the inhabitants, gave them to understand by his signs that they should
carry provisions to the ships, which would be well paid for. In the
country there was nothing except rice not pounded. Then the people set
to pounding rice all the night, and when it was morning they took the
rice and the said Christian, and came to the ships, where they did them
great honour, and took in the rice and paid them, and they returned
on shore. This man being already set on shore, inhabitants of another
village, a little further on, came to the ships and told them to go to
their village, and that they would give them much provisions for their
money; and as soon as the said man whom they had sent arrived, they set
sail and went to anchor at the village of those who had come to call
them, which was named Vay Palay Cucara Canbam,[82] where Carvalho made
peace with the king of the country, and they settled the price of the
rice, and they gave them two measures of rice which weighed one hundred
and fourteen pounds[83] for three fathoms of linen stuff of Britanny;
they took there as much rice as they wanted, and goats and pigs, and
whilst they were at this place there came a Moor, who had been in the
village of Dyguaçam,[84] which belongs to the Moors of Borneo, as has
been said above, and after that he went to his country.
While they were at anchor near this village of Diguaçam,[84] there came
to them a parao in which there was a negro named Bastiam, who asked for
a flag and a passport for the governor of Diguaçam, and they gave him
all this and other things as a present. They asked the said Bastiam,
who spoke Portuguese sufficiently well, since he had been in Maluco,
where he became a Christian, if he would go with them and shew them
Borneo; he said he would very willingly, and when the departure arrived
he hid himself, and seeing that he did not come, they set sail from
this port of Diguaçam on the 21st day of July[85] to seek for Borneo.
As they set sail there came to them a parao, which was coming to the
port of Diguaçam, and they took it, and in it they took three Moors,
who said they were pilots, and that they would take them to Borneo.
Having got these Moors, they steered along this island to the
south-west, and fell in with two islands at its extremity, and passed
between them; that on the north side is named Bolyna, and that on the
south Bamdym.[86] Sailing to the west south-west a matter of fourteen
leagues, they fell in with a white bottom, which was a shoal below
the water, and the black men they carried with them told them to draw
near to the coast of the island, as it was deeper there, and that
was more in the direction of Borneo, for from that neighbourhood the
island of Borneo could already be sighted. This same day they reached
and anchored at some islands, to which they gave the name of islets of
St. Paul, which was a matter of two and a half or three leagues from
the great island of Borneo, and they were in about seven degrees at
the south side of these islands. In the island of Borneo there is an
exceedingly great mountain, to which they gave the name of Mount St.
Paul; and from thence they navigated along the coast of Borneo to the
south-west, between an island and the island of Borneo itself; and
they went forward on the same course and reached the neighbourhood of
Borneo,[87] and the Moors whom they had with them told them that there
was Borneo, and the wind did not suffer them to arrive thither, as it
was contrary. They anchored at an island which is there, and which may
be eight leagues from Borneo.
Close to this island is another which has many myrobolans, and the
next day they set sail for the other island, which is nearer to the
port of Borneo; and going along thus they saw so many shoals that
they anchored, and sent the boats ashore in Borneo, and they took the
aforesaid Moorish pilots on shore, and there went a Christian with
them; and the boats went to set them on land, from whence they had to
go to the city of Borneo, which was three leagues off, and there they
were taken before the Shahbender of Borneo, and he asked what people
they were, and for what they came in the ships; and they were presented
to the King of Borneo with the Christian. As soon as the boats had set
the said men on shore, they sounded in order to see if the ships could
come in closer: and during this they saw three junks which were coming
from the port of Borneo from the said city out to sea, and as soon as
they saw the ships they returned inshore: continuing to sound, they
found the channel by which the port is entered; they then set sail, and
entered this channel, and being within the channel they anchored, and
would not go further in until they received a message from the shore,
which arrived next day with two paraos: these carried certain swivel
guns of metal, and a hundred men in each parao, and they brought goats
and fowls, and two cows, and figs, and other fruit, and told them to
enter further in opposite the islands which were near there, which
was the true berth; and from this position to the city there might be
three or four leagues. Whilst thus at anchor they established peace,
and settled that they should trade in what there was in the country,
especially wax, to which they answered that they would willingly sell
all that there was in the country for their money. This port of Borneo
is in eight degrees.
