Content and Contextual

Analysis of Selected Primary

Sources in Philippine History
First Voyage Around the World by Magellan
Written by Antonio Pigafetta
Roadmap
1. Background of Antonio Pigafetta
2. Historical Context of the Document
3. Content Analysis of the Document
4. Contribution and Relevance of the Document
Background of Antonio Pigafetta
• Born into a wealthy family in Vicenza in
1490 and died in the same city in 1534
• Studied astronomy, geography, and
cartography
• Served on board the galleys of the Knights
of Rhodes
• An Italian seafarer and geographer
• Accompanied Magellan and Juan Sebastián
Elcano in the expedition to Moluccas from
August 1519 to September 1522
Historical Context of the Document
• Spanish Fleet: Armada de Molucca which was provided by
King Charles V
• The First Voyage Around the World by Antonio Pigafetta was
written on board of one of the 5 ships that was first to
circumnavigate the world during an expedition that was led
by the Portuguese explorer, Ferdinand Magellan and after his
death during the voyage, by Juan Sebastián Elcano
• The expedition lasted for three years starting in 1519 and
ended in 1522
Historical Context of the Document
• Ferdinand Magellan in English
• Fernão de Magalhães in Portuguese
• Fernando de Magallanes in Spanish
• 38 years old when he started the fleet
• First European to cross the Pacific Ocean
Historical Context of the Document
• If Magellan was Portuguese, why did he sail for Spain?
• Magellan was convinced that by sailing west instead of east and going
through a rumored strait through South America, he could map a new
route to Indonesia and India. So he abandoned his Portuguese
loyalty and headed to Spain, where he gained both citizenship and
Charles V's blessing for a five-ship journey westward.
Historical Context of the Document
• Treaty of Tordesillas
• On June 7, 1494, the governments of Spain and Portugal agreed to
the Treaty of Tordesillas, named for the city in Spain in which it was
created. The Treaty of Tordesillas neatly divided the “New World” of
the Americas between the two superpowers.
• Spain and Portugal divided the New World by drawing a north-to-
south line of demarcation in the Atlantic Ocean
• All lands east of that line (about 46 degrees, 37 minutes west) were
claimed by Portugal. All lands west of that line were claimed by Spain.
Historical Context of the Document
• The results of this treaty are still evident throughout the Americas
today. For example, all Latin American nations are predominantly
Spanish-speaking countries with the sole exception of Brazil where
Portuguese is the national language.
• This is because the eastern tip of Brazil falls east of the line of
demarcation settled upon in the Treaty of Tordesillas, and was where
the majority of Portuguese colonization occurred. The borders of
modern Brazil have expanded since the 1506 expansion of
the Treaty of Tordesillas.
Historical Context of the Document
Content Analysis of the Document
• Pigafetta presented his book to high personages including Pope
Clement VII, mother of King Francis I of France
• The original journal was said to be lost and it was not clear on what
language it was written
• An account of the voyage survives in four manuscript versions: one in
Italian, and three in French
Content Analysis of the Document
• The Ships
• The government of Spain provided 5 ships for the Magellan
expedition
• Ferdinand Magellan led the 5 Spanish ships and 237 men in what was
to become the first voyage around the world.
