Magellan's Men in Zamboanga del Norte, Palawan, and Brunei

Zamboanga del Norte

Then we came to a large island [Mindanao], at a port called Chipit and met its king Raja Calanao.

• He drew blood from his left hand marking his body, face, and the tip of his tongue with it as a token of the closest friendship, and we did the same.
• When we entered a river, many fishermen offered fish to the king.
• Then the king removed the cloths which covered his privies, as did some of his chiefs.
• He began to row while singing past many dwellings which were upon the river.
• It was 2 leagues from the mouth of the river where our ships were to the king’s house.

His house had many torches of cane and palm leaves which were of the anime.

• Until the supper was brought in, Raja Calanao with two of his chiefs and two of his beautiful women drank a large jar of palm wine without eating anything.
• In drinking they observed all the same ceremonies that Raha Colambu did.
• Supper was of rice and very salty fish in porcelain dishes.
• They ate their rice as if it were bread.
  • Rice is cooked by first put in an earthen jar a large leaf which lines all of the jar.
  • Then they add the water and the rice.
  • They cover it and let it boil until the rice hardens as bread and is taken out in pieces.

When we had eaten, the king had a reed mat and another of palm leaves, and a leaf pillow brought in for me to sleep on.

• The king and his two women went to sleep in a separate place, while I slept with one of his chiefs.
• I saw many articles of gold in the houses in that island, but little food.
• After dinner on rice and fish, I asked Raja Calanao by signs whether I could see the queen.
• So we went to the summit of a lofty hill, where the queen’s house was located.
• I bowed to the queen, and sat down beside her.
• She was making a sleeping mat of palm leaves.

In her house, there was hanging a number of porcelain jars and four metal gongs—one of which was larger than the second, while the other two were still smaller—for playing upon.

• There were many male and female slaves who served her.
• The most abundant product of that island is gold.

They showed me certain large valleys, making me a sign that the gold there was as abundant as the hairs of their heads, but they have no iron with which to dig it, and they do not dare to go to the trouble [to get it].

• That part of the island belongs to the same land as Butuan and Calaghan, and lies toward Bohol, and is bounded by Masawa.

The king and the other chief men wished to accompany me, and therefore we went in the same balanghai.

• As we were returning along the river, I saw, on the summit of a hill at the right, three men suspended from one tree, the branches of which had been cut away.
• Raja Calanao said that they were malefactors and robbers.

Those people go naked.

• Chipit is an excellent harbor and is 50 leguas from Cebu.
• Rice, ginger, swine, goats, fowls, and other things are to be found there.
• It lies 8 degrees latitude toward the Arctic Pole, and 167 longitude of degrees.
• Two days’ journey thence to the northwest is a large island called Luzon, where six or eight Chinese junks go yearly.

Tawi-tawi (Mapun?)

We sailed west southwest to an island called Cagayan which is not very large and almost uninhabited.

• The people of that island are Moros and were banished from Borneo.
• They go naked as do the others.
• They have blowpipes and small quivers at their side, full of arrows and a poisonous herb.
• They have daggers whose hafts are adorned with gold and precious gems, spears, bucklers, and small cuirasses of buffalo horn.
• They called us holy beings.
• Little food was to be found in that island, but [there were] immense trees.
• It lies in a latitude of 7.5 degrees toward the Arctic Pole, and 43 leguas from Chippit.

Palawan

About 25 leguas west northwest from Cagayan is the large island of Palawan which has:

• rice
• ginger
• swine
• goats
• fowls
• bananas 1/2 braza long and as thick as the arm
  • They are excellent and are much better than all the others
  • The others are 1 palmo and less in length
• coconuts
• camotes [batate]
• sugarcane
• roots resembling turnips in taste.

Rice is cooked there under the fire in bamboos or in wood and it lasts better than that cooked in earthen pots.

