THE FIRST

VOYAGE AROUND
THE WORLD
on the Primary Account of Magellan’s Expedition
(1519-1522)
by Antonio Pigafetta
THE FIRST
VOYAGE AROUND
THE WORLD
4 manuscript accounts of the voyage are extant
(2 French versions at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris; an Italian
version, considered by many scholars to be the oldest and most
complete of the existing manuscripts, at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in
Milan; and another French version now at Yale University)
Like Columbus before
him, Portuguese
navigator Fernão de
Magalhães proposed
reaching Asia and the
Moluccas, or Spice
Islands, by sailing west
from Europe.
• His journey was “the greatest sea voyage ever
undertaken, and the most significant,” says
historian Laurence Bergreen author of Over the
Edge of the World: Magellan’s Terrifying
Circumnavigation of the Globe. “That’s not
hyperbole.”
• At the beginning of his journey, his
contemporaries suspected it was impossible to
sail around the entire globe—and feared that
everything from sea monsters to killer fogs
awaited anyone foolhardy enough to try.
(A 16th-century engraving depicts
Magellan surrounded by
mythological characters and
fantastic animals and represents
European views of the still-
mysterious Americas.)
(A 1545 map traces the
route of Magellan's world
voyage—a milestone in
the centuries-long process
of globalization.)
 In March 1521 the expedition
reached the Philippines, where
relations with the indigenous
people (as depicted in this
engraving) went from peacefully
trading fruit to engaging in pitched
battle. Magellan was killed on
Mactan Island on April 27.
• Magellan demanded that local Mactan people convert to
Christianity and became embroiled in a rivalry between
Humabon and Lapu-Lapu, two local chieftains. On April 27,
1521, Magellan was killed by a poison arrow while attacking
Lapu-Lapu’s people.
• They “all at once rushed upon
him with lances of iron and of
bamboo,” wrote Antonio Pigafetta,
“so that they slew our mirror,
our light, our comfort, and our
true guide.”

• The crew left his body behind—an

indication, perhaps, of how they
truly felt about their relentless
leader.
• After Magellan’s death,
his crew continued in the
single ship that
remained, captained by
Juan Sebastian
Elcano. They returned
to Spain in September
1522.
• For the indigenous people encountered by Magellan and his
crew, the explorer’s arrival heralded a new age of conquest,
Christianization, and colonization.

• The Battle of Mactan was the first resistance against the

colonizers.
September 20, 1519
The expedition sets sail from Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain.

February - August, 1520

The ships winter in modern day Argentina. 
Crews mutiny but Magellan ultimately regains control.

November 28, 1520

The expedition sails through the newlydiscovered strait.
Magellan and crewbecomes the first Europeans to reach the
Pacific Ocean.

March 6, 1521
The expedition makes landfall in Guam after almost 100 days
at sea.

April 27, 1521

Magellan is killed in a battle with locals.

November 8, 1521
Juan Sebastián Elcano leads two ships to the Moluccas, and
eventually returns to Spain with one ship.

September 6, 1522
After three years at sea, the one remaining ship of Magellan’s
expedition returns to Sanlúcar de Barrameda.
Chronology of the
Voyage
Chronology of the Voyage
• 28 March 1518: Charles V issues a capitulación stipulating a fleet of 5 ships and some
250 officers and men for the expedition.
• 5 May 1519: A royal decree orders that 235 men should depart (Pigafetta says that 237
men were on board). The lists published by Navarette come to 239 men: 62 on the
Trinidad, 57 on the San Antonio, 45 on the Victoria, 44 on the Concepción and 31 on the
Santiago.
• 8 May 1519: A royal cédula is issued including seventy-four paragraphs of minute
instructions for the voyage.
Chronology of the Voyage

• May 1519: Antonio Pigafetta arrives in Seville in time to join

the expedition and participate in final preparations.
• 24 August 1519: Magellan makes his last will and testament.
• 20 September 1519: The fleet weighs anchor from Sanlúcar
and shapes its course southwest.
Chronology of the Voyage