• The names of the ships were the Trinidad, the San Antonio, the
Concepcion, the Santiago, and the Victoria
Content Analysis of the Document
• Santiago
• Under the command of Juan Serrano
• 32 crews
• Smallest of the 5 ships
• Called as a caravel
• The first ship that has been lost
Content Analysis of the Document
• San Antonio
• Under the command of Juan de Cartagena
• 60 crew
• Soon led by Alvarado de Mesquita
• The largest in the fleet
• Sailed back to Spain
• The second ship that has been lost
Content Analysis of the Document
• Concepcion
• Under the command of Gaspar de Quesada
• 45 crew
• Captain was executed because of a mutiny
• Burned
• The third ship that has been lost
Content Analysis of the Document
• Trinidad
• Under the command of Ferdinand Magellan
• The Flagship
• 55 crew
• Was attacked by a Portuguese ship
• Left shipwrecked
• The fourth ship that has been lost
Content Analysis of the Document
• Victoria
• Under the command of Luiz Mendoza
• 43 crew
• Soon led by Juan Sebastian Elcano
• The ship where Antonio Pigafetta was on board
• The ship that circumnavigated the world
• The only ship to complete the voyage
Timeline
• March 17, 1521 – Arrival in Samar
• April 1, 1521 – The First Mass in the Philippines
• April 8, 1521 – Interaction with the Cebuanos
• April 15, 1521 - Christianity
• April 27, 1521 – Datu Zula’s request
• April 28, 1521 – Death of Magellan
Timeline
• March 17, 1521 – Arrival in Samar
• Arrival in Zamal (Samar at present)
• The island was called Humunu (now Homonhon)
• Magellan and his men called it Acquada da li buoni Segnialli (The Watering
Place of Good Signs)
• There are many islands in the district and therefore they called them the
archipelago of San Lazaro , as they were discovered on the Sunday of St.
Lazarus
Timeline
• April 1, 1521 – The First Mass in the Philippines
• The first mass in the Philippines was held in Mazaua (Limasawa)
• It was attended by Magellan, Raia Colambu (Rajah Kolambu), Raia Siaui (Rajah
Siagu), Spanish voyagers, and the local islanders.
Timeline
• April 8, 1521 – Interaction with the Cebuanos
• Magellan and his men entered the port of Cebu (Zubu)
• Initially, Magellan and his men encountered some struggle when first entering
the port of Cebu
• The “King” of Cebu wanted Magellan and his men to pay tribute to them but,
Magellan refused and told the translator that they are working for the King of
Spain and threatens him with war.
Timeline
• April 15, 1521 – Christianity
• A mass was held with Raia Humabon and his people attending the ceremony
• 800 souls were baptized
• Pigafetta showed the queen an image of our Lady, a very beautiful wooden
child Jesus, and a cross
• She asked for the little child Jesus to keep in place of her idols and this image
of child Jesus is now known as the Sto. Niño found in Cebu.
Timeline
• April 27, 1521 – Datu Zula’s request
• According to Datu Zula, the chief of Mactan, Lapu-lapu (Cilapulapu) refused to obey the
King of Spain.
• Lapu-lapu did not want to pay Magellan and his men the goods that they were promised
• Magellan was not pleased since they went to Mactan to garner food for their expedition.
• Datu Zula requested the captain to defeat Lapu-lapu
• Magellan ordered three boats to be equipped with a matter of fifty or sixty men and
went to the place
• “The captain did not wish to fight then, but sent a message to the natives to the effect
that if they would obey the King of Spain, recognize the Christian king as their sovereign,
and pay us our tribute, he would be their friend; but that if they wished otherwise, they
should wait to see how our laces wounded.”
Timeline
• April 28, 1521 – Death of Magellan
• At midnight, sixty of Magellan’s men set out armed with corselets and helmet
• Magellan orders an attack but miscalculates
• They found three thousand or four thousand men who fought and there happened the
death of Magellan
• They shot the captain through the right leg with a poisoned arrow, knocked his helmet off
his head twice
• “When morning came, forty-nine of us leaped into the water up to our thighs and walked
through water for more than two cross-bow flights before we could reach the shore. The
boats could not approach nearer because of certain rocks in the water. The other eleven
men remained behind to guard the boats, when we reached land, those men had formed
in three divisions to the number of more than one thousand five hundred persons. When
they saw us, they charged down upon us with exceeding loud cries, two divisions on our
flanks and the other on our front.” - Antonio Pigafetta’s account
The end of the expedition
• On September 8, 1522, the crew of the Victoria cast anchor in the waters off of Seville, Spain,
having just completed the first circumnavigation of the world.
