First Voyage Around the World by Magellan (1519-1522)
An Account of Magellan's Expedition
by Antonio Pigafetta
1.
OVERVIEW
On 10 August 1519, five ships departed from Seville for what was to become the first circumnavigation
of the globe. Linked by fame to the name of its captain, Magellan, much of the expedition is known
through the travelogue of one of the few crew members who returned to Spain, Antonio Pigafetta. A
narrative and cartographic record of the journey (including 23 hand-drawn watercolour charts) from
Patagonia to Indonesia, from the Philippines to the Cape of Good Hope, Pigafetta's The First Voyage
around the World is a classic of discovery and exploration literature.
This volume is based on the critical edition by Antonio Canova. It includes an extensive introduction to
the work and generous annotations by Theodore J. Cachey Jr who discusses the marvelous elements of
the story through allusions to Magellan's travels made by writers as diverse as Shakespeare and Gabriel
García Márquez. However, Cachey is careful to point out that Pigafetta's book is far from just a marvel-
filled travel narrative. The First Voyage around the World is also a remarkably accurate ethnographic and
geographical account of the circumnavigation, and one that has earned its reputation among modern
historiographers and students of the early contacts between Europe and the East Indies. Expertly
presented and handsomely illustrated, this edition of Pigafetta's classic travelogue is sure to enlighten
new readers and invigorate the imagination as the story has done since it first appeared.
Antonio Pigafetta (Italian: [anˈtɔːnjo piɡaˈfetta]; c. 1491 – c. 1531) was an Italian scholar and explorer
from the Republic of Venice. He joined the expedition to the Spice Islands led by explorer Ferdinand
Magellan under the flag of King Charles I of Spain and, after Magellan's death in the Philippines, the
subsequent voyage around the world. During the expedition, he served as Magellan's assistant and kept
an accurate journal which later assisted him in translating the Cebuano language. It is the first recorded
document concerning the language.
Pigafetta was one of the 18 men who returned to Spain in 1522, under the command of Juan Sebastián
Elcano, out of the approximately 240 who set out three years earlier. These men completed the
first circumnavigation of the world. Pigafetta's surviving journal is the source for much of what is known
about Magellan and Elcano's voyage.
At least one warship of the Italian Navy, a destroyer of the Navigatori class, was named after him in
1931
Pigafetta's exact year of birth is not known, with estimates ranging between 1480 and 1491. A birth year
of 1491 would have made him around 30 years old during Magellan's expedition, which historians have
considered more probable than an age close to 40.[1] Pigafetta belonged to a rich family city
of Vicenza in northeast Italy. In his youth he studied astronomy, geography and cartography. He then
served on board the ships of the Knights of Rhodes at the beginning of the 16th century. Until 1519, he
accompanied the papal nuncio, Monsignor Francesco Chieregati, to Spain.
Pigafetta was wounded on Mactan in the Philippines, where Magellan was killed in the Battle of
Mactanin April 1521 by the local ruler Lapu-Lapu. Nevertheless, he recovered and was among the 18
who accompanied Juan Sebastián Elcano on board the Victoria on the return voyage to Spain.
Upon reaching port in Sanlúcar de Barrameda in the modern Province of Cadiz in September 1522, three
years after his departure, Pigafetta returned to the Republic of Venice. He related his experiences in the
"Report on the First Voyage Around the World" (Italian: Relazione del primo viaggio intorno al mondo),
which was composed in Italian and was distributed to European monarchs in handwritten form before it
was eventually published by Italian historian Giovanni Battista Ramusio in 1550–59. The account centers
on the events in the Mariana Islandsand the Philippines, although it included several maps of other
areas as well, including the first known use of the word "Pacific Ocean" (Oceano Pacifico) on a
map.[2] The original document was not preserved.