• We called that land the land of promise, because we suffered great hunger before we found it.
• We were often on the point of abandoning the ships and going ashore in order that we might not die of hunger.
• The king made peace with us by gashing himself slightly in the breast with one of our knives, and upon bleeding, touching the tip of his tongue and his forehead in token of the truest peace, and we did the same.
• It lies in a latitude of 9.3 degrees, and a longitude of 171.3 degrees.

Those people of Palawan also go naked.

• Almost all of them cultivate their fields.
• They have blowpipes with thick wooden arrows more than one palmo long, with harpoon points, and others tipped with fishbones, and poisoned with an herb; while others are tipped with points of bamboo like harpoons and are poisoned.
• At the end of the arrow they attach a little piece of soft wood, instead of feathers.
• At the end of their blowpipes they fasten a bit of iron like a spear head and when they have shot all their arrows they fight with that.
• They place a value on brass rings and chains, bells, knives, and still more on copper wire for binding their fishhooks.
• They have large and very tame cocks, which they do not eat because of a certain veneration that they have for them. Sometimes they make them fight with one another, and each one puts up a certain amount on his cock, and the prize goes to him whose cock is the victor.
• They have distilled rice wine which is stronger and better than that made from the palm.

Brunei

10 leguas southwest of Palawan, we came to Borneo.

• 50 leguas from the tip is the port of Brunei.
• After entering Brunei, the holy body [i.e., St. Elmo’s fire] appeared to us through the pitchy darkness.
• The next day, July 9, its Moro king Raja Siripada sent a very beautiful prau to us
  • Its bow and stern were worked in gold.
  • At the bow flew a white and blue banner surmounted with peacock feathers.
  • Some men were playing on musical instruments [cinphonie] and drums.
  • Two almadies came with that prau.
  • Praus resemble fustas, while the almadies are their small fishing boats.
  • Their chiefs were eight old men. They entered our ships and presented us with a painted wooden jar full of betel and areca (the fruit which they chew continually), and jessamine and orange blossoms, a covering of yellow silk cloth, two cages full of fowls, a couple of goats, three jarsful of distilled rice wine, and some bundles of sugarcane.
  • They did the same to the other ship, and embracing us took their leave.
  • The rice wine is as clear as water, but so strong that it intoxicated many of our men. It is called arach [i.e., arrack].

Six days later, Raja Siripada again sent three praus with great pomp, which encircled the ships with musical instruments [cinphonie] playing and drums and brass gongs beating.

• They saluted us with their peculiar cloth caps which cover only the top of their heads.
• We saluted them by firing our mortars without [loading with] stones.
• Then they gave us a present of various kinds of food, made only of rice.
• Some were wrapped in leaves and were made in somewhat longish pieces, some resembled sugar-loaves, while others were made in the manner of tarts with eggs and honey.
• They told us that their king was willing to let us get water and wood, and to trade.
• Seven of us entered their prau bearing a present to their king, which consisted of a green velvet robe made in the Turkish manner, a violet velvet chair, five brazas of red cloth, a cap, a gilded drinking glass, a covered glass vase, three writing-books of paper, and a gilded writing-case.
• To the queen [we took] three brazas of [red: crossed out in original MS.] yellow cloth, a pair of silvered shoes, and a silvered needle-case full of needles.
• [We took] three brazas of red cloth, a cap, and a gilded drinking-glass to the governor.
• To the herald who came in the prau we gave a robe of red and green cloth, made in the Turkish fashion, a cap, and a writing book of paper; and to the other seven chief men, to one a bit of cloth, and to another a cap, and to all of them a writing book of paper. Then we immediately departed [for the land].

When we reached the city, we remained about two hours in the prau, until the arrival of two elephants with silk trappings, and twelve men each of whom carried a porcelain jar covered with silk in which to carry our presents.

• We then mounted the elephants to the governor’s house while those 12 men preceded us afoot with the jars.
• We had supper there and slept on cotton mattresses, whose lining was of taffeta, and the sheets of Cambaia.

