Påle Eric (2017) does a great job of conveying a good part of the story of Juan Manibusan, a CHamoru “Bayinero” (whaler) from the 1800s, so I won’t go into the same details but will add to it from a 1935 article in the Philippine Magazine along with some other interesting observations.
So I recently came across the article written by Hans Hornbostel and wrote about his personal encounter with Juan Manibusan. Sometime back around 1925 Hornbostel conducted archeological excavations in the Mariana Islands for the Bernice P. Bishop Museum in Hawaii. While he was in Rota photographing some pictographs in cave, that is where he met up Manibusan.
“…I at last reached the cave I was looking for, found the drawings, and proceeded to photograph these interesting pictorial records, when suddenly the light in the cave diminished and, looking toward the entrance, I beheld a man, and what a man he was.
Deep of chest, broad shouldered, narrow hipped, his whole upper body was covered with patches of white hair. The hair on his head was thick and was also white, and although he was a very old man, he still carried himself well. His flesh was firm, and his skin healthy, and he seemed to have retained much strength in spite of his age. I noticed that his nose was badly battered and that his ears were cauliflowered.
He approached me grinning cheerfully and as I addressed him in a few native words, he answered me in the best Limehouse cockney I had had the privilege to listen to for many a year. I gave him some ship's tobacco to chew, and my, how he enjoyed it! not having had any, he said, since he had arrived on the bloody bleeding, etc., island.
He told me his story. In his youth an English whale ship had arrived off the island and he was induced by the blandishments of the Bucko mate to become one of the crew. A few days out he resented the mate's manner and gave him to understand it. The mate broke out a belaying pin and the fight was on. The mate by virtue of experience, plus the belaying pin, plus pretty little sea-going manhandling tricks, won, but not before the young islander had inflicted more punishment than that mate had ever had to take before from any man. The result was that the mate, who knew a little about pugilism, took the boy under his wing, taught him as best he could how to handle his fists, and when they reached London arranged a match for him with some third-rate pug. The Chamorro won; match after match followed, and he won them all. The mate decided to quit throwing harpoons at whales in various and sundry seas and seasons, and became the Chamorro's manager. Together they traveled through Great Britain and the continent for many years, for Juan Manabusan [sic] became an excellent second rate prize fighter, known as the "South Sea Island Bruiser." As the years passed, he took unto himself a wife, a bar-maid of Lime-house, London. As he approached old age, his wife died, his children married among their kind in the London slums, and then a great longing, the longing of the old for the environment of their youth, came upon him, and he thought, as so many other old men before him have, that if he could but return to his home, his native land, he would be contented and happy. But it did not turn out as he has so fondly planned, for his island and his people had, by his absence, become as strange and foreign to him as London was when he first saw it from the deck of the whaler.” (Hornbostel 1935, p. 129)
Given that Hornbostel published this article in 1935, he is mistaken about alleging that Juan Manibusan’s wife (Mary Drennan) dying before Juan (Briola, 2019). Mary outlived her husband. On Ancestry, Mary can be found in the 1930 and 1940 Census of Guam living with their son Joseph’s family and she is also listed as a widow.
And for you genealogy researchers that may be interested in exploring this further, Juan and his family recorded in England's 1891 Census in the city of Livepool. Juan's recorded birthplace was listed as the Mariana Islands. Based on that Census this particular area of Liverpool seemed like a melting pot of sailors/whalers and families.
Kao Manggåfan Mafongfong si Juan?
But speaking more about the Census, in the 1920 Census, right below the recording of Juan P. Manibusan's family and what appears to be witin the same household is Felix M[anibusan] Manibusan's (manggåfan Mafongfong) family. Generally, this is a sign of close family relations and seems like Juan and Felix (born out of wedlock) may have been brothers. Is this a coincidence or is Juan also a Mafongfong? Was Juan's nose badly battered from fighting or was he born with it a disfigured nose? Family lore regarding the family clan name Mafongfong says that it was because of one of the Manibusan brothers had a face that looked like it was pounded in and Mafongfong means to pound. I too am a descendant of the Mafongfong clan and also have an autosomal DNA match with one of Juan's great grandchildren. Hmmmm....
References:
Briola, Julian. 2019. Personal communications.
Forbes, Eric. 2017. A Whaler Who Came Back. Retrieved from http:// paleric.blogspot.com/2017/11/a-whaler-who-came-back.html
Hornbostel, Hans G. 1935. Rota Days. Philippine Magazine. Retrieved from: https://books.google.com/books?id=KC_nAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA214&lpg=PA214&dq=hornbostel+rota+days&source=bl&ots=3evYU58OJJ&sig=ACfU3U0oE5s-gnLUYpWUyt9Y0x2NO2XrcQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjpzM2_jeLjAhUKTN8KHTDcDMAQ6AEwAHoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=hornbostel%20rota%20days&f=false
