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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a

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Speaker 2: show that charts a course through history one day at

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Speaker 2: a time. I'm Gabe Bluesier, and today we're exploring a

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Speaker 2: spooky mystery from the late sixteenth century, the time when

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Speaker 2: a palace guard went to sleep in one Spanish colony

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Speaker 2: only to wake up in another on the opposite side

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Speaker 2: of the Pacific Ocean. The day was October twenty fourth,

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Speaker 2: fifteen ninety three. A Spanish soldier fell asleep in the

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Speaker 2: Philippines and supposedly woke up in Mexico just a few

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Speaker 2: seconds later. The roughly nine thousand mile journey would have

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Speaker 2: taken about two months by boat, but according to Hill Perez,

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Speaker 2: he somehow made the trip in just the blink of

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Speaker 2: an eye. Perez had been stationed in the Plaza de

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Speaker 2: Armas in Manila during the early years of Spanish rule

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Speaker 2: in the Philippines. He served there as a palace guard

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Speaker 2: for Perez Das Mariinez, the Governor general appointed by Spain. However,

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Speaker 2: one day in October fifteen ninety three, the governor left

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Speaker 2: on an expedition to the nearby Maluku islands and was

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Speaker 2: assassinated by Chinese mutineers. The death of Das Marines created

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Speaker 2: a power vacuum in the Spanish controlled Philippines, as there

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Speaker 2: was no clear order of succession. As a result, several

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Speaker 2: prominent Spaniards began jockeying for position, creating tensions among soldiers

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Speaker 2: who weren't sure whose orders to follow. By the evening

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Speaker 2: of October twenty fourth, the strain of that uncertainty had

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Speaker 2: begun to take its toll on Hill Perez, while on

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Speaker 2: guard duty at the palace, The stressed out soldier started

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Speaker 2: feeling dear, so much so that he had to lean

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Speaker 2: against the wall and close his eyes to stop the spinning.

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Speaker 2: He dozed off only for a few moments, but when

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Speaker 2: he opened his eyes, he found himself somewhere completely new.

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Speaker 2: The palace was nowhere in sight, and when he asked

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Speaker 2: a bystander where he was, he was told he was

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Speaker 2: in Plaza Mayor, now known as Elzocallo in Mexico City. Somehow,

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Speaker 2: he'd been mysteriously transported from his post in Manila all

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Speaker 2: the way to the Colony of New Spain, as Mexico

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Speaker 2: was known at the time. Perez was understandably baffled, and

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Speaker 2: he wasn't the only one. When some passing guards spotted

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Speaker 2: a frantic man wearing a Manila uniform, they promptly arrested

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Speaker 2: him for questioning. Perez explained the situation as best he could,

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Speaker 2: telling them his name, rank, regiment, and how he had

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Speaker 2: seemingly been spirited away to Mexico. The local authorities didn't

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Speaker 2: believe that last part, but since he did appear to

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Speaker 2: be as Spanish soldier who had abandoned his post, they

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Speaker 2: threw him in jail for desertion. Once behind bars, Perez

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Speaker 2: continued to protest his innocence. He told the guards all

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Speaker 2: about the recent events in the Philippines, including how the

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Speaker 2: governor general had just been assassinated. His captors assumed he

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Speaker 2: was lying, but just in case, they decided to bring

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Speaker 2: him to the Viceroy of New Spain for further questioning.

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Speaker 2: The viceroy was able to confirm that Perez was indeed

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Speaker 2: wearing the uniform of the officers and the Philippines, but

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Speaker 2: as for the claim that the governor there had been assassinated,

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Speaker 2: he had no clue one way or the other. News

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Speaker 2: traveled quite slowly in those days, and The next Spanish

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Speaker 2: ship from the Philippines wasn't due to arrive for several months,

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Speaker 2: if not longer, and only then would they be able

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Speaker 2: to confirm or disprove Perez's story. In the meantime, the

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Speaker 2: Viceroy turned the soldier over to the Office of the

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Speaker 2: Holy Inquisition better known today as the Spanish Inquisition. Our

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Speaker 2: approach to interrogation wasn't as gentle as that of the Viceroy,

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Speaker 2: but Perez held to his account anyway unbelievable. Though it

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Speaker 2: was unable to fully explain how he had traveled such

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Speaker 2: a long distance in such a short time, the inquisitors

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Speaker 2: declared him a servant of the devil and sent him

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Speaker 2: to be imprisoned in Santo Domingo, on the Caribbean island

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Speaker 2: of Hispaniola. It was reported that Perez remained in high

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Speaker 2: spirits during his incarceration, and that he actually preferred being

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Speaker 2: in prison rather than fighting a war in the jungles

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Speaker 2: of the Philippines. Accounts vary on exactly how long Perez

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Speaker 2: spent in jail, with some sources claiming two months and

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Speaker 2: others saying well over a year. In any case, a

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Speaker 2: Spanish galleon eventually arrived in Mexico from Manila, and when

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Speaker 2: the soldiers on board reported that the Governor General had

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Speaker 2: been killed, the officials immediately sent for hill Perez. Not

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Speaker 2: only did the visiting soldiers confirm every detail of his account,

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Speaker 2: some some of them even recognized him as their former comrade.

