The Fleet Visits Other Islands.--After Magellan's death, the natives of
Cebu rose and killed the newly elected leader, Serrano, and the fleet
in fear lifted its anchors and sailed southward from the Bisayas. They
had lost thirty-five men and their numbers were reduced to one hundred
and fifteen. One of the ships was burned, there being too few men
surviving to handle three vessels. After touching at western Mindanao,
they sailed westward, and saw the small group of Cagayan Sulu. The few
inhabitants they learned were Moros, exiled from Borneo. They landed
on Paragua, called Puluan (hence Palawan), where they observed the
sport of cock-fighting, indulged in by the natives.
From here, still searching for the Moluccas, they were guided to
Borneo, the present city of Brunei. Here was the powerful Mohammedan
colony, whose adventurers were already in communication with Luzon and
had established a colony on the site of Manila. The city was divided
into two sections, that of the Mohammedan Malays, the conquerors, and
that of the Dyaks, the primitive population of the island. Pigafetta
exclaims over the riches and power of this Mohammedan city. It
contained twenty-five thousand families, the houses built for most
part on piles over the water. The king's house was of stone, and
beside it was a great brick fort, with over sixty brass and iron
cannon. Here the Spaniards saw elephants and camels, and there was
a rich trade in ginger, camphor, gums, and in pearls from Sulu.
Hostilities cut short their stay here and they sailed eastward
along the north coast of Borneo through the Sulu Archipelago,
where their cupidity was excited by the pearl fisheries, and on
to Maguindanao. Here they took some prisoners, who piloted them
south to the Moluccas, and finally, on November 8, they anchored
at Tidor. These Molucca islands, at this time, were at the height
of the Malayan power. The ruler, or raja of Tidor was Almanzar,
of Ternate Corala; the "king" of Gilolo was Yusef. With all these
rulers the Spaniards exchanged presents, and the rajas are said by
the Spaniards to have sworn perpetual amnesty to the Spaniards and
acknowledged themselves vassals of the king. In exchange for cloths,
the Spaniards laid in a rich cargo of cloves, sandalwood, ginger,
cinnamon, and gold. They established here a trading-post and hoped
to hold these islands against the Portuguese.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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