THE DAWN OF HISTORY IN THE PHILIPPINES
EUFRONIO M. ALIP, Ph. Litt.D. Editor
JOSE P. APOSTOL, M.A. GREGORIO C. BORLAZA, Ph.D. Associate Editors
LINIITED EDITION
Reprented with permision from the Journal of History of the Philippine National Hiistorical Society Volume Xl, Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4. (1963)
pp 204-209

Eden in describing the island of Matan confuses the Pigafetta narrative. He says: "Not farre from this Ilande of Zubut, is the Iland of Mathan, whose inhabitauntes vse maruelous ceremonies in theyr sacrifices to the soone and burying the deade. They were rynges of gold abowt theyr priuie members." In the description of the battle in Matan, Eden says that each of the three divisions of the islanders contained "two thousand and fiftie men armed with bowes, arrowes, dartes and iauelins hardened at the poyntes with fyer." 745 To this point the Italian MS. and MS. 5,650 agree approximately. The story of the battle in the latter MS., however, is much abridged and much less graphic. It is as follows: "They replied that they had bamboo spears and stakes burned and hardened in the fire, and that we could attack them when we wished. At daybreak, forty-nine of us leaped into the water in the place whither we had thus gone, at a distance of more than three [sic] crossbow flights before we could reach shore, for the boats could not approach nearer because of the rocks and reefs which were in the water. Thus we reached land, and attacked them. They were arranged in three divisions, of more than one thousand five hundred persons. We shot many arrows at them from a distance, but it was in vain, for they received them on their shields. They leaped hither and thither in such a way that scarse could we wound one of them. On the other hand, our artillery in the boats was so far away from us that it could not aid us. Those people seeing that, and that the captain had had some of their houses burned in order to inspire them with terror, and having become more enraged, threw so many iron pointed spears at us, and shot so many arrows even at the captain himself, that we could defend ourselves with difficulty. Finally, having been driven by them quite down to the shore, and while our captain was fighting bravely although wounded in the leg with an arrow, one of those Indians hurled a poisoned bamboo lance into his face which laid him stiff and dead. Then they pressed upon us so closely that we were forced to retire to our boats and to leave the dead body of the captain-general, with our others killed." The eulogy on the dead commander is approximately the same in both MSS., except at the end, where MS. 5,650 reads: "Eight of our men died there with him, and four Indians, who had become Christmas. Of the enemy fifteen were killed by the artillery of the ships, which had at last come to our aid, while many of us were wounded." Brito (Navarrete, iv, p. 308) says of the stay at Cebu and the death of Magalhaes: 'They stayed there about one month, and the majority of the people and the king became Christians. The king of Zub6 ordered the kings of the other islands to come to him, but inasmuch as two of them refused to come, Magallanes, as soon as he learned it, resolved to go to fight with them, and went to an island called Mathf. He set fire to a village, and not content with that, set out for a large settlement, where he, his servant and five Castilians were killed in combat with the savages. The others, seeing their captain dead, went back to their boats." 346 Terciado: a Spanish word. 347 Carteava: a Spanish word. 348 The "Roteiro" (Stanley, p. 12) dates the battle April 28. The account of the battle is as follows: "Fernan de Magalhaes desired that the other kings, neighbours to this one, should become subject to this who had become Christian: and these did not choose to yield such obedience. Fernan de Magalhaes seeing that, got ready one night with his boats, and burned the villages of those who would not yield the said obedience; and a matter of ten or twelve days after this was done, he sent to a village about half a league from that which he had burned, which is named Matam, and which is also an island, and ordered them to send him at once three goats, three pigs, three loads of rice, and three loads of millet for provisions for the ships; they replied that for each article which he sent to ask them three of, they would send to him by twos, and if he was satisfied with this they would at once comply, if not, it might be as he pleased, but that they would not give it. Because they did not choose to grant what he demanded of them, Fernan de Magalhaes ordered three beats to be equipped with a matter of fifty or sixty men, and went against the said place, which was on the 28th day of April, in the morning; there they found many people, who might well be as many as three thousand or four thousand men, who fought with such a good will that the said Fernan de Magalhaes was killed there, with six of his men, in the year 1521." 349 Navarrete (iv, pp. 65, 66) gives the names of the men killed with Magalhaes, on April 27 as follows: Christ6bal Rabelo, then captain of the Victoria; Francisco Espinosa, a sailor; Anton Gallego, a common seaman; Juan de Torres, sobresaliente and soldier; Rodrigo Nieto, servant of Juan de Cartagena; Pedro Gomez, servant of Gonzalo Espinosa; and Anton de Escovar, sobresaliente, wounded but died April 29. 350 See Vol. I, pp. 325, 326, note 215.* 351 MS. 5,650 gives this name as Duart Bobase, although lower it is spelled Barbase. Duarte or Odoardo Barbosa, the son of Diogo Barbosa, who after serving in Portugal, became alcaide of the Sevilla arsenal, was born at Lisbon at the end of the fifteenth century. He spent the years 1501-1516 in the Orient, the result of that stay being his Livro emque da relacao de que viu e ouviu no Oriente, which was first published at Lisbon in 1813 in Vol. vii of Colleccao de noticias para a historia et geographia das nacoes tiltramarinas, and its translation by Stanley, A description of the coasts of East Africa and Malabar (Hakluyt Society publications, London, 1866). He became a clerk in the Portuguese factory at Cananor under his uncle Gil Fernandez Barbosa, and became so expert in the Malabar language that he was said to speak it even better than the natives. On account of his facility in the language he had been appointed commissioner by Nuno da Cunha to negotiate peace with the Zamorin. He was commissioned in 1515 to oversee the construction of some galleys by Alboquerque. While at Sevilla, Magalhaes lived in the household of Diogo Barbosa, where he married Duarte's sister Beatriz. Duarte embarked on the Trinidad as a sobresaliente, end it was he who captured the Victoria from the mutineers at Port St. Julian, after which he became captain of that vessel. Failing to recover Magalhaes's body from the natives of Mactan, he was himself slain at Cebu at the fatal banquet May 1, 1521. Besides the above book, which is a most valuable contribution to early Oriental affairs, there is extant in the Torre do Tombo a letter written by him from Cananor, January 12, 1513, complaining of the Portuguese excess. See Guillemard's Magellan; Stanley's Vasco da Gama; Birch's Alboquerque; and Hcefer's Nouvelle Biographie G6nerale (Paris, 1855). 352 See ante, note 147. 353 Magalhaes married Beatriz Barbosa, daughter of Diogo Barbosa in Sevilla, probably in the year 1517. One son Rodrigo was born of the union, who was about six months old at the time of the departure. Rodrigo died in September, 1521, and in the March following Beatriz died. See Guillemard, ut supra, pp. 89-91, 322. 354 MS. 5,650 adds: "and to advise the Christian king." 355 Mosto transcribes this word wrongly as facente "busy." MS. 5,650 reads: "wiser and more affectionate than before.' 356 MS. 5,650 adds: "and presents." 257 The constable was Gonzalo Gomez de Espinosa, who was left behind with the Trinidad and was one of the four survivors of that ill-fated vesse!, returning to Spain long after. 358 This sentence is confused in MS. 5,650, reading: jehan Caruaie auecques le barisel sen retourneret qui nous dirent commen jlz auoyent veu mener celluy quy fut guery par miracle et le presfre a sa maison et que pour cela jlz sen estoyent partiz eulx doubtans de quelque mate faduanture. By dropping the first et this becomes equivalent to the text. 359 MS. 5,650 reads: "for we would kill him." 360 MS. 5,650 reads: "But Jehan Carvaie, his comrade, and others refused, for feat lest they would not remain masters there if the boat went ashore." In regard to Jcao Serrao's death, Brito (Navarrete. iv, p. 309) says: "As soon as the men in the ships saw that slaughter, they hoisted their anchors, and tried to set sail in order to return to Burneo. At that juncture, the savages brought Juan Serrano, one of those whom they wished to ransom, and asked two guns and two bahars of copper for him, besides some Brittanias or linens such as they carried in the ships as merchandise of trade and barter. Serrano told them to take him to the ship and he would give them what they asked, but they, on the contrary, insisted that those things be taken ashore. But [the men in the ships] fearing another act of treachery like the past, set sail, and abandoned that man there, and nothing more was heard of him." 361 The '"Roteirc" (Stanley, p. 13) says nothing about the banquet, but says that the men, twenty-eight in number, counting the two captains, went ashore to ask pilots to Borneo, whereupon the natives, who had determined upon their course of action attacked and killed them. Peter Martyr (Mosto, p. 81, note 5) asserts that the violation of the women by the sailors was the cause of the massacre. Concerning the number killed, Brito (Navarrete, iv. p. 309) says that thirty-five or thirty-six men went ashore, and Castafiheda and Gomara say thirty, the last asserting that a like number were made slaves, of whom eight were sold in China. Peter Martyr places the number of the slain at twelve. Navarrete (iv, pp. 66, 67) gives the names of those massacred as follows:

