Hi there

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ENRIQUE (DRAFT)

CHILDREN BOOK VERSION...

Hi there. My name is Enrique. I used to be called Trapobana when I lived among the seafaring folks in the tropical islands. My people were always moving from one island to another,chasing the wind and sea currents. My grandfather once told me about how his ancestors took daring journeys out to the horizon where the sun rises. They sailed off and never heard from them again. He called them "sea gypsies." I eventually became one, too. I ended up in Malaca, Moslem seaport that became Malay trading post and slave market. ( which is in Indonesia .)

1511.

I was still a little boy on the day the ships with bigger sails came in. The strangers were taller and their skin lighter. I heard that these were the people that drove some of the Moors from their fortresses in the nearby lands. They sailed in from the sunset, the same place the turban-wearing traders came from. They had powerful guns, some without bows. Their words were very different from ours. Even though we couldn’t understand them, we knew what they wanted. They loaded their ships with leaves that my mother sometimes used to prepare our food.

Some of them were very friendly and kind. One of their chiefs, his name was Magellan, told my people that he was going to take me back to their big island in the east, even farther than where the men with turbans came from. And on that day on, Magellan and I were together. He called me "Enrique," after someone named Prince Henry. I told him about the islands I came from. He said that this was the reason he wanted to bring me along, to show him where my homeland was. I am worried, though, because we seem to be going in the opposite direction.

Date 1512

It is good that the ship was built like a big house because the weather got colder as we sailed.

At last we’ve reached his country. It is called Portugal. The people look at me strangely. I am quickly learning their language. My master promised me we would return some day to the Land of the Spices but I am growing up now and am still waiting. I haven’t seen people from my land except for another brown slave girl from Sumatra who is my girl friend. The similarities of our dialect makes it easy for me to talk to her.

1513 AD

We went to see Master’s king and asked for more ships to carry us back to my homeland. I was at his side talking about going home, chasing the sundown, and dreaming one day we will appear with the sun on the other side. But the king was not impressed.

1517 AD

We secretly traveled to another kingdom called Spain. Master said that we have to do this we needed to find someone to provide us with boats. Except for their uniforms, these people looked the same to me. Master talked about our plan and even brought my girlfriend and me to the royal court of the King of Spain. We spoke in our dialects about our home islands in order to support Master’s case. I must have been the first person of my kind they ever saw because listening to me speak amazed them. I just hoped that the King does not find my master’s request as strange as I am to them. I know that he did not understand a single word I said, but they understood Master’s plan of rounding the world by going west. Now I am fluent in Portuguese and Spanish.

Sep 20, 1519

The King of Spain gave us 5 ships and we sailed with over 200 hundred men. Before we left, Master wrote down that I would be a free man when we returned and would even be given some money to start a new life. As we were preparing to leave, I saw that I was listed as an Interpreter and I am earning 1,500 marividis a month. They must think that I am also a guide as well as personal servant to Magellan, since I am earning more than twice as much as a seaman.

Mar 31, 1520- South America

We are now on the Eastern Coast of South America. One day we saw people on the beach who were very tall. Our men only reached their waists. They captured two of these Patagonian giants to help us onboard. We stayed there for the winter and then continued sailing south, keeping the coastline on the right the whole time. We are looking for the passage to the big ocean where I came from. The sea is getting rough and colder that some of the crewmen want to go back to Spain.

November 28, 1520-Pacific

After a mutiny we were able to find a narrow channel to the big ocean on the other side. The harsh weather nipped at my bones but finally we got through. The big blue ocean greeted us with calmness so my master named it Pacific. We climbed up to warmer weather and after 100 days sighted an island group very similar to Malaca. The two giants from Patagonia died before they could see it.

March 6, 1521-Guam, Marianas

The islanders here are the same color as I am but their bodies are huskier. I think that we are getting closer to home. These are the people my grandfather talked about who sailed east against the wind. Only those

with high energy reserves survived the journey. They grow rice and coconuts, but they prepare them in different ways. We loaded provisions to the last part of our journey.

16 March, 1521-Philippines(Island of St Lazarus)

Our food is gone but there is another island group. My master is a very religious man and he named it "The Islands of St Lazarus" in honor of the feast day. The friendly natives do not understand me but if I do not wear any clothes, I would looked exactly like them.

28 Match 1521 Thursday-Philippines

We moved to a nearby island and saw a small boat with 8 men on it. As the boat approached us, I shouted to them and greeted them in my native language. They replied in the same language and I knew I was back in my ancestral home. The islanders surrounded me chattering and shouting in great Malay jubilation. It has been few years since I heard anyone speak like this. My homecoming moment proves that the world is indeed round.

29 March 1521 Good Friday

I was so excited that I got drunk to celebrate my return to my homeland. The ship historian Pigafetta joined me, and he discovered palm wine and the word of "arrack" and "tuba" (wine). He has to confess to the chaplain later because he ate meat and drank wine on Good Friday. Pigafetta is a funny man, he’s so busy writing in log, he doesn’t even know how to swim. One day, he fell overboard and luckily he hung onto one line and pulled himself up.

31 March 1521 Easter Sunday

First Christian Mass in the Philippines...

