Francisco Serrão

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Francisco Serrão (also Francisco Serrano ) († 1521 ) was a Portuguese captain, explorer and either a cousin or a friend of Ferdinand Magellan . His voyage of 1512 was the first European sailing trip east of Malacca to Indonesia to the lucrative 'Spice Islands' of the Moluccas . He allied himself with Sultan Bayanullah , ruler of Ternate , and became his personal advisor. He stayed in Ternate, where, under mysterious circumstances, he died around the same time as Magellan.

Trip to Banda

Serrão served as captain on one of the three ships and as deputy commander under António de Abreu , who had been sent from Malacca by Afonso de Albuquerque in 1511 to find the Spice Islands of Banda in the Moluccas. Banda was the world's only source of nutmeg , a spice that was used to flavor dishes, as a medicine and as a preservative and which was highly valued in European markets at the time. Portugal tried to get to the source so as not to have to rely on the mediation of Arab traders who sold nutmeg via the Republic of Venice at exorbitant prices.

Malay pilots led the expedition east across Java and along the Lesser Sunda Islands before heading north towards Ambon . When Serrão's ship landed in Gresik on Java, he took a Javanese woman to accompany him on the further voyage. In 1512 he was shipwrecked, but managed to reach the island of Hitu north of Ambon. The expedition stayed on Banda for nine months, buying nutmegs and products and also cloves , for which Banda kept a warehouse. Serrão left Banda in a Chinese junk that he had bought from a local dealer to replace his lost ship. D'Abreu continued sailing to Ambon, while Serrão sailed to the Moluccas.

Hitu

With nine Portuguese and nine Indonesians on board, the ship broke on a reef on a small island. When the islanders, known beach hunters, discovered the wreck from a boat, the Serrãos crew pretended that they were unarmed and rich. When the wreckers were close, the Portuguese attacked and took control. Their involuntary rescuers were forced to bring the Portuguese from Hitu to Ambon.

Serrão's weapons, muskets , and his art of war impressed the mighty princes of Hitu, who fought against Luhu , the main settlement of Seram's Hoamal peninsula near Hitu. The Portuguese were also welcome as buyers of food and spices, because from 1511 trade had been interrupted as a result of a dispute between Java and Malacca. The visitors were hired as military allies. Subsequently, their reputation penetrated the rival neighborhoods of Ambon and Tidore , who now both tried, through emissaries, to get the Portuguese under contract as advisors and helpers.

Ternate

Serrão allied itself with Ternate, the most powerful state in the neighborhood. Serrão served as the head of a group of soldiers who were in the service of one of the island's two powerful sultans, Sultan Bayanullah , who controlled the spice trade. They became close friends, and the Sultan appointed Serrão his personal advisor on all matters, including military matters, including family matters. When he was so well received by the Sultan, Francisco Serrão decided to stay and make no effort to return to Malacca.

Magellan and Death

Franscisco Serrão's letter to Ferdinand Magellan, which was brought to Portugal via Malacca and which described the Spice Islands, helped Magellan convince the Spanish king to finance his circumnavigation. Before they could meet, however, Serrão mysteriously died, almost at the same time as Magellan was killed in the Philippines . Barbosa later wrote that one theory was that the Sultan of Ternate caused Serrão to be poisoned. His family connection to Juan Serrano remained unclear in the historiography of Portuguese expeditions to Southeast Asia . The only written document is a list of the captains' names in the Magellan's fleet.

See also

literature

  • Willard A. Hannard: Indonesian Banda: Colonialism and its Aftermath in the Nutmeg Islands . Yayasan Warisan dan Budaya Banda Naira, Bandanaira 1991.
  • Karl Muller, Pickell, David (ed): Maluku: Indonesian Spice Islands . Periplus Editions, Singapore 1997, ISBN 962-593-176-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Hannard (1991), page 7
  2. ↑ a b M.C. Ricklefs: A History of Modern Indonesia Since c.1300, 2nd Edition . MacMillan, London 1991, ISBN 0-333-57689-6 , p. 24.
  3. ^ Paramita R. Abdurachman: 'Niachile Pokaraga' A Sad Story of a Moluccan Queen . In: Modern Asian Studies . 22, No. 3, 1988, pp. 571-592.
  4. ↑ Hannard (1991), page 7; Muller (1997), page 43
  5. ↑ a b c Duarte Barbosa; Mansel Longworth Dames; Fernão de Magalhães: The book of Duarte Barbosa: an account of the countries bordering on the Indian Ocean and their inhabitants . Asian Educational Services, New Delhi 1989, ISBN 81-060451-2.
  6. ↑ a b Hannard (1991), page 8
personal data
SURNAME Serrão, Francisco
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Serrano, Francisco
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Portuguese captain, explorer
DATE OF BIRTH 15th century
DATE OF DEATH 1521