For the answer thus received from the King they sent him a present by
Gonzalo Mendes Despinosa,[88] captain of the ship Victoria, and the
King accepted the present, and gave to all of them China stuffs: and
when there had passed twenty or twenty-three days that they were there
trading with the people of the island, and had got five men on shore in
the city itself, there came to anchor at the bar, close to them, five
junks, at the hour of vespers, and they remained there that evening
and the night until next day in the morning, when they saw coming from
the city two hundred paraos, some under sail, others rowing. Seeing in
this manner the five junks and the paraos, it seemed to them that there
might be treachery, and they set sail for the junks, and as soon as the
crews of the junks saw them under sail, they also set sail and made off
where the wind best served them; and they overhauled one of the junks
with the boats, and took it with twenty-seven men;[89] and the ships
went and anchored abreast of the island of the Myrololans, with the
junk made fast to the poop of the flagship, and the paraos returned
to shore, and when night came there came on a squall from the west in
which the said junk went to the bottom alongside the flagship, without
being able to receive any assistance from it.[90]
Next day in the morning they saw a sail, and went to it and took it;
this was a great junk in which the son of the King of Lucam came as
captain, and had with him ninety men, and as soon as they took them
they sent some of them to the King of Borneo; and they sent him word
by these men to send the Christians whom they had got there, who were
seven men, and they would give him all the people whom they had taken
in the junk; on which account the King sent two men of the seven whom
he had got there in a parao, and they again sent him word to send the
five men who still remained, and they would send all the people whom
they had got from the junk. They waited two days for the answer, and
there came no message; then they took thirty men from the junk, and
put them into a parao belonging to the junk, and sent them to the King
of Borneo, and set sail with fourteen men of those they had taken and
three women; and they steered along the coast of the said island to
the north-east, returning backwards; and they again passed between the
islands and the great island of Borneo, where the flagship grounded on
a point of the island, and so remained more than four hours, and the
tide turned and it got off, by which it was seen clearly that the tide
was of twenty-four hours.[91]
Whilst making the aforesaid course the wind shifted to north-east,
and they stood out to sea, and they saw a sail coming, and the ships
anchored, and the boats went to it and took it; it was a small junk and
carried nothing but cocoa-nuts; and they took in water and wood, and
set sail along the coast of the island to the north-east, until they
reached the extremity of the said island, and met with another small
island, where they overhauled the ships. They arrived at this island on
the day of our Lady of August, and in it they found a very good point
for beaching the ships, and they gave it the name of Port St. Mary of
August, and it is in fully seven degrees.
As soon as they had taken these precautions they set sail and steered
to the south-west until they sighted the island which is named
Fagajam,[92] and this is a course of thirty-eight to forty leagues: and
as soon as they sighted this island they steered to the south-west,
and again made an island which is called Seloque,[93] and they had
information that there were many pearls there: and when they had
already sighted that island the wind shifted to a head-wind, and they
could not fetch it by the course they were sailing, and it seemed to
them that it might be in six degrees. This same night they arrived at
the island of Quipe, and ran along it to the south-east, and passed
between it and another island called Tamgym,[94] and always running
along the coast of the said island, and going thus, they fell in with
a parao laden with sago in loaves, which is bread made of a tree which
is named cajare,[95] which the people of that country eat as bread.
This parao carried twenty-one men, and the chief of them had been in
Maluco in the house of Francisco Serram, and having gone further along
this island they arrived in sight of some islands which are named
Semrryn;[96] they are in five degrees, a little more or less. The
inhabitants of this land came to see the ships, and so they had speech
of one another, and an old man of these people told them that he would
conduct them to Maluco.
In this manner, having fixed a time with the old man, an agreement was
made with him, and they gave him a certain price for this; and when the
next day came, and they were to depart, the old man intended to escape,
and they understood it, and took him and others who were with him, and
who also said that they knew pilot’s work, and they set sail; and as
soon as the inhabitants saw them go they fitted out to go after them:
and of these paraos there did not reach the ships more than two, and
these reached so near that they shot arrows into the ships, and the
wind was fresh[97] and they could not come up with them. At midnight of
that day they sighted some islands, and they steered more towards them;
and next day they saw land, which was an island; and at night following
that day they found themselves very close to it, and when night fell
the wind calmed and the currents drew them very much inshore; there the
old pilot cast himself into the sea, and betook himself to land.
