Editors’ Note: Reprinting with permission Chapter VIII: The World of the Visayas of the book, Magellan: The Armada de Maluco and the European Discovery of the Philippines to commemorate the historical events of March 1521.
The chapter begins with Magellan’s ocean-battered ships and starving crew, weary from the seven day voyage from Guam, first saw the east coast of Samar on Saturday, the 16th of March 1521. Tending north at first, they then took a southward track to avoid shoals and arrived in Suluan Island at the southern tail of Samar. The fleet sailed on and reached Homonhon Island. Seeing it was secure, they dropped anchor in order to repose and take fresh water. The day was the 17th of March 1521, the fifth Sunday of Lent, also the feast of St. Lazarus. The first encounter with the native inhabitants, known as Suluanos, happened on the following day. Magellan was impressed by their wealth, good nature and friendliness. After staying for eight days, in the afternoon of the 25th which was Holy Monday, the ships left the island taking a west to southwest course, sailing amidst Hibusong Island and the settlements of Abuyog, Silago, and Hinungan along the eastern coast of Leyte.
On the 28th of March, the expedition landed on the northern part of Limasawa Island. Because of Magellan’s concern for the health of his crew and the need to explore resources of the island, the fleet dropped anchor. Soon, there were encounters anew with the chieftains and their emissaries. The settlement was found to be richly endowed not only with gold but also with vegetation, enabling the exchange of goods for treasure and allowing the ships to restock on food provisions. The 31st of March being Easter Sunday, mass was celebrated in Limasawa in the presence of the native inhabitants and their leaders. After the ceremonies, a cross was planted at a high point in the island. After eight days, on the 4th of April, the voyage departed, and on the 5th of April sailed past Canigao Island and the settlements of Hilongos, Himuquitan, and Baybay along the western coast of Leyte. The ships then took a westward track and on the 6th of April sailed past Ponson, Poro and Ticobon (Camotes Islands). They would soon reach the coast line of Cebu Island and following a southward track reach the port of Cebu on the 7th of April.
Featured art by Derrick C. Macutay/ 2021 Quincentennial Commemorations in the Philippines/ National Historical Commission of the Philippines.
The World of the Visayas: Table of Contents
The Archipelago de San Lazaro
After hastily abandoning the shores of Guam, Albo scribbled on his log, the fleet sailed on the 9th of March, in the morning, and went W. 1/2 S.W.” Blessed with a favorable wind and current, the expedition accomplished the westward crossing of about 1,500 miles in only seven days, an unusual accomplishment for those ocean-battered ships and starving crew. Travelling at a speed of about 300 miles per day, the chronicler of the expedition recorded their first historic glimpse of the contours of the peak of an island: “Saturday, the 16th of March 1521, we arrived at daybreak in sight of a high island, three hundred leagues distant from the before-mentioned Thieves’ Island. This isle is named Zamal wrote Pigafetta. The entry in the Pigafetta log sounded trite and uneventful, unknown to them, the event signaled the epic transformation not only of these clusters of islands but of world history in general. The expedition made their landfall in what came to be known later as Las Islas Filipinas.
Magellan’s arrival in what he called Zamal, now the Island of Samar, was one of the critical episodes in the history of Spain’s empire building project. Seeing the tail-end of the elongated coastline of the island of Samar, Magellan swiftly ordered a maneuver to a southwestern course. Had Magellan taken the opposite direction, it could have totally altered the course not only of Philippine but also of world history. A northern track could have brought him to the northern tip of Samar and saw the southern coastlines of the mainland of Luzon. The log of Francisco Albo, a pilot in Magellan’s flagship, Trinidad, reads:
“On the 16th March we saw land. and went towards it to the N.W. and we saw that the land tended north and that there were many shoals near it, and we took another tack to the south, and we fell in with another island and there we anchored; and this was the same day, and this island is called Suluano, and the first one is named Yunuguan; and here we saw some canoes, and we went to them, and they fled; and this island is in 9 2/3° N. latitude and in 189o longitude from the meridian. To these first islands, from the archipelago of St. Lazarus.”
Albo’s navigational plot was the first ever recorded European’s ship’s course in the Philippines. A native of Aggio, a French village on the Mediterranean coast, Francisco Albo, was the contramestre of Trinidad when the fleet left Spain. While on the ship, Albo, unofficially, carried out the task of the fleet’s geographer and was eventually appointed pilot of Victoria after the fleet left for their home-bound journey in 1521.
