Volume 34 — NOTES

Brito (Navarrete, iv, pp. 305, 306, 311) gives his connection with the men of the “Trinidad” as follows:

“I have already written from Banda the news which I found there regarding the Castilians, and sent the letters of one Pedro de Lorossa who went with them. I left Banda May 2, 522, to ascertain whether I could seize the ship which left last, as the other one had already left about three months before. I reached Tidore May 13, 522, where the Castilians had been, and where they laded two of the five ships that sailed from Castilla. I learned that the first one had gone four months before and the other one a month and a half. The second had not left with the first because of a leak which had opened when they were on the point of departing. [Accordingly] it was lightened of its cargo and after it had been repaired it left. I found five Castilians, one a factor, with merchandise, and another who was a gunner. I sent the factor Rui Gaguo with a message to the king [of Tidore] demanding the surrender of the Castilians, artillery, and property to me, and to ask him why he had admitted Castilians since that region had been discovered so long before by the Portuguese. He answered that he had admitted them as merchants, and for fear rather than willingly. Next day he sent me three Castilians and a small amount of their goods. I had already taken another with me when I left Banda, whither he had gone to get information of the country and of trade. The fifth Castilian was absent in the island of Moro, 60 leguas from Maluco. The following day the king came to see me. He announced himself as a good vassal of your Highness, and had excuses for everything, all of which was proved by the Castilians themselves. I had him give his testimony in writing, in order to have a check on him at all times, for I assure you that those Castilians had surrendered to his power as if they were Christians and his natives. I found the whole country full of tin crosses ([although] some were of silver), with a crucifix on one side and our Lady on the other. They were selling bombards, muskets, crossbows, swords, darts, and powder. I brought all those crosses above mentioned to your Highness, which those people were selling with full knowledge of what they were.

“After I had been there two days a bastard son of the king of Ternate came to take me to his island. That man is the one who is governing in the name of the heir, a child of eight or nine, whose father died seven or eight months before my arrival. This island [of Ternate] is the largest and chiefest of Maluco, and is the one where Francisco Serrano always lived, as well as Don Tristan when he came here. Then the mother of the king, who has more authority, came, and they proclaimed themselves as your Highness’s vassals. I said nothing of a fortress as I wished first to see all the islands. After I had seen them, I thought it best to build the fort here as it is the largest and there is no port in Tidor.

“While I was ashore my men fell sick, and within two months, I only had 50 well men out of the 200 I had brought with me. About 50 of them died, and with so few men the fortress was started.

“On October 22, I received news that a ship was off the back of these islands. I thought it must be the Castilians, since they took that course. I sent three ships with orders to bring it in, and they did so, and with it 24 Castilians. They said that not caring to return by the way they had come as it was so long a voyage, they had resolved to sail to Darien. They found but light winds, for they could not take the monsoon, and [accordingly] went to 40 degrees north. According to their account they had made 900 leguas when they put back. When they left they had 54 men, 30 of whom died at 40 degrees. The goods of the king of Castilla were set down in writing, and the maps and astrolabes were seized. The ship, which was old and leaking badly, was begun to be lightened. In a week it opened and 40 bahars of cloves were lost. The wood was used for the fortress and the equipment for the other ships there....

“I sent seventeen Castilians with Don Garcia so that they might pay what they owe to Jorge de Alburquerque, so that he might send them thence to the chief captain of India according to the instructions given me in your Highness’s orders. Those men are Gonzalo Gomez de Espinosa, captain; Juan de Campos, factor, who remained with the goods in Tidore; Alfonso de Costa, who was going to examine the trade in Banda; Luis del Molino; Diego Diaz; Diego Martin; Leon Pancaldo, pilot of the ship; Juan Roiz; Ginés de Mafra; Juan Novoro; San Remo; Amalo; Francisco de Ayamonte; Luis de Veas; Segredo; Master Otans [the German gunner, Hans Vargue]; and Anton Moreno.

“I left four here: 1st, the master of the ship, named Juan Bautista, who is the most skilful of them all, and has sailed in ships belonging to your Highness, and who is the one who took command, and who after the death of Magallanes must have taken his fleet to Maluco; 2nd, the clerk, who is a good sailor and pilot; 3d, the boatswain; and 4th, a carpenter who is needed to repair this ship by which I am now sending by way of Burneo....

