Malay enslaved by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan
1490 CE
to 1555 CE
Enrique of Malacca is a native of the Malay Archipelago who becomes a slave of the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan in the sixteenth century.
Italian historian Antonio Pigafetta, who writes the most comprehensive account of Magellan's voyage, names him "Henrique" (which is Hispanicised as Enrique in official Spanish documents).
Pigafetta explicitly states that "Henrique" was a native of Sumatra.
His name appears as "Henrique", which is Portuguese, and is probably the name given to him at his christening, as he was baptized 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 had 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 July 13, the feast-day of St. Henry, which is 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.
