Ginés de Mafra (1493–1546) was a Portuguese or Spanish explorer who sailed with the Magellan expedition in search of a western passage to Asia.
[1] Mafra and his surviving crewmates were held captive in the Moluccas and then in 1523 transported to Cochin on the east coast of India where most of his companions died from mistreatment and disease.
After two more years of imprisonment, Mafra was finally brought by the Portuguese to Lisbon along with Gonzalo Gómez de Espinosa and Hans Bergen.
The manuscripts included navigational notes of Andrés de San Martín, who was the fleet's chief pilot and astrologer.
He was given an audience with the emperor after which he went straight to Palos only to discover his wife, Catalina Martínez del Mercado, believing he had died during the voyage, had remarried, and sold their personal fortunes, and land properties.
The governor of Guatemala, Pedro de Alvarado, in a letter written on November 20, 1536, told the emperor he had hired the services of Mafra as pilot, who was considered as one of the best sailors due to his experiences with the Magellan voyage.
While stranded in one of those islands, he wrote an account of the Magellan voyage and discussed meeting Rajah Siaiu, chieftain of Mazaua.
This dismissive charge unargued, and unproved, was echoed by Martín Torodash, and Philippine religious historian John N. Schumacher, and influenced the thinking of many other scholars.