“In regard to the master, clerk, and pilot, I am writing to the chief captain that it will be more to the service of your Highness to order them beheaded than to send them there. I detained them in Maluco because it is an unhealthy country, with the intention of having them die there, as I did not dare order them beheaded for I was ignorant whether such action would meet your Highness’s approval. I am writing to Jorge de Alburquerque to detain them in Malaca, which is also a country that is very unhealthy.”

Navarrete describes the adventures of the “Trinidad” and the fate of her crew in his Col. de viages, iv, pp. 98–107; for a translation of which see Stanley’s First Voyage, pp. 237–241. Cf. also the account in Guillemard’s Magellan, pp. 298–307, where many details not in Navarrete are to be found. The mortality of the crew of the “Trinidad” was terrible, and of the 53 men left with Juan Carvalho at Tidore, only the following returned to Spain, and that only after a number of years: Gonzalo Gomez de Espinosa, alguazil; Ginés de Mafra, sailor; Leon Pancado [mentioned above by Brito], sailor; and Juan Rodriguez of Seville, sailor. The German gunner, Hans Vargue, also reached Lisbon with Espinosa and Ginés de Mafra, but died almost immediately upon his arrival there, in prison. See Guillemard, ut supra, pp. 338, 339.

The goods left and accumulated in Tidore by the Spaniards is thus given by Brito (Navarrete, iv, p. 310): “The goods which remained in Tidor belonging to the Castilians amounted to 1,125 quintals 32 libras of copper, 2,000 libras of quicksilver, two quintals of iron, three bombards with iron blocks (one is a pasamuro and two are roqueiras), 14 iron culverins without any chamber, three iron anchors (consisting of a fugareo, one large one, and one broken one), 9 crossbows, 12 muskets, 32 breast-plates, 12 serveilheras, 3 helmets, 4 anchors, 53 iron bars, 6 iron culverins, 2 iron falconets, 2 large iron bombards with four chambers, and 1,275 quintals of cloves.”

Main events while at the Moluccas, are related substantially the same by the “Roteiro” (Stanley, pp. 23–25) as by Pigafetta, although much shorter. The “Roteiro” says however that the king of Tidore sent twenty-five divers to locate the leak of the “Trinidad.” The anonymous Portuguese (Stanley, pp. 31, 32) names the five Moluccas and mentions the island of Banda. See A. Bastian’s Indonesian oder die Inseln des Malayischen Archipel, which contains sections entitled: Die Mölukken (Berlin, 1884); Timor and umliegende Inseln (Berlin, 1885): and Borneo und Celebes (Berlin, 1889).

Following this paragraph in the original Italian MS. (folio 72a) is shown the chart of the islands of Bandam, namely, Lailaca, Pulurun, Manuca, Baracha, Unuvero, Palach, Saniananpi, Chelicel, Man, Meut, Rossoghin, and Zoroboa (q.v., p. 114). This chart is shown on folio 85b of MS. 5,650, preceded by the words, “Chart of the islands of Bandan, Rossonghin, Man, Zzorobua, and others.”

At this point in the original Italian MS. (folio 74a) is the chart of the islands of Botolo, Chendam, Nossocamba, Samaute, and Timor (q.v., p. 124). This chart appears on folio 89a of MS. 5,650, preceded by the words: “Chart of the island of Timor and of its four settlements, and four other islands.”

The following information is received from Walter G. Stern, M. D., of Cleveland, Ohio, regarding this disease: “The maladie de Job is considered by many authors to be syphilis (lues venerea). At least all of the symptoms complained of by Job can be readily explained upon the theory that Job was afflicted with this disease. That syphilis is as old as mankind, there can be no doubt, although for centuries popular belief and tradition claimed that it was introduced by Columbus who brought it from the West Indies. The coincidence of the terrible epidemic of malignant syphilis with the discovery of the New World, the ignorance of the medical profession of those times, and the silence of the popular medical writers of former ages as to the previous existence of such a complex contagion as syphilis strengthened this belief into an axiom. The finding of undoubted syphilitic bone lesions in skeletons of the most remote historic periods is undisputed evidence of the antiquity of syphilis. The sexual excesses of the ancients, the Baal and Astarte worship of the Assyrians, the Venus, Bacchus, and Priapus cult of the Romans, were at least most favorable means of spreading venereal diseases. Not taking into account references in Roman and Grecian mythology, the old Syrian cuneiform epic Izdebar and the “papyrus Ebers,” we find the first reference to syphilitic disease in Indian literature of the Brahman period (800 B. C.). There is also a reference in the Chinese work of Musi-King, which very possibly dates from 2637 B. C.; also one in a Japanese MS. Daido-rui-shim-ho of about 810 B. C. Hippocrates, Celsus, and Pliny also mention a disease with the characteristics of syphilis, while the Roman satirists describe venereal afflictions identical to it. It is specifically mentioned by the medical writers of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, when it was of a very mild type—endemic, as seen at the present day in Bosnia and Turkey. Its place of origin is unknown. It probably came from India, where it has been endemic at least from 800 B. C., and brought by the Assyrians, Phœnicians, and Carthaginians to Greece and Rome and the rest of Europe. (See Neuman’s Syphilis, Wien, 1899).” Dr. Alexander F. Chamberlain, in “The American Antiquarian and Oriental Journal” for January and February, 1905, has the following note: “American origin of syphilis. In his ‘Das erst Auftreten der Syphilis (Lustseuche) in der europäischen Kulturwelt’ (Jena, 1903, p. 35) Iwan Bloch sustains the thesis of its pre-Columbian existence in America and transference to Europe in the wake of the discovery of the new world. Bloch had previously published another work on syphilis ‘Der Ursprung der Syphilis’ (1901), in which he set forth similar views. The new work contains data concerning the first appearance of this terrible malady in Europe, and of a like sexual disease among the American Indians.”

