Required Reading No. 1
Date:
Callao Man
By Michael Tan
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:17:00 07/02/2010
MY COLUMN FOR TODAY is something I?ve been planning on for more than a month. Presidential inaugural speeches are about today and tomorrow, but we also need to anchor ourselves in the past, and for the Philippines, we really know far too little about our prehistory.
I am going to share a story that takes on the qualities of a detective story. It's about a toe bone recently found by archaeologists in Callao, Cagayan, and reported in the Journal of Human Evolution. The report?s main author is Armand Mijares of the Archaeology Studies Program at UP Diliman who worked with a multinational team from our National Museum, the Australian National University and the Museum of Natural History in Paris. The news has been picked up by international newspapers and magazines but hasn?t been featured locally.
Let me start out by asking you, ?When did humans first arrive in the Philippines??
Tough one, right? We can?t go on written records to answer that. What we do have is the archaeological record, which can be tools made by humans or, better still, human remains. Until recently, the oldest remains were that of Tabon Man from Palawan. Don?t think of an entire skeleton here?all we had, for many years, was a skullcap, which has been dated to 18,000 years ago using uranium series (which is more accurate than radiocarbon dating). Tabon Man was discovered in 1962; since then, the Tabon Cave has yielded many more artifacts, as well as a femur, this time dated 47,000 years. Unfortunately, the margin of error is quite large at 11,000 years so it can be as recent as 36,000 years or as old as 58,000 years.
The Tabon findings are impressive but have tended to cause a bit of an inferiority complex for Filipino archaeologists and anthropologists. As students, we would read about Java Man and Peking Man, which date way back in time. Java Man and Peking Man are actually Homo erectus (we are Homo sapiens, as is Tabon Man) which existed from 70,000 to 1.9 million years ago in Africa, western Asia, China and Indonesia.
We keep going back to the question: So when did humans arrive in the Philippines, or in the region? The oldest Homo sapiens remains in our part of the world come from the Niah cave in Borneo, dated to be about 42,000 years. In Australia, there?s Mungo Man, named after a lake in New South Wales, first dated to be 62,000 years old in 1999 but revised to 40,000 years when another test was conducted. (Archaeologists and physical anthropologists argue a lot about names and dates.)
Now we have this exciting report with a very staid journal title: ?New evidence for a 67,000-year old human presence at Callao Cave, Luzon, Philippines.?
Piece of history
The metatarsal is a bone that constitutes the lower part of our toe. Right MT3 is the middle toe on the right foot. It?s tiny so you can imagine how tedious archaeological excavations can be, and how observant archaeologists have to be.
Callao has been a major archaeological site for several years now. It has yielded stone tools dated to about 26,000 years ago, which meant humans had inhabited the area. Archaeologists from UP, the National Museum and the Australian National University had been working hard to ?find? those humans but all they kept coming up with were deer and pig bones. It was Phil Piper, an Australian zooarchaeologist currently teaching at UP, who identified one of the bones?this tiny metatarsal?as human. Mijares said he realized that they had ?discovered an important piece of our history.?
But the bone had to be sent overseas for dating, and there were difficulties doing this. It was in May 2009, while Mijares was in Callao doing fieldwork, that an e-mail arrived giving a more definite date. Mijares says the team members ?were shocked and elated upon learning that it was way older than we expected.? They celebrated ?with a few San Mig beers.?
The Callao toe bone tells us humans arrived in the Philippines as early as 67,000 years ago, but it also raises new questions.
First, it isn?t clear yet if ?Callao Man? (or Woman) was Homo sapiens or another species. A few years ago, an Australian team of archaeologists and biological anthropologists uncovered Homo floresiensis in Indonesia, closely resembling Homo sapiens but their adults were only about a meter tall. There?s still some controversy surrounding the findings, some disagreeing with the ?floresiensis? label and saying they were probably Homo sapiens as well. Homo floresiensis co-existed with Homo sapiens from 17,000 to 95,000 years ago.
The Callao bone has some similarities with that of Homo floresiensis, but with only one bone as evidence, no conclusions can yet be made. In fact, for now, the bone is identified simply as coming from a Homo species?it could be sapiens, floresiensis, or some totally new species.
Second, the finding in Cagayan suggests that humans may have arrived in the Philippines by sea. To explain that, we have to refer quickly to the last Ice Age. When there?s more ice in the polar areas, sea levels tend to be lower. That means there were land bridges between parts of the Philippines and mainland Southeast Asia. Look at the map and you?ll see that land bridges could have allowed human migration from the mainland into Palawan. Tabon Man (or his ancestors) probably took that route.
From Sundaland to Luzon
The findings in Callao require other explanations considering it?s so far from other land masses. Mijares speculates: ?My current hypothesis is they crossed the open sea from the Sundaland (tip of Palawan) to Mindoro then to Luzon. During the lowest sea level, that will still be about 60 km to Mindoro, and from there just short island hopping.?
Mijares is optimistic that there?s much more waiting to be discovered. It need not be just Cagayan, Mijares says. Isabela and other areas in the western Sierra Madre could yield more artifacts and bones.
In all my anthropology classes, I always tell the students that their generation is a lucky one. In the next few years, there will be more human fossil and archaeological discoveries in the world, and in the region that will require textbooks to be rewritten.
Mijares is proud that the particular excavation that yielded the metatarsal was funded by UP, but acknowledges the support of the National Museum, the Australian National University and the Museum of Natural History (Paris), all of whom have been pouring in money and technical expertise for various archaeological projects. The participation of the Australians tells us that they too are interested in helping to piece together the picture of human origins and migration. What we learn in the region provides new insights into humanity everywhere.
For people interested in going deeper into the report, the authors are Armand S. Mijares, Florent Detroit, Philip Piper, Rainer Grun, PeterBellwood, Maxime Aubert, Guillaume Champion, Nida Cuevas, Alexandra de Leon and Eusebio Dizon. The report appears in the Journal of Human Evolution, Vol. 30, dated April 8, 2010. Contact Mijares at 924-1836 for more information.
* * *
Email: [email protected]
Copyright 2012 Philippine Daily Inquirer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Required Reading No. 2
Date:
SULAT sa TANSO
The Laguna Copperplate Inscription
A Philippine Document from 900 A.D.
by Hector Santos
© 1995-96 by Hector Santos
All rights reserved.
Once in a while, an unusual artifact different from anything else previously found in the area turns up and baffles experts. It usually ends up in a dusty museum shelf, waiting for the day when somebody will study it, understand its significance, and reveal its secrets to the world.
A small, innocent-looking object found in 1989 on the southeastern shore of Laguna de Ba'y was such a find. It now threatens to upset our basic understanding of Philippine history. The object is a thin copperplate measuring less than 8x12 inches in size and is inscribed with small writing that had been hammered into its surface.
The black, rolled-up piece of metal was found by a man dredging for sand near the mouth of the Lumbang River where it emptied into Laguna de Ba'y. The man could just have easily thrown it away as just another piece of junk that tended to clog his equipment as he tried to make a living. It was not porcelain, like those he found before and was able to sell for good money to the antique dealers from Manila.
Those dealers have been frequenting the area because it was a rich source of artifacts that were in demand among the rich in Manila. These artifacts provided another welcome source of income for people like this man who struggled to provide for his family.
Fortunately, the sand man decided to keep that piece of metal and take another look. Upon unrolling, it turned out that there was some kind of writing on the crumpled and blackened metal plate. He finally sold it to one of the dealers for almost nothing for it was unlike anything ever found before and nobody knew what it was.
Because it was not a recognizable object, the dealer could not find a private buyer for it. In desperation, he offered it to the National Museum of the Philippines, normally the buyer of last resort for unsold objects. The copper object is now called "Laguna Copperplate Inscription" (LCI).
It languished at the National Museum as supposedly qualified scholars passed up the chance to evaluate the artifact. They were either too busy or not interested, but perhaps intimidated by the prospect of working on something they had no knowledge of.
