anto pagaphetta
[FIRST VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD]
(Continued from Vol. XXXIII, page 267.)
In the afternoon of that same day, Pietro Alfonso, the Portuguese, came
in a prau. He had not disembarked before the king sent to summon him
and told him banteringly to answer us truly in whatever we should ask
him, even if he did come from Tarennate. He told us that he had been
sixteen years in India, but x in Maluco, for Maluco had been discovered
secretly for that time. [488] It was a year all but one fortnight,
since a large ship had arrived at that place from Malaca, and had left
laden with cloves, but had been obliged to remain in Bandan for some
months because of bad weather. Its captain was Tristan de Meneses,
[489] a Portuguese. When he asked the latter what was the news back in
Christendom, he was told that a fleet of five ships had left Siviglia
to discover Maluco in the name of the king of Spagnia under command of
Fernando de Magallianes, a Portuguese; that the king of Portugallo,
angered that a Portuguese should be opposed to him, had sent some ships
to the cape of Bonna Speransa [i.e., Good Hope], and a like number to
the cape of Sancta Maria, where the cannibals live, in order to prevent
their passage, but that he was not found. Then the king of Portagalo
had heard that the said captain had passed into another sea, and was on
his way to Malucho. He immediately wrote directing his chief captain of
India, one Diego Lopes de Sichera, [490] to send six ships to Maluco.
But the latter did not send them because the Grand Turk was coming to
Malacha, for he was obliged to send sixty sail to oppose him at the
strait of Mecha in the land of Juda. They found only a few galleys that
had been beached on the shore of the strong and beautiful city of Adem,
all of which they burned. [491] After that the chief captain sent a
large galleon with two tiers of guns to Malucho to oppose us, but it
was unable to proceed because of certain shoals and currents of water
near Malaca, and contrary winds. The captain of that galleon was
Francesco Faria, [492] a Portuguese. It was but a few days since a
caravel with two junks had been in that place to get news of us. The
junks went to Bachian for a cargo of cloves with seven Portuguese. As
those Portuguese did not respect the women of the king and of his
subjects, although the king told them often not to act so, and since
they refused to discontinue, they were put to death. When the men in
the caravel heard that, they immediately returned to Malaca abandoning
the junks with four hundred bahars of cloves, and sufficient
merchandise to purchase one hundred bahars more. Every year a number of
junks sail from Malaca to Bandan [493] for mace and nutmeg, and from
Bandan to Malucho for cloves. Those people sail in three days in those
junks of theirs from Maluco to Bandan, and in a fortnight from Bandan
to Malaca. The king of Portagalo had enjoyed Malucho already for x
years secretly, so that the king of Spagnia might not learn of it. That
Portuguese remained with us until three in the morning, and told us
many other things. We plied him so well, promising him good pay that he
promised to return to Spagnia with us.
On Friday, November fifteen, the king told us that he was going to
Bachian to get the cloves abandoned there by the Portuguese. He asked
us for two presents so that he might give them to the two governors of
Mutir in the name of the king of Spagnia. Passing in between the ships
he desired to see how we fired our musketry, crossbows, and the
culverins, which are larger than an arquebus. He shot three times with
a crossbow, for it pleased him more than the muskets. [494] On
Saturday, the Moro king of Giailolo came to the ships with a
considerable number of praus. To some of the men we gave some green
damask silk, two brazas of red cloth, mirrors, scissors, knives, combs,
and two gilt drinking cups. That king told us that since we were
friends of the king of Tadore, we were also his friends, for he loved
that king as one of his own sons; and whenever any of our men would go
to his land, he would show him the greatest honor. That king is very
aged and is feared among all those islands, for he is very powerful.
His name is Raia Jessu. That island of Jayalolo is so large that it
takes four months to circumnavigate it in a prau. On Sunday morning
that same king came to the ships and desired to see how we fought and
how we discharged our guns. He took the greatest pleasure in it. After
they had been discharged he immediately departed. He had been a great
fighter in his youth as we were told.
