Over the Edge of the World: Magellen's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe

by Laurence Bergreen

  For real fighting, the weapons that mattered most were more traditional swords, knives, and pole weapons, which Spain had brought to a high level of refinement. The ships carried nearly one thousand spears (four for every member of the crew), several hundred steeltipped javelins and pikes, and a dozen lances. They also carried halberds—an especially nasty weapon consisting of a blade mounted on a shaft with two handles. Properly used, a halberd could slice a man in two. There were at least sixty crossbows, and hundreds of arrows to supply them.

  To complement the weapons, the fleet carried one hundred sets of armor (rather than the two hundred Magellan had claimed), consisting of corselets, cuirasses, helmets, breastplates, and visors. Magellan brought his own deluxe armor, which included a coat of mail, body armor, and six swords. His helmet was topped with bright plumage. With their firearms and armor, the men of Magellan’s fleet believed they were the masters of all they surveyed. As far as Magellan was concerned, the combination of firepower and armor gave the armada unequaled power over the people of the islands, a belief that would cost him dearly.

  Once Magellan finished his military display, he formally requested that two emissaries inspect the island’s huts and food stores. The king rapidly assented, and the Captain General chose Pigafetta and another crew member, whose name the attentionloving chronicler ignored. After his months at sea, keeping out of harm’s way during the mutiny and narrowly avoiding disaster when he fell overboard, this was Pigafetta’s great opportunity to distinguish himself as a diplomat.

  The moment he stepped ashore, he encountered luxury the likes of which he had not seen since leaving Spain. “When I reached the shore, the king raised his hands toward the sky and then turned toward us two. We did the same toward him as did all the others.” He made a regal spectacle, “very grandly decked out,” and “the finest looking man that we saw among those people.” His hair, “exceedingly black,” hung to his shoulders, and he wore two large golden earrings. “He wore a cotton cloth all embroidered with silk, which covered him from the waist to the knees. At his side hung a dagger, the haft of which was somewhat long and all of gold, and its scabbard of carved wood. He had three spots of gold on every tooth, and his teeth appeared as if bound with gold.” Tattoos covered every inch of his glistening, perfumed body. The women, Pigafetta noticed, “are clad in tree cloth from their waist down, and their hair is black and reaches to the ground. They have holes pierced in their ears which are filled with gold.” Gold was everywhere, in jewelry, goblets, and dishes; it was evident throughout the king’s dwelling. The precious metal, Pigafetta learned, was readily mined on the island in “pieces as large as walnuts and eggs.”

  Everyone, it seemed, chewed constantly on a fruit that resembled a pear. “They cut that into four parts, and then wrap it in the leaves of their tree, which they call betel. . . . They mix it with a little lime and when they have chewed it thoroughly, they spit it out. It makes the mouth exceedingly red. All the people in those parts of the world use it, for it is very cooling to the heart, and if they ceased to use it they would die.”

  Pigafetta had little time to gape. “The king took me by the hand; one of his chiefs took my companion, and they led us under a bamboo covering, where there was a balanghai as long as eighty of my palm lengths. . . . We sat down upon the stern of that balanghai, constantly conversing with signs. The king’s men stood about us in a circle with swords, daggers, spears, and bucklers. The king had a plate of pork brought in and a large jar filled with wine. At every mouthful, we drank a cup of wine. . . . The king’s cup was always kept covered, and no one else drank from it but him and me. Before the king took the cup to drink, he raised his clasped hand toward the sky, and then toward me; and when he was about to drink, he extended the fist of his left hand toward me. At first, I thought he was about to strike me. Then he drank. I did the same toward the king. They all make those signs toward one another when they drink.” Dinner was announced, and a royal feast it was. “Two large porcelain dishes were brought in, one full of rice and the other of pork with its gravy.” Out of respect for the king, Pigafetta, an observant Catholic, forced himself to overlook one of his own religious customs. “I ate meat on Holy Friday,” he confessed, “for I could not help myself.” During the meal, Pigafetta gave the king a presentation that made almost as large an impression as Magellan’s show of force: it was the power of the written word. Pigafetta coaxed the king to name various objects surrounding them, and recorded a phonetic transcription. “When the king and the others saw me writing, and when I told them their words, they were all astonished.”

  After the demonstration, “We went to the palace of the king”— in reality, a “hay loft thatched with banana and palm leaves. It was built up high from the ground on huge posts of wood and it was necessary to ascend it by means of ladders.” Once everyone had clambered inside the flimsy structure, “The king made us sit down there on a bamboo mat with our feet drawn up like tailors. After a halfhour a platter of roast fish cut in pieces was brought in, and ginger freshly gathered, and wine. The king’s eldest son, who was the prince, came over to us, whereupon the king told him to sit down near us, and he accordingly did so.” More feasting ensued; Pigafetta claimed that he held his own, but “my companion became intoxicated as a consequence of so much eating and drinking.” Eventually, the king, his appetite sated, retired for the night, leaving the prince behind. Pigafetta and the besotted prince slumbered in the rickety palace on bamboo mats “with pillows made of leaves.”