Fortunately, the ability and persistent effort of one man paid off in unlocking the secrets of the LCI. Antoon Postma, a Dutch national who has lived most of his life among the Mangyans in the Philippines and the director of the Mangyan Assistance & Research Center in Panaytayan, Mansalay, Oriental Mindoro, was able to translate the writing. His effort is all the more remarkable when you consider that the text was in a language similar to four languages (Sanskrit, Old Tagalog, Old Javanese, and Old Malay) mixed together.
The text was written in Kavi, a mysterious script which does not look like the ancient Tagalog script known as baybayin or alibata. Neither does it look similar to other Philippine scripts still used today by isolated ethnic minorities like the Hanunóos and the Buhids of Mindoro, and the Tagbanwas of Palawan. It is the first artifact of pre-Hispanic origin found in the Philippines that had writing on copper material.
Indeed, artifacts of pre-Hispanic writing are so rare that only three had been previously found and made available to researchers. They are the 14-15th century Butuan silver strip, the 10th century Butuan ivory seal, and the 15th century Calatagan jar. The writings on these three previous finds have eluded attempts to decipher them so far.
Important Date
Postma's translation provides a lot of exciting surprises. Like most other copperplate documents, it gives a very precise date from the Sanskrit calendar which corresponds to 900 A.D. in our system. It contains placenames that still exist around the Manila area today. It also lists the names of the chiefs of the places mentioned.
The date is important because a country's history is considered to begin with the first dated document recorded in it. This newly found document pushes the "starting point" of Philippine history all the way back to 900 A.D., 621 years earlier than the previously accepted date of 1521 when Antonio Pigafetta wrote his observations during his voyage with Magellan.
Authenticity
The authenticity of the LCI was a prime concern to all from the very beginning. Postma and the Philippine National Museum were aware of the many frauds that had been perpetrated on Philippine historians in the past. Many of these fraudulent historical documents have unfortunately gotten into Philippine history textbooks which are still being used today.
The most famous of these frauds is the Code of Kalantiaw that every Filipino schoolboy knows. The supposed text of the code was contained in the Pavón manuscript, one of the many fraudulent documents passed on to the Philippine National Museum over many decades by Jose E. Marco, a known philatelic forger. Damage caused by frauds like this is immeasurable.
More than a quarter century after the fraud was exposed in 1965, the average Filipino still believes that the Code of Kalantiaw was real. This is not so much a reflection on the average Filipino's interest in history as it is on the Philippine government's failure to educate the public. As a matter of fact, President Marcos was still inducting "deserving" justices into his Order of Kalantiaw in the 1970's. (This was, perhaps, a fitting way for History to get back at those who wanted to rewrite it.)
Postma was acutely aware of what yet another phony document would do to the community of Philippine historians. He sought and got advice from Dutch and Indonesian experts on the LCI's authenticity. The experts concluded that the specific script style used in the LCI was consistent with its indicated date, and that the correctness of the languages and words used would have been very hard for a forger to have contrived.
Although there were some differences between the LCI and the copperplates found in Indonesia, they were for legitimate reasons and their consensus was that the LCI was authentic.
The text on Indonesian copperplates of the same era was mostly in Old Javanese and, as was customary at that time, mention the name of King Balitung (899-910 A.D.). Unlike its Indonesian cousins, the language of the LCI was not Old Javanese. That the LCI did not mention the king's name was another clue that the LCI did not come from Indonesia.
However, the biggest difference was in the way the copperplate was inscribed. Indonesian copperplates were prepared by heating them until they became soft. Then a stylus was used to impress the letters on the soft metal, creating smooth and continuous strokes. The Philippine copperplate, on the other hand, was inscribed by hammering the letters onto the metal using a sharp instrument. The letters show closely joined and overlapping dots from the hammering.
Philippine connection
It was left for Postma to establish the LCI's Philippine connection. When he first saw the LCI, he thought it may originally have come from Indonesia but made to appear like it was found to the Philippines so that it could be sold as a valuable antique. The text of the LCI convinced him of its Philippine provenance.
The LCI was an official document issued to clear a person by the name of Namwaran, his family, and all their descendants of a debt he had incurred. In the old Philippines, an unpaid debt usually resulted in slavery not only for the person concerned but also for his family and his descendants. The amount of debt was 1 kati and 8 suwarnas of gold (865 g. or about $12,000 at today's prices), an unusually large amount.
The pardon was issued by the chief of Tundun, who was of higher rank than the other chiefs who witnessed the document and whose names and respective areas of jurisdiction are listed. The last sentence on the copperplate is incomplete, indicating that there was at least one more page to the document. Unfortunately, none has been found so far.
Placenames
The placenames mentioned prove the Philippine connection of the LCI. The names are still recognizable today although almost eleven centuries have passed since the document was issued. The placenames are Pailah (Paila), Tundun (Tundo), Puliran (Pulilan), Binwangan (Binwangan), Dewata (Diwata), and Medang (Medang).
The first four places are near Manila but Dewata and Medang pose a problem. They could have been personal names but more likely "Dewata" was Diwata, a town near Butuan, and "Medang," Medang in Old Java or Sumatra. Both these places must have been connected politically to Tundun and the other settlements in 900 A.D.
Diwata is important because in addition to the silver strip mentioned earlier, there are reportedly some other artifacts with undeciphered ancient inscriptions that have been found in the Butuan area. Shamefully, like many other artifacts they are in private hands and unavailable to scholars.
Since the LCI was found in Laguna de Ba'y, Postma first thought that Pailah was Pila, Laguna and Pulilan was the southeastern area of the lake because that was what the place was called in the old days. Pila was then a part of the area known as Pulilan. However, he opted to take Pulilan and Paila both along the Angat River in Bulacan as better candidates because the document clearly referred to two separate places, not one inside a larger jurisdiction. A look at the map would show that his choices are correct since they are more conveniently connected to each other by the usual river and coastal travel routes than if he had picked the Laguna area.
Another possible connection to this Bulacan riverine area is the village of Gatbuca that exists today. Bukah, son of Namwaran, is mentioned in the document. Gat was a title used for important persons and has found its way into many contemporary family names (e.g., Gatbonton, Gatmaitan, Gatdula, etc.). It is possible that the town was named for Bukah when he rose in position later.
Significance
Just how significant is this incomplete document that ends in midsentence and contains only ten lines?
The disappearance of the earlier people who settled around Manila may explain why the Kavi script was lost and a lesser one introduced later. But how did the placenames remain? If a few people remained to maintain a continuity of their settlements and placenames, how did they lose their knowledge of the Malay language and the Kavi script?
At this time, everything is conjecture. Many more questions will be asked, answered, and refuted; other questions will be asked again. Little by little, we will know more about the Philippines as it was before the Spaniards came, thanks to a little piece of metal dredged from the sand.
The Laguna Copperplate Inscription
A Philippine Document from 900 A.D.
by Hector Santos
© 1995-96 by Hector Santos
All rights reserved.
Once in a while, an unusual artifact different from anything else previously found in the area turns up and baffles experts. It usually ends up in a dusty museum shelf, waiting for the day when somebody will study it, understand its significance, and reveal its secrets to the world.
A small, innocent-looking object found in 1989 on the southeastern shore of Laguna de Ba'y was such a find. It now threatens to upset our basic understanding of Philippine history. The object is a thin copperplate measuring less than 8x12 inches in size and is inscribed with small writing that had been hammered into its surface.
The black, rolled-up piece of metal was found by a man dredging for sand near the mouth of the Lumbang River where it emptied into Laguna de Ba'y. The man could just have easily thrown it away as just another piece of junk that tended to clog his equipment as he tried to make a living. It was not porcelain, like those he found before and was able to sell for good money to the antique dealers from Manila.
Those dealers have been frequenting the area because it was a rich source of artifacts that were in demand among the rich in Manila. These artifacts provided another welcome source of income for people like this man who struggled to provide for his family.
