These are some of the resources in the web about the first circumnavigation of the world
Ferdinand
Magellan was brought up in the Portuguese royal court and entered into royal
service but later transferred his services to Spain. He set sail in the
Victoria from Seville in 1519, with the intention of reaching the East Indies
by a westerly route. He sailed throughthe long and tortuos strait, subsequently
named after him, at the tip of South America. when they emerged into a peaceful
new ocean to the west, he named it the Pacific. It took more than 3 months of
hardship before they reached the Philippines in 1521, where he was killed in
battle with the islanders. His companions returned to Seville in 1522,
completing the voyage under del Cano. However, Magellan and his Malay slave, Enrique de
Malacca, are considered the first circumnavigators of the globe since they had
previously once sailed from the Philippines to Europe.
The good fortune of reaching the Pacific Ocean did not make the travels easier. Suffering amongst the crew members grew as they began running out of food. Extreme hunger caused the men to eat such things as rats, leather, maggots, and sawdust just to stay alive. Along with hunger, scurvy became prevalent. At least twenty men died from complications due to starvation. March 6 brought with it hope when the ships reached the island of Guam. This hope was short-lived when the crew had to defend themselves from the attacks of the native peoples. Food and water from other nearby islands did replenish their bodies and spirits. Magellan's Malaysian slave hailed a group of islanders in their native tongue, giving evidence that Magellan had reached the Orient. While in the Philippines, the sailors converted many natives to Christianity. These conversions would lead to more problems than anticipated
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The First Circumnavigation of the Globe, begun in 1519, was an attempt to prove that the coveted Spice Islands, or Moluccas, were actually property of Spain. Finding a direct route between the Spice Islands and Spanish Peru would be argument enough for ownership of these lands. Ferdinand Magellan set out from Spain on this voyage with five ships, but the voyage was more difficult than expected. Disease, bad weather, and loss of ships to Portuguese attack hampered the voyage. On April 27, 1521, Magellan was killed in the Philippine Islands attempting to convert a native chief to Christianity. With only two ships remaining, the crew continued the voyage making it back to Seville, Spain with only 18 crew members on a single ship. The first circumnavigation of the globe had been completed.
Setting sail on September 20, 1519, Magellan began his voyage with a crew of 237 men of doubtful reliability on five tiny ships. After three long months of sea travel, Magellan anchored near present day Rio de Janeiro. The ships were restocked and the crew traded with the friendly natives, but the rest was short-lived. Cautious because of being in Portuguese waters, Magellan quickly resumed the voyage on a path towards the Great South Sea of the Orient. Magellan believed he had found the Spice Islands and exclaimed, "Montevideo, I see a mountain," but it was only the large delta of the Rio de la Plata. Disappointed, the crew sailed on. Sailing farther and farther south, the weather became ever colder. Freezing nights and cool days left the crew in serious danger of frostbite and serious illness. Along with the temperatures, the spirits of the crew also fell. Three would-be mutineers were executed and two were marooned for attempting to take control of the ships and to end the voyage. Things became worse when one of the five ships smashed into the beach. All the crew survived, but the supplies and ship were total losses. In October of 1520, a lookout spotted the strait, later named the Straits of Magellan, and the Pacific Ocean was straight ahead. The good fortune of reaching the Pacific Ocean did not make the travels easier. Suffering amongst the crew members grew as they began running out of food. Extreme hunger caused the men to eat such things as rats, leather, maggots, and sawdust just to stay alive. Along with hunger, scurvy became prevalent. At least twenty men died from complications due to starvation. March 6 brought with it hope when the ships reached the island of Guam. This hope was short-lived when the crew had to defend themselves from the attacks of the native peoples. Food and water from other nearby islands did replenish their bodies and spirits. Magellan's Malaysian slave hailed a group of islanders in their native tongue, giving evidence that Magellan had reached