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Written by Marco Ramerini 2000-2007/2023
6.3 – CHOBO
Spanish: Cubo1, Sobo2, Chobo3, Chovo4, Cobo, Tjobo, San(t) Joseph de Chouo5: (Current name: Cobo)
CHRONOLOGY: Spanish: 1643 ? –1661 ? o 1662 ?
Dutch: Chiobbe6, T’Siobbo7, Siobbo8, Ziobbo9, Tsiobbe10, t’Siobbe11, Sjobbo12, Sjobbe13
Spanish garrison located on the extreme northern offshoot of the island of Tidore, called by the Spaniards San Joseph de Chovo. There is not much information about this fort, it is only mentioned as a fortified place in the last years of the Spanish period. Gerónimo de Silva, in 1613, speaks of the ‘punta de Chovo‘ as one of the places that the Dutch intended to occupy on the island of Tidore.14 While it is mentioned in the year 1615, by the king of Tidore, as a possible meeting point between Ternatese and Tidorese for the marriage negotiations between the Prince of Tidore and the Queen of Jilolo.15
The Dutch sources start mentioning a Spanish fort at Tsiobbe around 1643.16 According to the Dutch, the Spaniards intended to install two large cannons on the hill of the T’Siobbo fortification, in order to reach the Malayo bay with their shots. In response to the Spanish move, the Dutch placed a cannon at Talangame.17 Then the governor Wouter Seroijen built a real fort called ‘Caille la Boca‘ located on the beach two musket shots from Malayo, from this new fort the Dutch could hit any boat passing in the strait between the islands of Ternate and Tidore and it was also possible to reach the Spanish fort of Ziobbo by ‘boogh-schoot‘.18
A Spanish document from 1653 sheds light on the date on which the Spanish built the Chovo fort and confirms what was reported by Dutch sources: In 1643, Juan Camacho de la Peña embarked on the galleon ‘San Juan Bautista‘ as a soldier in the company of the new governor of Ternate don Lorenço de Olaso. In Ternate he was charged with taking care of the fortification works of the ‘fuerça de Chouo‘ and of the disposition of the port of Rume in the island of Tidore. Both posts were put into a state of defence.19
From another document we also learn that, in 1643, the command of the fort was entrusted to Juan de Heredia Ormastegui, he too had arrived in Ternate that same year with the ‘socorro‘ led by the new governor don Lorenço de Olaso. Juan de Heredia Ormastegui also worked on the fortifications of the fort of Chovo until it was in a good state of defense.20 The fort was located on a high promontory which dominated the sea strait between Tidore and Ternate.
Little other information about this fortification can be found in the documents I have seen, for example, Pedro de Figueroa Pardo, who must have been in the Moluccas in the years between 1640 and 1650, was head of the fort of ‘San Joseph de Chobo‘ which describes as ‘frontera del enemigo olandez y therrenate’.21 Around 1650, the captain and sergeant major Martin Sanchez de la Cuesta, was sent by order of the governor Pedro Fernandez del Rio to the forts of San Lucas del Rumen and Chobo.22
Another of the few Spanish documents that mentions this fort is a document from 1661 where it is stated that the governor Francisco de Esteybar in the years 1653 and 1654 rebuilt the fort of ‘San Joseph de Chouo‘ where new fortifications and new housing were built for the infantry.23 Diego de Cardenas was head of the fortress of ‘San Joseph de Chovo‘ and as relief did not arrive due to the loss of the galleon ‘Nuestra señora de la Vitoria‘ (relief of 1660) he pledged his possessions to relieve the troops of the garrison with food and ammunition.24
According to Dutch sources it seems that this fort was abandoned by the Spanish in 1661, therefore two years before the definitive abandonment of the Moluccas by the Iberian troops, the reason for the abandonment of the fort is ascribed to the fact that the Spanish troops were decimated and could not keep all the ‘presidios‘ they had. The fort that the Spanish abandoned is described as the upper fort of Chiobbe, this would suggest that this fort too was composed, like that of Rum, of two distinct fortifications, one in an elevated position and the other on the beach.25
