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<img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources-25/juan-salcedo.avif" alt="Don Juan de Salcedo" />
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(Don Juan de Salcedo)
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He was born in 1549. His father was Don Pedro de Salcedo. His mother was Doña Teresa de Legaspi, a daughter of the adelantado <a href="https://kahimyang.com/kauswagan/articles/929/today-in-philippine-history-february-13-1565-miguel-l-pez-de-legazpi-landed-on-the-shores-of-cibabao" class="news_link">Miguel Lopez de Legaspi</a>. His 

elder brother, Felipe de Salcedo, made the transpacific voyage four times and leaned more to the career of the navigator than that of the soldier. Juan de 

Salcedo first saw the Philippines in 1567, two years after the main expedition, and was therefore only eighteen years old, in the first flush of youth. He 

was attached to the command of the veteran <a href="https://kahimyang.com/articles/3120/mart-n-de-goiti-his-legacy-as-a-conquistador-in-the-philippines" class="news_link">Martin de Goiti</a> in conquests of the provinces, and took a leading part in the reduction of Rajah Soliman's fort 

on the sandy spit that was to become the site of Manila. Early campaigns against Moro pirates endowed him with acumen and cool judgment, and his storming 

of the stone cottas on Lubang and Mindoro gave him military experience. Poise and hardihood, rounding out his character, came from his exploring 

expeditions. 


He was admired by the restless spirits he commanded. He had a bold high forehead, the upper part shaded by curly locks, the lower creased by a groove, the 

mark of the steel morion distinguishing the soldier from men of all other callings. He was of only medium stature, but his body was the wiry type able to 

withstand privations. His mild gray eyes could flash in anger when occasion demanded, as when engaged in hand-to-hand combat, often against odds: his 

unequal but successful encounter with the Ilokano babaknangs, spearmen, on the dunes of Currimao, his coolness and agility in breaking the lances of 

the Datus drawn up to oppose his advance.


Few of the chieftains in the vicinity of the Pasig were of Tagalog stock, but the people they ruled were. <a href="https://kahimyang.com/articles/3077/lakandula-pre-colonial-filipino-hero-and-leader-of-tondo" class="news_link">Lakandola</a>, the old Raja of Tondo, may have been a 

converted native too powerful for the invading Borneans and Joloanos to overcome; but this was not the case with Raja Soliman, an orthodox Muslim. 

Furthermore, there is reason to believe that Lakandola never entirely abandoned his primitive Malayan religion, as did many of the Datus and Pangulos under 

the teaching of the pundits of the south. Had the Spaniard put off his coming two decades more, the Crescent might have been too powerful for the Cross to 

conquer. Even at that time, the natives of the lush volcanic region of Laguna were under the sway of the Bornean chiefs; Gat-Paguil, Gat-Sungayan, Gat-

Pulintan and Gat-Salacab were all of that country, all Borneans, as were Gat-Maglangsangan of Bay and his sister Ladia of Calilaya. 


There are language survivals enough, and customs as well, to show the extent to which Mohammedan influence and authority had spread around the Pasig, 

Manila Bay and Laguna de Bay. 


Raja Lakandola, elderly and experienced, saw that armed opposition to the Spaniards would result in eventual defeat, but his wise councils were overridden 

by the Bornean chiefs. The Malay settlements, or nyuns, were founded by warrior-datus aided by feudal timawas or higher chiefs, and with 

these leaders came the slaves attached to their households, the saguiguilid class of dependents. Around them settled the freemen, their warriors, 

and the slaves of the namamahay class, those having the privilege of living in houses of their own. These primitive towns and villages, without 

inter-cohesion, typified the state of native society confronting the Castilian. The rajahs of more important towns than Manila, such as Macabebe, Guagua 

and Li-han, as yet unsubdued, were willing to risk combat with the tempered blades and smoking arquebuses of the Christian strangers; but meanwhile Manila 

was being built up along the lines laid out by Legaspi and his engineers, the labor being supplied by the conquered. Long sullen and unreconciled, the 

Gats either departed this life suddenly or suffered a ridiculous diminution of their realms; and their reduced estate came to typify the hopeless 

protest of those who had once ruled supreme. Racial prejudice is always strong, but not stronger than progress.


The nyun of Tondo, where Lakandola ruled, was the largest of the settlements near Manila, and several smaller units rendering a shadowy allegiance 

to Lakandola were attached to it, Bancusay, Talindila and Bautangad. With his harem and his immediate retainers, together with his mga saguiguilid, 

Lakandola dwelt in a long rambling building of nipa and bamboo politely, but wholly inaccurately, termed a palace. The Muslim influence had not progressed 

to the point of segregating the women, as in the south, then the cradle of Phillippine culture. Among the members of Lakondola's household was his niece, 

the Dayang-Dayang Candarapa, named from the lark of the rice paddies, whose cheery song she often imitated; and her only relative, save Lakandola, was her 

widowed mother, the Dayang-Dayang Salanta. We must know from the title, dayang-dayang, that Candarapa had the blood of royalty in her veins both from her 

father and her mother, as the title, a very ancient one, still persists among the Suluanos of our own times. 


