hundred prahus, divided into three squadrons, and as many _tungulis_,
which are their smaller kind of boats. At this sight, and fearing
treachery, we hurriedly set sail, and left behind an anchor in the
sea. Our suspicions increased when we observed that behind us were
certain junks which had come the day before. Our first operation was
to free ourselves from the junks, against which we fired, capturing
four and killing many people: three or four other junks went aground in
escaping. In one of those which we captured was a son of the king of
the isle of Luzon, who was captain-general of the King of Burné, and
who was coming with the junks from the conquest of a great city named
Laoe, situated on a headland of this island opposite Java Major. He
had made this expedition and sacked that city because its inhabitants
wished rather to obey the King of Java than the Moorish King of Burné.
The Moorish king having heard of the ill-treatment by us of his junks,
hastened to send to say, by means of one of our men who was on shore to
traffic, that those vessels had not come to do any harm to us, but were
going to make war against the Gentiles, in proof of which they showed
us some of the heads of those they had slain.
Hearing this, we sent to tell the king that if it was so, that he
should allow two of our men who were still on shore, with a son of our
pilot, Juan Carvalho, to come to the ships: this son of Carvalho’s had
been born during his first residence in the country of Brazil: but the
king would not consent. Juan Carvalho was thus specially punished, for
without communicating the matter to us, in order to obtain a large sum
of gold, as we learned later, he had given his liberty to the captain
of the junks. If he had detained him, the King Siripada would have
given anything to get him back, that captain being exceedingly dreaded
by the Gentiles who are most hostile to the Moorish king.
And, with respect to that, it is well to know and understand that in
that same port where we were, beyond the city of the Moors of which I
have spoken, there is another inhabited by Gentiles, larger than this
one, and also built in the salt water. So great is the enmity between
the two nations that every day there occurs strife. The king of the
Gentiles is as powerful as the king of the Moors, but he is not so
proud; and it seems that it would not be so difficult to introduce the
Christian religion into his country.[343]
As we could not get back our men, we retained on board sixteen of the
chiefs, and three ladies whom we had taken on board the junks, to take
them to Spain. We had destined the ladies for the Queen; but Juan
Carvalho kept them for himself.
The Moors of Burné go naked like the other islanders. They esteem
quicksilver very much, and swallow it. They pretend that it preserves
the health of those who are well, and that it cures the sick.
They venerate Mahomed and follow his law. They do not eat pig’s
flesh....[344] With their right hand they wash their face, but do not
wash their teeth with their fingers. They are circumcised like the
Jews. They never kill goats or fowls without first speaking to the
sun.[345] They cut off the ends of the wings of fowls and the skin
under their feet, and then split them in two. They do not eat any
animal which has not been killed by themselves.
In this island is produced camphor, a kind of balsam which exudes from
between the bark and the wood of the tree. These drops are small as
grains of bran. If it is left exposed by degrees it is consumed: here
it is called capor. Here is found also cinnamon, ginger, mirabolans,
oranges, lemons, sugarcanes, melons, gourds, cucumbers, cabbage,
onions. There are also many animals, such as elephants, horses,
buffaloes, pigs, goats, fowls, geese, crows, and others.
They say that the King of Burné has two pearls as large as a hen’s
eggs, and so perfectly round that if placed on a smooth table they
cannot be made to stand still. When we took him the presents I made
signs to him that I desired to see them, and he said that he would show
them to me, but he did not do so. On the following day some of the
chief men told me that they had indeed seen them.
The money which the Moors use in this country is of metal,[346] and
pierced for stringing together. On one side only it has four signs,
which are four letters of the great King of China: they call it
_Picis_.[347] For one cathil (a weight equal to two of our pounds)
of quicksilver they gave us six porcelain dishes, for a cathil of
metal they gave one small porcelain vase, and a large vase for three
knives. For a hand of paper they gave one hundred picis. A _bahar_
of wax (which is two hundred and three cathils) for one hundred and
sixty cathils of bronze: for eighty cathils a bahar of salt: for forty
cathils a bahar of _anime_, a gum which they use to caulk ships, for
in these countries they have no pitch. Twenty tabil make a cathil.
The merchandise which is most esteemed here is bronze, quicksilver,
cinnabar, glass, woollen stuffs, linens; but above all they esteem iron
and spectacles.
