‘He had other adventures along the way (mutinies, etc.) but the climax was his landfall on the islands now known as Samar, Leyte, and Cebu of the Republic of the Philippines.’
ORIGINALLY, he was sent by Portuguese King Emanuel to “Discover the Molucco Islands” (along with Antony de Abreu, Francis Serrano), but got frustrated. “Returning to Portugal, he found no Favour, but thought himself wrong’d, and resenting it, went away into Castile, carrying with him a Planisphere, drawn by Peter Reynel; by which, and the Correspondence he had held with Serrano, he persuaded the Emperor, Charles V, that the Molucco Islands belong’d to him.” [Bartholomew Leonardo de Argensola. The Discovery and Conquest of the Molucco and Philippine Islands. Written in Spanish by the Chaplain to the Empress and Translated into English. London, 1708]
Off he went then, on a mission of locate-and-take “the Moluccas, or the islands of the East India Archipelago between Celebes on the west and New Guinea on the east, Timor on the south and the open Pacific Sea on the north…Here are the paradises of the seas.”
[Hezekiah Butterworth. The Story of Magellan and The Discovery of the Philippines. NY: D. Appleton And Company, 1899]
This was his target: “Arabian author, Kozwim, expressly named the Moluccas as the native country of the spices under notice. One of the earliest references to them in Europe occurs in a poem about 1195, by Petrus D’Ebulo.” [Robert O. Fielding. Spices, Their Histories: Valuable Information for Grocers. Seattle: The Trade Register, Inc., 1910] But he ended up here: “These islands are commonly designated in their books, descriptions, and sea-charts, as the great archipelago of San Lazaro, and are located in the eastern ocean. Among the most famous of them are the islands of Maluco, Céleves, Tendaya, Luzon, Mindanao, and Borneo, which are now called the Filipinas.” [Antonio de Morga. History of the Philippine Islands. Completely translated into English, edited and annotated by E.H. Blair and J.A. Robertson. Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1907]
To reach the Spice Islands (without running into the Portuguese ambush), the Explorer had to find the “Dragon’s Tail” (described by Antonio Galvao from a 1428 map of the world). Success! He baptized the sea passage as “Estrecho de Todos los Santos.” After his passing, his financier Charles V renamed the “Strait of All Saints” to Strait of Magellan.
While evading troubles internal and external to the Expedition, this Captain-General encountered the Tehuelche: “However, one day, without anyone expecting it, we saw a giant, who was on the shore of the sea, quite naked, and was dancing and leaping, and singing, and whilst singing he put the sand and dust on his head. Our captain sent one of his men towards him, whom he charged to sing and leap like the other to reassure him, and show him friendship. This he did, and immediately the sailor led this giant to a little island where the captain was waiting for him; and when he was before us he began to be astonished, and to be afraid, and he raised one finger on high, thinking that we came from heaven. He was so tall that the tallest of us only came up to his waist.” [Antonio Pigafetta. A Narrative Account of the First Circumnavigation]
He gave them the name “Patagí£o” (romanticized later as the Giants of Patagonia) and even kidnapped two of the males who would then die of heat and scurvy aboard his ships before they land in the Orient. Slavery, anyone?
Next, the Crossing: “We were three months and 20 days without getting any kind of fresh food. We ate biscuit, which was no longer biscuit, but powder of biscuits swarming with worms, for they had eaten the good. It stank strongly of the urine of rats. We drank yellow water that had been putrid for many days. We also ate some ox hides that covered the top of the mainyard to prevent the yard from chafing the shrouds…Rats were sold for one-half ducado apiece, and even then we could not get them. But above all the other misfortunes the following was the worst. The gums of both the lower and upper teeth of some of our men swelled, so that they could not eat under any circumstances and therefore died…We sailed about 4,000 ‘leguas’ during those three months and 20 days through an open stretch in that Pacific Sea.” [Pigafetta]
And the Naming: “Wednesday, November 28, 1520, we debouched from that strait, engulfing ourselves in the Pacific Sea.” Yes, he and his team were credited with the Ocean’s modern brand: “In truth it is very pacific, for during that time we did not suffer any storm. We saw no land except two desert islets, where we found nothing but birds and trees, for which we called them the Ysolle Infortunate.” [Pigafetta]
Finally, the Heavens: “The Antarctic Pole is not so starry as the Arctic. Many small stars clustered together are seen, which have the appearance of two clouds of mist. There is but little distance between them, and they are somewhat dim. In the midst of them are two large and not very luminous stars, which move only slightly. Those two stars are the Antarctic Pole.” [Pigafetta] What they saw were Nuebecula major and Nubecula minor, aka “the Sheep” (Persian astronomer Al Sufi, Book of Fixed Stars). Sailors, followed by scientists, would later refer to the duo of irregular dwarf galaxies as his Clouds. [https://www.universetoday.com/30537/what-are-magellanic-clouds/]
He had other adventures along the way (mutinies, etc.) but the climax was his landfall on the islands now known as Samar, Leyte, and Cebu of the Republic of the Philippines. He met the Caphri: “They have very black hair that falls to the waist, and use daggers, knives, and spears ornamented with gold, large shields, fascines, javelins, and fishing nets that resemble rizali.” Became the Blood Brother of Rajah Colambu and arranged Swordplays: 29 March 1521 (immediately after Sanduguan) and 31 March 1521 (immediately after First Easter Sunday Mass) “The captain-general arranged a fencing tournament, at which the kings were greatly pleased.” [Pigafetta]
His greatest and final error was meddling in Philippine local partisan politics: “The inhabitants of Zebu, received him with such kindness, that their king, Hamabar, his whole family, with the chief of Dimasaua, and many of the people of the island, were baptized.
The King of Mactan alone, a very small island in front of the town of Zebu, resisted the Spaniards, and was sufficiently confident in his strength, to challenge Magellan, who was weak enough to accept the challenge. He selected for the enterprize 50 Spaniards, who attacked the Indians in morasses, the water up to their breasts, and approached so near them, that Magellan was wounded with an arrow, and died on the field with six other Spaniards, the rest saving themselves by flight.” [Martinez de Zuniga. An Historical View of the Philippine Islands. Translated by John Maver, Esq. London: J. Asperne, Cornhill; Nonaville And Fell, New Bond-Street, 1814]
The meddling Magellan manhandled in Mactan. Memento mori.