Some Spanish documents shed further light on the abandonment of the fort of Chobo, in fact, in 1662, Agustin de Cepeda, governor of Ternate, after having received orders from Manrique de Lara to dismantle the forts of the Moluccas and withdraw the Spanish garrisons, sent the company where Juan de Origuey was ensign in Tidore to withdraw (and demolish) the garrisons from the Chobo fort and other forts near the villages of the ‘Moros‘ of Toloa: ‘que asistiese y aiudase a su capitan al rretirar las fuerzas de Tidore, con las de Chobo y otras circumbecinas a los pueblos de los Moros toloas’. According to the testimony of Diego de Salazar, captain of the royal galleys of Ternate, the fortresses that the Spaniards had to demolish and the garrisons they withdrew in 1662 were ‘… me ordeno retirara las de Tidore Chouo, y Puli Cauallo …’ the demolition and withdrawal works were entrusted to the ensign Juan de Origuey, who worked on it personally managing to transport the artillery and ammunition to Ternate.26
The report of Father Miguel de Pareja, sent to the Moluccas in 1670 by the governor of the Philippines Manuel de Leon, to claim Spanish rights over the islands and to safeguard the Christians of the Moluccas, also describes the state of the Spanish fortifications, some years after their abandonment. This document among others informs us that the state of the fort that the Spaniards called ‘Cubo‘ is so altered that there is no memory of it. In his description of the state of the forts abandoned by the Spanish at Tidore and Ternate, Pareja is much more catastrophic than the reports drawn up by the Dutch in the same years.27
| Captains of San Joseph de Chovo | |
| Juan de Heredia Ormastegui | 1643 |
| Pedro de Figueroa Pardo28 | c.1643 |
| Diego de Cardenas29 | c.1660 |
INDEX:
1 – The Spanish fortresses on the island of Tidore 1521-1663: introduction
3 – The Spanish expeditions to the Moluccas after the union with Portugal
4 – The Spanish forts of the island of Tidore 1606-1663
5 – The defenses of the city of the King of Tidore: Lugar Grande De El Rey (Soa Siu)
6 – Fuerte de los portugueses (Fortaleza dos Reis Magos)
7 – Tohula Fort, Santiago de los Caballeros
8 – Sokanora Fort
9 – Marieco Fort
10 – Tomanira Fort
11 – Chobo Fort
12 – Fort of Rume
13 – Puli Caballo Island
14 – Captains of Tidore (Fortress of Santiago de los Caballeros)
1 “Fr. Miguel de Pareja to governor Manuel de Leon. Manila, 25 enero 1671” Document n° 215 in: Jacobs, H.“Documenta Malucensia III, 1606-1682” 660 and also note 5
2 Jacobs, H. “Documenta Malucensia III, 1606-1682” 615, 624.
3 “Tanto de carta que el capitan don Fernando Becerra escribió á el gobernador don Gerónimo de Silva, Tidore 29 de otubre de 1615” in: AA. VV. “Correspondencia” 318
“Tanto de carta que el rey de Tidore escribió á el gobernador don Gerónimo de Silva, Tidore 21 de diciembre de 1615” in: Various authors “Correspondencia” 339
“Tanto de carta que el el gobernador don Gerónimo de Silva escribió á el rey de Tidore, Terrenate 22 de diciembre de 1615” in: Various authors “Correspondencia” 339
4 “Tanto de carta que el rey de Tidore escribió á el gobernador don Gerónimo de Silva, Tidore 18 de noviembre de 1615” in: Various authors “Correspondencia” 330
5 “Confirmación de encomienda de Abucay, etc Francisco de Esteybar [c] 1661-12-17” AGI: Filipinas,51,N.14
6 “Generale Missiven” vol. III, 30 Januari 1662, 384
7 “Bouwstoffen” vol. III, 179
8 “Bouwstoffen” vol. III, 386
9 “Bouwstoffen” vol. III, 384, 401
10 “Bouwstoffen” vol. III, 148
11 “Bouwstoffen” vol. III, 148
12 “Dagh-Register, anno 1664” 286, 389
13 “Dagh-Register, anno 1664” 598
14 “Carta que el rey de Tidore escribió á el gobernador don Gerónimo de Silva. Tidore, 18 de noviembre 1615” In: In: Various authors “Correspondencia” 99
15 “Tanmto de carta que escribió el señor don Gerónimo de Silva al señor don Juan de Silva” In: In: Various authors “Correspondencia” 330
16 “Wouter Seroijen, gouverneur der Molukken, aan Antonio Caen op Ambon, 28 Janauri 1643” in: “Bouwstoffen voor de geschiedenis der Nederlanders in den Maleischen Archipel” vol. III, 148
17 “Gouverneur-Generaal (Antonio van Diemen) en Raden aan Bewindhebbers der O. I. Compagnie, 23 December 1644” in: “Bouwstoffen voor de geschiedenis der Nederlanders in den Maleischen Archipel” vol. III, 178-179
18 “Rapport en declaratie van Antonio Caen …, 1 Juli 1648” in: “Bouwstoffen voor de geschiedenis der Nederlanders in den Maleischen Archipel” vol. III, 384-385