the Orient. While in the Philippines, the sailors converted many natives to Christianity. These conversions would lead to more problems than anticipated. During an attempt by Magellan to coerce the chief of a nearby island called Mactan to Christianity, the native leader became upset. This chief wanted nothing to do with Christianity, but Magellan, against the advice of his officers, continued to push the man. The chief angrily ordered the attack of Magellan and his crew by his warriors. Most of Magellan's men fled quickly to the ships while Magellan slowly backed away towards safety. Wearing full body armor, with the exception of his feet, Magellan felt he was safe against the spears of the natives. He was wrong. A native warrior drove a spear into Magellan's foot, wounding him. The rest of the men attacked, killing him on the 27th of April, 1521. During a previous navigation, Magellan had traveled to the Philippine islands through the conventional trading routes around the Cape of Good Hope. Though not in a single continuous voyage, Magellan had traveled completely around the earth on a ship. This accomplishment made Magellan extremely famous amongst sailors and throughout all of Europe. With the loss of their leader, Juan Sebastian Del Cano, a man who had supported mutiny while near South America, took control of the ships and continued on towards home. During this point of the voyage, only two ships and 47 men remained. In December of 1521, the ship Trinidad fell to the Portuguese, leaving the ship Victoria as the last remnant of the initial voyage. Severe storms, adverse currents, and Portuguese attacks drained the men. Staying as far away from the Cape of Good Hope as possible, for fear of attack, the Victoria rounded Africa and headed towards Europe. Lack of supplies caused the unintentional stop at the Cape Verde Islands. When the Portuguese got wind that the Spanish travelers were trading in their sphere of influence, they found every man who went ashore and captured them. Del Cano was forced to leave without the much needed supplies and with barely enough men to sail the ship. Finally, on September 8th, 1522, the Victoria bore 18 survivors into the port of Seville, Spain. The circumnavigation of the globe was complete. Notes:Bibliography:Debenham, Frank; Discovery and Exploration: An
Atlas History; (1960; Doubleday & Co.; Garden City, NY.) Edited by: Steven M. Hoden,
shoden@northpark.edu |
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http://campus.northpark.edu/history//WebChron/WestEurope/Magellan.html
Did Magellan get home safely?
No, for he was killed in a
fight with islanders in the Philippines. Although he had masterminded the first
expedition to sail around the world, he did not complete the voyage himself. In fact, the first person to sail around the world was a
Malaysian, who had travelled back to Europe with Magellan many years earlier.
Later, he accompanied Magellan as an interpreter on the circumnavigation
Forty-four
years later, the Spanish Miguel Lopez de Legaspi and Fray Andres de Urdaneta
set again an expedition to Cebu. Their arrival bombarded the defenses of Rajah
Tupas and destroyed his village. Legaspi reestablished Spain's sovereignity.He
named the island Villa del Santisimo Nombre de Jesus after the famous
miraculous image of Senor Santo Nino de Cebu which was found by Juan Camus, one
of Legaspi's soldiers in one of the burnt houses
Why "Magellan's Log"?
Because it doesn't exist. And thereby hangs this dog-wagging tale:
In 1517 Magellan sailed west from Portugal with five ships expecting to arrive in either India are the Philippines and then back in Portugal sooner rather than later, certainly sooner than four years.
Well. In 1521 one ship hove into view off Portugal, the Victoria, with 27 aboard. Magellan was not among them. He made it as far as the Philippines, where he undertook an ill-advised (though not atypical--these Europeans, will they never learn?) attempt to convert the heathens he found there to the Way of the Cross. The heathens made short work of Magellan and a number of his guys.
That's all the stuff of 8th grade geography. Now for the back-story.
It seems that a few years earlier, the ever-venturesome Magellan had sailed east from Portugal and got as far as the Maluccas, islands just west of the Philippines (remember that detail; it turns out to be important) in search of spices (in terms of economic value, spices were to the 16th century what cocaine has been to the 20th). He picked up a shipload of spices, along with a native slave (these Europeans!), whom he dubbed Enrique. He took the spices and Enrique back to Portugal with him. Hail, the conquering hero.