  In the morning, the king returned, took Pigafetta “by the hand” once more, and offered him another lavish meal, but before the feasting could resume, the longboat came to fetch the Europeans. Magellan had finally had enough; in addition, Easter was fast approaching. Pigafetta’s reluctance to return to the fetid, barrackslike surroundings of Trinidad can be imagined. “Before we left, the king kissed our hands with great joy, and we his. One of his brothers, the king of another island, and three men came with us. The Captain General kept him to dine with us, and gave him many things.”

  Early on the morning of Sunday, the last of March, and Easter Day, the Captain General sent the chaplain ashore to celebrate mass,” wrote Pigafetta of that holiday. They explained the importance of the occasion to the king, so that he would not feel it necessary to feed everyone again, but neither he nor his royal brother could resist, and they sent two freshly slaughtered pigs to the Europeans. And then some of the islanders decided to worship alongside them. Once the mass began, the islanders gradually fell under its incantatory spell, barely comprehending the rite’s significance, but, to judge from Pigafetta’s description, feeling its spiritual power nonetheless. “When the hour for mass arrived, we landed with about fifty men, without our body armor, but carrying our other arms, and dressed in our best clothes. Before we reached the shore with our boats, six weapons were discharged as a sign of peace. We landed; the two kings embraced the Captain General and placed him between them. We went in marching order to the place consecrated, which was not far from the shore. Before the commencement of mass, the Captain General sprinkled the entire bodies of the two kings with musk water. The mass was celebrated. The kings went forward to kiss the cross as we did, but they did not participate in the Eucharist. When the body of our Lord was elevated, they remained on their knees and worshiped Him with clasped hands. The ships fired all their artillery at once when the body of Christ was elevated, the signal having been given from the shore with muskets. After the conclusion of the mass, some of our men took communion.”

  After the solemn observance, it was time to celebrate. To amuse and impress his hosts, Magellan organized a fencing tournament, “at which the kings were greatly pleased.” Next, Magellan ordered his men to display the cross, complete with “nails and the crown,” and explained to the kings that his own sovereign, King Charles, had given these objects to him, “so that wherever he might go he might set up those tokens.” Now he wished to set up the cross on their island, “for whenever any of
our ships came from Spain, they would know we had been there by that cross, and would do nothing to displease them or harm their property.” Magellan wanted to place the cross “on the summit of the highest mountain,” and he explained the many benefits of displaying it as he proposed. For one thing, “Neither thunder, nor lightning, nor storms would harm them in the least,” and for another, “If any of their men were captured, they would be set free immediately on that sign being shown.” The kings gratefully accepted the cross as a totem, without having any idea of what it actually meant.

  Magellan inquired about the islanders’ religious beliefs. “They replied that they worshiped nothing, but that they raised their clasped hands and their faces to the sky; and that they called their god ‘Abba.’> ” Magellan indicated that their god sounded reassuringly familiar, “And, seeing that, the first king raised his hands to the sky, and said that he wished it were possible for him to make the Captain General see his love for him.”

  The discussion turned to politics. Magellan asked if the king had any enemies; if so, Magellan would “go with his ships to destroy them and render them obedient.” By doing so, he hoped to strengthen their bond, and establish a permanent Spanish presence in the newly discovered archipelago. As it happened, the king said there were “two islands hostile to him, but . . . it was not the season to go there.” Hearing this, Magellan turned warlike: “The Captain General told him that if God would again allow him to return to those districts, he would bring so many men that he would make the king’s enemies subject to him by force.” This was a curious offer because nothing in Magellan’s charter from King Charles mentioned fighting tribal wars or mass conversions to Christianity; he was supposed to “go in search of the Strait,” demonstrate that the Spice Islands belonged to Spain, and return in ships laden with spices. Now he put aside his commercial goals in favor of conversions and conquest. Magellan ordered his men back into formation; they fired their guns into the silent sky as a farewell gesture, “and the captain having embraced the two kings, we took our leave.” Magellan and the crew members returned briefly to their ships to retrieve the cross, and then made an exhausting ascent to the summit of the highest mountain in the area. “After the cross was erected in position, each of us repeated a Pater Noster and an Ave Maria, and adored the cross; and the kings did the same. Then we descended through their cultivated fields, and went to the place where the balanghai was. The kings had some coconuts brought in so that we might refresh ourselves.”

  Considering his work done, Magellan announced his intention to in the morning. Despite all the pigs and rice and wine the kings had bestowed on them, the Captain General declared he needed even more food, and the kings recommended the island of Cebu as a convenient place to forage. Magellan’s decision to sail on to Cebu troubled Pigafetta, who described it as “ill-fated.” But Cebu itself did not pose any danger to Magellan; rather, it was his determination to form an alliance with friendly local rulers by making war on their enemies. Looking for trouble, he was sure to find it eventually.

  Magellan asked the king for local pilots to escort the fleet to Cebu, and the king happily complied, but in the morning, he asked “for love of him to wait two days until he should have his rice harvested and other trifles attended to. He asked the Captain General to send him some men to help him, so that it might be done sooner; and said that he intended to act as our pilot himself.” Magellan agreed, “But the kings ate and drank so much that they slept all day. Some said to excuse them that they were slightly sick.”