19 “Confirmación de encomienda de Bagatayan, etc. Expediente de confirmación de las encomiendas de Bagatayan, Pajo y Liloan en Cebu, Bislig y Catel en Caraga a Juan Camacho de la Peña. Resuelto. [f] 09-10-1653” AGI: Filipinas,50,N.40
20 “Confirmación de encomienda de Antique. Expediente de confirmación de la encomienda de Antique en Oton a Juan de Heredia Ormastegui. Resuelto. [f] 13-09-1647” AGI: Filipinas,49,N.69
21 “Confirmación de encomienda de Caraga, etc, Expediente de confirmación de las encomiendas de Caraga, Surigao y Sidarga en Cebu a Martín Sánchez de la Cuesta.Resuelto, [f] 19-06-1659” AGI: Filipinas,51,N.1
22 “Confirmación de encomienda de Caraga, etc. Expediente de confirmación de las encomiendas de Caraga, Surigao y Sidarga en Cebu a Martín Sánchez de la Cuesta. Resuelto, [f] 19-06-1659” AGI: Filipinas,51,N.1
23 “Confirmación de encomienda de Abucay, etc Francisco de Esteybar [c] 17-12-1661” AGI: Filipinas,51,N.14
24 “Confirmación de encomienda de Baratao. Expediente de confirmación de las encomiendas de Baratao en Pangasinan a Alonso Lozano. Resuelto. [f] 16-06-1676” AGI: Filipinas,54,N.12
“Confirmación de encomienda de Paracale, etc. Expediente de confirmación de las encomiendas de Paracale y Capalonga en Camarines a Alonso Velázquez de la Cadena. Resuelto. [f] 12-02-1677” AGI: Filipinas,54,N.13
“Confirmación de encomienda de Cuyo, etc Expediente de confirmación de las encomiendas de Cuyo y Calamianes a Lorenzo Vázquez Coronado. Resuelto[f] 27-11-1681” AGI: Filipinas,55,N.3
“Fr. Miguel de Pareja to governor Manuel de Leon. Manila, 25 enero 1671” Document n° 215 in: Jacobs, “Documenta Malucensia III, 1606-1682” 660
25 According to reports in the “Generale Missiven” vol. III, 30 January 1662, 384
26 “Confirmación de encomienda de Majayjay, etc. Expediente de confirmacion de las encomiendas de Majayjay y Santa Cruz en La Laguna de Bay a Juan Rodríguez de Origuey. Resuelto[f]. 08-06-1695” AGI: Filipinas,58,N.3
Memorial of the ensign Juan de Origuey (Manila, 20 September 1673) (sheets 18-20) in: “Confirmación de encomienda de Batangas. Expediente de confirmación de la encomienda de Batangas en Balayan a Lorenzo de Zuleta. Resuelto. [f] 03-04-1677” AGI: Filipinas,54,N.14
27 “Fr. Miguel de Pareja to governor Manuel de Leon. Manila, 25 enero 1671” Document n° 215 in: Jacobs, “Documenta Malucensia III, 1606-1682” 660 and also note 5
28 He had arrived in the Philippines in 1640, served for a couple of years in Ternate between 1641 and 1642, subsequently, he was allowed to return to the Philippines and embarked together with the ‘lizenciado’ don Diego de la Rassa on the galleon ‘San Juan Bauptista ‘. He left his company in Ternate to Captain Don Francisco Çeron.
He then served in Manila, but having received news that the Dutch were going to besiege Ternate with 10 ships, he volunteered for the relief with which the governor Lorenzo de Olaso was going (1643). Once in Ternate he was given command of the fort of San Joseph del Chouo ‘frontera de la de Malayo’. He then had leave to return to Manila and embarked with the ‘captain’ ship at the expense of General Juan de Chaves.
“Confirmación de encomienda de Majayjay, etc. Expediente de confirmación de las encomiendas de Majayjay y Santa Cruz en La Laguna de Bay a Manuel Noroña y Olivera. Resuelto. [f] 13-11-1666” AGI: Filipinas,53,N.2
29 He was head of the fortress of ‘San Joseph de Chovo’ and since relief did not arrive due to the loss of the galleon ‘Nuestra señora de la Vitoria’ (relief of 1660) he committed his possessions to rescue the troops of the garrison with food and ammunition. He then moved on to serve in the Philippines.
“Memorial of Diego de Cardenas” (Manila, August 31, 1673) (sheets 17-20) in: “Confirmación de encomienda de Baratao. Expediente de confirmación de las encomiendas de Baratao en Pangasinan a Alonso Lozano. Resuelto. [f] 16-06-1676” AGI: Filipinas,54,N.12
“Confirmación de encomienda de Paracale, etc. Expediente de confirmación de las encomiendas de Paracale y Capalonga en Camarines a Alonso Velázquez de la Cadena. Resuelto. [f] 12-02-1677” AGI: Filipinas,54,N.13
“Confirmación de encomienda de Cuyo, etc Expediente de confirmación de las encomiendas de Cuyo y Calamianes a Lorenzo Vázquez Coronado. Resuelto[f] 27-11-1681” AGI: Filipinas,55,N.3
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