Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2008 07:11:00 +0200 From: eskrima-request@martialartsresource.net Subject: Eskrima digest, Vol 15 #166 - 1 msg X-Mailer: Mailman v2.0.13.cisto1 MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net Errors-To: eskrima-admin@martialartsresource.net X-BeenThere: eskrima@martialartsresource.net X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.13.cisto1 Precedence: bulk Reply-To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net X-Reply-To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net List-Unsubscribe: , List-Id: Eskrima-FMA discussion forum, the premier FMA forum on the Internet. 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Provided in memory of Mangisursuro Michael G. Inay (1944-2000). See the Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) FAQ and the online search engine for back issues of the Eskrima/FMA digest at http://MartialArtsResource.com Mabuhay ang eskrima! Today's Topics: 1. Fatal Alliance - 2 of 2 (Ray) --__--__-- Message: 1 From: Ray To: Eskrima-Digest Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:43:00 -0700 Subject: [Eskrima] Fatal Alliance - 2 of 2 Reply-To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net Fatal Alliance - Part 2 of 2 Magellan began the ceremony with a long, ponderous sermon in which pointed out the many advantages Christianity would bring to Humabon's people. With Enrique interpreting, he told Humabon that he should thank God for inspiring him to become a Christian, for now he would more easily vanquish his enemies. Humabon replied that, while he wanted very much to become a Christian, some of his chiefs would not obey him, for they considered themselves to be his equals. Magellan replied that any chief who refused to obey Humabon would be killed and his possessions confiscated. Soon he would be going to Spain, but he would return with my ships and men. Then, if Humabon proved himself a loyal Christian, would be made ruler of the entire archipelago. Although one might wish for stronger evidence, Pigafetta's account of these events hints at the strategy evolving in Magellan's mind for asserting and maintaining control over his discoveries. As there was no evidence that the Portuguese had reached these islands, for discovery and alliances with local rulers, especially if they could be persuaded to accept Christianity, would provide a solid basis for claiming Spanish sovereignty. In the several weeks since he had arrived, Magellan had observed that the islands were occupied by diverse peoples ruled by independent rajahs. Because he would need to return to Spain for reinforcements, he would require a reliable native ally to provide a foothold from which-with the new fleet he would bring from Spain-he could gain control of the entire archipelago. With its rajah about to become a Christian, Cebu, the center of an extensive trade network extending all the way to Siam on the Asian mainland, was well suited for just such a foothold. The artillery salutes and elaborate religious ceremonies were not just manifestations of puffery by a self-anointed religious fanatic; they were calculated to overawe and intimidate the numerous, independent, potentially rebellious people of these islands. On the baptismal platform, Magellan was resplendent in his robe of dazzling white, the intense black of his full beard standing out in stark contrast. He looked on as the fleet chaplain, Pedro de Valderrama, baptized Humabon, his heir apparent, and principal retainers and allies, including Colambu. All were given Christian names: Don Carlos (after Charles V) Humabon, Don Fernando (after Charles's brother) for the heir apparent, Don Juan for Colambu, and Cristobal for the Moslem trader from Siam, who diplomatically forsook the crescent for the cross. Later that day, the chaplain baptized Humabon's wife and forty other prominent women. The ranee was given the Christian name Dona Juana, in honor of the emperor's royal mother. Humabon's daughter was christened Dona Catalina, and Colambu's wife received the name Dona Isabel. After Dona Juana was christened, Magellan presented her with a wooden image of the Holy Mother holding the infant Jesus. Thirty-four years after the deaths of Magellan and most of his principal officers, a little wooden image of the Christ child, apparently of Flemish workmanship, was discovered by Juan Zamus, a sailor in the expedition of Miguel Lopez Legazpi, the first to reach Cebu after Magellan. Found in a house whose occupants had fled when the Spaniards bombarded the city, the wooden image was recognized by the expedition's navigator-priest, Andres de Urdaneta, who built a chapel for it. The icon has been preserved in the Augustinian church in Cebu City, where it is venerated as a sacred relic. By the end of that memorable Sunday, 800 men, women, and children had been baptized, and the fervor would continue for eight days until nearly everyone on Cebu, and some from neighboring islands, had followed Humabon's example. All told, some 2,200 conversions resulted from Magellan's inspired preaching. A fortuitous incident in which the captain general, filled with hubris, tried his hand at spiritual healing, probably