book iii

, ch. ii; and Rein’s Japan, p. 4.

[178] See Vol. I, pp. 208, 209, 210, 312, 336.

[179] MS. 5,650 reads: “sixty.” Transylvanus (Vol. I, p. 322) names two islands of the Ladrones Inuagana and Acacan, but says that both were uninhabited. Guillemard (ut supra, p. 223) conjectures these names to be identical with Agana in Guam and Sosan in Rota. Hugues (Mosto, p. 67, note 7) believes the first island visited to have been Guam, and his conjecture is undoubtedly correct.

[180] MS. 5,650 adds: “called skiff.”

[181] MS. 5,650 adds: “of the said island.”

[182] MS. 5,650 has a new unnumbered chapter heading before the following paragraph.

[183] This phrase is omitted in MS. 5,650, as is also all the following sentence; but that MS. adds: “We left the said island immediately afterward, and continued our course.” This was on March 9, on which day the only Englishman in the fleet, “Master Andrew” of Bristol, died (Guillemard, ut supra, p. 226).

[184] Eden (p. 254) says: “two hundreth of theyr boates.”

[185] MS. 5,650 has a new chapter at this point, although the chapter is unnumbered.

When Loaisa’s expedition reached the Ladrones, they found still alive a Galician, one of three deserters from Espinosa’s ship (see Vol. II, pp. 30, 34, 35, 110). See the reception accorded Legazpi, and a description of one of those islands in 1565, Vol. II, pp. 109–113. The “Roteiro” (Stanley, p. 9) says that the expedition reached the Ladrones, March 6, 1521 (with which Albo, Navarrete, iv, p. 219 agrees); and that after the theft of the skiff, Magellan landed with fifty or sixty men, burned the whole village, killed seven or eight persons, both men and women; and that supplies were taken aboard. The anonymous Portuguese (Stanley, p. 31) says that the Ladrones (which lay in 10°–12° north latitude, were 2,046 miles by the course traveled from the equator. Brito (Navarrete, iv, p. 308) says: “Thence [i.e., the Unfortunate Islands] they laid their course westward, and after sailing 500 leguas came to certain islands where they found a considerable number of savages. So many of the latter boarded the vessels that when the men tried to restore order in them, they were unable to get rid of the savages except by lance-thrusts. They killed many savages, who laughed as if it were a cause for rejoicing.”

[186] MS. 5,650 adds: “or superior.”

[187] MS. 5,650 reads: “cloth.”

[188] At this point, MS. 5,650 begins a new sentence, thus: “There are found in that place.”

[189] MS. 5,650 reads: “Those women.”

[190] MS. 5,650 makes use of the Italian word store for stuoje or stoje meaning “mats,” and explains by adding: “which we call mats.”

[191] They also (according to Herrera) received the name Las Velas, “the sails” from the lateen-rigged vessels that the natives used (Mosto, p. 67, note 7). See also Vol. XVI, pp. 200–202.

[192] In MS. 5,650 this sentence reads as follows: “The pastime of the men and women of the said place and their sport, is to go in their boats to catch those flying fish with fishhooks made of fishbone.”

[193] Mosto (p. 68, note 5) says that these boats were the fisolere, which were small and very swift oared-vessels, used in winter on the Venetian lakes by the Venetian nobles for hunting with bows and arrows and guns. Amoretti conjectures that Pigafetta means the fusiniere, boats named after Fusine whence people are ferried to Venice.

[194] MS. 5,650 reads: “The said boats have no difference between stern and bow.” Albo (Navarrete, iv, p. 219), in speaking of the boats of the Chamorros, uses almost identically the same expression: “They went both ways, for they could make the stern, bow, and the bow, stern, whenever they wished.” The apparatus described by Pigafetta as belonging to these boats is the outrigger, common to many of the boats of the eastern islands.