A few years pass. Ferdinand proposes his trip to the west. Backers fall all over themselves, which results in five splendidly outfitted ships. And off they went, and of course Ferdinand had his bestboy, Enrique in tow.
It took three years to get down the coast of South America and through the horrific storms and treacherous channels off the Tierra del Fuego (which Magellan named because they kept seeing Indian fires burning on the cliffs at night). At that point, as he entered the Pacific (which he also named--mis-named, as it turned out, of course--because they happened to enter the "new" ocean on a calm day), he thought India was just a few days' sail away. These Europeans. Aren't they something.
Three months later land had still not been sighted. The crew members who'd not died of scurvy or starved were reduced to eating leather binding holding barrels together.
Landfall at last. And the only way Magellan knew where he was--which was actually the Philippines--was because Enrique, to Enrique's great delight, could understand a lot of the language of the natives--the selfsame ones who would shortly dispatch F.M. Surely that moment, when they went ashore, the moment when the natives spoke and Enrique understood and answered, is one of the great moments of human history, certainly equal to Neil Armstrong's opening lunar line.
After his death, the little fleet continued westward, arriving shortly at the Maluccas. The truth then is that Magellan did NOT (these Europeans!) make the first trip around the world. That honor belongs to the now forgotten non-European, Enrique.
Once through the strait, Magellan landed at the island thatguarded its entrance, Limasawa. Eight inhabitants sailed out tothe Trinidad in a small boat. On orders from the Captain-General,his Moluccan slave, Enrique, hailed them. In a moment that musthave seemed frozen in time, it became clear that the men in theapproaching boat understood the words of the Moluccan perfectly. Their language was being spoken to them by a man on a hugeship that had come to them from the east. The linguistic globe--even if not necessarily the physical globe--had beencircumnavigated. A man who had originated in these parts hadtraveled across Asia and around Africa to Europe as a slave, andhad now returned home by the Americas and the Pacific. Enrique deMolucca may well have been, strictly speaking, the first ofhumankind to circumnavigate the world; he was never to be honoredfor so doing. (note: see V DeJusus latest research on this harbor)
-History of Cartography
On March the 26th , after
crossing many of the islands of the Philippines, Magellan arrives to Sumatra. A
slave called Enrique, who Magellan had found during another trip through that
area, could understand perfectly the natives. Time for discoveries is over for
Magellan, he has just arrived to Portuguese waters.
The
starving sailors arrived the island of Guam after more than six months at sea,
and then moved on to the Philippines. While in the Philippines, Magellan
discovered that his servant, Enrique, could understand the native language.
Magellan realized that Enrique was the first person to have traveled completely
around the world.
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When Magellan first
visited the Spice
Islands while sailing under the Portuguese flag, he recruited a male
servant whom he named Enrique who remained with him for years and accompanied
him when he sailed for Spain. There are some who now claim that Enrique was a
Filipino originally from Cebu and was, in fact, the first person to sail
around the world, having preceded Magellan to the Spice Islands where he was
recruited by the famous navigator.
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While
that debate is going on, there is no argument over the fact that in 1960, the
U. S. Navy's largest submarine, the USS Triton, powered by the atom, entered
the history books by circumnavigating the globe in Magellan's wake in two
months -- submerged! On that epic trip was a young Navy man, born in Agat,
Guam, his name is Edward Carbullido.
© Copyright, 2001, Bisita Guam
Having thus honored his dead leader,
Del Cano accepted from King Charles the ultimate reward of the expedition: a
coat of arms depicting the globe and bearing the motto Primus circumdedisti me,
"You first circumnavigated me." Yet historians have never been able
to decide which man rightfully deserves that honor. Was it Magellan who, some
say, had already visited the East Indies as a youth? Was it his humble slave
Black Enrique? Or was it Del Cano? But the loyal Antonio Pigafetta, who
survived to write the story of the voyage, had no doubts. Of Magellan he stated
flatly: "The best proof of his genius is that he circumnavigated the
world, none having preceded him."