However, it was not through Pigafetta's writings that Europeans first learned of the circumnavigation of
the globe. Rather, it was through an account written by a Flanders-based writer Maximilianus
Transylvanus, which was published in 1523. Transylvanus had been instructed to interview some of the
survivors of the voyage when Magellan's surviving ship Victoria returned to Spain in September 1522
under the command of Juan Sebastian Elcano. After Magellan and Elcano's voyage, Pigafetta utilized the
connections he had made prior to the voyage with the Knights of Rhodes to achieve membership in the
order.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Pigafetta#References 08/27/19
Early life and travels
Effigy of Ferdinand Magellan in the Monument of the Discoveries, in Lisbon, Portugal
Magellan was born in the Portuguese town of Sabrosa in or around 1480.[6] His father, Pedro de
Magalhães, was a minor member of Portuguese nobility[6] and mayor of the town. His mother was Alda
de Mezquita.[7] Magellan's siblings included Diego de Sosa and Isabel Magellan.[8] He was brought up as
a page of Queen Eleanor, consort of King John II. In 1495 he entered the service of Manuel I, John's
successor.[9]
In March 1505 at the age of 25, Magellan enlisted in the fleet of 22 ships sent to host Francisco de
Almeida as the first viceroy of Portuguese India. Although his name does not appear in the chronicles, it
is known that he remained there eight years, in Goa, Cochin and Quilon. He participated in several
battles, including the battle of Cannanore in 1506, where he was wounded. In 1509 he fought in
the battle of Diu.[10] He later sailed under Diogo Lopes de Sequeira in the first Portuguese embassy
to Malacca, with Francisco Serrão, his friend and possibly cousin.[11] In September, after arriving at
Malacca, the expedition fell victim to a conspiracy ending in retreat. Magellan had a crucial role, warning
Sequeira and risking his life to rescue Francisco Serrão and others who had landed.[12][13]
In 1511, under the new governor Afonso de Albuquerque, Magellan and Serrão participated in
the conquest of Malacca. After the conquest their ways parted: Magellan was promoted, with a rich
plunder and, in the company of a Malay he had indentured and baptized, Enrique of Malacca, he
returned to Portugal in 1512 or 1513.[14] Serrão departed in the first expedition sent to find the "Spice
Islands" in the Moluccas, where he remained. He married a woman from Amboina and became a
military advisor to the Sultan of Ternate, Bayan Sirrullah. His letters to Magellan would prove decisive,
giving information about the spice-producing territories.[15][16]
After taking a leave without permission, Magellan fell out of favour. Serving in Morocco, he was
wounded, resulting in a permanent limp. He was accused of trading illegally with the Moors. The
accusations were proven false, but he received no further offers of employment after 15 May 1514.
Later on in 1515, he got an employment offer as a crew member on a Portuguese ship, but rejected this.
In 1517 after a quarrel with King Manuel I, who denied his persistent demands to lead an expedition to
reach the spice islands from the east (i.e., while sailing westwards, seeking to avoid the need to sail
around the tip of Africa[17]), he was allowed to leave for Spain. In Seville he befriended his countryman
Diogo Barbosa and soon married the daughter of Diogo's second wife, Maria Caldera Beatriz
Barbosa.[18] They had two children: Rodrigo de Magalhães[19] and Carlos de Magalhães, both of whom
died at a young age. His wife died in Seville around 1521.
Meanwhile, Magellan devoted himself to studying the most recent charts, investigating, in partnership
with cosmographer Rui Faleiro, a gateway from the Atlantic to the South Pacific and the possibility of
the Moluccas being Spanish according to the demarcation of the Treaty of Tordesillas.
Further information: Battle of Mactan
19th century artist's depiction of Magellan's death at the hands of Mactan warriors.
After several weeks in the Philippines, Magellan had converted as many as 2,200 locals to Christianity,
including Rajah Humabon of Cebuand most leaders of the islands around Cebu.[26] However, the island
of Mactan, led by Lapu-Lapu, resisted conversion. On the morning of 27 April 1521, Magellan sailed to
Mactan with a small force. During the resulting battle against Lapu-Lapu's troops, Magellan was struck
by a bamboo spear, and later surrounded and finished off with other weapons.[27]
Pigafetta and Ginés de Mafra provided written documents of the events culminating in Magellan's
death:
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, [the natives] had formed in three divisions to the number of more than one
thousand five hundred people. When they saw us, they charged down upon us with exceeding loud
cries... The musketeers and crossbow-men shot from a distance for about a half-hour, but uselessly...