[195] In the Italian MS., the chart of Aguada ly boni segnaly (“Watering-place of good signs”), Zzamal (Samar), Abarien, Humunu, Hyunagan, Zuluam, Cenalo, and Ybusson (q.v., p. 102) follows at this point. It is found on folio 29b of MS. 5,650 and is preceded by the following: “Here is shown the island of Good Signs, and the four islands, Cenalo, Humanghar, Ibusson, and Abarien, and several others.”

[196] “The tenth of March” in Eden, and the distance of Zamal from the Ladrones is given as “xxx. leagues.” Albo (Navarrete, iv, p. 220) says that the first land seen was called Yunagan, “which extended north and had many bays;” and that going south from there they anchored at a small island called Suluan. At the former “we saw some canoes, and went thither, but they fled. That island lies in 9° 40´ north latitude.” The “Roteiro” (Stanley, p. 10) says that the first land seen was in “barely eleven degrees,” and that the fleet “went to touch at another further on, which appeared first.” Two praus approached a boat sent ashore, whereupon the latter was ordered back, and the praus fled. Thereupon the fleet went to another nearby island “which lies in ten degrees, to which they gave the name of the ‘Island of Good Signs,’ because they found some gold in it.”

[197] This word is omitted in MS. 5,650.

[198] MS. 5,650 reads: “more than one foot long.”

[199] Since rice is an important staple among all the eastern islands, it is natural that there are different and distinctive names for that grain in the various languages and dialects for all stages of its growth and all its modes of preparation. Thus the Tagálog has words for “green rice,” “rice with small heads,” “dirty and partly rotten rice,” “early rice,” “late rice,” “cooked rice,” and many others. See also U. S. Philippine Gazetteer, pp. 70, 71.

[200] MS. 5,650 reads: “In order to explain what manner of fruit is that above named, one must know that what is called ‘cochi’ is the fruit borne by the palm-tree. Just as we have bread, wine, oil, and vinegar, which are obtained from different things, so those people get the above named substances from those palm-trees alone.” See Delgado’s Historia, pp. 634–659, for description of the useful cocoa palm; also, U. S. Philippine Gazetteer, pp. 72, 73, 75.

[201] MS. 5,650 reads: “along the tree.” Practically the method used today to gather the cocoanut wine. See U. S. Philippine Gazetteer, p. 75.

[202] In describing the cocoanut palm and fruit, Eden (p. 254) reads: “Vnder this rynde, there is a thicke ſhell whiche they burne and make pouder thereof and vſe it as a remedie for certeyne diſeaſes.” He says lower, that the cocoanut milk on congealing “lyeth within the ſhell lyke an egge.”

[203] MS. 5,650 reads: “By so doing they last a century.”

[204] Called “Suluan” by Albo (Navarrete, iv, p. 220). It is a small island southeast of Samar. See ante, note 196. Dr. David P. Barrows (Census of the Philippines, Washington, 1905, i, p. 413), says that the men from Suluan “were perhaps not typical of the rest of the population which Magellan found sparsely scattered about the coasts of the central islands, but ... were almost certainly of the same stock from which the present Visayan people are in the main descended.” These natives had probably come, he says, “in successively extending settlements, up the west coast of Mindanao from the Sulu archipelago. ‘Sulúan’ itself means ‘Where there are Suluges,’ that is, men of Sulu or Joló.”

[205] MS. adds: “seeing that they were thus well dispositioned.”

[206] MS. 5,650 adds: “into the sea.”

[207] Albo calls it (Navarrete, iv, p. 220) the island of Gada (i.e., Aguada, “watering-place”) “where we took on water and wood, that island being very free of shoals” (see ante, note 196). This island is now called Homonhón, Jomonjol, or Malhón. Its greatest dimensions are ten miles from northwest to southeast, and five miles from northeast to southwest. It is eleven miles southwest from the nearest point in Samar. It is called “Buenas Señas” on Murillo Velarde’s map.

[208] The “Roteiro” (Stanley p. 11) says that the archipelago was also called “Vall Sem Periguo,” or “Valley without Peril.” The name “Filipinas” was not applied to them until 1542 by Villalobos (see Vol. II, p. 48).