Since I saw such use made of porcelain, I got some information
respecting it, and I learned that it is made with a kind of very white
earth, which is left underground for fully fifty years to refine it, so
that they are in the habit of saying that the father buries it for his
son. It is said that if poison is put into a vessel of fine porcelain
it breaks immediately.
The junks mentioned several times above are their largest vessels,
and they are constructed in this manner. The lower part of the ships
and the sides to a height of two spans above water-line are built of
planks joined together with wooden bolts, and they are well enough
put together. The upper works are made of very large canes for a
counterpoise.[348] One of these junks carries as much cargo as our
ships. The masts are of bamboo, and the sails of bark of trees. This
island is so large that to sail round it with a prahu would require
three months. It is in 5° 15′ north latitude and 176° 40′ of longitude
from the line of demarcation.[349]
On leaving this island we returned backwards to look for a convenient
place for caulking our ships, which were leaking, and one of them,
through the negligence of the pilot, struck on a shoal near an island
named Bibalon;[350] but, by the help of God, we got her off. We also
ran another great danger, for a sailor, in snuffing a candle, threw the
lighted wick into a chest of gunpowder; but he was so quick in picking
it out that the powder did not catch fire.
On our way we saw four prahus. We took one laden with cocoanuts on its
way to Burné; but the crew escaped to a small island, and the other
three prahus escaped behind some other small islands.
Between the northern cape of Burné and the island named Cimbonbon,
situated in 8° 7′ N. latitude there is a very convenient port for
refitting ships, and we entered it; but as we were wanting many things
necessary for our work, we had to spend there forty-two days. Each one
worked at one thing or another according to the best of his knowledge
or ability; but our greatest labour was going to get wood in the
thickets, as the ground was covered with briars and thorny shrubs, and
we had no shoes.
In this island there are some very large wild boars. Whilst we were in
a boat we killed one which was crossing from one island to another.
Its head was two and a half spans long, and its tusks were exceedingly
long.[351] Here also are crocodiles; those of the land are larger than
those of the sea-coast. There are oysters and very large turtles; of
these we caught two. The flesh alone of one of them weighed twenty
pounds, and of the other forty-four pounds. We caught a kind of fish
with a head like that of a pig, and which had two horns; its body was
all covered with bone, and on its back it had a kind of saddle: this
was a small one. In this island are also found certain trees, the
leaves of which, when they fall, are animated, and walk. They are like
the leaves of the mulberry tree, but not so long; they have the leaf
stalk[352] short and pointed, and near the leaf stalk they have on each
side two feet. If they are touched they escape, but if crushed they
do not give out blood.[353] I kept one for nine days in a box. When I
opened it the leaf went round the box. I believe they live upon air.
The island in which we were is called Pulaoan.
On leaving this island—that is to say, the port which is at the
extremity of it—we met a junk which was coming from Borneo. We made
signals to it to strike its sails; but as it would not obey we overtook
it, captured and pillaged it. It had on board the Governor of Pulaoan,
with a son and a brother of his. We made them all prisoners, and put
them to ransom to give within seven days four hundred measures of
rice, twenty pigs, as many goats, and four hundred and fifty fowls.
They caused all this to be given us, and besides added spontaneously
cocoanuts, figs, sugar-canes, and vessels full of palm wine. We, in
consequence of his generosity, restored to him some of his daggers and
arquebuses; we also gave him a flag, a garment of yellow damask, and
fifteen ells of linen. We gave to his son a cloak of blue cloth, and to
his brother a garment of green cloth, and to the others other things,
and we parted good friends.
We turned backwards, passing between the island of Cagayan and the port
of Cipit,[354] taking a course east and a quarter south-east, to seek
the islands of Maluco. We passed between certain little mountains,[355]
around which we found many weeds, although there was there a great
depth. Passing between these islets it seemed that we were in another
sea.
Having left Cipit to the east, we saw to the west two islands called
Zolo[356] and Taghima,[357] near which islands pearls are found. The
two pearls of the King of Burné, of which I have spoken, were found
there, and this is the manner in which he obtained them, according
to the account which was given me of it. The King of Burné married a
daughter of the King of Zolo, who told him that her father had these
two big pearls. He desired to have them, and decided on getting them by
any means, and one night he set out with five hundred prahus full of
armed men, and went to Zolo, and took the king with his two sons, and
brought them to Burné, and did not restore them to liberty until they
gave him the two pearls.