Next day, we went to the king’s palace on elephants, with our presents in front as on the preceding day.

• All the streets from the governor’s to the king’s house were full of men with swords, spears, and shields, for such were the king’s orders.
• We entered the courtyard of the palace mounted on the elephants.
• We went up a ladder accompanied by the governor and other chiefs, and entered a large hall full of many nobles, where we sat down upon a carpet with the presents in the jars near us.
• At the end of that hall there is another hall higher but somewhat smaller.
• It was all adorned with silk hangings, and two windows, through which light entered the hall and hung with two brocade curtains, opened from it.
• There were 300 footsoldiers with naked rapiers at their thighs in that hall to guard the king.
• At the end of the small hall was a large window from which a brocade curtain was drawn aside so that we could see within it the king seated at a table with one of his young sons chewing betel.
• No one but women were behind him.

Then a chief told us that we could not speak to the king but that he would communicate it to a higher ranked person who would communicate it to a brother of the governor who was stationed in the smaller hall, who would then communicate it through a speaking-tube through a hole in the wall to one who was inside with the king.

• The chief taught us how to make three obeisances to Raja Siripada with our hands clasped above the head, raising first one foot and then the other and then kissing the hands toward him, and we did so, that being the method of the royal obeisance.
• We told Raja Siripada that we came from the king of Spagnia, and that our king wanted to peace and permission to trade.
• Raja Siripada agreed and said that we could take water and wood, and trade at our pleasure.
• Then we gave him the presents, on receiving each of which he nodded slightly.
• To each one of us was given some brocaded and gold cloth and silk, which were placed upon our left shoulders, where they were left but a moment.
• They presented us with refreshments of cloves and cinnamon, after which the curtains were drawn to and the windows closed.
• The men in the palace were all attired in cloth of gold and silk which covered their privies, and carried daggers with gold hafts adorned with pearls and precious gems, and they had many rings on their hands.
• We returned upon the elephants to the governor’s house, seven men carrying the king’s presents to us and always preceding us.
• When we reached the house, they gave each one of us his present, placing them upon our left shoulders.
• We gave each of those men a couple of knives for his trouble.
• Nine men came to the governor’s house with a like number of large wooden trays from the king.
• Each tray contained 12 porcelain dishes full of veal, capons, chickens, peacocks, and other animals, and fish.
• We supped on the ground upon a palm mat from 32 different kinds of meat besides the fish and other things.
• At each mouthful of food we drank a small cupful of their distilled wine from a porcelain cup the size of an egg.

We ate rice and other sweet food with gold spoons like ours.

In our sleeping quarters there during those two nights, two torches of white wax were kept constantly alight in two rather tall silver candlesticks, and two large lamps full of oil with four wicks apiece and two men to snuff them continually.

We went elephant-back to the seashore, where we found two praus which took us back to the ships.

That city has 25,000 families and is entirely built in salt water, except the houses of the king and certain chiefs.

• The houses are all made of wood and built up from the ground on tall pillars.
• When the tide is high, the women go in boats through the settlement [tera] selling the articles necessary to maintain life.
• There is a large brick wall in front of the king’s house with towers like a fort, in which were mounted 56 bronze [metalo] pieces, and six of iron.

During our two days of stay, many cannons were fired. The Moro king’s name is Raja Siripada.

• He was 40 years old and corpulent.
• No one serves him except women who are the daughters of chiefs.
• He never goes outside of his palace, unless when he goes hunting, and no one is allowed to talk with him except through the speaking tube.
• He has scribes, called Xiritoles, who write down his deeds on very thin tree bark.

On Monday morning, July 29, we saw more than 100 praus divided into three squadrons and a like number of tunguli (which are their small boats) coming toward us.