did much to stimulate these wholesale conversions. The older brother of Humabon's heir apparent, ill and near death, had been too weak to present himself for baptism. On looking into the matter, Magellan discovered that the women attending the sick man, in a desperate attempt to cure their dying patient, had been making offerings to their customary idols. Scolding them for their pagan ways, Magellan promised that if they would burn their idols, and the patient would agree to be baptized, the power of Jesus Christ would cure him. Told that the patient had consented, Magellan led a solemn procession to the house of the sick man who, according to Pigafetta, "... could neither speak nor move." After the patient, his wife, and ten daughters had been baptized, Magellan asked him how he felt. The man responded immediately, saying that he felt fine. Magellan then gave him some almond milk to drink, and sent to his house a mattress, sheets, coverlet, and a pillow. Each day the patient was given almond milk, oil and water of roses, and some of Magellan's quince preserves. In less than five days, the man was walking. Perhaps the miraculous cure had something to do with the quince preserves that had kept Magellan and the members of his mess healthy during the Pacific crossing, perhaps it was the psychological impact of the intense, powerful stranger, or perhaps the power of faith was indeed at work. In the Philippines, faith healing, given a spectacular start by Magellan, is still widely practiced. While the captain general was preoccupied with religious matters, the sailors and some of the officers were up to their usual tricks with the local women. Cebu was proving to be an even better liberty port than Rio. Pigafetta remarked that "... [the men of Cebu] have as many wives as they wish, but one of them is the principal wife. Whenever any of our men went ashore, both by day and by night, everyone invited them to eat and drink ... [and] the women loved us very much more than their own men. All of the women from the age of six years upward have their vaginas gradually opened because of the men's penises." This outrageous treatment of female children was designed to prepare them to endure the barbarous custom of palang, which persists to this day in remote parts of the Philippines and Borneo. Pigafetta described the practice as follows: The males, large and small, have their penis pierced from one side the other near the head, with a gold or tin bolt the thickness of a goose quill. In both ends of the same bolt, some have what resembles a spur with points on the ends; others like the head of a can nail. I very often asked many, both old and young, to see their penis, because I could not credit it. In the middle of the bolt is a hole, through which they urinate. The bolt and spurs always hold firm. He then went on to describe what must have been, for the women, the painful process of accepting, during intercourse; what has been aptly described as this "load of phallic hardware" It is easy to understand why the women of Cebu preferred Magellan's sailors to their husbands and usual lovers, and Magellan's men were more than willing to oblige them. Among the fleet's officers eager to come to the aid of the long-suffering women of Cebu was Duarte Barbosa, captain of the Victoria. At Rio, similar behavior by Barbosa, an otherwise reliable officer, had incensed the puritanical captain general. Enraptured by his success with faith healing, and engrossed with winning converts to the cross, Magellan at first paid little heed to his men's debaucheries. While he and the chaplain were busy baptizing and preaching Christian values, the ships' crews demonstrated a wanton disregard for the doctrines of sexual restraint and the sanctity of marriage. The frequent, indiscriminate coupling with native women by Magellan's randy sailors outraged the men of Cebu, who particularly resented it when their vives and daughters were involved. Learning that Barbosa had left his ship for a love nest ashore, Magellan was furious. He removed Barbosa from command of the Victoria, replacing him with Cristovao Rebelo. Like Barosa, Revelo had sailed from Spain as a supernumerary on the Trinidad. During the voyage, he had impressed Magellan with his strong character, performing ably when sent ashore as the first of Magellan's ambassadors to Rajah Humabon. A Portuguese, Rebelo was a native of Poro, and though his relationship to Magellan is obscure, Rebelo is thought by at least one authority to have been his natural son. On the day of his baptism, Humabon told Magellan that several independent local chiefs would not submit to his authority. Determined to make Humabon the undisputed ruler of these islands, Magellan sent messages to the independent chieftains ordering them to acknowledge Humabon's authority. If they failed to do so, he warned, they would suffer death and the confiscation of their property. Several village chiefs flatly refused. Magellan sent a small force of sailors and marines in two ship's boats to punish one of the recalcitrant chiefs, burning his village, a town named Bulaya, and returning with a haul of confiscated livestock. Magellan then ordered the other defiant chiefs