Continuing our course east and a quarter north-east we passed near two
inhabited places called Cavit and Subanin, and passed near an island
called Monoripa, ten leagues distant from the before-mentioned islets.
The inhabitants of this island always live in their vessels, and have
no houses on shore. In these two districts of Cavit and Subanin, which
are situated in the same island[358] as that in which are Butuan and
Calagan, the best cinnamon of any grows. If we could have remained
here only two days, we could have laden the ships with it; but we did
not wish to lose time, but to profit by the favourable wind, for we
had to double a cape and some islets which were around it. Wherefore,
remaining under sail, we made a little barter, and obtained seventeen
pounds of cinnamon for two big knives, which we had taken from the
Governor of Pulaoan.
Having seen the cinnamon tree, I can give some description of it. It
is a small tree, not more than three or four cubits high, and of the
thickness of a man’s finger, and it has not got more than three or four
little branches. Its leaf is like that of the laurel. The cinnamon for
use which comes to us, is its bark, which is gathered twice in the
year. Its wood and leaves when they are green have the taste and force
of the bark itself. Here it is called Cain-mana, since _cain_ means
wood and _mana_ sweet.[359]
Having set the head of the ship to north-east, we made for a large
city called Maingdanao, situated in the same island in which are Butuan
and Calagan, in order to get precise information of the position of
Maluco. Following this course we took possession of a _bignaday_, a
vessel similar to a prahu, and being obliged to have recourse to force
and violence, we killed seven out of eighteen men who formed the crew.
These men were better made and more robust than all those we had seen
hitherto, and they were all chief men of Mindanao. There was among them
a brother of the king who said that he well knew where Maluco was.
Afterwards, following his indications, we left the north-east course
which we held, and took a south-east course. We were then in 6° 7´ N.
latitude and thirty leagues distant from Cavit.
We were told that at a cape of this island near to a river there are
men who are rather hairy, great warriors, and good archers, armed
with swords a span broad. When they make an enemy prisoner they eat
his heart only, and they eat it raw with the juice of oranges or
lemons.[360] This cape is called Benaian.[361]
Making for the south-east we found four islands, named Ciboco, Birabam
Batolac, Sarangani, and Candigar. Saturday, the 26th of October, about
nightfall, whilst coasting the island of Birabam Batolac, we met with
a very great storm, before which we lowered all our sails, and betook
ourselves to prayer. Then our three saints appeared upon the masts and
dispersed the darkness. St. Elmo stood for more than two hours at the
mainmast head like a flame. St. Nicholas at the head of the foremast,
and St. Clara on the mizenmast. In gratitude for their assistance we
promised a slave to each of the saints, and we gave to each an offering.
Continuing our voyage we entered a port between the two islands
Sarangani and Candigar, and cast anchor to the east, near a village of
Sarangani, where pearls and gold are found. This port is in 5° 9´ N.
latitude, and fifty leagues from Cavit. The inhabitants are Gentiles
and go naked like the others.
Having remained here a day we compelled by force two pilots to
come with us to show us the way to Maluco. We were directed to take
a south-south-west course, and passed between eight islands partly
inhabited, partly uninhabited, which formed a kind of street. These
were named Cheava, Caviao, Cabiao Camanuca, Cabaluzao, Cheai, Lipan,
and Nuza. At the end of these we reached an island which was very
beautiful, named Sanghir.[362] But having a contrary wind, which did
not allow us to double the cape, we tacked about backwards and forwards
near it.
On this occasion, profiting by the darkness of the night, one of the
pilots whom we had caught at Sarangani, and with him the brother of the
king of Mindanao with his little son, escaped by swimming and reached
that island; but we learned later that the son not being able to hold
on well to his father’s shoulders, was drowned.
Seeing that it was impossible to double the head of this island we
passed below it, where we saw many small islands. This large island
has four kings whose names are Raja Matandatu, Raja Laga, Raja Bapti,
and Raja Parabu. These are Gentiles. It is in 3° 30´ N. latitude and
twenty-seven leagues from Sarangani.