• We imagined that there was some trickery afoot, so we hoisted our sails as quickly as possible.
• We expected to be captured in between the junks anchored behind us on the preceding day.
• We immediately turned on the junks, capturing four of them and killing many persons.
• Four of the junks fled by beaching.
• In one of the junks we captured was the son of the king of Luzon.
• He was the captain-general of the king of Borneo, and came with those junks from a large city named Laoe, located at the end of Borneo toward Java Major.
• He had destroyed and sacked that city because it refused to obey the king or Borneo, but the king of Java Major instead.
• Giovan Carvaio, our pilot, allowed him to and the junks to leave for a certain sum of gold.
• Had Carvaio not given up that captain to Raja Siripada, Raja Siripada would have given us whatever we had asked, for that captain was exceedingly feared throughout those regions especially by the heathens, as the latter are very hostile to Raja Siripada.

Laoe

In that same port of Laoe, there is another city inhabited by heathens, which is larger than that of the Moros, and also built in salt water.

• The two peoples have daily combats in that same harbor.
• The heathen king is as powerful as Raja Siripada, but is not so haughty, and could be converted easily to the Christian faith.
• When Raja Siripada heard how we had treated the junks, he sent us a message by one of our men who was ashore that the praus did not mean to harm us, but that they were going to attack the heathens.
• As proof, the Moros showed him some heads of heathens who had been killed.
• We asked Raja Siripada to allow:
  • two of our men who were in Brunei to trade, and
  • the son of Johan Carvaio, who had been born in the country of Verzin, to come to us
• But Raja Siripada refused because Johan Carvaio let let the captain go.
• We kept 16 of the chiefest men of the captured junks to take them to Spagnia, and three women in the queen’s name, but Johan Carvaio usurped the latter for himself.

Junks are made with the bottom part being built about two palmos above the water and is of planks fastened with wooden pegs, which are very well made. above that they are entirely made of very large bamboos.

• They have a bamboo as a counterweight.
• One of those junks carries as much cargo as a ship.
• Their masts are of bamboo, and the sails of the bark of trees.
• Their porcelain is a sort of exceedingly white earth which is left for 50 years under the earth before it is worked, for otherwise it would not be fine. The father buries it for the son. If [poison] is placed in a dish made of fine porcelain, the dish immediately breaks.
• The money made by the Moros in those regions is of bronze [metalo] pierced in the middle in order that it may be strung.
• On only one side of it are four characters, which are letters of the great king of China.
  • We call that money picis.

They gave us:

• six porcelain dishes for one cathil (which is equivalent to two of our libras) of quicksilver
• 100 picis for one book of writing paper;
• 1 small porcelain vase for 160 cathils of bronze [metalo]
• 1 porcelain vase for 3 knives;
• 1 bahar (which is equivalent to 203 cathils), of wax for 160 cathils of bronze [metalo]
• 1 bahar of salt for 80 cathils of bronze [metalo]
• 1 bahar of anime to calk the ships (for no pitch is found in those regions) for 40 cathils of bronze [metalo].

20 tahils make one cathil.

At that place the people highly esteem bronze [metalo], quicksilver, glass, cinnabar, wool cloth, linens, and all our other merchandise, although iron and spectacles more than all the rest.

Those Moros also go naked. They drink quicksilver—the sick man drinks it to cleanse himself, and the well man to preserve his health.

Cotabato

We sailed northeast to a large city called Maguindanao in the island of Butuan and Calaghan to gather information on Moluccas.

• We captured by force a bigniday, a vessel resembling a prau, and killed 7 men.
• It contained only 18 men.
• They were as well built as any whom we had seen in those regions.
• All were chiefs of Maguindanao.
• One of then told us that he was a brother of the king of Maguindanao, and that he knew the location of Moluccas.
• Through his directions we went southeast.

At a cape of [Mindanao] and near a river, are found shaggy men who are exceedingly great fighters and archers.

• They use swords one palmo in length, and eat only raw human hearts with the juice of oranges or lemons.
• Those shaggy people are called Benaian.
• When we took our course toward the southeast, we lay in a latitude of six degrees and seven minutes toward the Arctic Pole, and 30 leguas from Cavit.