Portuguese diplomat and naval officer António de Abreu (c. 1480 – c. 1514) was born in Madeira and sailed from Lisbon aboard Afonso do Albuquerque's eighth Portuguese India Armada in April 1506. After establishing a foothold on Socotra, Albuquerque as "chief-captain for the Coast of Arabia" moved on to Hormuz to block off the Persian Gulf.
During the conquest of Malacca, Abreu commanded the Chinese junk that went up the Malacca River at high tide on 25 July 1511. His action allowed the Portuguese contingent to gain a foothold ashore and conquer the city in August. Abreu was severely wounded in the face, lost some teeth and tongue but refused Albuquerque's suggestion that he relinquish his command.
Abreu departed from Malacca in November 1511 with three ships, one hundred and twenty Portuguese seamen and sixty Malay and Javanese slaves. Albuquerque hoped his expedition would open direct trade with the Spice Islands. He was still recovering from facial wounds he received three months earlier.
Abreu acted as captain-major in the Santa Catarina, with deputy commander Francisco Serrão aboard the Sabaia, and a caravel, commanded by Simão Afonso Bisagudo.
The cartographer Francisco Rodrigues, who officially served as the expedition's pilot, recorded the details. However, the Malay Nahkoda Ishmael guided them through the Java Sea. Abreu and his crew had explicit orders from Albuquerque to honour local customs and law. Their mission involved exploration and trade rather than conquest and plunder.
The small fleet travelled south-east through the narrow straits between Sumatra and the island of Bangka before entering the Java Sea. They tracked along Java's north coast before stopping to resupply at Gresik, northwest of Surabaya.
The Sabaia ran aground on a reef off the east coast of Madura, cutting a massive gash in her hull. Serrão and his crew managed to transfer some of their equipment and supplies to the other two vessels before the Sabaia sank.
The two remaining ships continued eastwards past Bali, Lombok and Sumbawa to a cape they named Cabo de Flores (Cape of Flowers) on the eastern end of the island now called Flores.
From Flores, they sailed north, setting their course by Sangeang Api, one of the most active volcanoes in the Lesser Sunda Islands, towards Buru. The onset of the northerly monsoon prevented further progress towards Ternate.
So Abreu turned east, sailing along Ceram's south coast before sheltering for a month at the island's easternmost point.
Since adverse winds ruled Ternate's cloves out of the question for the time being, Abreo turned south, heading for Banda and nutmeg.
They spent about about a month there, buying a local junk to replace the Sabaia and a cargo of nutmeg and mace. Cloves forwarded from the Moluccas went into the load while they awaited favourable winds for the return journey.
When the small fleet departed, fully laden, they ran into a storm in the middle of the Banda Sea. Serrão's junk was separated from the other vessels and started breaking up in the heavy seas. Serrão, his nine Portuguese companions and their Asian crew ran the ship aground in the Lucipara Shoals. Then they ambushed a local prahu that came ashore to plunder the junk and made their way to Ambon and thence to Ternate at the northern end of the Moluccas.
Serrão could not have believed his good fortune. After being shipwrecked twice, he found his way into the upper echelon of the local sultan's administration, married a Javanese woman, fathered several children and eventually made his way back to Portugal in 1529.
Most significantly, the letters Serrão wrote to his cousin Fernão de Magalhães, the man later known as Ferdinand Magellan, prompted the world's first circumnavigation.
Meanwhile, unaware of Serrão's fate, Abreau's two vessels continued on their return journey, reaching Malacca a year after their departure.
Francisco Rodrigues' record of the voyage included charts and drawings of the islands they visited and parts of Sumatra, Borneo and Java the expedition did not see.
Abreu departed from Malacca, bound for India, with Fernão Pires de Andrade in January 1513. From Goa, he sailed for Portugal but died in the Azores on the return voyage.
Sources:
Jim Bain Uncertain Beginnings
Ian Burnet, Spice Islands
John Crawford, History of the Indian Archipelago
Felipe Fernandez-Armesto (ed.) The Times Atlas of World Exploration
Lawrence Fitzgerald, Java La Grande: The Portuguese Discovery of Australia
J. C. H. Gill The Missing Coast: The Queensland Coast Takes Shape
Geoffrey C. Gunn, History Without Borders, Commerce, Currencies, and Commodities
John Keay, The spice route: a history