Sailing thus forward, after one of the pilots had fled, they sighted
another island and arrived close to it, and another Moorish pilot
said that Maluco was still further on, and navigating thus, the next
day in the morning they sighted three high mountains, which belonged
to a nation of people whom they called the Salabos;[98] and then
they saw a small island where they anchored to take in some water,
and because they feared that in Maluco they would not be allowed to
take it in; and they omitted doing so, because the Moorish pilot told
them that there were some four hundred[99] men in that island, and
that they were all very bad, and might do them some injury, as they
were men of little faith; and that he would give them no such advice
as to go to that island; and also because Maluco, which they were
seeking, was now near, and that its kings were good men, who gave a
good reception to all sorts of men in their country; and while still
in this neighbourhood[100] they saw the islands themselves of Maluco,
and for rejoicing they fired all the artillery, and they arrived at the
island[101] on the 8th of November of 1521, so that they spent from
Seville to Maluco two years, two months and twenty-eight days, for they
sailed on the 10th of August of 1519.[102]
As soon as they arrived at the island of Tydor,[103] which is in half
a degree, the King thereof did them great honour, which could not be
exceeded: there they treated with the King for their cargo, and the
King engaged to give them a cargo and whatever there was in the country
for their money, and they settled to give for the bahar of cloves
fourteen ells of yellow cloth of twenty-seven tem,[104] which are worth
in Castile a ducat the ell; of red cloth of the same kind ten ells;
they also gave thirty ells of Brittany linen cloth, and for each of
these quantities they received a bahar of cloves, likewise for thirty
knives eight bahars:[105] having thus settled all the above mentioned
prices, the inhabitants of the country gave them information that
further on, in another island near, there was a Portuguese man. This
island might be two leagues distant, and it was named Targatell;[106]
this man was the chief person of Maluco; _there we now have got a
fortress_.[107] They then wrote letters to the said Portuguese, to come
and speak with them, to which he answered that he did not dare, because
the King of the country forbade it; that if they obtained permission
from the King he would come at once; this permission they soon got, and
the Portuguese came to speak with them.[108] They gave him an account
of the prices which they had settled, at which he was amazed, and said
that on that account the King had ordered him not to come, as they did
not know the truth about the prices of the country; and whilst they
were thus taking in cargo there arrived the King of Baraham,[109] which
is near there, and said that he wished to be a vassal of the King of
Castile, and also that he had got four hundred bahars of cloves, and
that he had sold it to the King of Portugal, and that they had bought
it, but that he had not yet delivered it, and if they wished for it, he
would give it all to them; to which the captains answered that if he
brought it to them, and came with it, they would buy it, but otherwise
not. The King, seeing that they did not wish to take the cloves, asked
them for a flag and a letter of safe conduct, which they gave him,
signed by the captains of the ships.
While they were thus waiting for the cargo, it seemed to them, from
the delay in the delivery, that the King was preparing some treachery
against them, and the greater part of the ships’ crews made an uproar
and told the captains to go, as the delays which the King made were
for nothing else than treachery: as it seemed to them all that it
might be so, they were abandoning everything, and were intending to
depart; and being about to unfurl the sails, the King, who had made
the agreement with them, came to the flagship and asked the captain
why he wanted to go, because that which he had agreed upon with him he
intended to fulfil it as had been settled. The captain replied that the
ships’ crews said they should go and not remain any longer, as it was
only treachery that was being prepared against them. To this the King
answered that it was not so, and on that account he at once sent for
his Koran, upon which he wished to make oath that nothing such should
be done to them. They at once brought him this Koran, and upon it he
made oath, and told them to rest at ease with that. At this the crews
were set at rest, and he promised them that he would give them their
cargo by the 15th December 1521, which he fulfilled within the said
time without being wanting in anything.
When the two ships were already laden and about to unfurl their sails,
the flagship[110] sprung a large leak, and the King of the country
learning this, he sent them twenty-five divers[111] to stop the leak,
which they were unable to do. They settled that the other ship should
depart, and that this one should again discharge all its cargo, and
unload it; and as they could not stop the leak, that they [the people
of the country] should give them all that they might be in need of.
