The First Mass in Masawa

Early on Easter Sunday morning, March 31, Magellan sent the priest with some men to prepare mass together with the interpreter to tell the king that we were not going to land in order to dine with him, but to say mass.

• The king sent us two swine that he had killed.
• When the hour for mass arrived, we landed with 50 armed men without armor but dressed in our best clothes.
• Before we reached the shore with our boats, six pieces were discharged as a sign of peace.

The two kings embraced Magellan.

• During the mass, the kings went forward to kiss the cross as we did, but they did not offer the sacrifice.
• When the body of our Lord was elevated, they remained on their knees and worshiped Him with clasped hands.
• The ships fired all their artillery at once when the body of Christ was elevated, the signal having been given from the shore with muskets.
• After the conclusion of mass, some of our men took communion.

Magellan arranged a fencing tournament, at which the kings were greatly pleased.

• Then he had a cross carried in, as well as the nails and a crown, to which immediate reverence was made.

He told the kings through the interpreter that:

• they were the standards given to him by the Spanish emperor so that wherever he might go he might set up those his tokens
• he wished to set it up there for their benefit so that whenever any of our ships came, they would know that we had been there by that cross and would not harm them or their property
• if any of their men were captured, they would be set free immediately on that sign being shown
• it was necessary to set that cross on the summit of the highest mountain, so that they could adore it every morning so that neither thunder, lightning, nor storms would harm them

They thanked him heartily and said that they would do everything willingly.

Magellan asked their religion.

• They replied that they worshiped Abba by raising their clasped hands and their face to the sky
• Raha Colambu raised his hands to the sky, and said that he wished that it were possible for him to make Magellan see his love for him.
• This made Magellan was very glad

The interpreter asked Raha Colambu why there was so little to eat there. Raha Colambu replied that he did not live in Masawa except when he went hunting and to see Raha Siaui.

Magellan asked whether he had any enemies so that he could go with his ships to destroy them to make them obedient.

• Raha Colambu thanked him and said that two islands were hostile to him.
• But it was not then the season to go there.

Magellan told him that if God allowed him to return to those districts, he would bring so many men that he would make Humabon’s enemies subject to him by force.

Raha Colambu said that he was about to go to dinner, and that he would return afterward to have the cross set up on the summit of the mountain.

• Magellan embraced the two kings and let his men form in battalion and fire the muskets

After dinner, we all returned, clad in our doublets. That afternoon, we went together with Raha Colambu and Raha Siaui to the summit of the highest mountain there. When we reached the summit, Magellan:

• told them that he esteemed highly having sweated for them because the cross would be very useful to the people.
• asked where to get food
  • They replied:
    • Ceylon [Leyte]
    • Cebu was the largest and the one with most trade
    • Calaghan [Caraga ]
  • They offered heir pilots to show us the way

Magellan asked the kings for the pilots because he intended to depart the following morning.

• He said that he would treat the pilots as if they were the kings themselves, and would leave one of us as hostage.

Raha Colambu replied he wanted the pilots to be under Magellan’s command.

But that night, Raha Colambu changed his mind and in the morning, when we were about to depart asked Magellan:

• to wait two days until he should have his rice harvested, and other trifles attended to
• to send him some men to help him, so that it might be done faster
• in return, he would act as our pilot himself.

Magellan sent him some men, but the kings ate and drank so much that they slept all day.

• Some said to excuse them that they were slightly sick.
• Our men did nothing on that day, but they worked the next two days.

One of the natives brought us about a porringer full of rice and also 10 bananas fastened together to barter them for a knife which at the most was worth 3 catrini.

• Magellan saw that that native cared only for knives, called him to look at other things.
• He put his hand in his purse and wished to give him one real for those things, but the native refused it.
• Magellan showed him a ducado but he would not accept that either.
• Finally, Magellan tried to give him a doppione worth two ducados, but he would take only a knife, so Magellan gave him one.

When one of our men went ashore for water, one of those people wanted to give him a pointed crown of massy gold, of the size of a colona for six strings of glass beads, but Magellan refused to let him barter, so that the natives should learn at the very beginning that we prized our merchandise more than their gold.

Those people are heathens and go naked and painted.

• They wear a piece of cloth woven from a tree about their privies.
• They are very heavy drinkers.
• Their women are clad in tree cloth from their waist down, and their hair is black and reaches to the ground.
  • They have holes pierced in their ears which are filled with gold.
• Those people are constantly chewing a fruit which they call areca, and which resembles a pear.
  • They cut that fruit into four parts, and then wrap it in the leaves of their tree which they call betre [betel].
    • Those leaves resemble the leaves of the mulberry.
  • They mix it with a little lime, and when they have chewed it thoroughly, they spit it out.
  • It makes the mouth exceedingly red.
  • All the people in those parts of the world use it, for it is very cooling to the heart, and if they ceased to use it they would die.
  • There are dogs, cats, swine, fowls, goats, rice, ginger, cocoanuts, figs [i.e., bananas], oranges, lemons, millet, panicum, sorgo, wax, and a quantity of gold in that island.
• It lies in a latitude of nine and two-thirds degrees toward the Arctic Pole, and in a longitude of 162 degrees.
• It is 25 leagues from the Acquada, and is called Mazawa.

We remained there 7 days