“They are very voluptuous, and have certain round hawk’s-bells sewn and fastened in the head of their penis between the flesh and the skin in order to make them larger. Some have three, some five, and others seven. Some are made of gold and silver, and others of brass, and they tinkle as the men walk. The custom is considered as quite the proper thing. The women delight greatly in the bells, and do not like men who go without them. The most honored men are those who have the most and largest ones. I will say nothing more of this custom, for it is a shameful one.” Stanley says that this custom is also mentioned by Nicolo Conti in the fifteenth century.

Martin Mendez ship’s accountant

Pedro Tolosa steward

Ricarte de Normandia carpenter

Raldan de Argote gunner

Master Pedro

Juan Martin sobresaliente

Simon de Burgos sobresaliente

Felipe de Rodas sailor

Gomez Hernandez sailor

Socacio Alonso sailor

Pedro Chindurza common seaman

Vasquito Gallego boy

Cf. the corrected list given by Guillemard (Magellan, p. 338, and note 5) who mentions thirteen men (the number given by Pigafetta). These men were shortly released and sent to Seville (Guillemard, ut supra, p. 337).

Juan Sebastian de Elcano captain

Francisco Albo pilot

Miguel Rodas master

Juan de Acurio boatswain

Martin de Yudicibus merino

Hernando de Bustamente barber

Aires gunner

Diego Gallego sailor

Nicolao de Nápoles sailor

Miguel Sanchez de Rodas sailor

Francisco Rodriguez sailor

Juan Rodriguez de Huelva sailor

Anton Hernandez Colmenero sailor

Juan de Arratia common seaman

Juan de Santander common seaman

Vasco Gomez Gallego common seaman

Juan de Zubileta boy

Antonio Lombardo sobresaliente

Cf. the list as given by Guillemard (Magellan, pp. 337, 338), who attempts to correct the various lists, and which shows several differences from Navarrete’s list. Navarrete (ut supra, iv, pp. 96, 97) basing his assertion on Herrera, says: “Among the Indians who reached land safely and desired to see the emperor and these kingdoms, was one so sharp that his first action was to ask how many reals made one ducado, how many maravedis one real, and how much pepper was given for one maravedi, informing himself from shop to shop of the value of spices. That furnished a reason for his not returning to his country, although the others did.” See also Guillemard’s Magellan, p. 296.

“M.D. xxiv. of the month of August.

“Most Serene Prince, and your Excellencies:

“Petition of me, Antonio Pigafetta, Venetian knight of Jerusalem, who desiring to see the world, have sailed, in past years, with the caravels of his Cesaræan Majesty, which went to discover the islands in the new Indies where the spices grow. On that voyage I circumnavigated the whole world, and since it is a feat which no man had [before] accomplished, I have composed a short narration of all the said voyage, which I desire to have printed. For that purpose, I petition, that no one may print it for xx years, except myself, under penalty to him who should print it, or who should bring it here if printed elsewhere, of a fine of three lire per copy besides the loss of the books. [I petition] also that the execution [of the penalty] may be imposed by any magistrate of this city who shall be informed of it; and that the fine be divided as follows: one-third to the arsenal of your Highness, one-third to the accuser, and one-third to those who shall impose it. I humbly commend myself to your kindness. August v.” The docket follows.