[40] Miguel Lopez de Legazpi who, with Andrés de Urdaneta, rediscovered and conquered the Philippine Islands, was born in Zubarraja in Guipúzcoa in the early part of the sixteenth century, of an old and noble family. He went to Mexico in 1545, where he became chief clerk of the _cabildo_ of the City of Mexico. Being selected to take charge of the expedition of 1564, he succeeded by his great wisdom, patience, and forbearance, in gaining the good will of the natives. He founded Manila, where he died of apoplexy August 20, 1572. He was much lamented by all. He was succeeded as governor of the Philippines by Guido de Lavezaris. [41] Navarrete says (_Bibl. Marit_., tomo ii, p. 492), that Legazpi was fifty-nine years old when the fleet set sail in 1564, which makes him six years older than the age given above. See _Col. doc. inéd. Ultramar,_ tomo ii, p. 116, note. [42] The Ladrones or Marianas number in all sixteen islands, and are divided into two groups of five and eleven islands respectively. They extend north and south about nine hundred and fifty kilometers, lying between thirteen degrees and twenty-one degrees north latitude, and one hundred and forty-eight degrees and one hundred and forty-nine degrees forty minutes longitude east of Madrid. They are but thinly populated; their flora resembles that of the Philippines. The largest and most important of these islands, Guam, is now the property of the United States. [43] Although this allusion cannot well be identified, it indicates some episode of the great eagerness and readiness for western discovery then prevalent in France. Cartier's explorations (1534-36, and 1540-43), and later those of Jean Allefonsce, had already been published to the world; and maps of the eastern coast of North America showed, as early as 1544, the great St. Lawrence River, which afforded an easy entrance to the interior, and might readily be supposed to form a waterway for passage to the "Western Sea"--especially as New France was then generally imagined to be a part of Asia; Japan and China being not very far west of the newly-discovered coast. [44] These two vessels were rechristened "San Pedro" and "San Pablo" before actually sailing. The admiral of the fleet was to have been Juan de Carrión; but he was left behind because of his dissensions with Urdanetá, and Mateo del Saz fulfilled his duties.