[209] Probably the jungle-fowl (Gallus bankiva) which is caught and tamed in large numbers by the natives of the Philippines and still used for crossing with the domestic fowl. See Guillemard (ut supra, p. 228, note 1).

[210] This sentence is omitted in MS. 5,650.

[211] MS. 5,650 reads: “In his ears he wore pendants of gold jewels, which they call ‘schione.’”

[212] MS. adds: “whom he had put ashore on that island that they might recruit their strength.”

[213] MS. 5,650 reads: “There is another island near the above island, inhabited by people.” Mosto says (p. 70, note 6) that picheti is from the Spanish piquete, “a small hole made with a sharp pointed instrument.” This custom of piercing the ears is quite general among savage, barbarous, and semi-barbarous peoples.

[214] Eden (p. 254) reads: “caphranita that is gentyles.” See Vol. III, p. 93, note 29.

[215] This word is omitted in MS. 5,650.

[216] Our transcript reads facine, and MS. 5,650 fascine, both of which translate “fascines.” Mosto reads focine, which is amended by Amoretti to foscine. This latter is probably the same word as fiocina, a “harpoon” or “eel-spear,” and hence here a “dart.”

[217] Stanley failed to decipher this word in MS. 5,650, which is the same as the word in the Italian MS. Mosto, citing Boerio (Dizion. veneziano), says of rizali: “Rizzagio or rizzagno, ‘sweepnet’ a fine thickly woven net, which when thrown into rivers by the fisherman, opens, and when near the bottom, closes, and covers and encloses the fish. Rizzagio is also called that contrivance or net, made in the manner of an inverted cone, with a barrel hoop attached to the circumference as a selvage. It has a hole underneath, through which if the eels in the ponds slyly enter the net, there is no danger of their escape.”

Fish are caught in the Philippines by various devices—in favorable situations by traps, weirs, corrals of bamboo set along the shore in shallow waters. Various kinds of nets and seines, the hook and line, and also the spear, are also used. See Census of the Philippine Islands (Washington, 1905), iv, p. 533.

[218] MS. 5,650 reads: “Hiunanghar.” Stanley has mistranscribed “Huinanghar.” It is difficult to identify the four islands of Cenalo, Hiunanghan, Ibusson, and Abarien with certainty. Mosto (p. 71, notes) suggests that they may be Dinagat, Cabugan, Gibuson, and Cabalarián. The first three are evidently correct, as those islands would naturally be sighted in the course followed. The last island is shown in Pigafetta’s chart to be north of Malhón, and the probability is that he names and locates it merely from hearsay, and that they did not see it. Its position seems to indicate Manicani rather than Cabalarián.

After this paragraph in the Italian MS. (folio 21a) follows the chart of the islands of Pozzon, Ticobon, Polon, Baibai and Ceilon (together forming the island of Leyte), Gatighan, Bohol, and Mazzana (sic) (q.v., p. 112). This chart in MS. 5,650 (on folio 36a) is preceded by: “Below is shown the cape of Gatighan and many other islands surrounding it.”

[219] Albo (Navarrete, iv, p. 220) says: “We departed thence [i.e., from Malhón] and went toward the west in order to strike a large island called Seilani [i.e., Leyte] which is inhabited and has gold in it. We coasted along it and took our course to the west southwest in order to strike a small island, which is inhabited and called Mazava. The people there are very friendly. We erected a cross on a mountain in that island. Three islands lying to the west southwest were pointed out to us from that island, which are said to possess gold in abundance. They showed us how it was obtained. They found pieces as large as chickpeas and beans. Masava lies in latitude 9 and two-thirds degrees north.” The “Roteiro” (Stanley, p. 11) says: “They ran on to another island twenty leagues from that from which they sailed [i.e., Malhón], and came to anchor at another island, which is named Macangor [i.e., Masaua], which is nine degrees; and in this island they were very well received, and they placed a cross in it.” See also Vol. I, pp. 322, 323.

