised a wooden fortress and planted sugarcane brought from Manila.
At each landfall, priests preached under makeshift altars; Mass was sung to the crash of waves. Natives watched in awe as the Cross rose against their sky — both omen and promise.
The Land of Vast Silence
Weeks later, a storm scattered the fleet. The Nuestra Señora del Sol was driven far south, her sails torn, her compass broken. For ten days, they drifted through rain and roaring seas until, one morning, they saw mountains wrapped in clouds — an immense and untamed land.
Captain Diego de Ocampo knelt and crossed himself.
"If we are not dead," he said, "then this is the edge of God's garden."
They anchored in a great bay, where rivers shone like molten silver and jungle hummed with unseen life.
They named the place Nueva Castilla del Sur — New Castile of the South — the first Aragonese colony in what would later be called Papua Nueva Guinea.
There, they built a mission named Santa Cruz del Alba, The Holy Cross of the Dawn.
Return to Manila
Months later, the surviving ships limped back to Manila, their sails patched, their decks burdened with strange fruits, birds, and maps of the southern oceans.
Emperor Leon received them at the cathedral steps, as choirs sang the Te Deum in thanksgiving.
When Estrella knelt and offered him a chest filled with soil from Nueva Castilla del Sur, Leon said only:
"We have reached the ends of the earth… yet the world still stretches before us."
He gazed southward, toward the unseen seas beyond the horizon.
The empire now spanned continents, oceans, and faiths — a tapestry of the divine and the daring.
From Mexico's silver to Papua's gold, from Formosa's ports to Sulawesi's sugar fields, the Aragonese Empire had become the first true world realm.