to deliver to Humabon a symbolic tribute consisting of a goat, a pig, a basket of rice, and a jug of honey. Should they fail to comply, their villages would suffer the same fate as Bulaya. Two of them delivered the tribute, but Lapulapu, a chieftain on Mactan Island, refused, sending word that if the Spaniards came to burn his village, he would be waiting for them. Unwilling to tolerate the defiance of a petty chieftain, Magellan proposed to attack Lapulapu's village. Like Napoleon as he was about to invade Russia, and Robert E. Lee before Gettysburg, Magellan was dazzled by his earlier success. Feeling invulnerable, he boasted to Humabon that he would need only sixty men and would personally lead the attack. Humabon opposed the idea, as did Juan Serrano, Magellan's senior and most experienced captain, who told him that such a campaign would be foolhardy. The ships were in poor condition and too lightly manned to spare the sixty men. However, knowing that Magellan was not easily dissuaded once his mind was made up, Serrano added that if the captain general thought it necessary to attack the village, he should not go himself, but send someone in his place. This was sound advice, and Magellan would have been wise to heed it. While the instructions King Charles had given him did not specifically forbid him to go ashore in areas controlled by hostile populations, he was well aware of the disastrous consequences for the Solis expedition when, in the La Plata Estuary in 1516, its leader imprudently left his flagship to go ashore and was killed by Querandi. Magellan chose to ignore this lesson, Humabon's cautious advice, and the simple logic of his oldest, wisest captain. His confidence in the superiority of Spanish arms and the protection of the Holy Virgin made him certain he could intimidate and easily defeat the primitively armed defenders of a small village. Perhaps too, he was swayed by his knowledge of the military adventure in the Moluccas that secured an exalted status on the island of Ternate for his friend Serrao. At midnight on April 26-27, 1521, Magellan set forth from Cebu for Lapulapu's village with sixty well-armed volunteers in three shallops on which were mounted light, portable swivel guns. In addition to swords and lances, the men carried harquebuses and cross-bows. Although they wore armor, for ease in getting in and out of the boats they dispensed with their reaves (leg armor). Lapulapu's village was shielded by a fringe of mangroves on the shore of a little bay at the northeastern end of Mactan Island, about nine nautical miles from Cebu City. Knowing Lapulapu for a formidable opponent, Humabon heartily disapproved of Magellan's plan. Nevertheless, as he didn't vant his new ally to come to grief, he assembled a force of 1,000 warriors in thirty war canoes to back up the small Spanish assault force. The attackers proceeded northeastward through the channel between Cebu and Mactan, and after rounding Bantolinao Point, entered the shallow bay fronting the village before dawn. Magellan intended to land his men quietly for a surprise attack, but he had been listening to divine voices instead of doing his homework. Uncharacteristically for one usually so painstakingly thorough, he had neglected to consider the tide. It was low, and a partially exposed reef extended 1,000 yards seaward of the beach. The shallops were unable to get close enough inshore to land their men or even to provide covering fire from their swivel guns. Undeterred, Magellan was determined to wade ashore with his men under cover of darkness and burn the village. Humabon warned him to wait until daylight, because he knew the village would be surrounded by trenches with sharp bamboo stakes set to impale unwary night attackers. He urged Magellan to let him attack first with his 1,000 men, for he was familiar with Lapulapu's fortifications. Magellan's men could be held in reserve, ready to enter the fray when and where needed. Such tactical support, Humabon argued, would provide a tremendous morale boost for his warriors, and the attack would surely succeed. Magellan was indignant. The whole object of this attack was to demonstrate the invincibility of Spanish arms. Not only did he reject Humabon's suggestion, he gave him express orders to keep his men in their canoes, offshore and out of the battle. From there they would see how Castilians fought. At first light the shallops moved as close inshore as they could without grounding. Leaving the boat crews and swivel gunners with the shallops, Magellan leapt into the shallow water, closely followed by forty-eight fighting men, and waded ashore, setting a precedent for General MacArthur's landing on nearby Leyte over 400 years later. Unlike MacArthur, however, he had no cameramen along to record the event for posterity. Magellan and his men had to wade "two crossbow flights" (about 2,000 feet) before reaching the beach. Accounts of the ensuing battle vary somewhat. Pigafetta, who fought alongside Magellan, gave the most dramatic version, but his story was written several years after the event with the object of titillating audiences in the courts of the crowned heads of Europe. Like Rustichello's rendering of Marco