This was done, and they discharged the cargo of the flagship; and when
the said ship was repaired, they took in her cargo, and decided on
making for the country of the Antilles, and the course from Maluco to
it was 2,000 leagues a little more or less. The other ship, which set
sail first, left on the 21st of December of the said year, and went out
to sea for Timor, and made its course behind Java, 2,055 leagues to the
Cape of Good Hope.[112]
They refitted the ship, and took in the cargo in four months and
sixteen days: they sailed on the 6th of April of the year 1522, and
took their course for the mainland of the Antilles by the strait
through which they had come; and at first they navigated to the North,
until they came out from the islands of Ternate and Tymor;[113]
afterwards they navigated along the island of Betachina, ten or eleven
leagues to the North-east;[114] after that they steered about twenty
leagues to the North-east, and so arrived at an island, which is
named Doyz,[115] and is in three and a half degrees South latitude
at its South-eastern side: from this place they navigated three or
four leagues eastwards, and sighted two islands, one large and the
other small; the large one was named Porquenampello,[116] and passed
between it and Batechina, which lay on their starboard side. They
reached a cape, to which they gave the name Cape of Palms, because
they sighted it on the vigil of Palms. This cape is in two and a half
degrees: thence they steered to the South to make Quimar,[117] which
is land belonging to the King of Tydor, and the said King had ordered
that they should receive whatever there was in the country for their
money, and there they took pigs and goats, and fowls and cocoa-nuts and
_hava_:[118] they remained in this port eight or nine days. This port
of Camarfya[119] is in one and a quarter degree.
They sailed from this port on the 20th[120] of April, and steered
for about seventeen leagues,[121] and came out of the channel of
the island of Batechina and the island Charam;[122] and as soon as
they were outside, they saw that the said island of Charam[123] ran
to the South-east a good eighteen or twenty leagues, and it was not
their course, for their direction was to the East[124] and a quarter
North-east; and they navigated in the said course some days, and always
found the winds very contrary for their course. On the 3rd of May they
made two small islands, which might be in five degrees more or less,
to which they gave the name of islands of St. Antony.[125] Thence they
navigated further on to the North-east, and arrived at an island which
is named Cyco,[126] which is in fully nineteen degrees, and they made
this island on the 11th of July.[127] From this island they took a
man, whom they carried away with them, and they navigated further on,
tacking about with contrary winds, until they reached forty-two degrees
North latitude.
When they were in this neighbourhood, they were short of bread,
wine, meat, and oil; they had nothing to eat only water and rice,
without other provisions; and the cold was great, and they had not
sufficient covering, the crews began to die, and seeing themselves in
this state, they decided on putting back in the direction of Maluco,
which they at once carried into effect. When at a distance of five
hundred leagues from it, they desired to make the island which is named
Quamgragam,[128] and as they sighted it at night, they did not choose
to make it; they waited thus till it dawned next day, and they were
unable to fetch the said island; and the man whom they carried with
them, and whom before they had taken from that island, told them to go
further on, and they would make three islands, where there was a good
port, and this which the black man said, was in order to run away at
them, as indeed he did run away. On arriving at these three islands,
they fetched them with some danger, and anchored in the middle of them
in fifteen fathoms. Of these islands, the largest was inhabited by
twenty persons between men and women: this island is named Pamo;[129]
it is in twenty degrees more or less: here they took in rain-water, as
there was no other in the country. In this island the black man[130]
ran away. Thence they sailed to make the land of Camafo, and as soon
as they sighted it they had calms, and the currents carried them
away from the land; and afterwards they had a little wind, and they
made for the land, but could not fetch it; they then went to anchor
between the islands of Domi and Batechina, and while at anchor, a
parao passed by them with some men who belonged to the King of an
island named Geilôlo,[131] and they gave them news that the Portuguese
were in Maluco making a fortress. Learning this, they at once sent
the clerk of the ship with certain men[132] to the captain-major of
those Portuguese, who was named Antonio de Bryto, to ask him to come
and bring the ship to the place where they were; because the crew
of the ship had mostly died, and the rest were sick, and could not
navigate the ship. As soon as Antonio de Bryto saw the letter and
message, he sent down Dom Gonzalo[133] Amriquiz, captain of the ship
Sam Jorge,[134] and also a fusta with some country parāos, and they
went thus in search of the ship, and having found it, they brought it
to the fortress, and whilst they were discharging its cargo, there came
a squall from the north,[135] which cast it on shore. Where this ship
turned to put back to Maluco was a little more or less than 1050 or
1100 leagues from the island.
* * * * *
This was transcribed from the paper-book of a Genoese pilot, who came
in the said ship, who wrote all the voyage as it is here. He went to
Portugal in the year 1524 with Dom Amriqui de Menezes.[136] Thanks be
to God.
NARRATIVE OF A PORTUGUESE, COMPANION OF
ODOARDO BARBOSA, IN THE SHIP _VICTORIA_,
IN THE YEAR 1519. (+From “Ramusio”.+)