April 7 1521 --Cebu

The ships pulled in the Harbor. The natives were more than happy to convert to Christianity and the Arab trader, the only moslem in Cebu volunteered to convert,

April 27, 1521..Saturday Mactan

Master was determined to convert my folks to his religion. Most of the people were switching, but one of the local chiefs was indifferent. There was a big battle and my master was killed inspite of his superior armor and weapons. I was wounded trying to save him. I blame it on the rest of the crew who stayed in the ship and left him die on the beach. Barbosa thinks he is in charge now and he forced me to get back to my job. He said that even though Master is dead, he will make sure I am not freed if I return to Spain. I do not want to return to Europe even as a free man since my master is no longer with me. I am a dog will not learn to serve a new master.

After the Battle of Mactan

--to be revised for children version book

Twice he commanded Enrique to get up and return to duty, and got nor response. He leaned over the prostrate figure and shook it, then dealt it several cruel blows. Enrique did not lift a hand even to cover his face. Beside himself with rage, Barbosa kicked the slave savagely, shouting at him venomously between accesses of violence. He said that Enrique might be counting upon having manumitted by Magellan's will, but he wasn't freed yet, and he, Barbosa, would see to it that he wasn't in the future. Lady Beatriz Magellan would keep him in slavery, and Barbosa would see it his future in Seville would be not be bed of roses.

Then Barbosa, having vented his animosity, resumed his attitude of official authority. He sternly gave Enrique his choice, as a member of the crew, of getting up and obeying his orders at once, or being flogged for disobedience. Enrique recognized the familiar voice of naval discipline, and with murder in his heart, got up, took his orders. And morosely went ashore to deliver a communication from Barbosa to the Christian King. He felt a searing hatred toward Barbosa for yesterday's failure to aid Magellan in his extremity, and held both Barbosa and Serrano to be traitors and murderers in letting Magellan be overcome. He felt no obligation at all toward these white men; his fidelity had belonged to Magellan alone.

(ENRIQUE===LIKE A DOG WHO LOST HIS MASTER UNABLE TO SHIFT AFFECTION AND NOW HIS ANIMAL (MALAY TRAIT) TAKING HOLD OF HIM)

The Christian King was in an agony of indecision when Enrique, who had in the past acted as emissary between his master and the king., came to him bearing message from Barbosa. It had been due in no small part to Enrique's ardor that Humabon had become the Christian King, so now he was astonished when Enrique warned him against Barbosa's duplicity and urged him to take advantage of the demoralization of the armada to seize the ships and become master of their armament and treasure. Moreover the triumph of Lapu lapu destroyed the prestige of the Spaniards with the Christian king. Humobon could not forget the spectacle of the steel-clad foreigners as they threw away their harquebuses and crossbow and fled for their lives, chased by the naked warriors of the Datu.

While Enrique and the king were still discussing the matter, one of the lesser caciques hurried in to report a surprise move by the Spaniards. The had loaded their longboats with all the merchandise from the warehouse and had conveyed it back to the ships. This evidence of Barbosa's lack of confidence in him lent confirmation of Enrique's warning to the Rajah, and rid of him of any lingering sense of responsibility he may had toward the whites.

Enrique and the Rajah (Christian king) now agreed to turn upon Barbosa, and the Rajah remembered a circumstance, which could be used to trap him. Soon after the Spaniards had arrive, the Rajah proposed to send to the Emperor Charles (Spain), as a token of fealty, a magnificent set of native regalia. He had shown Magellan a store of handsome rubies, diamonds, and pearls, together with several nuggets of gold, whish he proposed to have wrought in the native fashion. He showed the completed set to Enrique and they determined to invite Barbosa and the other officers to attend a farewell banquet ashore to receive these symbols of tribute to the Emperor. Barbosa was delighted and accepted Rajah's invitation.

All the leading Officers were in the party, unarmed and in gala attire. Don Antonio was left for his wound was not yet healed and undoubtedly his absence was a secret relief to Enrique.

All the members of the crew who went ashore was murdered except for Padre Valderamma and Enrique as relayed by Sarrao pleading for his life,to rescue him on the beach and stop firing at the village. That was the last time they heard as the native was closing on him.

They agreed that since the surviving 115 men left would not be able to man the 3 ships the Concepcion had to be set fire and sacrificed and scuttled The two ships cut anchors and pulled away. Enrique remained by choice in Cebu as the ships hurriedly exited pursued by marauding small boats who were now convinced of the European vulnerability without their great Captain. The expedition who come as God now reduced to pirate as they wandered aimlessly. THEY WERE IN SEARCH OF ANOTHER MALAY NAVIGATOR WHO COULD GUIDE THE TWO SHIP TO THE SPICE ISLAND. The crew selected Carvalho to command and pilot the ships back to Spain. Instead of going south they sailed west to Palawan. They were two days away from the big island of Luzon in the north which was mentioned in an earlier book by a Portuguese traveler Tome Pires in 1513 refering to the Luzon colony at Malacca. At same point they pirated a vessel form Luzon belonging the a royal family.

The ship returned home but I was already home among my people. I know that they will be back. and the king will send more ships to my ancestral home.

VICTORIA

May 1, 1521 the fleet left Cebu

20 years later one of the Spanish expdetions landed, Spanish Conquistadors as they will be known and named our place, "Philippines Islands" (Islas delas Filipinas) in honor of their crown prince. Infant son of King Charles who heard me in his court while I was in Spain. For almost 400 years they ruled my homeland until 100 years ago.

This is how I rember the events that tranpired in the middle of the millinuem. Pegaffeta cronicled the history and other historial as the ff outline....