Polo's story, Pigafetta's account needs a grain of salt. In its essentials it probably is mostly true, but some details were very likely colored to make the story better for telling. Other accounts were culled from testimony given by survivors of the ill fated expedition (for the most part professional mariners) to official boards of inquiry, or in the courts where claims were filed against the Crown by heirs of those who died. Although some of these sources may have had reason to give biased testimony, the stories of most can be considered their best recollections of events. Pigafetta stated that the landing on Mactan was vigorously opposed. "When we reached land," he wrote, "those men formed in three divisions to the number of more than one thousand five hundred persons. When they saw us, they charged down upon us with exceeding loud cries, two divisions on our flanks, and the other on our front." He described a furious fight at or near the beach, in which musket fire proved ineffective. After passing through the natives' wooden shields, the musket balls did not have enough energy left to do much damage. They shot so many arrows at us and hurled so many bamboo spears (some tipped with iron) at the captain general, besides fire-hardened, pointed stakes, stones and dirt, that we could scarcely defend ourselves. Seeing that, the captain general sent some men to burn their houses in order to terrify them. When they saw their houses burning, they were roused to greater fury. Two of our men were killed near the houses, while we burned twenty or thirty houses. So many of them charged down upon us that they shot the captain through the right leg with a poisoned arrow. On that account, he ordered us to retire slowly, but the men took flight, except six or eight of us who remained with the captain. We continued to retire for more than a crossbow flight from the shore, always fighting up to our knees in the water. The natives continued to pursue us, and picking up the same spear four or six times, hurled it at us again and again. Recognizing the captain, so many turned upon him that they knocked his helmet off his head twice, but he always stood firm like a good knight, together with some others. Thus did we fight for more than an hour, refusing to retire further. An Indian hurled a bamboo spear into the captain's face, but the latter immediately killed him with his lance, which he left in the Indian's body. Then, going for his sword, he could draw it out but halfway, because he had been wounded in the arm by a bamboo spear When the natives saw that, they all hurled themselves upon him. One of them wounded him on the left leg with a [bolo], which resembles a scimitar, only larger. That caused the captain to fall face downward, when immediately they rushed upon him with iron and bamboo spears, and with their [bolos] until they killed our mirror, our light, our comfort, and our true guide. When they wounded him, he turned back many times to see whether we were all in the boats. Thereupon, beholding him dead, we, wounded, retreated as best we could to the boats, which already were pulling off. Another version of the story, recorded by Herrera, was culled from the official records to which he had access in Spain early in the seventeenth century. These are thought to have included a Portuguese account describing the contents of San Martin's notebooks. Having remained on one of the ships at anchor in the port of Cebu, San Martin did not participate in the battle, but probably recorded what he was told by eyewitnesses. There are other versions of the battle, some by participants. As with most multiple-witness accounts, there is noticeable variation in many details. The essential elements of the story, however, are sufficiently similar to give it credibility. Juan Sebastian del Cano was not present at the Battle of Mactan. However, like San Martin, he had ready access to firsthand accounts from survivors. In his testimony about the voyage after returning to Spain as captain of the Victoria-while he had ample cause to slant that part concerning his role in the mutiny-Cano would have had little reason for misrepresenting the events surrounding Magellan's death. His testimony was the basis for a version of the Battle of Mactan proposed by a nineteenth-century Spanish archivist, Rodrigo Aganduru Moriz, that helps to explain Magellan's extraordinarily rash behavior during the last hours of his life. By synthesizing these other versions of Magellan's final battle with Pigafetta's firsthand but suspiciously colorful account, the following scenario can be deduced: The landing was unopposed. On attaining the beach, Magellan and his men headed straight for the town. Finding it evacuated, they commenced to burn some of the houses, a tactic to which Magellan seems to have been addicted. While so engaged, they were attacked on each flank by two battalions of enraged natives. Magellan then divided his small force to counterattack on both flanks, but they were assaulted so furiously by such large numbers of the enemy that they recombined to defend themselves. For several hours, the harquebusiers and crossbow men kept the enemy at a respectful distance. Eventually, the