# Francesco Carletti

Francesco Carletti (1573 – January 12, 1636) was a Florentine merchant, explorer and writer. He was the first private traveler to circumnavigate the globe without royal or religious sponsorship, leaving Florence in 1591 at the age of eighteen and returning in 1606.

## Early life

Francesco was born into a merchant family dating back to the 13th century. Upon turning eighteen, in 1591, his father Antonio sent him to Seville, where he apprenticed under Nicolò Parenti, another Florentine merchant. There, Francesco obtained a commercial education in subjects including language and geography. In 1593, Antonio joined his son in Seville and they prepared an expedition for the purpose of purchasing African slaves and transporting them for sale in the West Indies.

## Travels

Carletti and his father departed for Cape Verde on January 8, 1594. There they purchased 50 male and 25 female slaves and set off for Cartagena, Colombia. On the journey, many suffered from illness and malnutrition, with seven dying. Compounding the loss, the slaves fetched a much lower price than anticipated in Cartagena, depleting 40 percent of the Carlettis' capital. Rather than returning to Spain with such disappointing results, they opted to chance the rest of their funds on purchasing manufactured goods to transport further west to Nombre de Dios, the gateway to Panama.
The Carlettis made a much more agreeable profit selling their wares in Panama, and determined to continue across the isthmus to Panama City on the Pacific coast. After a month of grueling jungle travel, they arrived in September 1594, and remained recuperating for several months. They then sailed down the coast to Lima, Peru, where they sold the last of their slaves at much greater price due to the more limited supply of labor. Afterwards, they planned to head north to Mexico City, in New Spain, and purchase more imported goods, which they would then return to Lima to sell. However, upon discovering the vast array of valuable trade goods flowing from Asia via the Philippines, the Carlettis decided to head directly to the source. They obtained passage on the Manila galleon, sailing from Acapulco and arriving on the island of Luzon in May 1596, where they would remain for a year.
In June of 1597, the Carlettis traveled to Nagasaki, where they viewed the crucifixion site of the 26 Martyrs of Japan, who had been executed just months earlier. Francesco recorded other examples of the harsh Japanese system of justice, including collective punishment and the practice of harakiri. The Imjin War ongoing at the time resulted in thousands of Korean captives being brought to Japan as slaves, five of which Carletti bought at a very low price. He had them all baptized, and would later set them free in Goa. One, known as António Corea, continued traveling with Carletti back to Florence, later making his way to Rome. Corea is renowned in Korea, as he is possibly the first Korean person to set foot in Europe.
In March of 1598, the Carlettis sailed on a Japanese smuggling ship to the Portuguese warehouse at Macao, where they were immediately apprehended for lacking any trading license, and imprisoned by the local authorities. They were soon able to pay a fine to secure their release, but the accumulated stresses of traveling and confinement lead to Antonio Carletti's death in July of that year after a long illness. After burying his father, Francesco remained in Macao until December 1599. During this time, he witnessed a great typhoon and a lunar eclipse, while purchasing luxury Chinese export goods such as porcelain, silk, and musk.
Finally embarking on the homeward leg of the long voyage, Carletti departed Macao in December 1599 and passed through Malacca en route to Goa, the capital of Portuguese India. He made a substantial profit selling his Chinese goods and enjoyed a prosperous existence there for 21 months, writing that "there is no other region in the world in which it is possible to live better and more lavishly!" Eventually growing homesick, he purchased passage on a Portuguese ship to return to Europe, leaving Goa on Christmas Day, 1601.
Upon arriving at the island of St. Helena, the ship was attacked and plundered by Dutch privateers, who were at war with Portugal. As a neutral party, Carletti was safely transported to Holland, albeit after nearly all of his accumulated wealth had been confiscated. After three years of pursuing ultimately unsuccessful legal challenges to recover his property, the dispirited traveler finally returned home to Florence in 1606, not much better off than when he had first departed 15 years before. However, the Grand Duke Ferdinand I soon summoned him to court, eager to learn of his experiences, and the commercial opportunities available, on the other side of the world. Carletti collected his travel accounts in a book of twelve Arguments, dedicated to Ferdinand.

## Writings

As a private, self-funded traveler, Carletti was not writing out of obligation to report his progress to any sponsors, or to support any political or religious organization's agenda. Nor, as a Florentine, would he have felt any particular pride or need to whitewash the situation in the primarily Spanish and Portuguese colonial holdings he traveled through. Instead, his more conversational account reflects both a practical, mercantile mindset, as well as a general fascination with the exotic peoples and practices he encountered.

### Agriculture

While in New Spain, Carletti observed the native agricultural practice of chinampa, marveling at how "they cultivate diverse things with much artfulness" through advanced irrigation. He also encountered small fruits which could be crushed and brewed into "a certain drink, which the Indians call chocolate," and which Carletti himself quickly developed a taste for, stating, "it is hard to give up drinking it every morning or, in fact, in the evening after supper when the weather is warm and particularly when one is traveling." Also of note were "roots called patatas," which would soon become a global staple.
In Japan, Carletti was frequently served cha (tea), as it was habitually offered to guests as a matter of manners, "as they do with wine in the regions of Flanders and Germany." And in Malacca, he found growing a dizzying array of tropical fruits and spices, from mangosteen and durian to cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

### Sexuality

Carletti's attention was often drawn to matters of what he termed the "pleasures of Venus." In Manila he specially paid to observe the procedure of male genital piercing called palang, and he wrote extensively on the practice of miǎnlíng in Macao.
Not content to be a mere observer, Carletti had relations with various women throughout his travels, ultimately declaring mixed Indian-Portuguese women to be "the most desirous creatures imaginable" according to his tastes. He was regretfully unable to assess the merits of Chinese women during his time in Macao, who "are said to be very beautiful and well made, but [...] the men are so jealous of these women that they never allow them to see anyone." In Japan, by contrast, agents approached sailors as soon they landed, offering to provide girls at reasonable prices.

## Works and translations

* In Italian: Francesco Carletti: Ragionamenti di Francesco Carletti Fiorentino sopra le cose da lui vedute ne’ suoi viaggi si dell’ Indie Occidentali, e Orientali Come d’altri Paesi.
* Into German: Francesco Carletti "Reise um die Welt 1594: Erlebnisse eines Florentiner Kaufmanns," translated by Ernst Bluth. Herrenalb/Schwarzwald: Erdmann, 1966.
* Into English: Francesco Carletti "My Voyage Around the World", translated by Herbert Weinstock, Random House, New York, 1964. OCLC 966632
* Into Dutch: Francesco Carletti "Reis om de Wereld", translated by Jo Verhaart-Bodderij, Kruseman, Den Haag, 1958; 1985