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- Title:
- Free to Leave
- Date Created:
- 2021-03-31
- Description:
- When the pirates arrived at Guam, they held hostage the priest who went on board to check them out. He knew they weren’t Spanish as they had claimed. He would be kept aboard until the Guam Governor provided sufficient provisions. Among the first food sent to Captain Swan were small hogs that had excellent meat. They were fed coconuts and their flesh was the sturdy texture of beef brisket. A polite and courteous exchange of letters began. The Governor sent two hogs and fruit daily for which he asked in exchange powder shot and arms. He also asked for a large English dog that was like a pet for Swan’s crew. The Spanish official received everything he asked for. On May 30, though, the Governor sent his last gift: several hogs, a jar of pickled mangoes [likely the small, wild growing Philippine “paho” used as the local substitute for olive], a jar of excellent pickled fish, a jar of bread made from fine wheat flour but that was not baked hard like sea biscuit. He also sent 6 to 7 packs of rice. His letter asked that he be “excused from sending any more provision ... [as] he had no more on the Island that he could spare”. He also sent word that the West Monsoon was at hand, that therefore according to Dampier, “it behooved us to be jogging from hence, unless we were resolved to return back to America again”. Swan said his thanks and sent the friar (hostaged since May 21) ashore with gifts for him: a large brass clock, an astrolabe, and a large telescope. The priest gave the pirates 6 hogs, a roasting pig, 3 or 4 bushels of potatoes, and 50 pounds of Manila tobacco. The pirates had also secured as many coconuts as they could stow, a good stock of rice, and 50 hogs preserved in salt. The Magellan-Elcano stay in the Visayas and Mindanao during 1521 had come to value coconuts as tropical provisions. The pirates set their course for Mindanao. Potatoes and tobacco from the New World were growing in Filipinas.
- Subjects:
- Charles Swan Piracy Barter Gifts
- Exhibition:
- Dampier 1686
- Source:
- Nicotiana tabacum. From Flora de Filipinas by Francisco Manuel Blanco , OSA published 1880-1883. Wikimedia.
- Type:
- Image;Still Image
- Format:
- image/jpeg
Source
- Preferred Citation:
- "Free to Leave", Philippine Food History, Felice P. Sta. Maria
- Reference Link:
- felicepstamaria.net/items/coll199.html