Source:
Discovery-The World's Greatest Explorer:Their Triumph and Tragedy by Readers
Digest.
Magellan, Ferdinand (c.
1480–1521)
Portuguese navigator. In 1519 he set sail in the Victoria from
Seville with the intention of reaching the East Indies by a westerly route.
He sailed through the Strait of Magellan at the tip of South America,
crossed an ocean he named the Pacific, and in 1521 reached the Philippines,
where he was killed in a battle with the islanders. His companions returned
to Seville in 1522, completing the voyage under del Cano. Magellan was brought up at court and entered the royal service, but later
transferred his services to Spain. He and his Malay slave, Enrique de
Malacca, are considered the first circumnavigators of the globe, since they
had once sailed from the Philippines to Europe. |
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© Copyright Helicon Publishing Ltd 2000. All rights reserved.
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ROCK
THE BOAT
With the current trend of postcolonial Philippine literature in English, what
else should come in with the tides from Cebu but Longitude, a re-writing of
Magellan’s search for the Spice Islands? From a host of novels like Alfred
Yuson’s Great Philippine Jungle Energy Café to Ninotcka Rosca’s Twice
Blessed, Cortes’s Longitude neatly fits in the category of counter-narratives
and alternative histories that are now in vogue. The novel is possibly the
twisted infant of Carlos Fuentes’s The Orange Tree and Umberto Eco’s The
Island of the Day Before with its preoccupation with colonial conquest and
maritime travails – but perhaps these comparison would hinder someone in his
or her reading of the novel. This novel certainly deserves to be read for its
many merits, and not for any similarity to past masterpieces.
Longitude starts with the precarious protestations of its author regarding
the provenance of the document he translated from Portuguese , a document
whose forgery is a tale in itself. Cortes’s insistence on the falsity of
history cannot be denied, and as his supposed patron said, “The best version
of Magellan’s story hadn’t been told by any writer. It had been sung by Yoyoy
Villame.”
From that point onwards, Longitude plunges headlong into the journey of
Ferdinand Magellan, his search for his strait, the Spice Islands, and
longitude, with all its laborious details. Indeed, the novel is as long and
as slow-moving as the original trip must have been. Yet it is this love of
detail that breathes life into the realism of the narrative, if only to
further expose itself as a fictive account.
The novel’s unreliable narrator Enrique provides the commentary throughout,
except for a few portions told from Magellan’s point of view. As Magellan’s Malay
interpreter and as the only Asian on board, Enrique’s subordinate position is
awkward and he is ambivalent about his role in the deception and subjugation
of the people he meets. Enrique’s loyalty is only to himself and to Magellan,
and when his master dies he sees nothing wrong with turning against the
racist officers who remain in the fleet. Enrique’s only desire is to come
home, or a place that he can fashion as his home, after seeing the hypocrisy
and complicity of the Western world and the defeat of his native Melacca.
In Longitude, colonization becomes a sublime act that is even more
terrifying, as Magellan is shown to be the victim of political intrigue and
ridicule at the European courts and his desperate attempt to salvage his
nautical career is at the expense of the natives of Patagonia and Cebu.
Nevertheless, Magellan’s character is surprisingly sympathetic and noble –
making his determination to make Catholics out of everyone an act of a
religious fanatic. His religious fervor is depicted to be his downfall in
Mactan.
Cortes takes the time out to depict the actions of the local chieftains as
shrewd and calculated. Scared of a repeat of the Melacca massacre that had
resulted in Enrique’s enslavement, their acceptance of the cross and of
baptism is used to buy Raja Humabon time to gather allies against the Armada.