Spaniards ran out of powder, lead, and crossbow bolts. Perceiving this, the natives closed in, hurling stones, fire hardened stakes, and iron-tipped bamboo lances and shooting poisoned arrows. Seeing that the situation was growing desperate, Magellan ordered a gradual retreat. Instead, most of the Spaniards, eager to reach the safety of the boats, fled pell-mell toward the beach, leaving Magellan with no more than eight defenders to cover the retreat. Outside the reef, beyond the range of their swivel guns, the men in the shallops were unable to provide covering fire. Lapulapu's forces attacked with redoubled fury, aiming their spears and poisoned arrows at the unprotected legs of the retreating Spaniards. One of the poisoned arrows grazed Magellan's leg, and yet another mortally wounded Cristovao Rebelo, who had been fighting valiantly alongside his father. When Magellan saw that the young man had been killed, he went berserk and hurled himself at the enemy, getting so far ahead of his defenders that they were unable to protect him. Surrounded by the enemy, he was pelted furiously with stones that knocked off his helmet. A defending warrior slashed his leg with a bolo and he fell helpless to the ground. Bamboo spears were thrust into his body wherever it was unprotected by armor. A spear through the throat was the coup de grace. Without fire support from the swivel guns on the shallops, it is not likely that Magellan's small landing force could have reached the beach across a thousand feet of shallow coral, confronted as Pigafetta claimed by three battalions of the enemy. Nor is it likely that they could have broken through the enemy ranks to attack the village, which lay behind the mangroves fronting the beach. One has only to recall the awful casualties inflicted by determined Japanese defenders on U.S. assault forces on the tiny island of Betio in Tarawa Atoll in 1943, when low tide forced Navy landing craft to deposit the marines on a shallow reef well offshore. It seems more likely that Lapulapu expected to be attacked by a large force of Humabon's men supported by a smaller force of Spaniards. Not knowing where they would land, he assembled his defending forces in the interior of Mactan Island, holding them ready until the invaders entered into terrain suitable for counterattack. When Humabon's war canoes failed to land a single warrior, Lapulapu could scarcely believe his good luck. Magellan's men had begun to burn the village when they were attacked on both flanks by Lapulapu's forces. If it had not been for the superior range of the Spaniards' crossbows, they would have been driven into the sea much more quickly. When they ran out of crossbow bolts, Magellan had no other recourse but to order his men to retreat. Thanks to his valiant holding action, most of his little force made it back to the boats. While Pigafetta may have doctored the details of Magellan's final hours to make a more colorful story, his praise for the uncommon valor of the fallen captain general was well deserved. Seven Europeans, including Magellan, were killed in the Battle of Mactan, and another died of his wounds shortly after the battle. Fifteen of the enemy were reported killed. Bearing the wounded survivors, the shallops returned to the ships at Cebu. When the men who had remained with the squadron learned that the captain general had been killed, "... great was the outpouring of grief by the crews, who [had come to] love and respect him and had been willing to endure much travail to go wherever he might lead them." Rajah Humabon cried like a baby when told of Magellan's death, but his confidence was shaken in his new allies and in the power of the religion he had just adopted. His disillusionment grew when he realized that the defeat by Lapulapu and outrage at the behavior of the ship's crews toward the island's women was causing his subjects to question his leadership. At the urging of the ships' officers he sent a message to Lapulapu, requesting the return of Magellan's body, in return for which the Spaniards promised to give whatever merchandise from their factoria he might choose. The victorious chieftain refused, replying that he would not give up the body of such a man for anything, and that he intended to keep it as a memorial to his triumph. There can be little doubt that Lapulapu also urged Humabon to get rid of his troublesome guests. Already disgusted with them, Humabon resolved to do just that. With Magellan and Revelo dead, the ships' crews had to choose a new squadron commander and a captain for the Victoria. For the latter position they elected Luis Affonso de Goes, a Portuguese supernumerary on the Trinidad. Duarte Barbosa was elected captain of the flagship, but they did not trust him with exclusive command of the squadron. Juan Serrano, the veteran pilot-captain of the Concepcion, was elected co-commander. One of the first decisions of the new high command was to close down the factoria and reload the trade goods in the ships. This completed, they asked for two pilots to guide them through the archipelago. Humabon was indignant; their intent to abandon Cebu destroyed any traces of goodwill he may have retained for the Spaniards. Enrique, Magellan's