(1) A Brief Summary of the First Voyage Around the World by Magellan by

Antonio Pigafetta

This book was taken from the chronicles of contemporary voyagers and
navigators of the sixteenth century. One of them was Italian nobleman Antonio
Pigafetta, who accompanied Ferdinand Magellan in his fateful circumnavigation
of the world. Pigafetta‟s work instantly became a classic that prominent literary
men in the West like William Shakespeare, Michel de Montaigne, and
Giambattista Vico referred to the book in their interpretation of the New World.
Pigafetta‟s travelogue is one of the most important primary sources in the study
of the precolonial Philippines. His account was also a major referent to the
events leading to Magellan‟s arrival in the Philippines, his encounter with local
leaders, his death in the hands of Lapulapu‟s forces in the Battle of Mactan,
and in the departure of what was left of Magellan‟s fleet from the islands.

Examining the document reveals several insights not just in the character of
the Philippines during the precolonial period, but also on how the fresh eyes of
the Europeans regard a deeply unfamiliar terrain, environment, people, and
culture.

Locating Pigafetta‟s account in the context of its writting warrants a familiarity

on the dominant frame of mind in the age of exploration, which pervaded
Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth century. Students of history need to
realize that primary sources used in the subsequent written histories depart
from certain perspectives. Thus, Pigafetta‟s account was also written from the
perspective of Pigafetta himself and was a product of the context of its
production. The First Voyage Around the World by Magellan was published
after Pigafetta returned to Italy.

For this chapter, we will focus on the chronicles of Antonio Pigafetta as he

wrote his firsthand observation and general impression of the Far East
including their experiences in the Visayas. In Pigafetta‟s account, their fleet
reached what he called the Ladrones Islands or the "Islands of the Thieves." He
recounted:

“These people have no arms, but use sticks, which have a fish
bone at the end. They are poor, but ingenious, and great thieves,
and for the sake of that we called these three islandsthe Ladrones
Islands.”

The Ladrones Islands is presently known as the Marianas Islands. These

islands are located south-southeast of Japan, west-southwest of Hawaii, north
of New Guinea, and east of Philippines. Ten days after they reached Ladrones
Islands, Pigafetta reported that they reached what Pigafetta called the isle of
Zamal, now Samar but Magellan decided to land in another uninhabited island
for greater security where they could rest for a few days. Pigafetta recounted
that after two days, March 18, nine men came to them and showed joy and
eagerness in seeing them. Magellan realized that the men were reasonable and
welcomed them with food, drinks, and gifts. In turn, the natives gave them fish,
palm wine (uraca), figs, and two cochos. The natives also gave them rice (umai),
cocos, and other food supplies. Pigafetta detailed in amazement and fascination
the palm tree which bore fruits callcd cocho, and wine. Ho also described what
seemed like a coconut.
His description reads:

„This palm produces a fruit named cocho, which is as large as the

head, or thereabouts: its first husk is green, and two fingers in
thickness, in it they find certain threads, with which they make the
cords for fastening their boats. Under this husk there is another
very hard, and thicker than that of a walnut. They burn this
second rind, and make with it a powder which is useful to them.
Under this rind there is a white marrow of a finger's thickness,
which they eat fresh with meat and fish, as we do bread, and it has
the taste of an almond, and if anyone dried it he might make bread
of it (p. 72).'

Pigafetta characterized the people as “very familiar and friendly and willingly
showed them different islands and the names of these islands. The fleet went to
Humunu Island (Homonhon) and there they found what Pigafetta referred to as
the "Watering Place of Good Signs." It is in this place where Pigafetta wrote that
they found the first signs of gold in the island. They named the island with the
nearby islands as the archipelago of St. Lazarus. They left the island, then on
March 25th, Pigafetta recounted that they saw two ballanghai (balangay), a
long boat full of people in Mazzava/ Mazaua. The leader, who Pigafetta referred
to as the king of the ballanghai (balangay), sent his men to the ship of
Magellan. The Europeans entertained these men and gave them gifts. When the
king of the balangay offered to give Magellan a bar of gold and a chest of ginger,
Magellan declined. Magellan sent the interpreter to the king and asked for
money for the needs of his ships and expressed that he came into the islands
as a friend and not as an enemy.

