10/01/2019
The Spice Islands - Ternate looking south towards Tidore beneath the clouds - aka The Moluccas
A PLACE THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
THE FIRST CIRCUMNAVIGATION STORY
THE FIRST TIME AROUND THE MARBLE
THE GLOBALIZATION OF HOMO SAPIENS
Fernao de Magalhaes- Portuguese pronunciation is harder than the spelling
Sebastian del Cano
Antonio Pigafetta
The indigenous Tehuelche of southern Argentina - A huge unknown story
The indigenous Chamarro of Guam and the Mariana Islands - A rich untold story
The Visayan culture of the central Philippines - A story of supernatural connections
An account of the 1st circumnavigation puts the story back into history.
The 1st circumnavigation event puts the hiss back into history.
Cloves and nutmeg got the earth circumnavigated.
In 1519, Magellan set sail from San Lucar de Barrameda, Spain as Captain General of the Moluccan Fleet, with five ships and over 250 crew, to claim the Spice Islands for Spain via a western sailing route. Cloves and nutmeg, worth their weight in gold, grew only in the Spice Islands aka the Moluccas. Since 1512 Magellan and the Portuguese knew approximately where the islands were. On which side of the world the Pope split in half in 1494 was unknown. Proving the Moluccas were on the Spanish half and claiming them for Spain was Magellan’s goal. Turns out the Moluccas were on the Portuguese half. Magellan died in the Battle of Mactan, in the central Philippines 1 year and 7 months into the 3 year circumnavigation. The Islas de San Lazaro we know as the Philippines (named years later after King Charles’s son and king to be Philip) were claimed by Magellan for Spain.
Only two of the expedition ships, the Victoria and the Trinidad, would arrive in the Spice Island seven months after Magellan was killed, and only one, the Victoria, would return home to Spain.
Bartolome de Las Casas, the author of A Short History of the Destruction of the Indies and a witness to Magellan’s audience with the 18 year old King Charles in March of 1518, decried the stealing, ra**ng, and murdering in the name of God he had witnessed at the hands of Spanish leaders and colonists in the Caribbean. Las Casa influenced the king’s written orders for the expedition which forbade the many human atrocities that occurred contrary to the orders made.
The indigenous Tehuelche of southern Argentina had 1st contact interactions with the expedition over a 6 month period-the fleet’s winter survival was enhanced by learning how and what marine and terrestrial resources were harvested by the Tehuelche. The myth of the Patagonian Giant was born here. Two males were kidnapped as royal gifts, they died at sea. The ancestors of the Tehuelche are still in the area. A part of Pigafetta’s account here finds its way into a demon character in The Tempest of Shakespeare in 1611.
The indigenous Chamorro of the Mariana Islands were the 1st Pacific Ocean culture to have 1st contact with Europeans on March 6th, 1521. Island of Thieves is the name Magellan gave Guam upon departure 3 days later. The brutality of Magellan’s military experience was at the forefront. For a stolen long boat a crew of marines went ashore, killing seven villagers and setting fire to “forty or fifty houses and many boats.” The fleet ship load of murdering arsonists departed the Island of Latin Sails after just three days, the Captain General renaming it the Island of Thieves. The Chamorro have a rich 1st circumnavigation 1st contact story from a different perspective. There is an active independence movement in the Mariana Islands. A spring festival in the 1st week of March- used to be called ‘Magellan Days’ is now called ‘Cultural Heritage Days’-is held with a reenactment of the 1st contact at Umatac Bay on Guam each year.
Less than 2 months after 1st contact with the indigenous Chamorro of the Mariana Islands, Magellan would be killed in the Battle of Mactan in the central Philippines. The Visayan culture of Cebu embraced Catholicism with open arms. The only predominantly Christian country in Asia is the Philippines, started with Magellan’s evangelical delivery of the pomp and circumstance of the Catholic mass and a literal mass baptismal that was to follow. Lapu Lapu was local leader not willing to go along with a baptismal for his village. This chief whose warriors killed Magellan is a national hero. The Battle of Mactan is reenacted every year on April 27th.
The indigenous 1st circumnavigation stories and contributions to the world after the 1st contact are mostly unknown.
Sebastian Del Cano was elected captain of the Victoria 5 months after Magellan’s death. His leadership would bring the Victoria with her survivors and a hold full of cloves back to the point of origin, completing the earth’s first documented circumnavigation on September 6th, 1522. Four years later Cano would be buried at sea in the Pacific, dead from scurvy while leading an expedition trying to return to the Spice Islands.
Antonio Pigafetta, the expedition chronicler and one of the 18 survivors took his notes home to Vicenza, Italy and wrote a book about the 1st circumnavigation. His armchair anthropologist observations of 1st circumnavigation events were read by Shakespeare. Pigafetta was a rare confidant of Magellan. Pigafetta was with Magellan and wounded by a poisoned arrow in the Battle of Mactan. The wound would save his life from the Cebu massacre 4 days later. Pigafetta’s description of indigenous contact, cultural practices, and language is a primary source of information through a Renaissance era lens.
The 500 year anniversary of the 1st circumnavigation story has just begun.