Sent with two arquebusiers on a mission to Lakandola, Salcedo surprised a bathing party of women in one of the estuaries along his route. Upon his 

approach, all the women but one fled through the swamp grasses; and one, the Dayang-Dayang Candarapa, stood petrified with terror. Not over sixteen, her 

slender body molded like a dryad's, her long hair falling over her shoulders, she was a Venus in bronze; and there she stood, gazing upon the young noble 

for the first time. Doffing his morion, he swept her a courtly bow and resumed his way, leaving the maiden in immobile astonishment. But she had made a 

profound impression upon him, and he soon found other means of seeing her. Neither the old rajah nor her mother offered objection, and in time love's 

flame was kindled in two young and happy hearts. 


In accordance with Malay custom, Candarapa had been promised to the Raja of Macabebe, a turbulent chieftain already married times enough, who was desirous 

of a more intimate connection with Lakandola of Tondo. He was equally desirous of Candarapa, whose cherry lips and golden-olive skin denoted other blood 

than the pure Malay. So love was not to run smooth. 


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<img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources/miguel_lopez_de_legazpi.webp" alt="Miguel López de Legazpi" />
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(Miguel López de Legazpi)
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When Legaspi heard of his grandson's infatuation, he forbade it in no uncertain terms; he had other plans for the young scion of his noble house. But with 

a flash of chivalry, Salcedo bowed and replied he would be faithful to Candarapa and await a more favorable reply to his request. He hoped that in time his 

stern grandparent would relent. Certainly there was little time for dalliance, until the Spanish power should be laid on more stable foundations. The age 

of conquest meant hard work and hard fighting, and generally a poor reward. Salcedo outwardly threw himself into the game, but inwardly dreamed of 

Candarapa. A building plot had been assigned him, and here he raised the dwelling where he thought of Candarapa as its happy mistress. True, it was only a 

mean dwelling, of the flimsy materials first used; and yet it may have been something better than the rest, since its owner did not lack the hearty aid of 

his soldiers, to whom he was the acme of manhood and heroism. 


But Salcedo was off with them to the provinces again, perhaps before the little building was completed. With a small column and three pieces of artillery 

he took Cainta and Taytay, subjected the towns around Laguna de Bay, and returned to Manila a victor. In his half-armor and plumed morion, he was now no 

less a hero to Candarapa than to his compatriots. The rajah of Macabebe learned of the affair through Soliman, and lost no time in coming to a new 

understanding with Lakandola. Traversing the estuary region of the Rio Grande de la Pampanga, he appeared with his fleet of war canoes off Bancusay bar, 

the port of Tondo. With him was Gat-Dula of Sexmoan, the Gat-Maitan of Hagonoy, and some four hundred picked bayani, Malay soldiery. Anchoring his fleet, 

he led his force to the house of the old rajah, where he began to mock and ridicule Lakandola for submitting to Legaspi and his men. It was not hard to 

arouse some of the rajah 's lieutenants, hot headed followers of Islam, men like Batong-bakal, Gat-Bonton and Kalaw, but the old rajah himself was 

unwillingly carried along on the tide of popular clamor. It was at last agreed that war would be declared on the Spaniards, provided the rajah of Macabebe 

would start things off by slaying forty of them; after that, Tondo and Maynilad would join the revolt. A feast for the bayani was provided in the 

courtyard. 


Legaspi, quickly warned of the arrival of the Macabebes, but unwilling to believe they would have the temerity to attack, sent two of his officers with the 

interpreter Mahomat to invite the leaders to his palace and assure them of his pacific intentions. 


The mission arrived and delivered its message, but the Rajah of Macabebe leaped to his feet with flashing eyes. Jerking his kampilan from its scabbard, he 

exclaimed: 

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"May the sun divide my body in two, the crocodiles eat it, and my wives become unfaithful, if I ever become the friend of the Spaniards!" 

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This oath delivered, he stalked stiffly from the room, and, to display further defiance, disdained to descend by the stairway but leaped from the window, 

agilely lighting on his feet and hurling back the defiance to the mission that he awaited war on the bar of Bancusay. He and the Gats and the 

bayanis then entered their boats and made preparations accordingly. 



Legaspi dispatched Martin de Goiti, maestre de campo, Salcedo and eighty Spaniards to quell the haughty chieftains. A preliminary flight of arrows, 

a discord of yells, and the battle was joined. A ball in the chest from an arquebus killed the Raja of Macabebe at once; he fell overboard, a spoil for 

crocodiles by whom he swore. The Spanish craft ran down and capsized the native canoes, and the slaughter went on, some fifty Malays perishing from sword 

and arquebus, against which they had but lances, bows and arrows, and the kampilan and kris; though their cutting weapons were not inferior to the 

Spaniards', they had nothing to oppose to gunpowder. 