Fortunately, the sand man decided to keep that piece of metal and take another look. Upon unrolling, it turned out that there was some kind of writing on the crumpled and blackened metal plate. He finally sold it to one of the dealers for almost nothing for it was unlike anything ever found before and nobody knew what it was.
Because it was not a recognizable object, the dealer could not find a private buyer for it. In desperation, he offered it to the National Museum of the Philippines, normally the buyer of last resort for unsold objects. The copper object is now called "Laguna Copperplate Inscription" (LCI).
It languished at the National Museum as supposedly qualified scholars passed up the chance to evaluate the artifact. They were either too busy or not interested, but perhaps intimidated by the prospect of working on something they had no knowledge of.
Fortunately, the ability and persistent effort of one man paid off in unlocking the secrets of the LCI. Antoon Postma, a Dutch national who has lived most of his life among the Mangyans in the Philippines and the director of the Mangyan Assistance & Research Center in Panaytayan, Mansalay, Oriental Mindoro, was able to translate the writing. His effort is all the more remarkable when you consider that the text was in a language similar to four languages (Sanskrit, Old Tagalog, Old Javanese, and Old Malay) mixed together.
The text was written in Kavi, a mysterious script which does not look like the ancient Tagalog script known as baybayin or alibata. Neither does it look similar to other Philippine scripts still used today by isolated ethnic minorities like the Hanunóos and the Buhids of Mindoro, and the Tagbanwas of Palawan. It is the first artifact of pre-Hispanic origin found in the Philippines that had writing on copper material.
Indeed, artifacts of pre-Hispanic writing are so rare that only three had been previously found and made available to researchers. They are the 14-15th century Butuan silver strip, the 10th century Butuan ivory seal, and the 15th century Calatagan jar. The writings on these three previous finds have eluded attempts to decipher them so far.
Important Date
Postma's translation provides a lot of exciting surprises. Like most other copperplate documents, it gives a very precise date from the Sanskrit calendar which corresponds to 900 A.D. in our system. It contains placenames that still exist around the Manila area today. It also lists the names of the chiefs of the places mentioned.
The date is important because a country's history is considered to begin with the first dated document recorded in it. This newly found document pushes the "starting point" of Philippine history all the way back to 900 A.D., 621 years earlier than the previously accepted date of 1521 when Antonio Pigafetta wrote his observations during his voyage with Magellan.
Authenticity
The authenticity of the LCI was a prime concern to all from the very beginning. Postma and the Philippine National Museum were aware of the many frauds that had been perpetrated on Philippine historians in the past. Many of these fraudulent historical documents have unfortunately gotten into Philippine history textbooks which are still being used today.
The most famous of these frauds is the Code of Kalantiaw that every Filipino schoolboy knows. The supposed text of the code was contained in the Pavón manuscript, one of the many fraudulent documents passed on to the Philippine National Museum over many decades by Jose E. Marco, a known philatelic forger. Damage caused by frauds like this is immeasurable.
More than a quarter century after the fraud was exposed in 1965, the average Filipino still believes that the Code of Kalantiaw was real. This is not so much a reflection on the average Filipino's interest in history as it is on the Philippine government's failure to educate the public. As a matter of fact, President Marcos was still inducting "deserving" justices into his Order of Kalantiaw in the 1970's. (This was, perhaps, a fitting way for History to get back at those who wanted to rewrite it.)
Postma was acutely aware of what yet another phony document would do to the community of Philippine historians. He sought and got advice from Dutch and Indonesian experts on the LCI's authenticity. The experts concluded that the specific script style used in the LCI was consistent with its indicated date, and that the correctness of the languages and words used would have been very hard for a forger to have contrived.
Although there were some differences between the LCI and the copperplates found in Indonesia, they were for legitimate reasons and their consensus was that the LCI was authentic.
The text on Indonesian copperplates of the same era was mostly in Old Javanese and, as was customary at that time, mention the name of King Balitung (899-910 A.D.). Unlike its Indonesian cousins, the language of the LCI was not Old Javanese. That the LCI did not mention the king's name was another clue that the LCI did not come from Indonesia.
However, the biggest difference was in the way the copperplate was inscribed. Indonesian copperplates were prepared by heating them until they became soft. Then a stylus was used to impress the letters on the soft metal, creating smooth and continuous strokes. The Philippine copperplate, on the other hand, was inscribed by hammering the letters onto the metal using a sharp instrument. The letters show closely joined and overlapping dots from the hammering.
Philippine connection
It was left for Postma to establish the LCI's Philippine connection. When he first saw the LCI, he thought it may originally have come from Indonesia but made to appear like it was found to the Philippines so that it could be sold as a valuable antique. The text of the LCI convinced him of its Philippine provenance.
The LCI was an official document issued to clear a person by the name of Namwaran, his family, and all their descendants of a debt he had incurred. In the old Philippines, an unpaid debt usually resulted in slavery not only for the person concerned but also for his family and his descendants. The amount of debt was 1 kati and 8 suwarnas of gold (865 g. or about $12,000 at today's prices), an unusually large amount.
The pardon was issued by the chief of Tundun, who was of higher rank than the other chiefs who witnessed the document and whose names and respective areas of jurisdiction are listed. The last sentence on the copperplate is incomplete, indicating that there was at least one more page to the document. Unfortunately, none has been found so far.
Placenames
The placenames mentioned prove the Philippine connection of the LCI. The names are still recognizable today although almost eleven centuries have passed since the document was issued. The placenames are Pailah (Paila), Tundun (Tundo), Puliran (Pulilan), Binwangan (Binwangan), Dewata (Diwata), and Medang (Medang).
The first four places are near Manila but Dewata and Medang pose a problem. They could have been personal names but more likely "Dewata" was Diwata, a town near Butuan, and "Medang," Medang in Old Java or Sumatra. Both these places must have been connected politically to Tundun and the other settlements in 900 A.D.
Diwata is important because in addition to the silver strip mentioned earlier, there are reportedly some other artifacts with undeciphered ancient inscriptions that have been found in the Butuan area. Shamefully, like many other artifacts they are in private hands and unavailable to scholars.
Since the LCI was found in Laguna de Ba'y, Postma first thought that Pailah was Pila, Laguna and Pulilan was the southeastern area of the lake because that was what the place was called in the old days. Pila was then a part of the area known as Pulilan. However, he opted to take Pulilan and Paila both along the Angat River in Bulacan as better candidates because the document clearly referred to two separate places, not one inside a larger jurisdiction. A look at the map would show that his choices are correct since they are more conveniently connected to each other by the usual river and coastal travel routes than if he had picked the Laguna area.
Another possible connection to this Bulacan riverine area is the village of Gatbuca that exists today. Bukah, son of Namwaran, is mentioned in the document. Gat was a title used for important persons and has found its way into many contemporary family names (e.g., Gatbonton, Gatmaitan, Gatdula, etc.). It is possible that the town was named for Bukah when he rose in position later.
Significance
Just how significant is this incomplete document that ends in midsentence and contains only ten lines?
- It means, as we have discussed earlier, that the edge of history has been pushed back 621 years, giving the Philippines a documented existence among the ancient kingdoms of Southeast Asia like Shri-Vijaya (Sumatra), Angkor (Kampuchea), Champa (Vietnam), Madjapahit (Java), and others that existed before the 10th Century.
- Ancient Chinese records with placenames like P'u-li-lu, which was thought to have been Polilio (but didn't make sense), will have to be reevaluated. Placenames mentioned in the LCI will have to be given more importance when evaluating ancient records that contain similar sounding names.
- From porcelain finds, Manila was thought to have been settled as late as 1200. It now appears that an earlier date was more likely. Certainly, a search for other means of dating Manila's first settlements is needed. A search for artifacts in the places mentioned in the LCI might also prove fruitful.
- Earlier historians thought that the Philippines was part of Shri-Vijaya or even Madjapahit. Their theories have been largely discredited in recent times. It is now time to reexamine the possible connection.
- Historians believe that the Muslims who ruled Manila were the first to establish more sophisticated forms of government in the area. They also believe that the Muslims started the trade with Borneo and other points south. It is possible that the Hindus were in Manila before the Muslims.