That same day, I went ashore to see how the clove grows. The clove tree
is tall and as thick as a man’s body or thereabout. Its branches
spread out somewhat widely in the middle, but at the top they have the
shape of a summit. Its leaves resemble those of the laurel, and the
bark is of a dark color. [495] The cloves grow at the end of the twigs,
ten or twenty in a cluster. Those trees have generally more cloves on
one side than on the other, according to the season. When the cloves
sprout they are white, when ripe, red, and when dried, black. They are
gathered twice per year, once at the nativity of our Savior, [when the
year is more: crossed out in original MS.] and the other at the
nativity of St. John the Baptist; for the climate is more moderate at
those two seasons, but more so at the time of the nativity of our
Savior. When the year is very hot and there is little rain, those
people gather three or four hundred bahars [of cloves] in each of those
islands. Those trees grow only in the mountains, and if any of them are
planted in the lowlands near the mountains, they do not live. The
leaves, the bark, and the green wood are as strong as the cloves. If
the latter are not gathered when they are ripe, they become large and
so hard that only their husk is good. No cloves are grown in the world
except in the five mountains of those five islands, except that some
are found in Giailolo and in a small island between Tadore and Mutir,
by name Mare, [496] but they are not good. Almost every day we saw a
mist descend and encircle now one and now another of those mountains,
on account of which those cloves become perfect. Each of those people
possesses clove trees, and each one watches over his own trees although
he does not cultivate them. Some nutmeg trees are found in that island.
The tree resembles our walnut tree, and has leaves like it. When the
nut is gathered it is as large as a small quince, with the same sort of
down, and it is of the same color. Its first rind is as thick as the
green rind of our walnut. Under that there is a thin layer, under which
is found the mace. The latter is a brilliant red and is wrapped about
the rind of the nut, and within that is the nutmeg. [497] The houses of
those people are built like those of the others, but are not raised so
high from the ground, and are surrounded with bamboos like a hedge. The
women there are ugly and go naked as do the others, [covered only] with
those cloths made from the bark of trees. Those cloths are made in the
following manner. They take a piece of bark and leave it in the water
until it becomes soft. Then they beat it with bits of wood and [thus]
make it as long and as wide as they wish. It becomes like a veil of raw
silk, and has certain threads within it, which appear as if woven.
[498] They eat wooden bread made from a tree resembling the palm, which
is made as follows. They take a piece of that soft wood from which they
take certain long black thorns. Then they pound [499] the wood, and so
make the bread. They use that bread, which they call saghu [i.e.,
sago], almost as their sole food at sea. The men there go naked as do
the others [of those regions], but they are so jealous of their wives
that they do not wish us to go ashore with our drawers exposed; [500]
for they assert that their women imagine that we are always in
readiness.
A number of boats came from Tarenate daily laden with cloves, but, as
we were awaiting the king, we did not barter for anything except food.
The men who came from Tarenate were very sorry because we refused to
trade with them. On Sunday night, November twenty-four, and toward
Monday, the king came with gongs a-playing, and passed between the
ships, [whereat] we discharged many pieces. He told us that cloves
would be brought in quantity within four days. Monday the king sent us
seven hundred and ninety-one [501] cathils of cloves, without reckoning
the tare. The tare is to take the spices for less than they weigh, for
they become dryer daily. As those were the first cloves which we had
laden in our ships, we fired many pieces. Cloves are called ghomode
there; in Saranghani where we captured the two pilots, bongalauan;
[502] and in Malaca, chianche.
On Tuesday, November twenty-six, the king told us that it was not the
custom of any king to leave his island, but that he had left [his] for
the love that he bore the king of Castiglia, and so that we might go to
Spagnia sooner and return with so many ships that we could avenge the
murder of his father who was killed in an island called Buru, [503] and
then thrown into the sea. He told us that it was the custom, when the
first cloves were laden in the ships or in the junks, for the king to
make a feast for the crews of the ships, and to pray [504] their God
that He would lead those ships safe to their port. He also wished to do
it because of the king of Bachian and one of his brothers who were
coming to visit him. He had the streets cleaned. Some of us imagining
that some treachery was afoot, because three Portuguese in the company
of Francesco Seranno had been killed in the place where we took in
water, by certain of those people who had hidden in the thickets, and
because we saw those Indians whispering with our prisoners, declared in
opposition to some who wished to go to the feast that we ought not go
ashore for feasts, for we remembered that other so unfortunate one. We
were so urgent that it was concluded to send a message to the king
asking him to come soon to the ships, for we were about to depart, and
would give him the four men whom we had promised him, besides some
other merchandise. The king came immediately and entered the ships. He
told some of his men that he entered them with as great assurance as
into his own houses. He told us that he was greatly astonished at our
intention of departing so soon, since the limit of time for lading the
ships was thirty days; and that he had not left the island to do us any
harm, but to supply the ships with cloves sooner. He said that we
should not depart then for that was not the season for sailing among
those islands, both because of the many shoals found about Bandan and
because we might easily meet some Portuguese ships [in those seas].