• 20 December 1519: Trial, conviction, and execution of Antonio

Salamone, master of the Victoria, who had been caught in the act of
sodomy with an apprentice seaman off the coast of Guinea.
• 26 December 1519: The fleet departs Rio de Janeiro.
• 11–12 January 1520: The fleet reaches the Rio de la Plata, which
Magellan calls Rio de Solis after the explorer Juan Diaz de Solis killed by
natives there in 1516.
Chronology of the Voyage
• 27 February 1520: The fleet anchors off a broad bay; they call it Bahia de los Patos for the
immense number of penguins.
• 31 March 1520: The fleet enters Puerto San Julián (in 49° 30 ́ S), where it remains for 5 months,
until 24 August. Here, the encounters with the Patagonian giants and the mutiny take place.
• 1 April 1520: During the night between 1–2 April, Juan de Cartagena attempts to kill the master
of the San Antonio, Juan de Elorriaga, and put in chains Alvaro de Mesquita. Gaspar de Quesada
and Juan Sebastián del Cano take possession of the Concepción and Luis de Mendoza of the
Victoria. Magellan suppresses the mutiny. A court martial is held and forty men are found guilty
and condemned to death, including Gaspar de Quesada.
Chronology of the Voyage
• 3 May 1520: The Santiago is lost while searching for the strait.
• 24 August 1520: The voyage is resumed.
• 14 September 1520: The four remaining ships of the fleet reach Rio Santa Cruz
at latitude 50° S, where they remain until 18 October.
• 1 November 1520: Magellan discovers and names the strait Todos los Santos in
honour of All Saints’ Day.
Chronology of the Voyage
• November 1520: Estevão Gomez succeeds in the one successful mutiny of the
voyage and together with the pilot Hierónimo Guerra takes command of the S.
Antonio and returns to Spain, arriving 6 May 1521.
• 28 November 1520: The fleet, consisting of Trinidad, Concepción, and Victoria
pass Cabo Pilar (which Magellan names Deseado) on Desolation Island, and
enters the Pacific Ocean: "Wednesday, 28 November 1520, we debouched from
that Strait, engulfing ourselves in the Pacific Sea.”
Chronology of the Voyage

• 13 February 1521: The fleet reaches the equator.

• 6 March 1521: The fleet sights the Islas de Ladrones or Las
Islas de Velas Latinas, identified as Guam and Rota of the
Marianas.
• 9 March 1521: The fleet departs from the Marianas on a course
west by south.
Chronology of the Voyage
• 16 March 1521: The fleet sights the mountains of Samar in the Philippines and anchors
at the island of Suluan at latitude 11° N: "At dawn on Saturday, 16 March 1521, we
came upon a high land at a distance of three hundred leagues from the islands of
thieves”.
• 18 March 1521: Europeans make their first contact with Filipinos on Homonhon Island.
• 25 March 1521: Pigafetta falls overboard and is nearly drowned: “I was aided not, I
believe, indeed, through my merits, but through the mercy of that font of charity
(Mary)”.
Chronology of the Voyage
• 28 March 1521: The fleet anchors off Limasawa (Pigafetta’s Mazaua) at the
southern entrance to Suriago Strait; Magellan and his men are well received there
by the natives and good relations are established with Rajah Colambu.
• 31 March 1521: Magellan has Easter mass celebrated on Limasawa Island.
• 6 April 1521: The fleet departs Limasawa.
• 7 April 1521: The fleet enters the port of Cebu, where, following negotiations,
merchandise is exchanged for provisions, and good relations are established.
Chronology of the Voyage
• 14 April 1521: The Sultan Humabon is baptized (and renamed Don Carlos) by the
flagship’s chaplain. Rajah Colambu is also baptized and named Don Juan after the
Infante. Magellan cures a sick elder, which leads to the burning of native idols.
• 27 April 1521: Magellan and sixty of his men in three longboats attack Rajah Lapu Lapu
and his forces on Mactan. They are driven back to the ships and Magellan is killed.
• 1 May 1521: Massacre of Europeans in the island of Cebu, including Duarte Barbosa
and twenty-five shipmates. At this time, the Concepción is abandoned. Only about 110
men still survive. João Carvalho was elected captain-general.
Chronology of the Voyage

