The story of the First Circumnavigation is told in this recent book.
OVER THE EDGE
OF THE WORLD
Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation
of the Globe.
By Laurence Bergreen.
From the NY TIMES book review 12/5/2003 of the new book
Elcano is often credited with being the first
circumnavigator. One of Bergreen's interesting subplots alternatively reveals
Magellan's slave, Enrique, as the first human to circle the globe. Magellan had
purchased him ''10 years earlier in Malacca, where he was baptized, and he had
followed his master ever since across Africa and Europe,'' then across the
Atlantic, through the Straits of Magellan and across the Pacific. Enrique
appeared to be a loyal domestic, and Magellan's will stipulated unambiguously
that in the event of his death, Enrique was to be freed immediately and paid
10,000 maravedis. Enrique astonished his shipmates in the Philippines by
conversing with islanders. Apparently he was not a native of Malacca, but a
Filipino captured in boyhood by slave traders from Sumatra. His service to
Magellan created the circumstances in which he became the first person to
circle the world and return home, albeit indirectly and not of his own
volition.
That homecoming set the stage for a dramatic act of resistance to slavery. After Magellan's death Enrique demanded his freedom. Rebuffed, and threatened by the new commanders, he plotted with a local king to betray the armada. In the massacre that followed, almost 30 men were killed, including many of the most capable and prestigious. The slavery, the murder, the betrayals, the greed: all were part of the encounters between Europeans and others in the wake of Magellan, and they temper the triumphalism associated with the expedition.
Good history relies on good sources, and every biographer of Magellan has leaned heavily on the journal kept by Antonio Pigafetta, the pious yet bawdy Venetian scholar who chronicled the mission.
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Pigafetta
relates Enrique was wounded in Mactan while fighting beside In butuanchronicles@yahoogroups.com, Greg Hontiveros’ Butuan History is schedule to
be released. He wrote: To
be continued……… |