[220] MS. 5,650 reads: “But they moved off immediately and would not enter the ship through distrust of us.” The slave who acted as interpreter is the Henrique de Malaca of Navarrete’s list.

[221] Bara: the Spanish word barra.

[222] MS. 5,650 reads: “to ask him to give him some food for his ships in exchange for his money.”

[223] MS. 5,650 reads: “The king hearing that came with seven or eight men.”

[224] For dorade, i.e., the dorado. MS. 5,650 adds: “which are very large fish of the kind abovesaid.”

[225] The ceremony of blood brotherhood. Casicasi means “intimate friends.” See Trumbull’s Blood Covenant (Philadelphia, 1898), which shows how widespread was the covenant or friendship typified by blood.

[226] MS. 5,650 reads: “After that the said captain had one of his men-at-arms armed in offensive armor.” Stanley has translated harnois blanc literally as “white armor.”

[227] This passage may be translated: “Thereby was the king rendered almost speechless, and told the captain, through the slave, that one of those armed men was worth a hundred of his own men. The captain answered that that was a fact, and that he had brought two hundred men in each ship, who were armed in that manner.” Eden so understood it, and reads: “whereat the Kynge marualed greatly, and ſayde to th[e] interpretoure (who was a ſlaue borne in Malacha) that one of thoſe armed men was able to encounter with a hundreth of his men.” MS. 5,650 agrees with the translation of the text.

[228] Instead of this last phrase MS. 5,650 has: “and he made two of his men engage in sword-play before the king.”

[229] MS. 5,650 says only: “Then he showed the king the sea-chart, and the navigation compass.” Eden says (p. 348) that the first to use the compass was one “Flauius of Malpha, a citie in the kingdom of Naples.... Next vnto Flauius, the chiefe commendation is dew to the Spanyardes and Portugales by whoſe daylye experience, the ſame is brought to further perfection, and the vſe thereof better knowen; althowghe hytherto no man knoweth the cauſe why the iren touched with the lode ſtone, turneth euer towarde the north ſtarre, as playnely appeareth in euery common dyall.” He also says: “As touchynge the needle of the compaſſe, I haue redde in the Portugales nauigations that ſaylynge as farre ſouth as Cap. de Bona Speranza, the poynt of the needle ſtyll reſpected the northe as it dyd on this ſyde the Equinoctiall, ſauynge that it ſumwhat trembeled and declyned a lyttle, whereby the force ſeemed ſumwhat to be diminiſſhed, ſo that they were fayne to helpe it with the lode ſtone.” (See ante, p. 93). The compass was known in a rough form to the Chinese at early as 2634 B.C., and first applied to navigation in the third or fourth century A.D., or perhaps earlier. It was probably introduced into Europe through the Arabs who learned of it from the Chinese. It is first referred to in European literature by Alexander Neckam in the twelfth century in De Utensilibus. The variations from the true north were observed as early as 1269.

[230] Stanley says that the Amoretti edition represents the king as making this request and Magalhães as assenting thereto; but the Italian MS. reads as distinctly as MS. 5,650, that Magalhães made the request.

[231] MS. 5,650 omits the remainder of this sentence.

[232] MS. 5,650 adds: “that is, a boat.”

[233] The following passage relating to the meal reads thus in MS. 5,650: “Then the king had a plate of pork and some wine brought in. Their fashion of drinking is as follows. First they lift their hands toward the sky, and then take with the right hand the vessel from which they drink, while extending the fist of the left hand toward the people. The king did that to me, and extended his fist toward me, so that I thought that he was going to strike me. But I did the same to him, and in such wise did we banquet and afterwards sup with him using that ceremony and others.” See Spencer’s Ceremonial Institutions, especially chapter I.

[234] Eden reads (p. 255): “When the kynge ſawe Antonie Pigafetta write the names of many thinges, and afterwarde rehearſe them ageyne, he marualed yet more, makynge ſygnes that ſuche men deſcended from heauen.” Continuing he confuses the eldest son of the first king with the latter’s brother, the second king.