However, if it were our determination to depart then, we should take
all our merchandise, for all the kings roundabout would say that the
king of Tadore had received so many presents from so great a king, and
had given nothing in return; and that they would think that we had
departed only for fear of some treachery, and would always call him a
traitor. Then he had his koran [505] brought, and first kissing it and
placing it four or five times above his head, and saying certain words
to himself as he did so (which they call zambahean [506]), he declared
in the presence of all, that he swore by Allah and by the koran [507]
which he had in his hand, that he would always be a faithful friend to
the king of Spagnia. He spoke all those words nearly in tears. In
return for his good words, we promised to wait another fortnight.
Thereupon, we gave him the signature of the king and the royal banner.
None the less we heard afterward on good authority that some of the
chiefs of those islands [508] had proposed to him to kill us, saying it
would be doing the greatest kind of pleasure to the Portuguese, and
that the latter would forgive those of Bachian. [509] But the king had
replied that he would not do it under any consideration, since he had
recognized the king of Spagnia and had made peace with him.
After dinner on Wednesday, November twenty-seven, the king had an edict
proclaimed that all those who had cloves could bring them to the ships.
All that and the next day we bartered for cloves with might and main.
On Friday afternoon, the governor of Machian came with a considerable
number of praus. He refused to disembark, for his father and one of his
brothers who had been banished from Machian were living in Tadore. Next
day, our king and his nephew, the governor, entered the ships. As we
had no more cloth, the king sent to have three brazas of his brought
and gave it to us,510 and we gave it with other things to the governor.
At his departure we discharged many pieces. Afterward the king sent us
six brazas of red cloth, so that we might give it to the governor. We
immediately presented it to the latter, and he thanked us heartily for
it, telling us that he would send us a goodly quantity of cloves. That
governor’s name is Humar, and he was about twenty-five years old.
On Sunday, the first of December, that governor departed. We were told
that the king of Tadore had given him some silk cloth and some of those
gongs [511] so that he might send the cloves quicker. On Monday the
king went out of the island to get cloves. On Wednesday morning, as it
was the day of St. Barbara, [512] and because the king came, all the
artillery was discharged. At night the king came to the shore, and
asked to see how we fired our rockets and fire bombs, [513] at which he
was highly delighted. On Thursday and Friday we bought many cloves,
both in the city and in the ships. For four brazas of ribbon, they gave
us one bahar of cloves; for two brass chains, worth one marcello, [514]
they gave us one hundred libras of cloves. Finally, when we had no more
merchandise, one man gave his cloak, another his doublet, and another
his shirt, besides other articles of clothing, in order that they might
have their share in the cargo. On Saturday, three of the sons of the
king of Tarenate and their three wives, the daughters of our king, and
Pietro Alfonso, the Portuguese, came to the ships. We gave each of the
three brothers a gilt glass drinking-cup, [515] and scissors and other
things to the women. Many pieces were discharged at their departure.
Then we sent ashore many things to the daughter of our king, now the
wife of the king of Tarennatte, as she refused to come to the ships
with the others. All those people, both men and women, always go
barefoot.
On Sunday, December eight, as it was the day of the conception, we
fired many pieces, rockets, and fire bombs. [516] On Monday afternoon
the king came to the ships with three women, who carried his betel for
him. No one except the king can take women with him. Afterward the king
of Jailolo came and wished to see us fight together again. Several days
later our king told us that he was like a child at the breast who knew
his dear mother, who departing would leave him alone. Especially would
he be disconsolate, because now he had become acquainted with us, and
enjoyed some of the products of Spagnia. Inasmuch as our return would
be far in the future, he earnestly entreated us to leave him some of
[his: crossed out in original MS.] our culverins [517] for his defense.
He advised us to sail only by day when we left, because of the numerous
shoals amid those islands. We replied to him that if we wished to reach
Spagnia we would have to sail day and night. Thereupon, he told us that
he would pray daily to his God for us, asking Him to conduct us in
safety. He told us that the king of Bachian was about to come to marry
one of his brothers to one of his [the king of Tidore’s] daughters,
and asked us to invent some entertainment in token of joy; but that we
should not fire the large pieces, because they would do great damage to
the ships as they were laden. During that time, Pietro Alfonso, the
Portuguese, came with his wife and all his other possessions to remain
in the ships. Two days later, Chechili de Roix, son of the king of
Tarennate, came in a well-manned prau, and asked the Portuguese to go
down into it for a few moments. The Portuguese answered that he would
not go down, for he was going to Spagnia with us, whereupon the
king’s son tried to enter the ship, but we refused to allow him to
come aboard, as he was a close friend to the Portuguese captain of
Malaca, and had come to seize the Portuguese. He severely scolded those
who lived near the Portuguese because they had allowed the latter to go
without his permission.