Recognizing the captain, so many turned upon him that they knocked his helmet off his head twice... A
native hurled a bamboo spear into the captain's face, but the latter immediately killed him with his
lance, which he left in the native's body. Then, trying to lay hand on sword, he could draw it out but
halfway, because he had been wounded in the arm with a bamboo spear. When the natives saw that,
they all hurled themselves upon him. One of them wounded him on the left leg with a large cutlass,
which resembles a scimitar, only being larger. That caused the captain to fall face downward, when
immediately they rushed upon him with iron and bamboo spears and with their cutlasses, until they
killed our mirror, our light, our comfort, and our true guide. When they wounded him, he turned back
many times to see whether we were all in the boats. Thereupon, beholding him dead, we, wounded,
retreated, as best we could, to the boats, which were already pulling off.[27][better source needed]
"Nothing of Magellan's body survived, that afternoon the grieving rajah-king, hoping to recover his
remains, offered Mactan's victorious chief a handsome ransom of copper and iron for them but Datu
Lapulapu refused. He intended to keep the body as a war trophy. Since his wife and child died in Seville
before any member of the expedition could return to Spain, it seemed that every evidence of Ferdinand
Magellan's existence had vanished from the earth."[28]
Voyage
The fleet left Spain on 20 September 1519, sailing west across the Atlantic toward South America. In
December, they made landfall at Rio de Janeiro. From there, they sailed south along the coast, searching
for a way through or around the continent. After three months of searching (including a false start in the
estuary of Río de la Plata), weather conditions forced the fleet to stop their search to wait out the
winter. They found a sheltered natural harbor at the port of Saint Julian, and remained there for five
months.
Shortly after landing at St. Julian, there was a mutiny attempt led by the Spanish captains Juan de
Cartagena, Gaspar de Quesada and Luiz Mendoza. Magellan barely managed to quell the mutiny,
despite at one point losing control of three of his five ships to the mutineers. Mendoza was killed during
the conflict, and Magellan sentenced Quesada and Cartagena to being beheaded and marooned,
respectively. Lower-level conspirators were made to do hard labor in chains over the winter, but later
freed.
During the winter, one of the fleet's ships, the Santiago, was lost in a storm while surveying nearby
waters, though no men were killed.
Following the winter, the fleet resumed their search for a passage to the Pacific in October 1520. Three
days later, they found a bay which eventually led them to a strait, now known as the Strait of Magellan,
which allowed them passage through to the Pacific. While exploring the strait, one of the remaining four
ships, the San Antonio, deserted the fleet, returning east to Spain.
The fleet reached the Pacific by the end of November 1520. Based on the incomplete understanding of
world geography at the time, Magellan expected a short journey to Asia, perhaps taking as little as three
or four days.[22] In fact, the Pacific crossing took three months and twenty days. The long journey
exhausted their supply of food and water, and around 30 men died, mostly of scurvy.[23] Magellan
himself remained healthy, perhaps because of his personal supply of preserved quince.
On 6 March 1521, the exhausted fleet made landfall at the island of Guam and were met by
native Chamorro people who came aboard the ships and took items such as rigging, knives, and a ship's
boat. Magellan sent a raiding party ashore to retaliate, killing several Chammoro men, burning their
houses, and recovering the stolen goods.[24]
On 16 March, the fleet reached the Philippines, where they would remain for a month and a half.
Magellan befriended local leaders on the island of Limasawa, and on March 31, held the first Mass in the
Philippines, planting a cross on the island's highest hill. Magellan set about converting the locals to
Christianity. Most accepted the new religion readily, but the island of Mactan resisted. On 21 April,
Magellan and members of his crew attempted to subdue the Mactan natives by force, but in the
ensuing battle, the Europeans were overpowered and Magellan was killed.
Following his death, Magellan was initially succeeded by co-commanders Juan Serrano and Duarte
Barbosa (with a series of other officers later leading). The fleet left the Philippines (following a bloody
betrayal by former ally Rajah Humabon) and eventually made their way to the Moluccas in November
1521. Laden with spices, they attempted to set sail for Spain in December, but found that only one of
their remaining two ships, the Victoria, was seaworthy. The Victoria, captained by Juan Sebastián
Elcano, finally returned to Spain by 6 September 1522, completing the circumnavigation. Of the 270 men
who left with the expedition, only 18 or 19 survivors returned.[25]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Magellan#Early_life_and_travels 08/27/19
