It was New Spain—­Mexico—­that ruled the Philippines, until Mexican independence restricted her sovereignty.  When a Commander-in-Chief died in the Philippines, it was sufficient to find amongst his papers a sealed dispatch, as Morga records, “From the high court of Mexico, which carried on the government when the fleet left New Spain, naming (in case the Commander-in-Chief died) a successor to the governorship.”  It was in virtue of such an appointment that Guido de Labazarris, a royal officer, entered upon those duties, and was obeyed.  He, with much prudence, valor, and tact, continued the conversion and pacification of the islands, and governed them, and Morga states that in his time there came the corsair Limahon from China, with seventy large ships and many men-at-arms, against Manila.  He entered the city, and having killed the master of the camp Martin de Goiti, in his house, along with other Spaniards who were in it, he went against the fortress in which the Spaniards, who were few in number, had taken refuge, with the object of taking the country and making himself master of it.  The Spaniards, with the succor which Captain Joan de Salzado brought them from Vigan, of the men whom he had with him (for he had seen this corsair pass by the coast, and had followed him to Manila), defended themselves so valiantly, that after killing many of the people they forced him to re-embark, and to leave the bay in flight, and take shelter in the river of Pangasinam, whither the Spaniards followed him.  There they burned his fleet, and for many days surrounded this corsair on land, who in secret made some small boats with which he fled and put to sea, and abandoned the islands.

The change of the name of the islands from Lazarus, which Magellan called them, to the Philippines and the capture of the native town of Manila and its conversion into a Spanish city is related by Morga in these words: 

“One of the ships which sailed from the port of Navidad in company with the fleet, under the command of Don Alonso de Arellano, carried as pilot one Lope Martin, a mulatto and a good sailor, although a restless man; when this ship came near the islands it left the fleet and went forward amongst the islands, and, having procured some provisions, without waiting for the chief of the expedition, turned back to New Spain by a northerly course; either from the little inclination which he had for making the voyage to the isles, or to gain the reward for having discovered the course for returning.  He arrived speedily, and gave news of having seen the islands, and discovered the return voyage, and said a few things with respect to his coming, without any message from the chief, nor any advices as to what happened to him.  Don Alonzo de Arellano was well received by the High Court of Justice, which governed at that time, and was taking into consideration the granting of a reward to him and to his pilot; and this would have been done, had not the flagship of the Commander-in-Chief arrived