Doc. 1596C Mendaña & Quirós - Narrative by Quirós, edited by Figueroa

Sources: Three manuscripts in BN Madrid: 2995 (folio 520v et sequitur), 10.267 (folio 43 et seq.), and 10:645; published by Cristoval Suarez de Figueroa, at Madrid in 1613, as "Hechos de D. Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza, Quarto Marques de Canete".

Introductory note.
The first-named manuscript is transcribed below. The footnotes indicate major variations from the published version. Note that the text published by Figueroa has been translated into French by De Brosses (Histoire des navigations) and by Charton (Voyageurs modernes). The English translation given below is by Alexander Dalrymple (An Historical Collection), except for the comments that were added by Figueroa himself, which are translated by me.

The reader is referred to the bibliography at the end of this volume for the above references, as well as for an excellent article and a book by Father Celsus Kelly, O.F.M., regarding the narratives by Quiros and a list of documents dealing with Spanish voyages from Mendana to Malaspina.

Secondary account of the customs of the Ladrones, by Figueroa

Source: BN Madrid ms. 10.627 and the published version (Madrid, 1613)

The excuse for wasting a few lines in this book on minute things would be (as the ancients used to say) that small things have something divine about them, in that, although everybody can feel them, nobody can grasp them. For this reason, not so rarely, they grab the attention of whoever look at, or listen to, them, in a way that one is then attracted to them, without necessarily recommending or approving them. One of those things is the description of lands, dress, and customs of the natives, although the curious [reader] will always count them among the most important [passages] (whenever he gets to them), not only on account of the pleasure caused by their variety, but also for what the narrating of them teaches us and makes us aware of.

These are small barks made of a certain wood as light as cork. A single Indian sails on each one and, although it has a mast, a sail, a yard, halliard (sic), sheets and a rudder [sic], the one who goes aboard steers it with one hand and with the other raises, lowers and turns the sail, holding a sheet with each foot, with which he slackens or pulls, whenever required. They are craft with two prows and by turning the sail they are on their way, without the vessel being turned. Its speed is great, and when the spent wave breaks over it, filling it with water, the one who guides it throws himself overboard, like a fish, and by picking it up over his shoulders turns it over in the air and makes the hinderance (sic) found within its concavity fall out; thus it becomes dried as before, and the one who had left it gets back on board by one side.

[Guamanians living in trees?]

Upon arriving in port, he takes the little ship upon his back and leans it against the foot of a tree upon which (like a nest) he has his lodging-house. He feeds himself with the fish he catches. He lives in this fashion, although like a barbarian, happily ignorant of court intrigues, and of the things of this world, like landed property, favors, esteem, favoritism, fancied good, and the useless pastimes.

Many of those boats would come alongside the ship with refreshments of products from the land, like coconuts, bananas, comboyes (1), and sugar-cane, without [mentioning] various species of salt-water fishes, which they catch with their hands without any kind of tackle, taking them out of the concavities of the rocky ledges, reason for which no fish is safe from their agility except the crocodile, shark and caella.(2) These they worship like gods, and on account of the fear that they have of them, and the harm they get from them, they offer them and sacrifice part of the fruits that they collect, as a sort of tithe. They put them in a boat which they despatch (sic) under sail without anyone aboard to the high sea, and it capsizes and sinks very shortly afterwards.

The natives of the Ladrone Islands are brown in color. Neither men nor women wear any clothes on them. They are people exceedingly pretty, with firm and strong limbs and with such a tough skin that, naked and barefoot, they go into thorny bramblebushes, and walk through sharp rocks and rocky ledges, as light as roe-deer. They do not have any money among themselves. They do not value silver or gold; that is why their guests cannot deal with them except by bartering pieces of iron. They value iron ever since they came to know it through the Spanish, by watching them cut trees and boards with it. They specially fancy the axes and the knives, because those they used until then were made of pebbles and flints, with which they fashion their ships, and other things.

There have been various occasions in which sailors and soldiers have stepped ashore at that land for watering and have found (as I have said) many Indian houses built upon trees. There were also some huts on the beach, and when the greedy travellers (sic) searched them one after another, they found only wicker baskets put crosswise and inside them many human leg bones threaded together and skulls. These bones are those of their ancestors and they are used as gods by these brutish people. They revere them as such, because they know no others, except for the Sun, the Moon, the crocodiles and the sharks, inside which they believe are entrapped the souls of their dead. (3) In order to give an honorable burial to the bodies, they flay them and once the flesh is burned, they placed the ashes from it in a jar full of tuba (4) (a certain wine they extract from coconut palms), and once well mixed they drink it among themselves. They only leave the bones for the relatives to hang in their house, and keep them always present in their minds. They mourn their dead during their whole life on certain days [of the year], and nights, to honor them. For this purpose, there are many female hired mourners; nevertheless, they mourn one another, either through interest or out of friendship. To whomever has mourned for his neighbor, he is paid for his lament, it being necessary to do it at his house which was loaned to him with this condition; either he does the mourning himself, or he hires someone to mourn on his behalf. At the same time as they hold such funeral ceremonies, they take much pleasure in eating and drinking, in a splendid fashion. The ceremonies last nearly one week, the drinking taking place during the day while the lament goes on at night. Each woman mourns by herself, during the time assigned to her, during which time (between tears) she recounts the life, the deeds of that person or persons, by whom they are afflicted. She begins with the narrative of his or their childhood doings, and the things done when mature, declaring extensively the stature, exploits, jokes, effort, and all the other things that may do honor to the deceased. If some portion of what she narrates is witty, she begins to laugh with the same fury that she had been crying, and everyone present laugh so much that they raise a racket. Once the impulse of the laughter has died down, after they have chatted and drunk for a while (the latter part is paid much attention), they go back to their lament, as before. On the other hand, when a particularly-sad and sorrowful event is mentioned, all those present raise a much louder outcry; after all, during such feasts, over 200 people are usually present.

1 Ed. note: I do not know what that word really means, since it does not appear in any Spanish dictionary, old and new, as a fruit. Charton has suggested that it might have been a pandanus fruit. My wife, who is a Filipina, has suggested that it might be a misprint for the Filipino word "lomboi" which means a black or Java plum (Syzygium cuminii, Linn.).
2 Ed. note: This dangerous fish could be the moray eel, or the sting ray
3 Ed. note: A similar belief was common in the Visayas at that time, and was reported by Miguel de Loarca in a report dated Panay, 1582, as follows: "It is said that the souls of those who are stabbed to death, eaten by crocodiles, or killed by arrows (which is considered a very honorable death), go to heaven by way of rainbow, and become gods." (B&R 5:129).
4 Ed. note: Figueroa used this Filipino word for "arrack".
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From Rodrigue Lévesque, History of Micronesia Vol. 3, pages 36-38. Reproduced with permission of Lévesque Publications, 189 Dufresne, Gatineau, Québec, Canada, J8R 3E1.

Copyright © 1993 by Rodrigue Lévesque

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