• On board was Antonio Pigafetta, a young Italian nobleman who had joined the expedition three
years before, and served as an assistant to Ferdinand Magellan en route to the Molucca Islands.
• Magellan was dead. The rest of the fleet was gone: the Santiago shipwrecked, the San Antonio
overtaken, the Concepcion burned, and the Trinidad abandoned.
• Of the 237 sailors who departed from Seville, 18 returned on the Victoria. Pigafetta had
managed to survive along with his journal – notes that detailed the discovery of the Western
route to the Moluccas.
• And along the way, new land, new peoples: on the far side of the Pacific, the fleet had stumbled
across the Marianas archipelago, and some three hundred leagues further west, the Philippines
• Throughout the expedition, there served a translator named Enrique. Enrique was from
Sumatra (present day Indonesia) and was a slave of Ferdinand Magellan
 Contribution and Relevance of the Document

• He proved to the explorers and to the people today that circumnavigating the world was possible
• His circumnavigation proved that the world is round
• The international dateline was established
• He discovered a strait that connected Atlantic and Pacific Ocean and called it the Strait of Magellan
• It provided a description, location, and distances of the places visited, thereby enhancing
cartography knowledge at that time.
• The chronicle of Pigafetta was one of the most cited documents by historians who wished to study
the pre-colonial Philippines.
• Pigafetta’s journal is the only known document about Lapu-lapu’s life
• Contains the first vocabulary of Visayan words ever penned by a European
• The account aids the researchers and students of today in understanding the context of the
Magellan expedition and how the whole Europe-Philippines conflict commenced
Questions
• Is Pigafetta’s account of the first voyage around the world free of bias
and prejudice?
Questions
• Is Pigafetta’s account of the first voyage around the world free of bias and prejudice?
• A student of history should recognize certain biases accompanying the author and his
identity, loyalties, and the circumstances that he was in and how it affected the text
that he produced.
• In the case of Pigafetta, the reader needs to understand that he was a chronicler
commissioned by the King of Spain to accompany and document a voyage intended to
expand the Spanish empire.
• He was also a noble descent who came from a rich family in Italy.
• These attributes influenced his narrative, his selection of details to be included in the
text, his characterization of the people and of the species that he encountered, and
his interpretation and retelling of the events.
• Being a scholar of cartography and geography, Pigafetta was able to give details on
geography and climate of the places that their voyage has reached.
Questions
• In reading Pigafetta’s description of the people, one has to keep in
mind that he was coming from a 16th century European perspective.
Hence, the reader might notice how Pigafetta, whether implicitly or
explicitly, regarded the indigenous belief systems and way of life as
inferior to that of Christianity and of the Europeans. His observations
and assessments of the indigenous cultures employed the European
standards.
• Nakedness of the natives and palm and bamboo materials for housing
• Native’s amazement and illiteracy to the European artillery
• Blasphemous and barbaric belief systems
• Abundance of spices like ginger and of precious metals like gold
Further Questions
• Did Magellan really circumnavigate the world?
• “Mastermind” of the first expedition to circumnavigate the world
Further Questions
• Did Magellan’s crew “discovered” the Philippines?
• Islas del Poniente (Islands of the West)
• Islands of San Lazaro (Ferdinand Magellan)
• 1525-1542 four expeditions headed by Ruy Lopez de Villalobos to the
islands in the area and named them Las Felipinas
• 1564 Miguel Lopez de Legazpi set sail to the Philippines and reached Cebu
by 1565 where it was formally proclaimed by King Philip II that the
Philippines is a part of the territory of Spain and appointed Miguel Lopez
de Legazpi as the first Governor-general of the islands
• 1571 Legazpi chose Manila as the capital of the colony
Takeaways
• It should be recognized that facts are neither existing in a vacuum nor
produced from a blank slate. These are products of time and of the
people.
• Different types of sources necessitate different kinds of analysis and
contain different levels of importance.