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86
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(MEXICO.) Cermeño, Sebastian Rodríguez.
Contract for goods with
Acapulco merchant.
3 manuscript leaves, each about 12 x 8
1
/
2
inches, signed by
Francisco de Cabrera and Sebastián Rodríguez Cermeño; water damage on fore-edges
with substantial loss of text, moderate wear on other edges; leaves numbered 33 through 35
in manuscript.
México, 6 February 1586
[30,000/40,000]
Sebastián Rodríguez Cermeño (circa 1560-1602) was a mariner in the service of the united
Spanish-Portuguese crown, also known by his Portuguese name Sebastião Rodrigues Soromenho.
He first came to historical notice as pilot on this voyage of the Santa Ana from Acapulco to
Manila in 1586. Here he contracts with Acapulco merchant Francisco de Cabrera, who gave him
1000 pesos to purchase Manila goods, agreeing to pay a 25% commission on profits.
The Santa Ana reached Manila successfully, and set out for the return voyage to Acapulco with a
rich cargo. However, they were attacked off Cabo San Lucas by the English privateer Sir Thomas
Cavendish, who made off with all goods and stranded most of the crew on the desolate coast,
keeping Cermeño and a few others to help him navigate across the Pacific. In 1595 Cermeño
would command another Manila galleon, the San Agustín, which explored the Alta California
coast on its return voyage and was wrecked north of San Francisco with loss of all cargo.
We know of no other Cermeño documents at auction, nor any other similar contracts for the
early Manila galleons. See Mathes, “El Galeón de Manila: Un contrato no cumplido de
1586,” in Calafia 3 (September 1989), pages 15-18; and the English version, “The
Unfulfilled Contract of an Unlucky Galleon Pilot,” in Mains’l Haul: A Journal of Pacific
Maritime History 38:1-2 (2002), pages 30-35 (a copy is included with the lot), which
includes a full English translation of the document.