[235] A tolerably good description of the native houses of the present day in the Philippines. Cf. Morga’s description, Vol. XVI, pp. 117–119.

[236] MS. 5,650 begins a new unnumbered chapter at this point.

[237] This sentence to this point in MS. 5,650, is wrongly made to refer to the house of the king. The passage there reads: “All the dishes with which he is served, and also a part of his house, which was well furnished according to the custom of the country, were of gold.”

[238] MS. 5,650 omits this sentence.

[239] Butuan and Caraga in the northeastern part of Mindanao.

[240] This name is variously rendered: Mosto, Siain; MS. 5,650, Siaui; Stanley, Siani; and Amoretti and Eden, Siagu.

[241] MS. 5,650 reads: “the captain sent the chaplain ashore to celebrate mass.”

[242] MS. 5,650 says that they took only their swords; but the Italian MS. says distinctly that a signal was given to the ships from the shore by means of muskets, and again that the musketry was fired when the kings and Magalhães separated, both of which references are omitted by MS. 5,650. Eden reads: “The Captaine came alande with fyftie of his men in theyr beſt apparel withowte weapons or harneſſe, and all the reſydue well armed.”

[243] In Eden (p. 255): “damaſke water.”

[244] MS. 5,650 reads: “but they offered nothing.”

[245] MS. 5,650 says: “every one did his duties as a Christian and received our Lord.”

[246] MS. 5,650 adds: “for the people.”

[247] The Italian MS. reads literally and somewhat ambiguously: “they made immediate reverence;” MS. 5,650 says “to which these kings made reverence,” which is scarcely likely, as the latter would, until told by Magalhães, see nothing in the ceremony. Rather it was the Spaniards who made the reverence.

[248] MS. 5,650 reads: “whenever any ships came from Spain.”

[249] Cf. Morga, Vol. XVI, p. 132.

[250] MS. 5,650 reads: “men and ships to render them obedient to him.”

[251] MS. 5,650 reads: “to the middle of the highest mountain,” evidently confusing mezo di (“afternoon”) of the Italian MS. with mezo (mezzo; “middle”); for the cross was set up on the summit of the mountain. The passage in MS. 5,650 continues: “Then those two kings and the captain rested, and while conversing, the latter had them asked [not “I had them asked” as in Stanley, who mistranscribes jl (il) as je] where the best port was for getting food. They replied that there were three, namely, Ceylom, Zzubu, and Galaghan, but that Zzeubu was the largest and the best trading place.” These are the islands of Leyte (the Seilani of Albo, Navarrete, iv, p. 20; and the Selani of Transylvanus, Vol. I, p. 322), Cebú, and Mindanao (the Caraga district).

[252] 5,650 reads simply: “Then we descended to the place where their boats were.”

[253] This account is very much shortened in MS. 5,650, where it reads as follows: “As the captain intended to leave next morning, he asked the king for pilots in order that they might conduct him to the ports abovesaid. He promised the king to treat those pilots as he would them themselves, and that he would leave one of his men as a hostage. In reply the first king said that he would go himself to guide the captain to those ports and that he would be his pilot, but asked him to wait two days until he should gather his rice, and do some other things which he had to do. He asked the captain to lend him some of his men, so that he could accomplish it sooner, and the captain agreed to it.” At this point MS. 5,650 begins a new unnumbered chapter.

[254] The billon and afterward copper coin quattrino, which was struck in the mints of Venice, Rome, Florence, Reggio, the Two Sicilies, etc. The quattrino of the popes was often distinguished as “quattrino Romano.” The Venetian copper quattrino was first struck in the reign of Francesco Foscari (1423–57). See W. C. Hazlitt’s Coinage of European Continent (London and New York, 1893), p. 226.

[255] Doppione: a gold coin struck by Louis XII of France during his occupation of the Milanese (1500–1512). Hazlitt, ut supra, p. 196.

