Duarte Barbosa
Duarte Barbosa (* around 1480 in Lisbon , † May 1, 1521 in Mactan , Philippines ) was a Portuguese researcher and writer who also took part in the first circumnavigation of the earth under his brother-in-law Ferdinand Magellan . Initially employed as a royal clerk and interpreter in a Portuguese trading post in Kerala , around 1516 he published one of the first detailed geographical and ethnographic national customers of Portuguese India .
Origin and family
Duarte Barbosa came from a respected but not noble family. Barbosa's father Diogo Barbosa served the family of the Dukes of Bragança , particularly the Duke's brother, Álvaro de Braganza. In 1501 Diogo Barbosa went to Portuguese India, where he planned an enterprise with the Florentine merchant and slave trader Bartolomeo Marchionni on behalf of Álvaro de Braganza . His son Duarte Barbosa had in all likelihood come to India a year earlier, in 1500, with his uncle Gonçalo Gil Barbosa . The uncle had sailed with Pedro Álvares Cabral's fleet and finally landed in Cochin . The route of Álvares Cabral along the African and Persian coast corresponded exactly to the later travel descriptions of Duarte Barbosa. The uncle Gonçalo Gil Barbosa was supposed to work as a royal official in the Portuguese trading post in Cochin, the most important city in Kerala for the Portuguese .
Scribe, royal official, interpreter and researcher in Kerala
In 1502 the uncle was transferred to Cannanore in Kerala, where a royal trading post was also established. Duarte Barbosa accompanied his uncle, was employed as a clerk in the factory and was one of the first Portuguese to learn Malayalam , the main language in Kerala. His talent for languages and his scientific thoroughness were so great that he soon “spoke it better than the natives”. Subsequently, he also worked as a translator, for example between the governor Afonso de Albuquerque and the Raja of Cannanore, and researched the culture, history and lifestyle in India in extensive studies . In 1514 he was involved as a translator for the governor in the task of converting the king of Cochin to Christianity. In 1515 he was sent to Calicut by Governor de Albuquerque to oversee the construction of two cannon-equipped ships for faster travel through the Red Sea .
The book by Duarte Barbosa
Barbosa returned to Portugal in 1516, where he published his geography and detailed travelogues under the title Livro de Duarte Barbosa (the book by Duarte Barbosa). For a long time, the multi-volume book was only known for the excerpts and honorable mention by Giovan Battista Ramusio . It was not until the beginning of the 19th century that the original manuscript was found on a sunken shipwreck off Portugal and published again in 1812 by the Royal Academy of Sciences in Lisbon. In addition, two early Spanish translations appeared in Barcelona and Munich. In 1865 the Barcelona manuscript was translated into English, and in 1918 Mansel Longworth Dames carried out the thorough translations of the newly published original Portuguese manuscript into English. The importance of travel reports has long been underestimated. Barbosa was about the first western researcher to describe in detail the phenomenon of tolerance and withdrawal symptoms in opium addiction .
Seville
Duarte Barbosa felt that the representative of the Portuguese governor in Cannanore had treated him unfairly and that he had been deprived of promised promotions. After a complaint directly to King Manuel I did not bring the desired success, Barbosa went to Seville . Some Portuguese dissatisfied people have already gathered here, including Ferdinand Magellan . Barbosa's father Diogo had also gone into exile in Seville, where his master Álvaro de Braganza even became mayor after the Braganza family fell out of favor in Portugal. There was probably contact between the Magalhães and Barbosa families before that. In any case, Magellan married Barbosa's sister Beatríz in Seville at the end of 1517 and thus became Duarte Barbosa's brother-in-law. The early historian João de Barros believes that there were two Duarte Barbosas - the officials of the trading post in Cannanore Duarte Barbosa, and the brother-in-law and companion of Magellan Duarte Barbosa. Longworth Dames shows, however, that the majority of the sources confirm the identity of the author with Magellan's companion and that there is clear evidence for this.
The ride with Magellan
The planned first circumnavigation of the world by his brother-in-law Magellan must have been a great opportunity for Duarte Barbosa to describe other countries. So far he had already described all known areas up to the Liu Kiu Islands between Taiwan and Japan in East Asia . On August 10, 1519 Duarte Barbosa set sail from Seville, together with his friend João Serrão. Out of scientific curiosity, accompanied by natives, he withdrew from the expedition several times without permission, to the annoyance of Magellan, who finally had Barbosa arrested. But after Barbosa helped pacify an uprising in the Patagonian town of Puerto San Julián on April 2, 1520 , he was appointed captain of one of the ships, the Victoria, by Magellan.
Magellan's and Barbosa's death
After Magellan was killed in the Philippines on April 27, 1521 at the Battle of Macan a year later , Barbosa was one of the few survivors, according to Antonio Pigafetta's report, and then joined João Serrão as the new commander of the expedition. He tried in vain to recover Magellan's body. The imprisoned slave and interpreter Enrique, a native of Malacca, played an unfortunate role . According to Magellan's last will, Enrique was supposed to regain his freedom, but was afraid that Barbosa and João Serrão would hand over to Magellan's widow. So he conspired with Raja Humabon of Cebu , recently baptized as Don Carlos , who invited the new commanders to a feast in honor of the Spanish king. During the banquet on May 1, 1521, Barbosa and many other members of the expedition were killed. João Serrão was kidnapped as a hostage and later freed by João Carvalho. Enrique was gone.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Mansel Longworth Dames (ed.), The Book of Barbosa p.xxxiv p. 35
- ↑ Mansel Longworth Dames (ed.), The Book of Barbosa p.xxxvi p. 37
- ↑ Mansel Longworth Dames (ed.), The Book of Barbosa, Edition of the Hakluyt Society, London 1918, p. 5
- ↑ Margit Kreutel, Die Opiumsucht, Stuttgart 1988, p. 81
- ↑ Mansel Longworth Dames (ed.), The Book of Barbosa p.xlix: The Second Duarte Barbosa , p. 51
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Barbosa, Duarte |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Portuguese researcher and writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1480 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Lisbon |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 1, 1521 |
| Place of death | in Mactan , Philippines |