- The Tagalog script is so rudimentary that it cannot even completely record the sounds of its own language. Three centuries before the Tagalog script's emergence, the Manila area used a script so rich and sophisticated that great empires were ruled through its use. How did this happen? How could a less sophisticated script have supplanted a better one?
The disappearance of the earlier people who settled around Manila may explain why the Kavi script was lost and a lesser one introduced later. But how did the placenames remain? If a few people remained to maintain a continuity of their settlements and placenames, how did they lose their knowledge of the Malay language and the Kavi script?
At this time, everything is conjecture. Many more questions will be asked, answered, and refuted; other questions will be asked again. Little by little, we will know more about the Philippines as it was before the Spaniards came, thanks to a little piece of metal dredged from the sand.
Required Reading No. 3
Date:
Pigafettta Review
Book Title: Magellan's Voyage - A Narrative Account of the First Circumnavigation
Author: Antonio Pigafetta
My Rating
3 stars (out of 5)
This book tells what is perhaps the greatest adventure story of all time. Of course, I am referring to the first circumnavigation of our planet, a feat which was performed by five Spanish ships under the command of Ferdinand Magellan (i.e., Fernao de Magalhaes in Portuguese or Fernando de Magallanes in Spanish). As everyone knows, Magellan himself did not complete the voyage, having been killed by the natives in the Philippines.
Onboard Magellan's flagship was Antonio Pigafetta, an Italian nobleman, whose job it was to keep a daily chronicle of the voyage. Unfortunately the daily chronicle which Pigafetta kept has been lost to us. But before he passed away into history, Pigafetta managed to pen a manuscript based upon his notes taken during the voyage. The original manuscript was written in Pigafetta's native Italian but it was soon translated into French. This book is an English translation of one of the many excellent French manuscripts which are still extant. Pigafetta's narrative is the best source of information we have concerning Magellan's voyage.
From the perspective of Philippines history, Pigafetta's narrative is a watershed moment. It is the first authentic document that we have which details the daily life, customs, and language of the Philippine natives. Pigafetta was an astute observer of human nature and a gifted linguist. He was able to put together a list of about 140 Cebuano words, which makes this the oldest documented vocabulary of any of the Philippine languages. How Pigafetta was able to create this long word list during the short time the Spanish were in Cebu is a topic of much debate even to this day. He must have had an extraordinary ear for languages, because many of the words in his word list are completely recognizable as modern Cebuano words.
It is important to remember that Magellan's voyage did not start out as the great feat of circumnavigation we all remember it for. Instead, the reasons for the voyage were entirely economic. Magellan was tasked by the Spanish monarch Charles V with finding the Moluccas (the so called Spice Islands) which are located in modern-day Indonesia. The five small islands of the Moluccas were the only place on earth where the coveted spice known as cloves were grown. If Spain could open a trade route to the source of the cloves it would be an economic bonanza. There was just one little rub in the plan. Since the Portuguese (who were the bitter rivals of Spain) controlled the sea lanes going around Africa and east to the Moluccas, Magellan would have to find a new route going westward. But the Americas stood in the way. It was hoped that by sailing far enough south, Magellan would be able to find a passage around the continent of South America. But nobody knew how far south he would have to go.
To make things more interesting, Magellan himself was Portuguese. It is amazing to think that the King of Spain would entrust such an important operation to someone born in the land of Spain's chief rival, Portugal. Magellan's expedition was to consist of the following five ships: the Trinidad (his flagship), the Victoria, the Concepcion, the Santo Antonio, and the Santiago. A total of approximately 270 men embarked on the voyage. More than eighty percent of the crew were Spanish. The majority of the rest were Portuguese plus a smattering of other nationalities. On August 10, 1519 the five ships departed the port of Seville and proceeded down the Guadalquivir River. On September 20, 1519 they reached San Lucar de Barrameda on the shores of the Atlantic. This was the jumping off point for Spanish voyages to the Americas.
To sailors of the 16th century, crossing the Atlantic was a very perilous undertaking, one which filled them with dread. Concerning a storm they encountered on the ocean, Pigafetta has this to say:
"During these storms the body of St. Anselm appeared to us several times. And among others on a night which was very dark, at a time of bad weather, the said saint appeared in the form of a lighted torch at the height of the maintop, and remained there more than two hours and a half, to the comfort of us all. For we were in tears, expecting only the hour of death."
Of course, we recognize this description today as St. Elmo's fire (an electrical discharge which appears on tall masts during stormy weather), but to Magellan's men it must have seemed like a supernatural apparition.
The expedition reached the land of Verzin (i.e., Brazil) on December 13, 1519. After staying for thirteen days and replenishing their supplies, the expedition headed south. Stopping in the Rio de la Plata, the expedition encountered cannibals for the first time whom Pigafetta describes as "giants". Apparently they were taller than the Europeans were. Magellan ordered that two of them be captured and brought back to Spain in irons:
"Forthwith the captain had the fetters put on the feet of both of them. And when they saw the bolt across the fetters being struck with a hammer to rivet it and prevent them from being opened, these giants were afraid. But the captain made signs to them that they should suspect nothing. Nevertheless, perceiving the trick that had been played on them, they began to blow and foam at the mouth like bulls, loudly calling on Setebos (that is, the great devil) to help them."
Thus we see the Spanish treatment of its new subjects take root during its formative years. This very year 1519 would see another Spanish expedition begin its conquest of the Aztec Empire in modern-day Mexico. Relations with the "giants" worsened and soon fighting erupted. The expedition suffered its first casualty when one of Magellan's men was hit with a poison arrow and soon died.
The expedition continued its southern trek but soon the southern hemisphere winter began closing in. On March 31, 1520 they reached Puerto San Julian at a latitude of 49 deg. 30' S. (the latitude measurements conducted during the voyage were extremely accurate; for example, the pilot on Magellan's ship recorded a latitude here of 49 deg. 20' S., off by just ten minutes of arc). Magellan decided to winter here until August 24, 1520. Soon after arriving at Puerto San Julian a conspiracy to take over the ships was discovered. The perpetrators were dealt with in an extremely harsh way:
"...as soon as we entered the port, the masters of the other four ships conspired against the captain-general to bring about his death. Whose names were Juan de Cartagena, overseer of the fleet, the treasurer Luis de Mendoza, the overseer Antonio de Coca, and Gaspar Quesada. But the treachery was discovered, because the treasurer was killed by dagger blows, then quartered. This Gaspar Quesada had his head cut off, and then he was quartered. And the overseer Juan de Cartagena, who several days later tried to commit treachery, was banished with a priest, and put in exile on that land named Patagoni (i.e., Patagonia)."
Just a historical note, quartering was the practice in which the executed criminal's body was cut into four pieces with each piece being displayed in a different place. If this was how the Europeans were going to treat one another, their harsh treatment of the natives in any lands they came across is not really surprising. All of the executed men were Spaniards (Cartagena had been captain of the Santo Antonio, Mendoza had been captain of the Victoria, and Quesada had been captain of the Concepcion). Magellan now put fellow Portuguese in charge of the other four ships because he trusted them more.
After the mutiny was suppressed the Santiago was sent south to scout the coast. On May 22, 1520 she ran aground and shipwrecked. Only one man out of a crew of 37 onboard the Santiago was killed during the shipwreck. The others were rescued. Now the expedition was down to four ships. On August 24, 1520 the four ships continued their trek southward. On October 21, 1520 they rounded a cape which they called the Cape of the Eleven Thousand Virgins (i.e., Cabo Virgenes). On the other side was the entrance into the famous strait which now bears Magellan's name. They were in latitude 52 deg. S. Pigafetta makes this interesting statement:
"But the captain-general said that there was another strait which led out, saying that he knew it well and had seen it in a marine chart of the King of Portugal, which a great pilot and sailor named Martin of Bohemia had made."
