The first person to travel around
the world
I have recently known that the
first person to travel around the world was Enrique de Malaca who has been
captured by Magellan during this trip to the Indes. He was also part of Magellan
expedition across the Pacific Ocean, which was finished by Sebastian Elcano
after the death of Magellan.
Here is a brief description (in Wikipedia)
of Enrique biography.
Enrique of Malacca (Spanish: Enrique de Malaca; Portuguese: Henrique de Malaca),
was a native of the Malay Archipelago who
became a slave of
the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan in
the 16th century. Italian historian Antonio
Pigafetta, who wrote the most comprehensive
account of Magellan's voyage, named him "Henrique" (which was Hispanicised as Enrique in official Spanish documents).
Pigafetta explicitly states that "Henrique" was a native of Sumatra.
According to biographer-philosopher Stefan Zweig, he is the first person to circumnavigate the world.[1] His name appears as "Henrique",[2] which is Portuguese,
and is probably the name given to him at his christening,
as he was baptised a Roman Catholic by
his Portuguese captors. His name appears only in Pigafetta's account, in
Magellan's Last Will, and in official documents at the Casa de Contratación de las
Indias of the Magellan expedition to the Philippines.
As set out in Magellan's document Last Will, Magellan
acquired Enrique as a slave at Malacca,
most probably at the early stages of the siege by the Portuguese in 1511. His Christian name, Henrique, may indicate
that his capture was on 13 July, the feast-day of St Henry,
which was several days from the start of the siege of Malacca by the Portuguese
under the leadership of Afonso de Albuquerque.
Enrique's baptism is attested by Magellan himself in
his Will, in which he states that Enrique was a Christian. Magellan also
explicitly mentions that Enrique was a native of Malacca. Eyewitness documents
of Antonio Pigafetta, Ginés de Mafra,
the Genoese pilot, Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, Juan Sebastián Elcano, and Bartolomé de las Casas, and secondary sources such as João de
Barros and Francisco López de Gómara, refer to him as a slave.

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