Aliens from the West. Chapter 2.

Early Portuguese and other European guests.

Before the Dutch took a serious interest in Bali, which came at a very late stage in their colonial history, Western contacts with the island were infrequent.

Early Portuguese explorers, adventurers, traders, missionaries, and conquerors, who reached Malacca in 1509 and the Moluccan Islands in 1511, passed by Bali in their pursuit of wealth, souls, and territory.

This is what the Spanish did. Magellan's expedition (1519–1522) discovered a certain island, probably Bali, but apparently no one set foot on the shore.

Fernão Mendes Pinto, the great Portuguese navigator and storyteller, possibly briefly visited Bali around 1546, but his accounts have not survived.

The Portuguese became the first to have any plans regarding Balinese trade and territory. The Malacca government equipped a ship with soldiers, traders, building materials, and trade goods for dispatch to Bali in 1585. They intended to build a fort and establish a trading post. However, the ship sank on a reef near the Bukit Peninsula, and most of the ship's crew perished.

The five survivors found their way to the shore, where they were handed over to Dewa Agung. The ruler treated the wanderers kindly, providing them with homes and wives, but refused to allow them to return to Malacca.

Translation from the book "A Brief History of Balinese Piracy, Slavery, Opium, and Weapons: A History of Island Paradise" by Hannah Willard

To be continued.