Continuing our course in the same direction we passed near five
islands named Cheoma, Carachita, Para, Zangalura, and Cian.[363] This
last is ten leagues distant from Sanghir. In this island there is a
rather high mountain, but not one of great extent. Its king is named
Raja Ponto. We came next to the island Paghinzara,[364] which has three
high mountains, and in it the king is Raja Babintan. We saw at twelve
leagues to the east of Paghinzara another island, Talant, and also two
islands, not large but inhabited, called Zoar and Mean.
Wednesday, the 6th of November, having passed beyond these two islands,
we discovered four other rather high islands at a distance of fourteen
leagues towards the east. The pilot who had remained with us told us
those were the Maluco islands, for which we gave thanks to God, and to
comfort ourselves we discharged all our artillery. It need not cause
wonder that we were so much rejoiced, since we had passed twenty-seven
months less two days always in search of Maluco, wandering for that
object among the immense number of islands. But I must say that near
all these islands the least depth that we found was one hundred
fathoms, for which reason attention is not to be given to all that the
Portuguese have spread, according to whom the islands of Maluco are
situated in seas which cannot be navigated on account of the shoals,
and the dark and foggy atmosphere.
Friday, the 8th November of 1521, three hours before sunset, we
entered a port of the island called Tadore,[365] and having gone near
the shore, we cast anchor in twenty fathoms, and discharged all our
artillery. Next day the king came to the ships in a prahu, and went
round them. We went to meet him with a boat to show him honour, and
he made us enter his prahu, and sit near him. He was sitting under a
silk umbrella, which sheltered him. In front of him was his son with
the royal sceptre, there were also two men with gold vases to give him
water for his hands, and two others with gilt caskets full of betel.
The king gave us a welcome, and said that a long time back he had
dreamed that some ships were coming to Maluco from distant countries,
and that to assure himself with respect to this, he had examined the
moon, and he had seen that they were really coming, and that indeed
they were our ships. After that he came on board our ships, and we all
kissed his hand: we then conducted him to the poop, but he, in order to
avoid stooping, would not enter the cabin except by the upper opening.
We made him sit down on a chair of red velvet, and placed on him a
Turkish robe of yellow velvet. In order to do him more honour we sat
down before him on the ground. When he had heard who we were, and what
was the object of our voyage, he said that he and all his people were
well content to be the most faithful friends and vassals of the King
of Spain; that he received us in this island as his own sons; that we
might go on shore and remain there as in our own houses; and that his
island for the future should not be named Tadore, but Castile, in proof
of the great love he bore to the king our master. Then we presented to
him the chair on which he sat, and the robe which we had put on him, a
piece of fine linen, four ells of scarlet cloth, a robe of brocade, a
cloth of yellow damask, a piece of the whitest Cambay linen, two caps,
six strings of glass beads, twelve knives, three large mirrors, six
scissors, six combs, some gilt goblets, and other things. We gave to
his son an Indian cloth of gold and silk, a large mirror, a cap and two
knives. To each of the nine chief men of his suite we made a present of
a piece of silk, a cap and two knives; and to many others of his suite
we made a present, to one of a cap, to another of a knife, until the
king told us not to give any more presents. He then said that he had
got nothing worthy to be sent as a present to our king, unless he sent
himself, now that he considered him as his lord. He invited us to come
closer to the city, and if any one attempted to come on board the ships
at night, he told us to fire upon him with our guns. He came out of the
stern cabin by the same way by which he had entered it, without ever
bending his head. At his departure we fired all the cannon.
This king is a Moor, of about forty-five years of age, rather well
made, and of a handsome presence. He is a very great astrologer. His
dress consisted of a shirt of very fine white stuff, with the ends of
the sleeves embroidered with gold, and a wrapper which came down from
his waist almost to the ground. He was barefooted; round his head he
had a silk veil, and over that a garland of flowers. He is named Raja
Sultan Manzor.
On the 10th of November—a Sunday—we had another conversation with
the king, who wished to know how long a time we had been absent from
Spain, and what pay and what rations the king gave to each of us; and
we told him all this. He asked us for a signature of the king and a
royal standard, since he desired that both his island of Tadore, and
also that of Tarenate (where he intended to have his nephew named
Calanogapi, crowned king) should become subject to the King of Spain,
for whose honour he would fight to the death; and if it should happen
that he should be compelled to give way, he would take refuge in Spain
with all his family, in a new junk which he was having constructed, and
would take with him the royal signature, and standard.