On Sunday afternoon, December fifteen, the king of Bachian and his
brother came in a prau with three tiers of rowers at each side. In all
there were one hundred and twenty rowers, and they carried many banners
made of white, yellow, and red parrot feathers. There was much sounding
of those gongs, for the rowers kept time in their rowing to those
sounds. He brought two other praus filled with girls to present them to
his betrothed. When they passed near the ships, we saluted them by
firing pieces, and they in order to salute us went round the ships and
the port. Our king came to congratulate him as it is not the custom for
any king to disembark on the land of another king. When the king of
Bachian saw our king coming, he rose from the carpet on which he was
seated, and took his position at one side of it. Our king refused to
sit down upon the carpet, but on its other side, and so no one occupied
the carpet. The king of Bachian gave our king five hundred patols,
because the latter was giving his daughter to wife to the former’s
brother. The said patols are cloths of gold and silk manufactured in
Chiina, and are highly esteemed among them. Whenever one of those
people dies the other members of his family [518] clothe themselves in
those cloths in order to show him more honor. They give three bahars of
cloves for one of those robes or thereabouts, according to the [value
of the] robe.
On Monday our king sent a banquet to the king of Bachian by fifty women
all clad in silk garments from the waist to the knees. They went two by
two with a man between each couple. Each one bore a large tray filled
with other small dishes which contained various kinds of food. The men
carried nothing but the wine in large jars. Ten of the oldest women
acted as macebearers. [519] Thus did they go quite to the prau where
they presented everything to the king who was sitting upon the carpet
under a red and yellow canopy. As they were returning, those women
captured some of our men [520] and it was necessary to give them some
little trifle in order to regain their freedom. After that our king
sent us goats, cocoanuts, wine, and other things. That day we bent the
new sails in the ships. On them was a cross of St. James of Galitia,
[521] with an inscription which read: “This is the sign [figura] of
our good fortune.”
On Tuesday, we gave our king certain pieces of artillery resembling
arquebuses, which we had captured among those India [islands], and some
of our culverins, [522] together with four barrels of powder. We took
aboard at that place eighty butts of water in each ship. Five days
previously the king had sent one hundred men to cut wood for us at the
island of Mare, by which we were to pass. On that day the king of
Bachian and many of his men came ashore to make peace with us. Before
the king walked four men with drawn daggers in their hands. In the
presence of our king and of all the others he said that he would always
remain in the service of the king of Spagnia, and that he would save in
his name the cloves left by the Portuguese until the arrival of another
of our fleets, and he would never give them to the Portuguese without
our consent. He sent as a present to the king of Spagnia a slave, two
bahars of cloves (he sent x, but the ships could not carry them as they
were so heavily laden), and two extremely beautiful dead birds. Those
birds are as large as thrushes, and have a small head and a long beak.
Their legs are a palmo in length and as thin as a reed, [523] and they
have no wings, but in their stead long feathers of various colors, like
large plumes. Their tail resembles that of the thrush. All the rest of
the feathers except the wings are of a tawny color. They never fly
except when there is wind. The people told us that those birds came
from the terrestrial paradise, and they call them bolon diuata, [524]
that is to say, “birds of God.” On that day each one of the kings
of Maluco wrote to the king of Spagnia [to say] that they desired to be
always his true subjects. The king of Bachian was about seventy [525]
years old. He observed the following custom, namely, whenever he was
about to go to war or to undertake any other important thing, he first
had it done two or three times on one of his servants whom he kept for
no other purpose.
One day our king sent to tell our men who were living in the house with
the merchandise not to go out of the house by night, because of certain
of his men who anoint themselves [526] and roam abroad by night. They
appear to be headless, and when any of them meets any other man, he
touches the latter’s hand, and rubs a little of the ointment on him.
The man falls sick very soon, and dies within three or four days. When
such persons meet three or four together they do nothing else than
[527] to deprive them of their senses. [The king said] that he had had
many of them hanged. When those people build a new house, before they
go to dwell there they make a fire round about it and hold many feasts.
Then they fasten to the roof of the house a trifle of everything found
in the island so that such things may never be wanting to the
inhabitants. Ginger is found throughout those islands. We ate it green
like bread. Ginger is not a tree, but a small plant which puts forth
from the ground certain shoots a palmo in length, which resemble reeds,
and whose leaves resemble those of the reed, except that they are
narrower. [528] Those shoots are worthless, but the roots form the
ginger. It is not so strong green as dry. Those people dry it in lime,
[529] for otherwise it would not keep.