The coast of Guiuan
Albo’s report showed that what the crew sighted was not the eastern coast of the mainland of Samar but only its southernmost tail, most probably Guiuan, which the Italian scholar Carlo Amoretti earlier suggested. Named after the Bisayan word, Giwanun, which refers to a water flowing from openings in the rocks or the cliffs, the characteristic topographic feature of the promontory dominating the coastal landscape, Guiuan stood as the majestic guard of the southern tip of Samar. Until the nineteenth century, the coast of Guiuan, as described by the nineteenth century geographic manual of the islands, Camilo Arana’s Derrotero, was still dotted by reefs extending to some six miles to the southwestern portion until a breaker (rompiente) located seven miles west of the southern point of Samar. Earlier geographers, such as the Augustinian friars Manuel Buzeta and Felipe Bravo, calculated the size of the island to be about 2 1/2 league in length and was extremely narrow and encircled with rocks making the coast extremely dangerous (sumamente angosta y esta cenida de rocas, lo cual hace que sus costas sean muy peligrosas).”Owing to these unimpressive pictures, the authors sadly commented that it remained uninhabited. One of Magellan’s crew identified this tail of the Samar Island and the first one is named Yunuguan,wrote Albo’s log. The name was probably a Spanish misunderstanding of a native utterance giving them a geographic direction: Iyon na Guiuan (that is Guiuan).
Writing more than a hundred years after the Magellan landing, the Jesuit chronicler, Francisco Ignacio Alcina, penned the first description of Guiuan: The people of Guiuan produce plentiful of oil in this island because during the dry season when they cross there, the fruit is at its best. Guiuan was also the gateway to the sprawling maritime region of the Bisayas. Appalled by the many shoals and the somber picture of a desolate terrain, the expedition took another track to the south, and we fell in with another small island, and there we anchored, reads Albo’s log. Pigafetta however fixed the discovery of the other island on the next day. The next day, wrote Pigafetta, the Captain-General wished to land at another uninhabited island near the first, to be in greater security and to take water, also to repose there a few days. He set up two tents on shore for the sick, and had a sow killed for them.” Albo’s navigational tracking omitted this place but Pigafetta offered brief geographic details on this “island named Humunu.” Known in various sources as Humunu, but listed in the mid-nineteenth century geographic dictionary of the Friars Buzeta and Bravo as Jomoljon or Jomonjol, this “isleta” adjacent to Leyte had the measurement from northwest to southeast about four leagues or twenty kilometers and about two leagues from northeast to southwest or a total of ten kilometers. Its oriental coast was extremely difficult to access because of the many shallows and protrusions on its shores.”
Landfall in Homonhon
Magellan’s choice of Homonhon, as this name was immortalized in Philippine history, as their initial repose in the Philippines was made but not only due to the island’s secured location, being uninhabited, because of the presence of two major items Spaniards were craving to get hold of, water and gold. The Pigafetta account eloquently discussed:
“Because we found there two springs of very fresh water we named it the Watering Place of Good Signs, and because we found here the first signs of gold. There is much white coral to be found here, and large trees which bear fruit smaller than an almond, and which are like pines. There were also many palm trees both good and bad.”
Except for similar contemporary accounts which preserved the event in perpetuity, Philippine history had almost forgotten these springs. In May 1982, somebody stumbled on this isolated spot and found seven granite rocks where the Magellan crew were believed to have drawn water. According to those who found them, these rocks were of identical shape but composed of various sizes with the largest about five feet and mostly covered with moss. But the finders were surprised by the inscription of “Magellan” on the smooth surface of the rock and the date March 14, 1521. Although the then Assistant Director of the National Library, Eulogio Rodriguez, expressed his belief in the authenticity of the writing on these rocks, others were skeptical. The issue however remained unresolved.
The presence of gold truly stimulated the materialistic appetite of the Spaniards to Homonhon and the subsequent islands they discovered. After acquiring a more extensive knowledge of this maritime geography, Pigafetta was convinced that the clusters of islands constituted a sprawling archipelagic geography: “In this place there were many circumjacent islands, on which account we named them the archipelago of St. Lazarus, because we stayed there on the day and feast of St. Lazarus.” It was the fifth Sunday of Lent in Catholic calendar, dedicated to Lazarus; so Magellan named this area he reckoned to be an archipelago after him. The archipelago of St. Lazarus comprised Samar and the small islands nearby.
