Duarte Barbosa - First Travel and The Book of Duarte Barbosa

First Travel and The Book of Duarte Barbosa

Duarte Barbosa was the son of Diogo Barbosa, a server of D. Álvaro of Braganza who went to India in 1501 in a joint venture of D. Álvaro with Bartholomeu Marchionni, in the 3rd Portuguese India Armada captained by João da Nova. In 1500 his uncle Gonçalo Gil Barbosa, after traveling in the 1500 fleet of Pedro Álvares Cabral, was left as factor in Kochi, and in 1502 was transferred to Kannur. The places described by Duarte Barbosa suggest that he had accompanied his uncle on this trip to Kochi and Cannanore. There Duarte Barbosa learned the local Malabar language (malayalam). In 1503 he was the interpreter of Francisco de Albuquerque in contacts with the Rajah of Cannanore. In 1513 he signed as clerk of Cannanore a letter to King Manuel I of Portugal where he claimed for himself the position master-clerck that had been promised. In 1514 Afonso de Albuquerque used his services as an interpreter in an attempt to convert the king of Kochi, as reported in his letter to the king. In 1515 Albuquerque sent Duarte Barbosa to Kozhikode to oversee the construction of two ships that would serve on an expedition to the Red Sea, in which he may have later participated under the new governor. Duarte Barbosa returned to Portugal where he completed the manuscript known as the "Book of Duarte Barbosa", finished in 1516 according to Ramusio preface, where he wrote detailed accounts of foreign cultures. Originally known through the testimony of Italian Giovanni Battista Ramusio, the original manuscript was discovered and published in the early nineteenth century in Lisbon.