c. 1480-1521

Spanish explorer who visited Africa and India before meeting his death in the Philippines alongside Ferdinand Magellan (c. 1480-1521). Among Barbosa's writings are a description of the East African coastal trading city of Mombasa, as well as the Indian practice of sati or suttee, the ritual suicide of a widow on her late husband's funeral pyre. Barbosa's uncle Diego, warden of the castle of Seville, was Magellan's father-in-law, and Barbosa himself accompanied the explorer in his famous voyage around the world. Both met their deaths in a battle with Filipino tribesmen on the island of Cebu.