The king responded by giving Magellan the needed provisions of food in

chinaware. Magellan exchanged gifts of robes in Turkish fashion, red cap, and
gave the people knives and mirrors. The two then expressed their desire to
become brothers. Magellan also boasted of his men in armor who could not be
struck with swords and daggers. The king was fascinated and remarked that
men in such armor could be worth one hundred of his men. Magellan further
showed the king his other weapons, helmets, and artilleries. Magellan also
shared with the king his charts and maps and shared how they found the
islands.

After a few days, Magellan was introduced to the king‟s brother who was also a
King of another island. They went to this island and Pigafetta reported that
they saw mines of gold. The gold was abundant that parts of the ship and of
the house of the second king were made of gold. Pigafetta described this king
as the most handsome of all the men that he saw in this place. He was also
adorned with silk and gold accessories like a golden dagger which he earned
w.th him in a wooden polished sheath. This king was named Raia Calambu,
king of Zuluan and Calagan (Butuan and Caragua), and the first king was Raia
Siagu. On March 31st, which happened to be Easter Sunday, Magellan ordered
the chaplain to preside a Mass by the shore. The king heard of this plan and
sent two dead pigs and attended the Mass with the other king. Pigafetta
reported that both kings participated in the mass. He wrote:

“...when the offertory of the mass came, the two kings, went to kiss
the cross like us, but they offered nothing, and at the elevation of
the body of our Lord they were kneeling like us, and adored our
Lord with joined hands.”
After the Mass, Magellan ordered that the cross be brought with nails and
crown in place. Magellan explained that the cross, the nail, and the crown were
the signs of his emperor and that he was ordered to plant it in the places that
he would reach. Magellan further explained that the cross would be beneficial
for their people because once other Spaniards saw this cross, then they would
know that they had been in this land and would not cause them troubles, and
any person who might be held captives by them would be released. The king
concurred and allowed for the cross to be planted. This Mass would go down in
history as the first Mass in the Philippines, and the cross would be the famed
Magellan's Cross still preserved at present day.

After seven days, Magellan and his men decided to move and look for islands
where they could acquire more supplies and provisions. They learned of the
islands of Ceylon (Leyte), Bohol, and Zzubu (Cebu) and intended to go there.
Raia Calambu offered to pilot them in going to Cebu, the largest and the richest
of the islands. By April 7th of the same year, Magellan and his men reached
the port of Cebu. The king of Cebu, through Magellan‟s interpreter, demanded
that they pay tribute as it was customary, but Magellan refused. Magellan said
that he was a captain of a king himself and thus would not pay tribute to other
kings. Magellan‟s interpreter explained to the king of Cebu that Magellan‟s king
was the emperor of a great empire and that it would do them better to make
friends with them than to forge enmity. The king of Cebu consulted his council.
By the next day, Magellan‟s men and the king of Cebu, together with other
principal men of Cebu, met in an open space. There, the king offered a bit of
his blood and demanded that Magellan do the same. Pigafetta recounts:

“Then the king said that he was content, and as a greater sign of
affection he sent him a little of his blood from his right arm, and
wished he should do the like. Our people answered that he would
do it. Besides that, he said that all the captains who came to his
country had been accustomed to make a present to him, and he to
them, and therefore they should ask their captain if he would
observe the custom. Our people answered that he would; but as
the king wished to keep up the custom, let him begin and make a
present, and then the captain would do his duty.”

The following day, Magellan spoke before the people of Cebu about peace and
God. Pigafetta reported that the people took pleasure in Magellan's speech
Magellan then asked the people who would succeed the king after his reign and
the people responded that the eldest child of the king, who happened to be a
daughter, would be the next in line. Pigafetta also related how the people talked
about, how at old age, parents were no longer taken into account and had to
follow the orders of their children as the new leaders of the land. Magellan
responded to this by saying that his faith entailed children to render honor and
obedience to their parents. Magellan preached about their faith further and
people were reportedly convinced. Pigafetta wrote that their men were overjoyed
seeing that the people wished to become Christians through their free will and
not because they were forced or intimidated.

On the 14th of April, the people gathered with the king and other principal men
of the islands. Magellan spoke to the king and encouraged him to be a good
Christian by burning all of the idols and worship the cross instead. The king of
Cebu was then baptized as a Christian. Pigafetta wrote:
 “To that the king and all his people answered that thy would obey
the commands of the captain and do all that he told them.

The captain took the king by the hand, and they walked about on the
scaffolding, and when he was baptized he said that he would name him Don
Charles (Carlos), as the emperor his sovereign was named; and he named the
prince Don Fernand (Fernando), after the brother of the emperor, and the King
of Mazavva, Jehan: to the Moor he gave the name of Christopher, and to the
others each a name of his fancy.”