This passage tends to suggest that some previous explorer had discovered the Strait of Magellan. But if so then why wasn't the news publicized all over Europe? And if so then why would Magellan winter at a latitude of 49 deg. 30' S. for five months when he knew that just a few degrees to the south lay the strait that would take him to the other side of the Americas? So Pigafetta may have just been flat-out wrong in this assertion. Whatever the case may be, Magellan sent the Concepcion and the Santo Antonio to explore the inlet and report back their findings. A great storm came up and engulfed the two ships and they were sent hurtling towards the west shore of the inlet. Luckily for them the inlet opened into the strait which they entered. The Trinidad and the Victoria waited for the two ships to report. After two days they began to lose hope for their comrades when all of a sudden the two lost ships reappeared with the good news about the discovery of the strait.
The strait now branched into a southeast channel and a southwest channel (leading to the Pacific Ocean). The Concepcion and the Santo Antonio were sent to explore the southeast channel while the Trinidad and the Victoria explored the southwest channel. The Santo Antonio became separated from the Concepcion. During the night there was a mutiny onboard the Santo Antonio and the mutineers decided to return to Spain without telling the other three ships. So now the expedition was down to three ships. Magellan succeeded in finding the outlet into the new ocean which he named Mar Pacifico (i.e., the Pacific Ocean). He then returned to rendezvous with the other two ships only to find that the Santo Antonio had disappeared. What had become of her was anyone's guess. He couldn't afford to wait around and find out. On November 28, 1520 the Trinidad, the Victoria, and the Concepcion sailed out into the broad Pacific Ocean.
Now began the most hazardous part of the voyage. They had to cross the largest ocean on the planet without enough supplies to last them through the crossing. The crossing took ninety-eight days. On March 6, 1521 they arrived in the Islas de los Ladrones (i.e., the Islands of the Thieves or the Marianas). By that time Magellan's men were suffering from scurvy due to malnutrition. The men had been forced to eat rats and sawdust in order to survive. Twenty-nine of the men had died and another thirty were near to death. The expedition's experience in the Marianas was not a pleasant one. Magellan had intended to land at Guam but before he could do so dozens of native boats approached the three ships. The natives climbed on board and made off with anything which wasn't nailed down (hence earning the name "Islands of the Thieves").
Magellan had no choice but to push on. He steered a course headed southwest. On March 16, 1521 they arrived at the island of Zzamal (i.e., Samar in the Philippines). There were several small islands off the coast of Samar which the expedition visited. The name chosen by Magellan for the entire island group was the Archipelago of St. Lazarus. They sailed south where they landed on the small island of Mazzaua (i.e., Limasawa which is just off the southern coast of Leyte) on March 28, 1521. A boat filled with natives approached the Spanish vessels. Magellan owned a slave named Enrique of Sumatra who tried to speak with the natives in the Malay language. One of the natives who turned out to be the local king was able to understand him. From then on communication between the Spaniards and the Philippine natives was not much of a problem. On Easter Sunday (March 31, 1521) Magellan and his men celebrated mass onshore. This was the first Christian religious service celebrated anywhere in the Philippines.
When Magellan asked the local king where was the best place to obtain supplies he was referred to the island of Zzubu (i.e., Cebu). He even offered to provide pilots who could guide Magellan there. On April 7, 1521 Magellan's three ships arrived in the port of Cebu:
"On Sunday the seventh of April, about noon, we entered the port of Zzubu, having passed by many villages, where we saw some houses which were built on trees. And nearing the principal town the captain-general ordered all the ships to put out their flags. Then we lowered the sails as is done when one is about to fight, and fired all the artillery, at which the people of those places were in great fear."
Magellan sought to awe the Cebuanos into submission by a show of force. But he had completely misjudged the people he was dealing with. The port of Zzubu (located where present-day Cebu City is) was not some backwater filled with hillbillies. Instead, Cebu was in those days an international seaport which routinely received trading ships from China, Brunei, and various other places. Indeed, only four days before Magellan arrived a ship from Siam had departed from Cebu. The local king was a man named Rajah Humabon (Rajah is an honorific meaning king) and he was distinctly unimpressed with his new visitors. When Rajah Humabon suggested that the Spaniards should pay tribute to him before being allowed into port, Magellan replied that the servant of the King of Spain paid tribute to no one. The king requested one day to think the matter over.
During the night Rajah Humabon had an abrupt change of heart. In the morning he informed Magellan that he no longer wanted tribute. He suggested that Magellan and himself undergo a simple ceremony in which they exchanged a little blood from their arms in order to cement their new friendship. Magellan agreed and soon he and Rajah Humabon were blood brothers, or so it seemed at the time. In reality Rajah Humabon was plotting the eventual destruction of the Spaniards.
Now for the first time during the voyage the topic of religious conversion raised its ugly head. Several of the natives expressed an interest in learning more about Christianity. As Pigafetta puts it:
"And the captain told them that they should not become Christians for fear of us, or in order to please us, but that if they wished to become Christians, it should be with a good heart and for the love of God. For that, if they did not become Christians, we should show them no displeasure. But that those who became Christians would be more regarded and better treated than the others. Then all cried out together with one voice that they wished to become Christians not for fear, nor to please us, but of their own free will. Then the captain said that if they became Christians he would leave them weapons which Christians use..."
So there was an obvious inducement to become Christians for the Cebuanos. By doing so they would be given some of the Spanish weaponry which they so much desired (e.g., arquebuses, body armor, etc.). On Sunday, April 14, 1521 a large platform was set up in the city for a mass baptism ceremony. Rajah Humabon was the first Cebuano to become baptized followed by fifty of his chief advisors. Next, the queen (i.e., Queen Juana who was the chief wife of Rajah Humabon) was baptized along with forty of her attendants. When she saw a carving of the Christ child which the Spanish had, she asked for it as a gift. When the Spanish conquistador Miguel de Legazpi arrived in Cebu in 1565, this carving of the Christ child was recovered in almost perfect condition (an event which was and is considered something of a miracle). Today if you want to see the statue (known as the Santo Nino) you have to go to the Basilica Minore del Santo Nino in downtown Cebu City.
The situation in Cebu seemed to be settled. Soon thousands of Cebuanos were lining up to receive baptism. There was just one little fly in the ointment. The rajah of the neighboring island of Mattan (i.e., Mactan) refused to obey Rajah Humabon and convert to Christianity. His name was Cilapulapu (i.e., Lapulapu). Rajah Humabon convinced Magellan that Lapulapu wouldn't present much of a threat. With a force of only sixty men Magellan should be able to completely crush Lapulapu's forces. Thus began a military blunder the likes of which would not be seen again until a certain General Custer attacked some Indians at the Little Bighorn River. Magellan arrived off the coast of Mactan with a force of sixty men in three small boats in the early morning hours of April 27, 1521. When dawn arrived forty-nine of the men led by Magellan himself jumped into the shallow water and attempted to wade ashore. There to greet them were almost 3,000 of Lapulapu's warriors.
The Spaniards were in full body armor. Nevertheless a rain of arrows and javelins poured down on them from the shore. Magellan, realizing he had blundered, called a retreat but it was too late:
"Our large pieces of artillery which were in the ships could not help us, because they were firing at too long range, so that we continued to retreat for more than a good crossbow flight from the shore, still fighting, and in water up to our knees. And they followed us, hurling poisoned arrows four or six times; while, recognizing the captain, they turned toward him inasmuch they hurled arrows very close to his head."
About eight of Magellan's men were pinned down with Magellan, unable to move (including Pigafetta himself). The rest made it back to the boats. Magellan had been shot through the leg with a poison arrow. A crowd of Cebuano warriors surrounded him and one stuck a javelin through his leg. Magellan collapsed and was soon hacked to pieces. In the confusion the eight men who had been with him at his death, made it back to the boats. All told, the Spaniards had lost eight dead and the Cebuanos had lost fifteen dead. In the annals of military history this was but a small skirmish. But to the men of the expedition the news was devastating. It was clear to them that Magellan had been the brains behind their expedition. Now he was dead. How were they ever going to get home alive now?
