Departing from Tidore, the Spaniards were attended by several kings in their canoes to the isle of Mare,[21] where this royal company took leave of them with much apparent regret. In this isle they left one of their ships which was leaky, giving orders to have it repaired, for its return to Spain. Being now reduced to forty-six Spaniards and thirteen Indians, they directed their course from Mare towards the S.W. passing the isles named Chacotian, Lagoma, Sico, Gioghi, Caphi, Sulacho, Lumatola, Tenetum, Bura [Bouro?] Arubon [perhaps Amboina?] Budia, Celaruri, Benaia, Ambalao, Bandon [perhaps Banda?] Zorobua, Zolot, Moceuamor, Galian, and Mullua, besides many others possessed by Mahometans, heathens, and canibals. They stopped fifteen days at Mallua to repair their ship, being in 8 deg. N. lat. and 169 deg. long. according to their reckoning. This island produces much pepper, both long and of the ordinary round kind. The tree on which it grows climbs like ivy, and its leaf resembles that of the mulberry. The natives are canibals; the men wearing their hair and beards; and their only weapons are bows and arrows.
[Footnote 21: Marhee Foul, a small isle between Tidore and Motir.—E.]
Leaving Mallua [Moa?] on the 25th January, 1522, they arrived at Tima [Timor?] five leagues to the S.S.W. This island is in lat. 10 deg. S. and long. 125 deg. E. where they found ginger, white sanders, various kinds of fruits, and plenty of gold and provisions of all kinds. The people of the Moluccas, Java, and Lozen [Luzon, or the principal island of the Philippines], procure their sanders-wood from hence. The natives are idolaters, and have the lues venerea among them, which is a common distemper in all the islands of this great archipelago.
Leaving Timor on the 11th February, they got into the great sea called Lantchidol, steering W.S.W. and leaving the coast of a long string of islands on the right hand, and taking care not to sail too near the shore, lest the Portuguese of Malacca should chance to discover them; wherefore they kept on the outside of Java and Sumatra. That they might pass the Cape of Good Hope the more securely, they continued their course W.S.W. till they got into the latitude of 42 deg. S. though so sore pinched by hunger and sickness, that some were for putting in at Mosambique for refreshments; but the majority concluded that the Portuguese would prove bad physicians for their distempers, and determined therefore to continue the voyage homewards. In this course they lost twenty-one of their men, and were at length constrained to put in at the island of St Jago, one of the Cape Verds, to throw themselves on the mercy of the Portuguese. So, venturing ashore, they opened their miserable case to the Portuguese, who at first relieved their necessities; but the next time they went on shore, detained all who came as prisoners.