[256] Colona: possibly the name of some coin of the period.

[257] This entire paragraph is omitted in MS. 5,650. That MS. has another chapter division at this point.

[258] Stanley mistranslates the French gentilz as “gentle.”

[259] Probably the abacá, although it may be the cloth made from the palm. See Morga’s description of the Visayans, Vol. XVI, p. 112.

[260] Cf. Morga’s Sucesos, Vol. XVI, pp. 80, 81.

[261] MS. 5,650 greatly abridges this account, reading as follows: “They cut that fruit into four parts, and after they have chewed it a long time, they spit it out and throw it away.” Cf. the account in Morga’s Sucesos, Vol. XVI, pp. 97–99.

[262] MS. 5,650 omits this product. Cf. Morga’s Sucesos, Vol. XVI, pp. 84–97.

[263] In MS. 5,650, “Mazzaua;” in Eden, “Meſſana;” in Mosto, “Mazana,” while in the chart it appears as “Mazzana;” Transylvanus, “Massana;” and Albo, “Masava.” It is now called the island of Limasaua, and has an area of about ten and one-half square miles.

[264] Mosto mistranscribes the Italian word for “among” fra as prima “first.” The error arises through the abbreviation used, namely fa, Mosto mistaking it for pa, which would be prima.

[265] Stanley mistranscribes “Gatighan” from MS. 5,650 as “Satighan.” The names of the five islands as given by Eden are: “Zeilon, Bohol, Canghu, Barbai, and Catighan.” These are the islands of Leite, Bohol, Canigao (west of Leyte), the northern part of Leyte (today the name of a town, hamlet and inlet in Leyte), and possibly Apit or Himuquitan, or one of the other nearby islands on the west coast of Leyte. See chart of these islands on p. 112.

Albo (Navarrete, iv, pp. 220, 221) says: “We left Mazava and went north toward the island of Seilani, after which we ran along the said island to the northwest as far as 10 degrees. There we saw three rocky islands, and turned our course west for about 10 leguas where we came upon two islets. We stayed there that night and in the morning went toward the south southwest for about 12 leguas, as far as 10 and one-third degrees. At that point we entered a channel between two islands, one of which is called Matan and the other Subu. Subu, as well as the islands of Mazava and Suluan extend north by east and south by west. Between Subu and Seilani we spied a very lofty land lying to the north, which is called Baibai. It is said to contain considerable gold and to be well stocked with food, and so great an extent of land that its limits are unknown. From Mazava, Seilani, and Subu, on the course followed toward the south, look out for the many shoals, which are very bad. On that account a canoe which was guiding us along that course, refused to go ahead. From the beginning of the channel of Subu and Matan, we turned west by a middle channel and reached the city of Subu. There we anchored and made peace, and the people there gave us rice, millet, and meat. We stayed there for a considerable time. The king and queen of that place and many of the inhabitants readily became Christians.” The “Roteiro” (Stanley, p. 11) says that the king of Macangar (i.e., Mazaua) conducted the Spaniards “a matter of thirty leagues to another island named Cabo [i.e., Cebú], which is in ten degrees, and in this island Fernando de Magalhães did what he pleased with the consent of the country.” Brito says merely (Navarrete, iv, p. 308): “After that, after passing amid many islands, they reached one called Mazaba, which lies in 9 degrees. The king of Mazaba conducted them to another large island called Zubó.”

[266] MS. 5,650 reads: “only one of them.” Barbastili is a Venetian word for pipistrelli. These bats are the Pteropi or “flying foxes,” the large fruit-eating bats of which so many species inhabit the Malay Archipelago. Bats are especially found in Guimarás, Siquijor, and Cebú, and the skins of some are used as fur. See Guillemard (ut supra, p. 235). See also Delgado’s Historia, pp. 842, 843; and U. S. Philippine Gazetteer.