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Speaker 2: There was still no explanation for how Perez had wound

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Speaker 2: up in the Mexican capital, but since he was indeed

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Speaker 2: who he claimed to be, he was released from prison

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Speaker 2: and allowed to sail back on the next ship to Manila.

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Speaker 2: There aren't any details about Perez's return voyage or about

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Speaker 2: what happened to him afterward, but I imagine he drove

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Speaker 2: everyone nuts the whole way home, complaining about how much

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Speaker 2: faster it is to teleport. The big question, of course,

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Speaker 2: is whether any of this actually happened. We know for

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Speaker 2: certain that Governor General Dosmarinez was assassinated and that his

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Speaker 2: death led to a good deal of confusion over the

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Speaker 2: chain of command and the Spanish Philippines, but beyond that,

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Speaker 2: there aren't many details to go on. The legend of

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Speaker 2: the teleporting Spanish soldier didn't appear in print until sixteen

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Speaker 2: ninety eight, a little over a century after the events

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Speaker 2: supposedly happened, it was published by Spanish clergyman and historian

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Speaker 2: Gaspar de Saint agos Estine in his book Conquests of

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Speaker 2: the Philippine Islands. The account was said to be compiled

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Speaker 2: from interviews with witnesses who had met Perez first hand,

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Speaker 2: though the soldier wouldn't be identified by name for another

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Speaker 2: two hundred years. By that point, the story had been

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Speaker 2: recounted in numerous books and stories, including works by Spanish

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Speaker 2: colonial official Antonio de Morga, Mexican historian Luise Gonzales Obergone,

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Speaker 2: and Filipino author Jose Rizal. The tall tale had even

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Speaker 2: reached US shores, having been chronicled both by American folklorist

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Speaker 2: Thomas Jean Vier and by short story writer Washington Irving.

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Speaker 2: Of course, no matter how well traveled and oft repeated

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Speaker 2: the story was, that still doesn't make it true. And

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Speaker 2: even if Hille Perez was a real person, that doesn't

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Speaker 2: prove that he was actually whisked away to Mexico. And

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Speaker 2: while there have been efforts to explain what might have happened,

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Speaker 2: none of them feel all that plausible. The most popular

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Speaker 2: theory is that Perez experienced spontaneous teleportation, a hypothetical phenomena

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Speaker 2: in which energy or matter is transferred from one point

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Speaker 2: to another without traversing the physical distance between them. That

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Speaker 2: kind of fast travel only exists in science fiction at

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Speaker 2: this point, with the transfer of digital data being perhaps

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Speaker 2: the closest real world equivalent. Another equally far fetched theory

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Speaker 2: is that of alien abduction. Many of those who claim

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Speaker 2: to have encountered extraterrestrials report periods of lost time in

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Speaker 2: which they have no memory of what happened to them.

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Speaker 2: Some paranormal investigators think that's what Hill Perez experienced after

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Speaker 2: being abducted in Manila. He was later dropped off in

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Speaker 2: Mexico City, believing that only a few seconds had passed

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Speaker 2: in between. Neither of those theories inspire much confidence, but

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Speaker 2: the concept of lost time does hint at a somewhat

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Speaker 2: more plausible explanation. We now know that people can sometimes

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Speaker 2: enter fugue states in which they experienced temporary amnesia and

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Speaker 2: then wake up in unexpected places with no idea of

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Speaker 2: how they got there or how much time has passed.

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Speaker 2: Fugues are generally symptoms of dissociative disorders and can be

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Speaker 2: brought on by severe stress. Traumatic experiences or both. Fighting

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Speaker 2: a war in an occupied country during a regime change

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Speaker 2: would certainly seem to fit that bill, So it's not

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Speaker 2: out of the question that hill Perez slipped into a

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Speaker 2: fugue state, and if he did, it's possible. He was

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Speaker 2: then ordered to travel to Mexico City to report the

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Speaker 2: news of the Governor General's assassination. Then, after a month's

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Speaker 2: long voyage aboard a ship, the soldier came to in

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Speaker 2: Mexico City, not remembering how he got there and thinking

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Speaker 2: it was still the same night. Whatever the truth, the

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Speaker 2: enduring mystery of Hill Perez remains a topic of curiosity

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Speaker 2: in Mexico, Manila and beyond. I'm Gabe Lucia and hopefully

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Speaker 2: you now know a little more about history today than

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Speaker 2: you did yesterday. If you want to keep up with

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Speaker 2: the show, consider following us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram

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Speaker 2: at TDI HC Show, And if you have any feedback

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Speaker 2: to share, don't hesitate to send it my way by

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Speaker 2: writing to this day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks as

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Speaker 2: always to Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thanks

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Speaker 2: to you for listening. I'll see you back here again

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Speaker 2: tomorrow for another scary day in history class