After eight days, Pigafetta counted that all of the island‟s inhabitant were
already baptized. He admitted that they burned a village down for obeying
neither the king nor Magellan. The Mass was conducted by the shore every
day. When the queen came to the Mass one day, Magellan gave her an image of
the Infant Jesus made by Pigafetta himself. The king of Cebu swore that he
would always be faithful to Magellan. When Magellan reiterated that all of the
newly baptized Christians need to burn their idols, but the natives gave
excuses telling Magellan that they needed the idols to heal a sick man who was
a relative to the king. Magellan insisted that they should instead put their faith
in Jesus Christ. They went to the sick man and baptized him. After the
baptismal, Pigafetta recorded that the man was able to speak again. He called
this a miracle.

On the 26th of April, Zula, a principal man from the island of Matan (Mactan)
went to see Magellan and asked him for a boat full of men so that he would be
able to fight the chief named Silapulapu (Lapulapu). Such chief, according to
Zula, refused to obey the king and was also preventing him from doing so.
Magellan offered three boats instead and expressed his desire to go to Mactan
himself to fight the said chief. Magellan‟s forces arrived in Mactan in daylight.
They numbered 49 in total and the islanders of Mactan were estimated to
number 1,500. The battle began. Pigafetta recounted:

"When we reached land, we found the islanders fifteen hundred in

number, drawn up in three squadrons; they came down upon us
with terrible shouts, two squadrons attacking us on the flanks,
and the third in front. The captain then divided his men in two
bands. Our musketeers and crossbow-men fired for half an hour
from a distance, but did nothing, since the bullets and arrows,
though they passed through their shields made of thin wood, and
perhaps wounded their arms, yet did not stop them. The captain
shouted not to fire, but he was not listened to. The islanders seeing
that the shots of our guns did them little or no harm would not
retire, but shouted more loudly, and springing from one side to the
other to avoid our shots, they at the same time drew nearer to us,
throwing arrows, javelins, spears hardened in fire, stones, and
even mud, so that we could hardly defend ourselves. Some of them
cast lances pointed with iron at the captain-general.”

Magellan died in that battle. The natives, perceiving that the bodies of the
enemies were protected with armors, aimed for their legs instead. Magellan was
pierced with a poisoned arrow in his right leg. A few of their men charged at the
natives and tried to intimidate them by burning an entire village but this only
enraged the natives further. Magellan was specifically targeted because the
natives knew that he was the captain general. Magellan was hit with a lance in
the face. Magellan retaliated and pierced the same native with his lance in the
breast and tried to draw his sword but could not lift it because of his wounded
arm. Seeing that the captain has already deteriorated, more natives came to
attack him. One native with a great sword delivered a blow in Magellan's left
leg, brought him face down and the natives ceaselessly attacked Magellan with
lances, swords, and even with their bare hands. Pigafetta recounted the last
moments of Magellan:

“Whilst the Indians were thus overpowering him, several times he

turned round towards us to see if we were all in safety, as though
his obstinate fight had no other object than to give an opportunity
for the retreat of his men.”

Pigafetta also said that the king of Cebu who was baptized could have sent help
but Magellan instructed him not to join the battle and stay in the balangay so
that he would see how they fought. The king offered the people of Mactan gifts
of any value and amount in exchange of Magellan‟s body but the chief refused.
They wanted to keep Magellan‟s body as a memento of their victory.

Magellan‟s men elected Duarte Barbosa as the new captain. Pigafetta also told
how Magellan‟s slave and interpreter named Henry betrayed them and told the
king of Cebu that they intended to leave as quickly as possible. Pigafetta
alleged that the slave told the king that if he followed the slave‟s advice, then
the king could acquire the ships and the goods of Magellan‟s fleet. The two
conspired and betrayed what was left of Magellan‟s men. The king invited these
men to a gathering where he said he would present the jewels that he would
send for the King of Spain.

Pigafetta was not able to join the twenty-four men who attended because he
was nursing his battle wounds. It was only a short time when they heard cries
and lamentations. The natives had slain all of the men except the interpreter
and Juan Serrano who was already wounded. Serrano was presented and
shouted at the men in the ship asking them to pay ransom so he would be
spared. However, they refused and would not allow anyone to go to the shore.
The fleet departed and abandoned Serrano. They left Cebu and continued their
journey around the world.