  Their departure delayed for forty-eight hours, Magellan fell to trading with the islanders, but he immediately ran into obstacles. “One of those people brought us . . . rice and also eight or ten bananas fastened together to barter them for a knife which at the most was worth three catrini”—a Venetian coin of little value. “The Captain General, seeing that the native cared for nothing but a knife, called him to look at other things. He put his hand in his purse and wished to give him one real.” The native refused the valuable coin. “The Captain General showed him a ducado, but he would not accept that, either.” Magellan kept offering coins of increasing value, but met with the same reaction; the native “would take nothing but a knife.” Finally, Magellan relented and gave it to him. Later, when a crew member went ashore to fetch water, he was offered a large crown made of gold in exchange for “six strings of glass beads,” but Magellan blocked the trade, “so that the natives should learn that at the very beginning that we prized our merchandise more than their gold.” The gold was far more valuable than the glass beads, but Magellan did not want the islanders to know how precious the Europeans considered gold. He instructed his men to treat it as just another metal. The ruse worked, and the armada, trading iron for gold, pound for pound, acquired vast riches. The gold they had acquired so easily would be worth a fortune in Spain, but the spices Magellan expected to find were even more valuable than the gold.

  The armada resumed its wanderings through the Philippine archipelago, dodging reefs so treacherous that even their native pilots hesitated. Along the way—it is impossible to know precisely where—they called at an island Pigafetta named Gatigan. Ashore, the crew members were fascinated by the profusion of bats; “flying foxes,” they called the creatures as they swooped low over the ships and darted into the dense jungle in search of their main nourishment, fruit. The flying foxes reached astonishing proportions; Pigafetta claimed that they were as large as eagles. The fearless sailors even captured one of the creatures and ate it. The bat flesh, he claimed, tasted like that of a fowl.

  Leaving Gatigan unscathed, the fleet continued on to Cebu. In his log, Francisco Albo traced their course as they threaded their way through the enchanted island realms: “We left Limasawa and went north toward the island of Seilani, after which we ran along the said island to the northwest as far as 10 degrees. There we saw three rocky islands, and turned our course west for about 10 leagues where we came upon two islets. We stayed there that night and in the morning went toward the south southwest for about 12 leagues, as far as 10 and one-third degrees. At that point we entered a channel between two islands, one of which is called Mactan and the other Cebu. Cebu, as well as the islands of Limasawa and Suluan, extend north by east and south by west. Between Cebu and Seilani we spied a very lofty land lying to the north, which is called Baibai. It is said to contain considerable gold and to be well stocked with food, and so great an extent of land that its limits are unknown.”

  Albo warned that the route, for all its lovely scenery, concealed hazards. “From Limasawa, Seilani, and Cebu, from the course followed to the south, look out for the many shoals, which are very bad. On that account a canoe which was guiding us along that course refused to go ahead. From the beginning of the channel of Cebu and Mactan, we turned west by a middle channel and reached the city of Cebu.”

  As a succession of warm, humid days and passionate nights in the Philippines passed, discontent among the crew subsided. For once, there was no talk of mutiny. All the crew members were aware of the armada’s achievements. They had conquered an immense ocean and dispelled a thousand years of accumulated misconceptions about the world. They had sailed all the way from the West to the East, demonstrating that the earth was a globe. And they were beginning to savor the available women, exotic food, and tantalizing hints of the Spice Islands of which they had dreamed for so long. Yet a shadow hung over Magellan. Even if the rest of the expedition went flawlessly, and he did not lose another ship or sailor in his quest for spices, there would be hell to pay when he returned to Spain for marooning Cartagena and the priest. He could never return home with honor, and so he pressed on, a fugitive from society and a captive to the winds of fate.

  C H A P T E R X

  The Final Battle

  Are those her ribs through which the Sun

  Did peer, as through a grate?

  And is that Woman all her crew?

  Is that a DEATH? and are there two?

  Is DEATH that woman’s ma
te?

  As the Armada de Molucca approached the sandy, palmshaded shores of Cebu, the crew members could see that the island was home to the most prosperous people they had encountered so far on the voyage. They watched village after village emerge as if by magic from the obscurity of the jungle; the inhabitants looked placid and well fed and not particularly startled by the strange ships. Their huts, rising on stilts in groups of five or six, resembled homesteads or even small estates. Overhead, tall palm trees blotted out the sky and cast wide swaths of shade. In front, extending from the water’s edge, fishing lines crisscrossed the shallow water, and, a little farther from land, speedy proas, some powered by brightly colored sails, others by paddle, traveled out to greet the arriving fleet. No longer did the men of the armada have to contend with nomadic giants or wandering tribes living at the end of the world. Here was civilization, or at least a semblance thereof. “At noon on Sunday, April 7,” Pigafetta recorded, “we entered the port of Cebu, passing by many villages, where we saw many houses built upon logs. On approaching the city, the Captain General ordered the ships to unfurl their banners. The sails were lowered and arranged as if for battle, and all the artillery was fired, an action which caused a great deal of fear to those people.”