That night Rajah Humabon requested Lapulapu to return the body of Magellan. Lapulapu refused. He intended to keep the body as a war trophy. The Spaniards elected two new leaders to lead the expedition, Duarte Barbosa and Joao Serrao. On May 1, 1521 Rajah Humabon invited the new leaders to breakfast. Twenty-four men went to dine with their "Christian" ally. Pigafetta could not go because he was still nursing the wounds he had suffered at the Battle of Mactan. Soon a great commotion could be heard from the ships. The shore party had been treacherously attacked by the forces of Rajah Humabon. Only one remained alive and he was Joao Serrao. He yelled from the shore that the others were dead and that Rajah Humabon demanded a ransom for his life. The highest ranking officer still aboard the ships, Joao Carvalho, refused to pay the ransom. Fearing more treachery from the Cebuanos, the three Spanish ships promptly weighed anchor and left.
Before leaving Cebu, Pigafetta was able to amass a word list of the Cebuano language as it was spoken at that time. The following table gives a sample of Pigafetta's word list with comparisons to modern Cebuano:
English Translation
Cebuano in 1521
Modern Cebuano
body
tiam
lawas
fish
issida
isda
good
maiu
maayo
hand
camat
kamot
house
balai
balay
large
bassal
dako
man
lac
lalaki
mouth
baba
baba
pig
babui
baboy
water
tubin
tubig
As you can see, many of the words that Pigafetta recorded in 1521 are very similar to the modern Cebuano equivalents.
Now the expedition had a problem. Out of an original crew of 270 men only 120 were left. That was not enough to man three ships. It was decided to abandon the Concepcion and burn it so that it wouldn't fall into Portuguese hands. The crew of the Concepcion were distributed among the two remaining ships. They sailed southwest and soon arrived at the island of Pulaoan (i.e., Palawan). The island was inhabited by Moors (i.e., Moslems). They then proceeded to the city of Brunei on the island of Burne (i.e., Borneo) arriving in July 1521. After leaving Brunei the expedition stopped on the coast of Borneo to repair the ships. This took more than a month. Taking off again, they were finally able to find someone who could give them directions to the Moluccas, and so they proceeded south to the islands of what is now called Indonesia. They finally arrived at one of the islands of the Moluccas on November 8, 1521.
Now the Spaniards exchanged all of their trade goods (which chiefly consisted of red cloth, glass, etc.) for cloves. Both the Trinidad and the Victoria were loaded to capacity with the rare spice. Unfortunately when it was time to go the Trinidad sprang a leak and could not leave. It would take weeks to repair her. So it was decided that the Victoria would sail without the Trinidad. The Victoria left port on December 21, 1521 under the command of Juan Sebastian de Elcano. Passing off the coast of the island of Timor they entered the Indian Ocean and sailed west towards Africa. On May 19, 1522 they rounded the Cape of Good Hope (i.e., the southern tip of Africa). By now the ship was falling apart. The top of the mast had been damaged during a storm. And the men were starving yet again.
On July 9, 1522 they reached the Cape Verde islands (under Portuguese control). So desperate was their plight that they sent some men onshore to obtain supplies. Some much needed rice was purchased but the Portuguese authorities became suspicious and decided to detain thirteen of the men. The Victoria left in a hurry fearing that the Portuguese would impound the ship. On September 8, 1522 they arrived back in Seville from whence they had departed three years earlier. Out of an initial crew of 270 men, only 18 men made it back alive. Such were the risks of 16th century exploration.
Upon arriving home Pigafetta noted that the calendar was inexplicably advanced one day. He had kept a careful daily journal and he was sure that he had recorded each and every day. So he was at a loss to explain this inconsistency. Of course, we laugh today recognizing that in crossing the Pacific Ocean, Magellan's expedition had gained a day by crossing the International Dateline. Of course, back then there was no International Dateline. It had not been needed before Magellan. It took the best minds in Europe in the 16th century to explain this discrepancy. In following the sun west through a full 360 degrees of longitude the expedition had lost one full day.
I must admit that I fully enjoyed this book. But then again, I'm a history buff. But I would caution the casual reader that it is impossible to figure out what is really going on unless you consult the footnotes. That is because the translation is put into 16th century English and all the place names are the obsolete versions which Pigafetta actually used. I found myself constantly paging back and forth between the main text and the footnotes. For these technical reasons I can only give this book three stars. If you can get past the technical obstacles then I think you will enjoy this story. After all, it is the greatest adventure story in history!
Author: Antonio Pigafetta
My Rating
3 stars (out of 5)
This book tells what is perhaps the greatest adventure story of all time. Of course, I am referring to the first circumnavigation of our planet, a feat which was performed by five Spanish ships under the command of Ferdinand Magellan (i.e., Fernao de Magalhaes in Portuguese or Fernando de Magallanes in Spanish). As everyone knows, Magellan himself did not complete the voyage, having been killed by the natives in the Philippines.
Onboard Magellan's flagship was Antonio Pigafetta, an Italian nobleman, whose job it was to keep a daily chronicle of the voyage. Unfortunately the daily chronicle which Pigafetta kept has been lost to us. But before he passed away into history, Pigafetta managed to pen a manuscript based upon his notes taken during the voyage. The original manuscript was written in Pigafetta's native Italian but it was soon translated into French. This book is an English translation of one of the many excellent French manuscripts which are still extant. Pigafetta's narrative is the best source of information we have concerning Magellan's voyage.
From the perspective of Philippines history, Pigafetta's narrative is a watershed moment. It is the first authentic document that we have which details the daily life, customs, and language of the Philippine natives. Pigafetta was an astute observer of human nature and a gifted linguist. He was able to put together a list of about 140 Cebuano words, which makes this the oldest documented vocabulary of any of the Philippine languages. How Pigafetta was able to create this long word list during the short time the Spanish were in Cebu is a topic of much debate even to this day. He must have had an extraordinary ear for languages, because many of the words in his word list are completely recognizable as modern Cebuano words.
It is important to remember that Magellan's voyage did not start out as the great feat of circumnavigation we all remember it for. Instead, the reasons for the voyage were entirely economic. Magellan was tasked by the Spanish monarch Charles V with finding the Moluccas (the so called Spice Islands) which are located in modern-day Indonesia. The five small islands of the Moluccas were the only place on earth where the coveted spice known as cloves were grown. If Spain could open a trade route to the source of the cloves it would be an economic bonanza. There was just one little rub in the plan. Since the Portuguese (who were the bitter rivals of Spain) controlled the sea lanes going around Africa and east to the Moluccas, Magellan would have to find a new route going westward. But the Americas stood in the way. It was hoped that by sailing far enough south, Magellan would be able to find a passage around the continent of South America. But nobody knew how far south he would have to go.
To make things more interesting, Magellan himself was Portuguese. It is amazing to think that the King of Spain would entrust such an important operation to someone born in the land of Spain's chief rival, Portugal. Magellan's expedition was to consist of the following five ships: the Trinidad (his flagship), the Victoria, the Concepcion, the Santo Antonio, and the Santiago. A total of approximately 270 men embarked on the voyage. More than eighty percent of the crew were Spanish. The majority of the rest were Portuguese plus a smattering of other nationalities. On August 10, 1519 the five ships departed the port of Seville and proceeded down the Guadalquivir River. On September 20, 1519 they reached San Lucar de Barrameda on the shores of the Atlantic. This was the jumping off point for Spanish voyages to the Americas.
To sailors of the 16th century, crossing the Atlantic was a very perilous undertaking, one which filled them with dread. Concerning a storm they encountered on the ocean, Pigafetta has this to say:
"During these storms the body of St. Anselm appeared to us several times. And among others on a night which was very dark, at a time of bad weather, the said saint appeared in the form of a lighted torch at the height of the maintop, and remained there more than two hours and a half, to the comfort of us all. For we were in tears, expecting only the hour of death."