The fleet took to flight, de Goiti pursuing and destroying the canoes one by one. Loot and prisoners overburdened the Spaniards. Among the prisoners were a 

son and a nephew of Lakandola, whom Legaspi liberated, dissimulating his knowledge of treachery on the part of the rajahs of Tondo. De Goite sailed on into 

Bulakan by the winding channels of the Pampanga, taking with him both Lakandola and Raja Soliman to persuade the natives to submit. But eloquence proved 

unavailing, and Legaspi imprisoned Lakandola when the latter returned to Tondo without permission. Upon the return of de Goiti and Salcedo, of course 

Salcedo pleaded for Lakandola and he was set at liberty. The towns of Lubao and Betis refused to submit, and the southwest monsoon suspended operations for 

a time, but the conquest of central Luzon was completed by December 1571 and the Pax Espanola established over a region always before devasted by petty 

wars and forays of the Rajahs and Pangulos, headmen, of Bulakan and Pampanga. 


Salcedo again in Manila, he and Candarapa exchanged messages and rings, in the hope that the future might solve their difficulties and bring them 

happiness. Fray Alvarado soon catechised and baptized Candarapa, with many others of Lakandola's household, and gave Candarapa the Christian name of 

Dolores. Lakandola himself steadily refused to embrace the new religion, saying he was too old to change gods. The fair neophyte, Candarapa, sent a 

message to Salcedo hidden in a cluster of lotus blossoms. This token of fidelity he kept with him to the end. But he was now to go far away, on expedition 

after expedition, the relentless Legaspi believing that by this means he could make him forget Candarapa. 


After the conquest of Zambales, he was sent to conquer the land of Samtoy, the Ilocos region on the northwest coast of Luzon. Historians, somewhat too 

eager to show that the power of the church reconciled the natives, have glossed over too lightly the many petty battles, engagements and hardships of the 

real conquistadores of the archipelago; for though the influence of the church was marvelous, without the sword of the conqueror it was not sufficient. 

Salcedo's expedition to Ilocos and the passage around Luzon was no peaceful parade. It was a series of on-falls, battles, and hand-to-hand encounters: it 

was a triumph of hard-bitten soldiers, under a skilled and intrepid young commander, over both man and nature. In addition to conquering the babaknangs, 

Salcedo fought an engagement at sea with three armed Japanese junks; and aside from enemies on sea and land, he contended with scanty subsistence, disease 

laden water, fevers, and a torrid sun beating down on his handful of soldiers, who could not lay aside the breastplate and buckler for fear of poisoned 

arrows. 


To his right were the high wooded ranges of the Cordillera, with its fierce headhunting population, and to his left a sparkling but barren sea; and before 

and behind him lay a succession of hamlets of fighting men whose cunning lay more in the stealthy ambush than in open warfare. Only a leader such as he 

could have accomplished the task with a mere detachment of soldiers. Not only the display, but the use of invincible force was necessary to convince the 

native that the lance, the bow and arrow, and the kampilan could not compete with Christian sword, shield, and arquebus. But his magnanimity won them as 

much as anything else, the babaknangs saw he was no crude oppressor; and when he took over his encormienda, in the country he had pacified, they 

rendered him complete loyalty. 


But it had been a long and wearying campaign. When at last it was completed, Salcedo rounded the northern coast of Luzon, sailed down the treacherous 

Pacific coast, and crossed the mountains of Morong to Manila to find that his illustrious grandfather, Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, had died a few weeks 

before. He shut himself up in his palace in grief. Not only had he lost his protector, the adelantado, but the beloved Candarapa as well. 


News of his exploits during his long sojourn in Ilocos filtered into Manila with the usual exaggerations and calumnies. Among other things, it had been 

reported on good authority, as such things always are, that he had met and married the daughter of the Rajah of Kaog, Santa Lucia. This tale, repeated to 

Candarapa, had broken her heart; three months later she had died from the blow, but without a murmur. There was no repining, no message, other than the 

return of the young knight's ring; but the song of the Lark of the Rice Fields, the pretty Candarapa, was stilled forever. For days Salcedo grieved in 

silence, refusing the food he sorely needed after the hardships of so many months. 


This silence and seclusion was unfortunately construed by Guido de Lavezares, who had taken over the governorship after the death of Legaspi. His 

misgivings were fanned by the usual calumnies of envy until Lavezares's visit to Salcedo that dispelled every notion, save that he was a young and gallant 

man profoundly grief-stricken and deserving of a comrade's consolation and trust. His need of distraction being apparent, Lavezares sent him to pacify 

Nebuy, now the Camarines provinces. The hardships of the expedition steeled Salcedo to conceal his sorrow, but he found no new Candarapa.

 
True to the vow to his first love, steadfast in his statement to Legaspi, Salcedo never married.

The romance of Juan de Salcedo and Lakandola's niece, Dayang-Dayang Candarapa