He begged us to leave with him some of our men, who would always keep
alive his recollection of us and of our king, as he would more esteem
having some of us with him than our merchandise, which would not last
him a long time. Seeing our eagerness to take cloves on board, he said
that for that purpose he would go to an island called Bachian, where he
hoped to find as much of them as were wanted, since in his island there
was not a quantity sufficient of dry cloves to load the two ships. On
that day there was no traffic because it was Sunday. The holiday of
these people is on Friday.
It may please your illustrious lordship to have some description of
the islands where the cloves grow. They are five—Tarenate, Tador,
Mutir, Machian, and Bachian. Tarenate is the principal island. Its
king, whilst he lived, had almost entire dominion over the other
four. Tadore, the island in which we were, has its own king. Mutir
and Machian have no king, but are governed by the people; and when
the kings of Tarenate and Tidore are at war, they furnish them with
combatants. The last is Bachian, and it has a king. All this province
in which the cloves grow is called Maluco.
When we arrived here, eight months had not elapsed since a certain
Portuguese, Francisco Serrano, had died in Tarenate. He was
captain-general of the King of Tarenate when he was making war on
the King of Tadore; and he acted so strenuously that this king was
compelled to give his daughter in marriage to the King of Tarenate,
who also received as hostages almost all the sons of the chief men of
Tadore. Peace was then made, and from that daughter was born the nephew
Calanopagi, of whom I have spoken. But the King of Tadore never forgave
Serrano in his heart; and he having come several years later to Tadore
to traffic in cloves, the king had him poisoned with some betel leaves,
so that he survived hardly four days. The King of Tarenate wished to
have him buried according to their own usage, but three Christian
servants that Serrano had with him did not consent to it. In dying he
left a little son and a little girl that he had of a lady he had taken
in Java major, and two hundred bahars of cloves.
Francisco Serrano was a great friend and a relation of our unfortunate
captain-general, and he it was who induced him to undertake that
voyage, for when Magellan was at Malacca, he had several times
learned by letters from Serrano that he was here. Therefore, when D.
Manuel, King of Portugal, refused to increase his pension by a single
testoon[366] per month, an increase which he thought he had well
deserved, he came to Spain and made the proposal to his Sacred Majesty
to come here by way of the west, and he obtained all that he asked for.
Ten days after the death of Serrano, the King of Tarenate, named
Raja Abuleis,[367] drove out from his kingdom his son-in-law the
King of Bachian, whose wife, the daughter of the King of Tarenate,
came to Tarenate under the pretext of concluding peace, and gave
him (her father) such a poison that he only survived two days,
and dying left nine sons, whose names were told to me as follows:
Chechili[368]-Momuli, Jadore Vunghi, Chechilideroix, Cilimanzur,
Cilipagi, Chialinchechilin, Cataravajecu, Serich, and Calanopagi.
Monday, the 11th of November, Chechilideroix, one of the
above-mentioned sons of the King of Tarenate, came with two prahus to
the ships sounding drums: he was dressed in red velvet. We learned that
he had near him the widow and sons of Francisco Serrano. When we knew
him, being aware that he was an enemy of the King of Tadore, we sent to
ask him whether we might receive him in the ships, which, as we were in
his port, we would not do without his consent. The king sent us word
to do whatever we pleased. But meantime Chechilideroix, seeing our
hesitation, had some suspicion, and moved further off from the ships.
We then went to him in a boat, and made him a present of an Indian
cloth of gold and silk, with some looking-glasses, knives, scissors,
etc.: these things he accepted but disdainfully, and soon after
departed. He had with him an Indian who had become a Christian, named
Manuel, the servant of a certain Pedro Alfonzo de Lorosa, a Portuguese,
who, after the death of Serrano, had come from Bandan to Tarenate.
Manuel being able to speak Portuguese, came on board the ships, and
told us that although the sons of the King of Tarenate were enemies
to the King of Tadore, yet they were disposed towards the service of
Spain. Then, by means of him, we wrote to De Lorosa to come to our
ships without any suspicion or fear.