Of course, we recognize this description today as St. Elmo's fire (an electrical discharge which appears on tall masts during stormy weather), but to Magellan's men it must have seemed like a supernatural apparition.
The expedition reached the land of Verzin (i.e., Brazil) on December 13, 1519. After staying for thirteen days and replenishing their supplies, the expedition headed south. Stopping in the Rio de la Plata, the expedition encountered cannibals for the first time whom Pigafetta describes as "giants". Apparently they were taller than the Europeans were. Magellan ordered that two of them be captured and brought back to Spain in irons:
"Forthwith the captain had the fetters put on the feet of both of them. And when they saw the bolt across the fetters being struck with a hammer to rivet it and prevent them from being opened, these giants were afraid. But the captain made signs to them that they should suspect nothing. Nevertheless, perceiving the trick that had been played on them, they began to blow and foam at the mouth like bulls, loudly calling on Setebos (that is, the great devil) to help them."
Thus we see the Spanish treatment of its new subjects take root during its formative years. This very year 1519 would see another Spanish expedition begin its conquest of the Aztec Empire in modern-day Mexico. Relations with the "giants" worsened and soon fighting erupted. The expedition suffered its first casualty when one of Magellan's men was hit with a poison arrow and soon died.
The expedition continued its southern trek but soon the southern hemisphere winter began closing in. On March 31, 1520 they reached Puerto San Julian at a latitude of 49 deg. 30' S. (the latitude measurements conducted during the voyage were extremely accurate; for example, the pilot on Magellan's ship recorded a latitude here of 49 deg. 20' S., off by just ten minutes of arc). Magellan decided to winter here until August 24, 1520. Soon after arriving at Puerto San Julian a conspiracy to take over the ships was discovered. The perpetrators were dealt with in an extremely harsh way:
"...as soon as we entered the port, the masters of the other four ships conspired against the captain-general to bring about his death. Whose names were Juan de Cartagena, overseer of the fleet, the treasurer Luis de Mendoza, the overseer Antonio de Coca, and Gaspar Quesada. But the treachery was discovered, because the treasurer was killed by dagger blows, then quartered. This Gaspar Quesada had his head cut off, and then he was quartered. And the overseer Juan de Cartagena, who several days later tried to commit treachery, was banished with a priest, and put in exile on that land named Patagoni (i.e., Patagonia)."
Just a historical note, quartering was the practice in which the executed criminal's body was cut into four pieces with each piece being displayed in a different place. If this was how the Europeans were going to treat one another, their harsh treatment of the natives in any lands they came across is not really surprising. All of the executed men were Spaniards (Cartagena had been captain of the Santo Antonio, Mendoza had been captain of the Victoria, and Quesada had been captain of the Concepcion). Magellan now put fellow Portuguese in charge of the other four ships because he trusted them more.
After the mutiny was suppressed the Santiago was sent south to scout the coast. On May 22, 1520 she ran aground and shipwrecked. Only one man out of a crew of 37 onboard the Santiago was killed during the shipwreck. The others were rescued. Now the expedition was down to four ships. On August 24, 1520 the four ships continued their trek southward. On October 21, 1520 they rounded a cape which they called the Cape of the Eleven Thousand Virgins (i.e., Cabo Virgenes). On the other side was the entrance into the famous strait which now bears Magellan's name. They were in latitude 52 deg. S. Pigafetta makes this interesting statement:
"But the captain-general said that there was another strait which led out, saying that he knew it well and had seen it in a marine chart of the King of Portugal, which a great pilot and sailor named Martin of Bohemia had made."
This passage tends to suggest that some previous explorer had discovered the Strait of Magellan. But if so then why wasn't the news publicized all over Europe? And if so then why would Magellan winter at a latitude of 49 deg. 30' S. for five months when he knew that just a few degrees to the south lay the strait that would take him to the other side of the Americas? So Pigafetta may have just been flat-out wrong in this assertion. Whatever the case may be, Magellan sent the Concepcion and the Santo Antonio to explore the inlet and report back their findings. A great storm came up and engulfed the two ships and they were sent hurtling towards the west shore of the inlet. Luckily for them the inlet opened into the strait which they entered. The Trinidad and the Victoria waited for the two ships to report. After two days they began to lose hope for their comrades when all of a sudden the two lost ships reappeared with the good news about the discovery of the strait.
The strait now branched into a southeast channel and a southwest channel (leading to the Pacific Ocean). The Concepcion and the Santo Antonio were sent to explore the southeast channel while the Trinidad and the Victoria explored the southwest channel. The Santo Antonio became separated from the Concepcion. During the night there was a mutiny onboard the Santo Antonio and the mutineers decided to return to Spain without telling the other three ships. So now the expedition was down to three ships. Magellan succeeded in finding the outlet into the new ocean which he named Mar Pacifico (i.e., the Pacific Ocean). He then returned to rendezvous with the other two ships only to find that the Santo Antonio had disappeared. What had become of her was anyone's guess. He couldn't afford to wait around and find out. On November 28, 1520 the Trinidad, the Victoria, and the Concepcion sailed out into the broad Pacific Ocean.
Now began the most hazardous part of the voyage. They had to cross the largest ocean on the planet without enough supplies to last them through the crossing. The crossing took ninety-eight days. On March 6, 1521 they arrived in the Islas de los Ladrones (i.e., the Islands of the Thieves or the Marianas). By that time Magellan's men were suffering from scurvy due to malnutrition. The men had been forced to eat rats and sawdust in order to survive. Twenty-nine of the men had died and another thirty were near to death. The expedition's experience in the Marianas was not a pleasant one. Magellan had intended to land at Guam but before he could do so dozens of native boats approached the three ships. The natives climbed on board and made off with anything which wasn't nailed down (hence earning the name "Islands of the Thieves").
Magellan had no choice but to push on. He steered a course headed southwest. On March 16, 1521 they arrived at the island of Zzamal (i.e., Samar in the Philippines). There were several small islands off the coast of Samar which the expedition visited. The name chosen by Magellan for the entire island group was the Archipelago of St. Lazarus. They sailed south where they landed on the small island of Mazzaua (i.e., Limasawa which is just off the southern coast of Leyte) on March 28, 1521. A boat filled with natives approached the Spanish vessels. Magellan owned a slave named Enrique of Sumatra who tried to speak with the natives in the Malay language. One of the natives who turned out to be the local king was able to understand him. From then on communication between the Spaniards and the Philippine natives was not much of a problem. On Easter Sunday (March 31, 1521) Magellan and his men celebrated mass onshore. This was the first Christian religious service celebrated anywhere in the Philippines.
When Magellan asked the local king where was the best place to obtain supplies he was referred to the island of Zzubu (i.e., Cebu). He even offered to provide pilots who could guide Magellan there. On April 7, 1521 Magellan's three ships arrived in the port of Cebu:
"On Sunday the seventh of April, about noon, we entered the port of Zzubu, having passed by many villages, where we saw some houses which were built on trees. And nearing the principal town the captain-general ordered all the ships to put out their flags. Then we lowered the sails as is done when one is about to fight, and fired all the artillery, at which the people of those places were in great fear."
Magellan sought to awe the Cebuanos into submission by a show of force. But he had completely misjudged the people he was dealing with. The port of Zzubu (located where present-day Cebu City is) was not some backwater filled with hillbillies. Instead, Cebu was in those days an international seaport which routinely received trading ships from China, Brunei, and various other places. Indeed, only four days before Magellan arrived a ship from Siam had departed from Cebu. The local king was a man named Rajah Humabon (Rajah is an honorific meaning king) and he was distinctly unimpressed with his new visitors. When Rajah Humabon suggested that the Spaniards should pay tribute to him before being allowed into port, Magellan replied that the servant of the King of Spain paid tribute to no one. The king requested one day to think the matter over.
During the night Rajah Humabon had an abrupt change of heart. In the morning he informed Magellan that he no longer wanted tribute. He suggested that Magellan and himself undergo a simple ceremony in which they exchanged a little blood from their arms in order to cement their new friendship. Magellan agreed and soon he and Rajah Humabon were blood brothers, or so it seemed at the time. In reality Rajah Humabon was plotting the eventual destruction of the Spaniards.
