Historical vignette 2: Enrique de Malacca

When the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan reached the East Indies in 1511, he abducted one of the local people, an inhabitant of the port city of Malacca. He wanted this man, who has become known to history as Enrique de Malacca, for his knowledge of the region and of the local Malay language. When Magellan turned back for home, sailing across the Indian Ocean and around the southern tip of Africa toward Portugal, he took Enrique with him.

In 1519, Magellan sailed off in command of another expedition, whose mission was to head south, pass the southern tip of South America, and head west to explore the almost-unknown ocean west of the Americas. He took Enrique with him. In 1521 the expedition reached the Philippines, thus completing the first European crossing of the Pacific. They discovered that Enrique knew the language spoken in the Philippines.

The Portuguese explorers became embroiled in local political conflicts, and Magellan was killed. Enrique took the opportunity to escape, and eventually the Portuguese sailed away.

Since Enrique knew the language spoken in the Philippines, it has been speculated that he was actually Filipino and had traveled from there to Malacca before being captured by Magellan. It's also possible that the Filipinos he was dealing with could speak Malay, which was widely used as a trading language in the region. If he was originally from Malacca, most likely he returned there after escaping from the Portuguese in the Philippines.

Either way, Enrique de Malacca was probably the first human being to circle the Earth.