On Wednesday morning as we desired to depart from Malucho, the king of
Tadore, the king of Jaialolo, the king of Bachian, and a son of the
king of Tarennate, all came to accompany us to the island of Mare. The
ship “Victoria” set sail, and stood out a little awaiting the ship
“Trinitade.” But the latter not being able to weigh anchor,
suddenly began to leak in the bottom. [530] Thereupon, the
“Victoria” returned to its anchorage, and we immediately began to
lighten the “Trinitade” in order to see whether we could repair it.
We found that the water was rushing in as through a pipe, but we were
unable to find where it was coming in. All that and the next day we did
nothing but work the pump, [531] but we availed nothing. When our king
heard of it, he came immediately to the ships, and went to considerable
trouble in his endeavors to locate the leak. He sent five of his men
into the water to see whether they could discover the hole. They
remained more than one-half hour under water, but were quite unable to
find the leak. The king seeing that he could not help us and that the
water was increasing hourly, said almost in tears that he would send to
the head of the island for three men, who could remain under water a
long time. Our king came with the three men early on Friday morning. He
immediately sent them into the water with their hair hanging loose so
that they could locate the leak by that means. They stayed a full hour
under water but were quite unable to locate it. When the king saw that
he could be of no assistance, he asked us weeping who of us would go
“to Spagnia to my sovereign, and give him news of me.” [532] We
replied to him that the “Victoria” would go there in order not to
lose the east winds which were beginning to blow, while the other ship
until being refitted would await the west winds and would go then to
Darien which is located in the other part of the sea in the country of
Diucatan [i.e., Yucutan]. The king told us that he had two hundred and
twenty-five carpenters who would do all the work, and that he would
treat [533] all who remained here as his sons. They would not suffer
any fatigue beyond two of them [534] to boss the carpenters in their
work. He spoke those words so earnestly [535] that he made us all weep.
We of the ship “Victoria,” mistrusting that the ship might open, as
it was too heavily laden, lightened it of sixty quintals of cloves,
which we had carried into the house where the other cloves were. Some
of the men of our ship desired to remain there, as they feared that the
ship would not last out the voyage to Spagnia, but much more for fear
lest they perish of hunger.
On the day of St. Thomas, Saturday, December twenty-one, our king came
to the ships, and assigned us the two pilots whom we had paid to
conduct us out of those islands. They said that it was the proper time
to leave then, but as our men [who stayed behind] were writing to
Spagnia, we did not leave until noon. [536] When that hour came, the
ships bid one another farewell amid the discharge of the cannon, and it
seemed as though they were bewailing their last departure. Our men [who
were to remain] accompanied us in their boats a short distance, and
then with many tears and embraces we departed. The king’s governor
accompanied us as far as the island of Mare. We had no sooner arrived
at that island than we bought four praus laden with wood, and in less
than one hour we stowed it aboard the ship and then immediately laid
our course toward the southwest. Johan Carvaio stayed there with
fifty-three [537] of our men, while we comprised forty-seven men and
thirteen Indians. The said island of Tadore has a bishop, [538] and he
who then exercised that office [539] had forty wives and a multitude of
children.
Throughout those islands of Malucho are found cloves, ginger, sago
(which is their wood bread), rice, goats, geese, chickens, cocoanuts,
figs [i.e., bananas], almonds larger than ours, sweet and tasty
pomegranates, oranges, lemons, camotes [batate], honey produced by bees
as small as ants, which make their honey in the trees, sugarcane,
cocoanut oil, beneseed oil, watermelons, wild cucumbers, gourds, a
refreshing fruit as large as cucumbers [augurie] called comulicai,
another fruit, like the peach called guava, and other kinds of food.
[540] One also finds there parrots of various colors, and among the
other varieties, some white ones called cathara, and some entirely red
called nori. [541] One of those red ones is worth one bahar of cloves,
and that class speak with greater distinctness than the others. Those
Moros have lived in Malucho for about fifty years. Heathens lived there
before, but they did not care for the cloves. There are still some of
the latter, but they live in the mountains where the cloves grow.
The island of Tadore lies in a latitude of twenty-seven minutes toward
the Arctic Pole, and in a longitude of one hundred and sixty-one
degrees from the line of demarcation. It is nine and one-half degrees
south of the first island of the archipelago called Zamal, and extends
north by east and south by west. Tarenate lies in a latitude of
two-thirds of a degree toward the Arctic Pole. Mutir lies exactly under
the equinoctial line. Machian lies in one-quarter degree toward the
Antarctic Pole, and Bachian also toward the Antarctic Pole in one
degree. Tarenate, Tadore, Mutir, and Machian are four lofty and peaked
mountains where the cloves grow. When one is in those four islands, he
cannot see Bachian, but it is larger than any of those four islands.
[542] Its clove mountain is not so sharp as the others, but it is
larger. [543]