Now for the first time during the voyage the topic of religious conversion raised its ugly head. Several of the natives expressed an interest in learning more about Christianity. As Pigafetta puts it:
"And the captain told them that they should not become Christians for fear of us, or in order to please us, but that if they wished to become Christians, it should be with a good heart and for the love of God. For that, if they did not become Christians, we should show them no displeasure. But that those who became Christians would be more regarded and better treated than the others. Then all cried out together with one voice that they wished to become Christians not for fear, nor to please us, but of their own free will. Then the captain said that if they became Christians he would leave them weapons which Christians use..."
So there was an obvious inducement to become Christians for the Cebuanos. By doing so they would be given some of the Spanish weaponry which they so much desired (e.g., arquebuses, body armor, etc.). On Sunday, April 14, 1521 a large platform was set up in the city for a mass baptism ceremony. Rajah Humabon was the first Cebuano to become baptized followed by fifty of his chief advisors. Next, the queen (i.e., Queen Juana who was the chief wife of Rajah Humabon) was baptized along with forty of her attendants. When she saw a carving of the Christ child which the Spanish had, she asked for it as a gift. When the Spanish conquistador Miguel de Legazpi arrived in Cebu in 1565, this carving of the Christ child was recovered in almost perfect condition (an event which was and is considered something of a miracle). Today if you want to see the statue (known as the Santo Nino) you have to go to the Basilica Minore del Santo Nino in downtown Cebu City.
The situation in Cebu seemed to be settled. Soon thousands of Cebuanos were lining up to receive baptism. There was just one little fly in the ointment. The rajah of the neighboring island of Mattan (i.e., Mactan) refused to obey Rajah Humabon and convert to Christianity. His name was Cilapulapu (i.e., Lapulapu). Rajah Humabon convinced Magellan that Lapulapu wouldn't present much of a threat. With a force of only sixty men Magellan should be able to completely crush Lapulapu's forces. Thus began a military blunder the likes of which would not be seen again until a certain General Custer attacked some Indians at the Little Bighorn River. Magellan arrived off the coast of Mactan with a force of sixty men in three small boats in the early morning hours of April 27, 1521. When dawn arrived forty-nine of the men led by Magellan himself jumped into the shallow water and attempted to wade ashore. There to greet them were almost 3,000 of Lapulapu's warriors.
The Spaniards were in full body armor. Nevertheless a rain of arrows and javelins poured down on them from the shore. Magellan, realizing he had blundered, called a retreat but it was too late:
"Our large pieces of artillery which were in the ships could not help us, because they were firing at too long range, so that we continued to retreat for more than a good crossbow flight from the shore, still fighting, and in water up to our knees. And they followed us, hurling poisoned arrows four or six times; while, recognizing the captain, they turned toward him inasmuch they hurled arrows very close to his head."
About eight of Magellan's men were pinned down with Magellan, unable to move (including Pigafetta himself). The rest made it back to the boats. Magellan had been shot through the leg with a poison arrow. A crowd of Cebuano warriors surrounded him and one stuck a javelin through his leg. Magellan collapsed and was soon hacked to pieces. In the confusion the eight men who had been with him at his death, made it back to the boats. All told, the Spaniards had lost eight dead and the Cebuanos had lost fifteen dead. In the annals of military history this was but a small skirmish. But to the men of the expedition the news was devastating. It was clear to them that Magellan had been the brains behind their expedition. Now he was dead. How were they ever going to get home alive now?
That night Rajah Humabon requested Lapulapu to return the body of Magellan. Lapulapu refused. He intended to keep the body as a war trophy. The Spaniards elected two new leaders to lead the expedition, Duarte Barbosa and Joao Serrao. On May 1, 1521 Rajah Humabon invited the new leaders to breakfast. Twenty-four men went to dine with their "Christian" ally. Pigafetta could not go because he was still nursing the wounds he had suffered at the Battle of Mactan. Soon a great commotion could be heard from the ships. The shore party had been treacherously attacked by the forces of Rajah Humabon. Only one remained alive and he was Joao Serrao. He yelled from the shore that the others were dead and that Rajah Humabon demanded a ransom for his life. The highest ranking officer still aboard the ships, Joao Carvalho, refused to pay the ransom. Fearing more treachery from the Cebuanos, the three Spanish ships promptly weighed anchor and left.
Before leaving Cebu, Pigafetta was able to amass a word list of the Cebuano language as it was spoken at that time. The following table gives a sample of Pigafetta's word list with comparisons to modern Cebuano:
English Translation
Cebuano in 1521
Modern Cebuano
body
tiam
lawas
fish
issida
isda
good
maiu
maayo
hand
camat
kamot
house
balai
balay
large
bassal
dako
man
lac
lalaki
mouth
baba
baba
pig
babui
baboy
water
tubin
tubig
As you can see, many of the words that Pigafetta recorded in 1521 are very similar to the modern Cebuano equivalents.
Now the expedition had a problem. Out of an original crew of 270 men only 120 were left. That was not enough to man three ships. It was decided to abandon the Concepcion and burn it so that it wouldn't fall into Portuguese hands. The crew of the Concepcion were distributed among the two remaining ships. They sailed southwest and soon arrived at the island of Pulaoan (i.e., Palawan). The island was inhabited by Moors (i.e., Moslems). They then proceeded to the city of Brunei on the island of Burne (i.e., Borneo) arriving in July 1521. After leaving Brunei the expedition stopped on the coast of Borneo to repair the ships. This took more than a month. Taking off again, they were finally able to find someone who could give them directions to the Moluccas, and so they proceeded south to the islands of what is now called Indonesia. They finally arrived at one of the islands of the Moluccas on November 8, 1521.
Now the Spaniards exchanged all of their trade goods (which chiefly consisted of red cloth, glass, etc.) for cloves. Both the Trinidad and the Victoria were loaded to capacity with the rare spice. Unfortunately when it was time to go the Trinidad sprang a leak and could not leave. It would take weeks to repair her. So it was decided that the Victoria would sail without the Trinidad. The Victoria left port on December 21, 1521 under the command of Juan Sebastian de Elcano. Passing off the coast of the island of Timor they entered the Indian Ocean and sailed west towards Africa. On May 19, 1522 they rounded the Cape of Good Hope (i.e., the southern tip of Africa). By now the ship was falling apart. The top of the mast had been damaged during a storm. And the men were starving yet again.
On July 9, 1522 they reached the Cape Verde islands (under Portuguese control). So desperate was their plight that they sent some men onshore to obtain supplies. Some much needed rice was purchased but the Portuguese authorities became suspicious and decided to detain thirteen of the men. The Victoria left in a hurry fearing that the Portuguese would impound the ship. On September 8, 1522 they arrived back in Seville from whence they had departed three years earlier. Out of an initial crew of 270 men, only 18 men made it back alive. Such were the risks of 16th century exploration.
Upon arriving home Pigafetta noted that the calendar was inexplicably advanced one day. He had kept a careful daily journal and he was sure that he had recorded each and every day. So he was at a loss to explain this inconsistency. Of course, we laugh today recognizing that in crossing the Pacific Ocean, Magellan's expedition had gained a day by crossing the International Dateline. Of course, back then there was no International Dateline. It had not been needed before Magellan. It took the best minds in Europe in the 16th century to explain this discrepancy. In following the sun west through a full 360 degrees of longitude the expedition had lost one full day.
I must admit that I fully enjoyed this book. But then again, I'm a history buff. But I would caution the casual reader that it is impossible to figure out what is really going on unless you consult the footnotes. That is because the translation is put into 16th century English and all the place names are the obsolete versions which Pigafetta actually used. I found myself constantly paging back and forth between the main text and the footnotes. For these technical reasons I can only give this book three stars. If you can get past the technical obstacles then I think you will enjoy this story. After all, it is the greatest adventure story in history!