• 21 June 1521: Victoria and Trinidad depart Palawan. They arrived at

Brunei on the north-eastern coast of Borneo on 9 July.
• 29 July 1521: The Europeans attack a group of junks off Brunei, capturing
four and killing several others.
• 15 August 1521: Victoria and Trinidad call at Cimbonbon (Banguey) on
the south side of Balabac Strait, where they remain forty-two days
repairing the ships and gathering provisions.
Chronology of the Voyage

• September 1521: Carvalho is degraded to his former rank of flag pilot;

Gómez de Espinosa is elected captain-general and captain of the
Trinidad; Juan Sebastián de Elcano is elected captain of Victoria.
• 27 September 1521: The voyage is resumed and a junk carrying the
governor of Palawan is sacked and the governor held for ransom.
• 26 October 1521: The two ships experience storms in the Celebes Sea.
Chronology of the Voyage
• 6 November 1521: Victoria and Trinidad arrive at the Moluccas: “Therefore we
thanked God and as an expression of our joy discharged all our artillery”.
• 8 November 1521: Trinidad and Victoria enter the harbour of Tidore, most
important of the five principal Moluccas, which include Ternate, Motir, Makian,
and Batjan: ‘so that they spent from Seville to Maluco two years, two months
and twenty-eight days, for they sailed on the tenth of August of 1519’ (Genoese
pilot).
Chronology of the Voyage
• 9 November 1521: The Europeans are received at Tidore by the Sultan Manzor, who declares
that he and all his people wish to become vassals of the emperor Charles V.
• 18 December 1521: The Victoria and the Trinidad lift anchor to depart but the Trinidad springs
a leak.
• 21 December 1521: Victoria, under the command of Elcano, sets sail for a 9month-long return
voyage via the Cape of Good Hope, with 47 of the original crew and 13 natives on board.
Gómez de Espinosa stays behind with 53 men to repair the Trinidad before attempting to return
across the Pacific to New Spain, where the cargo is to be carried across the Isthmus of Panama
and shipped to Spain.
Chronology of the Voyage
• 8 June 1522: Victoria crosses the equator for the 4th time since leaving Spain.
• 9 July 1522: Victoria anchors in the port of Ribeira Grande on the Cape Verde island of
Santiago. Between Timor and Cape Verde 15 Europeans and 10 Indonesians have died
aboard the Victoria.
• 15 July 1522: Victoria departs hastily from the Cape Verde islands. 13 members of the
crew are detained by the Portuguese authorities.
• 6 September 1522: Victoria enters the harbour of Sanlúcar de Barrameda, and anchors off
a quay at Seville on 8 September. Only 18 Christians and 3 Indonesians survive.  
Significance of Magellan’s
Expedition
• the discovery of the Strait of
Magellan
• proof that the earth is much larger,
and round
• demonstrated that all oceans on
earth are interconnected
• the discovery of a new trade route
aside from the land route (ocean
routes)
Significance of Magellan’s
Expedition
• the realization to the vastness of the
Pacific Ocean, whose size was even
larger than the Atlantic
• brought the Europeans the
awareness on the existence of the
Philippines, which led to its
Christianization and colonization
• set the stage for modern
globalization and opened the door to
European colonization of the New
World in the name of commerce
Significance of
Pigafetta’s
Narrative

• recorded the first encounter

between Filipinos and
Europeans
• the earliest documents available
on the language and culture of
the islands of Samar and Cebu, a
reference for those who study the
pre-hispanic Philippines,
including flora and fauna