Duarte Barbosa captain of the Trinidad

Juan Serrano captain of the Concepcion

Luis Alfonso de Gois captain of the Victoria

Andres de S. Martin pilot of his Majesty

Sancho de Heredia notary

Leon de Ezpeleta notary

Pedro de Valderrama priest

Francisco Martin cooper

Simon de la Rochela calker

Cristobal Rodriguez steward

Francisco de Madrid sobresaliente and soldier

Hernando de Aguilar servant of Luis de Mendoza

Guillermo Fenesi or Tanagui gunner of the Trinidad

Anton Rodriguez sailor

Juan Sigura Francisco sailor

Picora Francisco sailor

Martin Anton de Goa common seaman

Rodrigo de Hurrira common seaman

Pedro Herrero sobresaliente

Hartiga sobresaliente

Juan de Silva, Portuguese sobresaliente

Nuño servant of Magallanes

Henrique, from Malaca servant of Magallanes and interpreter

Peti Juan, French servant of Magallanes

Francisco de la Mezquita servant of Magallanes

Francisco son-in-law of Juan Serrano

All of these names are to be found in Navarrete's list. See ante, note 26. 362 Chiacare: the nangca; see Vol. XXXIV, p. 107, where Pigafetta describes and names this fruit. Mosto confuses it with the durio zibethenus, which is abundant in the western islands of the Indian archipelagoes, Mindanao being the only one of the Philippines where it is found (Crawfurd, Dictionary); but it is the Artocarpus integrifolia (see Vol. XVI p. 88, note 72). MS. 5,650 makes this "'capers." 363 MS. 5,650 omits mention of the panicum, sorgo, garlic, and nangcas. 36 MS. 5,650 reads: "one to the east northeast, and the other to the west southwest," 365 MS. 5,650 adds: "and eleven minutes." 366 Stanley says wrongly 1549. 367 This word ends a page in the original Italian MS. On the following page is a repetition of the title: Vocabili deli populi gentilli, that is "Words of those heathen peoples." MS. 5,650 does not contain this list, and it is also omitted by Stanley. 368 See ante, note 160