In 1509, Don Diego Columbus, the second admiral of New Spain, went to the island of Hispaniola with his wife and household; and she, being a noble woman, carried with her many ladies of good families, who were there married; by which means the Spaniards began to multiply in their new colony, and Hispaniola became famous and much frequented. Columbus likewise reduced Cuba into order, and took measures for its colonization, where he placed one Diego Velasques as his lieutenant, who had accompanied his father in his second voyage of discovery.
In April 1511, Alphonso de Albuquerque went to Malacca from Cochin; and finding certain Chinese about to return from Malacca into their own country, he sent a Portuguese along with them, named Duarte Fernandes, with letters for the king of the Mantias, now called Siam. They passed through the Straits of Cincapura, and sailed northwards along the coast of Patane to the city of Cuy, and thence to Odia, the chief city of the kingdom, in 14° N.109. The king of this country received Duarte with great honour, as he was the first Portuguese who had been in these parts, and sent back ambassadors along with him to Albuquerque. They travelled overland to the westwards, till they came to Tanacerim, on the Bay of Bengal, in 12° N. where they embarked in two ships and sailed to Malacca. The inhabitants of Siam, through which they travelled, eat of all kinds of beasts, and even of what we repute to be vermin. The people of this country are reputed the most virtuous and honest of any in those parts of the world, and pride themselves much on their poverty and chastity; yet have a strange practice of carrying round bells within their foreskins, which is not permitted to the king and priests. They do not rear any poultry or pigeons about their houses. The kingdom is 250 leagues in length and 80 in breadth110.
Elephants are so numerous in this country, that on going to war, the king is said to carry 30,000 into the field, besides others which are left in the several garrisons. This king has great pride in the possession of a white elephant, having red eyes, which glare like a flame of fire. In this country there is a certain species of small vermin, which attaches itself to the trunks of the elephants, to suck their blood, by which many elephants die. The skull of this insect111 is so hard as to be impenetrable to a musket shot. They have on their livers the figures of men and women, which the natives call Toketa, resembling a mandrake; and it is affirmed, that whoever has one of these about him cannot be killed by an iron weapon. They have also wild kine in this country, in the heads of which certain stones are found, which have the virtue to bring good fortune to merchants.
After the return of Duarte Fernandes from Siam, Albuquerque sent a knight named Ruy Nunnez de Acunha, as ambassador to the king of the Sequies, the country we now call Pegu. He went in a junk of the country, passing Cape Rachado, and thence to the city of Pera, on the river Salano, on which river are many other villages, where Duarte had been before; and he afterwards went by Tanaзerim to the city of Martavan, in 15° N. and the city of Pegu in 17° N. This was the first Portuguese who travelled in that kingdom, and who brought back a good account of the country and people.
In the end of 1511, Albuquerque sent three ships to the islands of Banda and Molucca, under command of Antonio de Breu and Francis Serrano, with an hundred and twenty men. Passing through the Straits of Saban, and along the island of Sumatra, and other islands on their left, named the Salites, they came to the islands of Palimbang and Lu-Suparam, whence they sailed by the noble island of Java, and eastwards between it and the island of Madura. In this last island the men are strong and warlike, and care little for their lives, even their women going out to war. These people are almost continually engaged in war and mutual slaughter, like the Mocos, and seem to place their only delight in bloodshed. Beyond Java they came to another island called Bali, and afterwards to Avajave, Sambaba, Solor, Galao, Malva, Vitara, Rosalanguin, and Arus; whence are brought beautiful birds, in much estimation on account of their feathers112. Beyond these islands they came to numbers of others, lying in 7 or 8 degrees of south latitude, all so close together as to appear like one entire mainland, and stretching near 500 leagues in length. The ancient cosmographers describe all these islands by one general name, the Javos; but more recent knowledge has found that they have all separate names. Beyond these, and more to the north, there are other islands, which are inhabited by a whiter people, clothed in shirts, doublets, and trowsers, something like the Portuguese dress, and who also have silver money. Their magistrates carry red staves in their hands, as badges of command, and seem to have some affinity in this respect with the people of China. There are other islands in these parts, or which the inhabitants are red; and it is reported they are the same people with the Chinese.
De Breu went northwards to the small island of Gumnape or Ternate, from the highest part of which flakes or streams like fire fell continually into the sea. He went thence to the islands of Burro and Amboyna, and came to anchor in the haven of Guliguli, where, in a village near a river, they found dead men hanging up in the houses, as the people are cannibals. Here they burnt the ship of Serrano, as she was old and rotten; and going to a place on the other side of the island, in 8° S. they loaded cloves, nutmegs, and mace, in a junk or barque, which Serrano bought. It is said, that in an island not far from Banda, there are immense quantities of snakes, especially in a cave in the centre of the island. The same is said of Formentera, in the Mediterranean, anciently Ophiusa, between Majorca and Minorca. On their return from Banda towards Malacca, in 1512, Francis Serrano perished with his junk on the flats called Baxos de Luзapinho, nine or ten of the Portuguese crew escaping to the island of Mindanao, who were sent for by the kings of the Moluccas. These were the first of the Portuguese who came to the Islands of Cloves, which are in lat. 1° N. and they remained there seven or eight years. Some Portuguese and princes of the Moors once endeavoured to go near that part of the isle of Ternate which throws out fire, but could not accomplish it. But Antonio Galvano accomplished this enterprise, and found a spring so cold that he could not bear his hand in the water, nor suffer any of it in his mouth, though almost directly under the line.
In these Molucca islands, there are certain men who have spurs on their ancles like cocks; and I was told by the king of Tidore, that in the islands of Batochina, there are people with tails, who have a lactiferous nipple on the scrotum. There are small hens also in these parts, many of which are black in the flesh, and lay their eggs, larger than those of ducks, in holes above nine feet under ground. They have likewise hogs with horns, and excellent talking parrots, which they call Noris. There is also a river so very hot that it takes off the skin of any living creature that bathes in its waters, and yet contains living fish. Their crabs are very sweet to eat, yet their claws are so strong that they will break the iron of a pickax; and there are small hairy crabs in the sea which are rank poison, as whoever eats of them immediately dies. In these seas are certain oysters, called Bras, having shells of so great size, that they might serve as fonts for baptizing children. In these seas there are certain living stones, which grow and increase like plants, of which excellent lime may be made by burning in the usual manner, when taken fresh from the sea; but, if allowed to remain long in the air, it loses all its strength, and will not afterwards burn into line. There is a tree which bears flowers only at sunset, which fell off immediately when blown. There is likewise a certain fruit, whereof if a woman who has conceived shall eat, the child by and by moves. There is, farther, a certain herb which followeth the sun, and removes after it, which is a strange and marvellous thing.
In 1512, while on the voyage from Malacca to Goa, the ship in which Albuquerque embarked was lost. Simon de Andrada and a few Portuguese were driven among the Maldivia islands, where they remained till they learnt the fate of the viceroy. These islands are low, small, and very numerous, and are full of palm trees, or Cocoas, which are good against all kinds of poison.
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This story of the skull of a small insect is quite unintelligible, and must have been misunderstood entirely by Hakluyt, the translator: It is the Elephant, probably, that is here meant. –E.