[267] Stanley mistranslates as “tortoises.” The “black birds with the long tail” are the tabón “mound-building Megapodes, gallinacious birds peculiar to the Austro-Malayan subregion” (Guillemard’s Magellan, p. 235). See also Vol. V, p. 167, note 14, and Vol. XVI, page 198, note 43; also Vol. XVI, p. 81, note 84.

[268] These are the Camotes, which lie west of Leyte, and their names are Poro, Pasijan, and Pansón. See Pigafetta’s chart showing these islands on p. 112.

[269] Following this point in the Italian MS. (folio 26a) is the chart of the islands of Bohol, Mattam, and Zzubu (q.v., p. 136).

MS. 5,650 presents this chart on folio 51a, preceded by the words: “Below are shown the islands of Zzubu, Mattan, and Bohól.”

[270] MS. 5,650 reads: “But the interpreter reassured them by telling them.”

[271] MS. 5,650 reads: “and he was going, by the orders of the said sovereign, to discover the islands of Mallucque.”

[272] MS. 5,650 reads: “Thereupon the abovesaid merchant said to the king in their language,” etc., without giving the original Malay words. Eden gives the phrase as catacaia chita.

[273] Calicut, properly Kálíkot (said to be derived from two words meaning cock-crow, because the territory granted to the first king of Kálíkot was limited to the extent over which a cock could be heard to crow; or from Káli, one of the names of the goddess Gauri) is the name of a district and city on the Malabar coast. The king of all the Malabar coast from Goa to Cape Comorin, Samari Perymal, having adopted the Mahometan faith divided his kingdom into the kingdoms of Calicut, Cochin, Cananor, and Coulão, and gave them to his friends, on condition that the king of Calicut be termed “Zamorim” or “Samorim,” i.e., “Supreme emperor and God upon earth” (although the proper form is said to be “Tamurin” which is conjectured by some to be a modification of the Sanskrit “Samunri,” “seaking.” The city of Kálíkot, a noted emporium of trade, was built perhaps as early as 805 A.D., although the date 1300 A.D. is also given as that of its founding; and is described by Ibn Batuta in 1342 as one of the finest ports in the world. It was visited by Covilham in 1486, and Vasco da Gama’s ships were freighted there in 1498. The latter attacked the city in 1503 and 1510, and the Portuguese built a fortified factory there in 1513 which was destroyed by the governor in 1525 to avoid its falling into the enemy’s hands. The English established a factory in the city in 1616, which was captured in 1766 by Haidar Ali; but after a further series of capture and recapture, the city and district was permanently turned over to the British (1792). See Stanley’s Vasco da Gama (Hakluyt Society publications, London, 1869); Birch’s Alboquerque (Hakluyt Society publications, London, 1875–1884); Jones and Badger’s Ludovico di Varthema (Hakluyt Society publications, London, 1863), pp. 135–177; also Grey’s Travels of Pietro della Valle (Hakluyt Society publications, London, 1892), pp. 344, 345, note.

Malacca, or more correctly Mâlaka is the name of an ancient territory and city, which was probably first settled by Javanese, and is possibly derived from “Malayu” meaning in Javanese “to run” or “fugitive.” At an early period Malacca fell under the sway of the Siamese. The city, located on both sides of the Malacca River, and only one hundred and thirty miles northwest of Singapore (which has usurped the great volume of trade once centering at Malacca) was founded about 1250 A.D. The first European to visit the city was Varthema, about the year 1505. It was captured by the Portuguese under Albuquerque in 1511, and they held it (1580–1640 under Spanish control) until 1641 when it was captured by the Dutch, who had unsuccessfully besieged it, with the aid of the king of Jahor, in 1606. The English obtained possession of it in 1795, and still hold it, although the Dutch possessed it from 1818–1825. For descriptions and history of Malacca, see the following Hakluyt Society publications: Stanley’s East Africa and Malabar (London, 1866), pp. 190–195; Birch’s Alboquerque, iii, pp. 71–90 (and other citations); Burnell and Tiele’s Linschoten (London, 1885), i, pp. 104–106; Gray’s Voyage of François Pyrard (London, 1888),

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