Malay slave and the expedition's interpreter, had fought alongside his master at Mactan and received a minor wound. Despondent over Magellan's death, he brooded aboard the Trinidad, nursing his injury. Magellan had stipulated in his will that upon his death Enrique would be freed from bondage and provided with funds for his support. When Barbosa ordered him ashore to help recruit native pilots, Enrique declined, because, he said, of his wounds. Enraged at the slave's refusal, Barbosa swore that as brother to Magellan's wife, he would make sure that Enrique would never be manumitted, but remain her slave for life. Furthermore, he fumed, if Enrique didn't get out of his bunk and do as ordered, he would have him flogged. Seething with resentment and wounded pride, Enrique went to negotiate with Humabon. It would have been better for the expedition if he hadn't. On May 1, Enrique returned to the Trinidad with an invitation from Humabon for the captains, principal officers, and ranking men of the squadron to attend a ceremonial banquet where they would be presented with fine jewels, a gift for the Christian Emperor. Barbosa was eager to go; Serrano advised caution, but was mocked by Barbosa for lack of courage. His Castilian pride stung, Serrano ordered a longboat made ready and was the first to leap into it. He was followed by Barbosa, the Victoria's new captain, Affonso de Goes, the pilots San Martin and Carvalho, ships' clerks Ezpeleta and Heredia, the chaplain, Valderrama, master-at-arms Gomez de Espinosa, and Enrique. Sixteen others, including supernumeraries, able seamen, and a cooper, accompanied them. Pigafetta did not go; his face was swollen from a poisoned arrow that had grazed his forehead during the battle. When the shore party landed at the beach, they were warmly welcomed by Humabon, but as they were led to the banquet site, Espinosa and Carvalho noticed that the prince who had been miraculously cured by Magellan quietly took aside the priest, Valderrama, and escorted him to his house. Suspecting a trap, Espinosa and Carvaiho hurried back to the longboat and rowed back to the Trinidad. They were telling the crew of their suspicions when they heard shouting and a great tumult ashore. Realizing that their shipmates had been ambushed, Carvalho, now the senior officer, ordered the ships to move closer to shore and begin bombarding the town. As the gunners opened fire, Serrano, bound and bleeding, was dragged toward the beach. He called out to his comrades on the ships to cease fire, or he would be killed. Asked what had happened to the others, he shouted that their throats had all been cut, except for Enrique, who had been spared. >From this point, there is considerable divergence in the accounts of the survivors. Pigafetta, who obviously disliked Carvalho, said that Serrano had implored us "... to redeem him with some of the merchandise; but Johan Carvaio, his boon companion, would not allow the boat to go ashore [fearing treachery]." Instead, Carvalho ordered the ships to set sail, leaving Serrano on the beach, weeping. He "... asked us not to set sail so quickly, for they would kill him." Serrano, wrote Pigafetta, prayed that on Judgment Day, God would hold Carvalho accountable for his conduct. A quite different version was provided by an anonymous Portuguese survivor of the voyage, probably Vasquito Galego, son of the deceased pilot of the Victoria, Vasco Galego. After the death of his father during the crossing of the Pacific, Vasquito apparently continued his father's log. The original manuscript is in the University of Leiden, in the Netherlands. In this version of the story, Serrano's captors had demanded two lombards (artillery pieces) as ransom for their prisoner. When Carvalho sent these ashore in a skiff, the natives upped their demands. The crew of the skiff said that Carvalho would give whatever they asked for Serrano's freedom, but requested that he be released at a location where he could be picked up safely. When his captors refused to do this, Serrano called out that they were stalling and would try to capture the ships as soon as reinforcements arrived. He shouted to his shipmates that they had better leave quickly, for "... it were better for him to die than all should perish." Less dramatic than Pigafetta's, this version may come closer to reality. During the voyage, Serrano had proved himself a loyal, capable, and brave officer. The picture painted by Pigafetta of the proud Castilian captain weeping, imploring Carvalho to save him when doing so would have put the ships and their crews in jeopardy, simply does not ring true. It seems more likely that, realizing that any rescuers attempting to reach him would be seized, Serrano told Carvalho to leave him and sail away. [end of passage] --__--__-- _______________________________________________ Eskrima mailing list Eskrima@martialartsresource.net http://martialartsresource.net/mailman/listinfo/eskrima Subscribe or Unsubscribe: http://eskrima-fma.net Old digest issues @ ftp://ftp.martialartsresource.com/pub/eskrima Copyright 1994-2008: Ray Terry, MartialArtsResource.com, Sudlud.com Standard disclaimers apply. Remember September 11. End of Eskrima Digest