This is a direct counter-narrative against dominant historical discourse that
suggests that the Cebuano rajas and datus collaborated blindly with the
colonizers. Meanwhile, Lapu-lapu is depicted as a fierce and headstrong datu
who bows down to no one.
The recurring metaphor of Longitude is Enrique’s constant connection between
the ship board deaths of the Armada with human sacrifice to the gods of the
lands they visit. Each death becomes more of a sacrifice due to the rank of
the officer – which makes Magellan’s death at Mactan inevitable, and even a
little anti-climatic.
The novel is peppered with inconstant spelling of names and places, making it
historically accurate for its inexactitude-the signs of the novel is not
necessarily what is signified. Longitude also tackles the problems of
translation, as Enrique often grapples with trying to translate Western
concepts into his native tongue, which is also translated by the raja’s
adviser. Enrique uses his multi-lingual communication skills as his meal
ticket and as his source of power: he retains and omits what pleases his
listeners.
Enrique’s many languages leave him in a quandary, however, for he is fully
aware that his knowledge sets him apart from others. He feels that he cannot
return to his native land, for he has also absorbed much of the Portuguese
and Spanish culture and a single code, so the novel only ends with his
solitary reflections.
While others may be turned off by the novel’s premise or its length,
Longitude raises many questions and even takes part in the historical debate
that surrounds Magellan’s journey by taking sides in certain controversial
dates and places. The brilliance of the novel’s depth and complexity sinks in
and remains, long after the final page is read.
The search for longitude is a search for what remains unknown and unsaid.
Longitude, by literally rocking the dominant discourse beneath Magellan’s
boat, has the promise to rock conventional views of Philippine history.
Whether it has the same effect on other readers is still uncharted territory.
—
Philippine Collegian, “Book Reviews,” November 23, 1998 |
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On March the 26th , after crossing many of the islands of the Philippines,
Magellan arrives to Sumatra. A slave called Enrique, who Magellan had found
during another trip through that area, could understand perfectly the natives. Time
for discoveries is over for Magellan, he has just arrived to Portuguese waters
One month later they sighted the Philippines, and Magellan felt like he had been raised from the dead, so he named the archipelago "San Lazaro" (St. Lazarus), after the resurrected friend of Jesus. No European had seen these islands before, but Magellan knew he was close to the Moluccas, because his personal Moluccan slave, Enrique, understood some of the language of the natives
One
of the first things the Spaniards learned about the Visayans was that they were
good drinkers. Magellan had no sooner landed in Homonhon, when people from
nearby Suluan presented him a jarful of what Pigafetta recorded as uraca--that
is, arak, the Malay-Arabic word for distilled liquor. In Limasawa,
Pigafetta drank from the same cup as Rajah Kolambu, and his translator, Enrique
de Malacca, got so drunk he wasn't of much use; a few days later, the local
harvest was delayed while Kolambu and his brother Awi slept off a hangover. In
Cebu, Pigafetta drank palm wine, tuba nga nipa, straight from the jar
with reed straws together with Rajah Humabon, but in Quipit he excused himself
after one draught when Rajah Kalanaw and his companions finished a whole jar
withour eating anything.
Looking for the Prehispanic Filipino
William Henry Scott, 152
÷ A SLAVE WAS THE FIRST CIRCUMNAVIGATOR
Who was the first person to circumnavigate
our world? It wasn't Magellan who was killed midway through his historic
voyage, while Christianizing the islanders at swordâs point. His expedition for
the Spaniards was continued under the command of Juan Sebastian El Cano, with
just a few survivors of the group that had set out three years before.
Were El Canoâs survivors the first persons
to circumnavigate? No. There was a Malay 'slave' whom the Europeans called
Enrique. He went into Magellanâs service when Magellan sailed from Portugal to
the Indies on an earlier voyage. He was Magellanâs interpreter until he jumped
ship in the Indies. He was the first human to leave home to go west and return
home from the east ÷ and therefore the first circumnavigator.
L. Mark Lussky
Adventuress
Marina
del Rey, California