Magellan’s act of renaming, by giving a European name to the area, constituted as the first ceremonial manifestation of taking possession of the territory which in the words of the American historian. Patricia Seed, was “one of the culturally specific acts of Spanish imperial authority.” This practice represents a form of ritual speech which “remakes” the land, as it assumed a new dressing, from their indigenous identity to a European one. By virtue of their new name, they were also being integrated to the linguistic grid of the colonizers. Hence, the use of ritual speech to name a territory is analogous to the process of baptism. At any rate, in the afternoon of the 25th Holy Monday, Magellan left this island of Homonhon taking the course “between west and southwest,” according to Pigafetta’s reckoning.
For the sixteenth century Spaniards, tractability was one essential mark of discovery and colonization, accomplished by reducing space in terms of mathematical formula and cartographic grids. Thus, Albo’s plotting of the ships’ course, the rotero or derrotero, which served as the mathematical basis for cartographic construction, constituted as the primordial colonial imagination of the islands. Drawing from the insights of what the Cornell historian, Raymond Craib, referred to as the “school of critical cartography,” maps ceased to be regarded as an innocent and objective mimetic device which serves to mediate between spatial reality and human perception. In this case, Albo’s derrotero sketched out an insular network which categorized the maritime space of the Visayas in accordance with the Spanish imperialist framework, emphasizing their strategic importance and the quality of available and exploitable resources.
The adverse effects of the long and stressful trans-Pacific voyage continued to take its toll on the gravely weakened crew. Except for a typhoon which struck their fleet coming from Acaca or Homonhon en route to Seilani, driving them way off to Massaua or Limasawa, their journey within the Philippine waters was generally safe. But the specter of death continued to stalk the fleet. From the time they entered the islands, until the second week of April, a number of its crew have died. On March 16, Gutierrez, a cabin boy of the ship Trinidad, died of illness.
Five days after, on 21 March, Cochote, cabin boy of the ship Victoria, also died. Five days after, on the 26th of March, Antonio de Roca, the fleet’s accountant also succumbed to his illness. On that same date, Juan Rodriguez Mafra, pilot of the ship Concepcion also died of illness.
The Visayan World
As the ships cruised the channels where few small islands clustered, unknown to the expedition, Magellan’s fleet had actually entered the central part of the maritime region known among the inhabitants as the Visayas. Composed of the major islands of Samar, Negros, Panay, Cebu and Bohol, with numerous smaller insular clusters in between them, the name by which it was collectively known has puzzled historians throughout the ages. Twentieth century scholars traced its origin to Sanskrit. The Indologist, Juan Francisco, suspected that as a place name, it was a Sanskrit loan word formed via the intervention of the Chinese forms, but admitted there was actually no any Chinese records of the period concerned which suggested such name. Others maintained that it was indeed from Sanskrit. One of the oldest attempts to extract its signification was made by Alcina who, based on interviews he made with the older people of the islands, claimed that: “The name Bisaya, therefore, if we are to draw it out from its own language, means a happy man, a man of a fine and pleasant disposition.”
Early Spanish chroniclers traced the common roots of the early Visayans to either Borneo or Macassar. Although the available archaeological data have not yet established the identity of these proto- inhabitants, the seventeenth century Jesuit chronicler, Francisco Ignacio Alcina, and his other contemporary writers, traced the origin of Visayans to Borneans. On this, Alcina elaborated:
I have heard other Bisayans say that they came, without doubt, from Borneo and they attempt to prove it by saying that prior to the arrival of the Spaniards, yearly there would arrive ships loaded with these Borneans bringing various items to be bartered here for native fruits and gold which these Bisayans had and also their children whom they sold or gave over to the Borneans in exchange for some clothing or food, especially in times of great need and widespread famine which they suffered in ancient times.
Inter-island commerce and culture exchange
The Visayan region was among the busiest maritime areas with a flourishing civilization going back to thousands of years before the Magellan landing. The scattered islands in the sprawling maritime highway had forged a dynamic socio-economic network among these insular coastal villages. Far from functioning as a formidable obstacle for integration, the sea, according to the eminent American archaeologist, Robert Fox, served as the channel of socio-economic relations: “In the island-world of the Philippines, it is land which has formed the barrier to the movements of peoples, as well as to the diffusion of cultures. In contrast, the relatively protected inland waters, such as the Sulu Sea, afford easy mobility.” At the time of Magellan’s arrival in the Visayas, the region enjoyed a mark of civilization clustered with flourishing coastal and upland villages engaged either in inter-island commerce or internecine wars. One of the most obvious markers of their flourishing commercial activities was a currency, a bullet-shaped gold pieces conventionally known as piloncito coins, which archaeologists theorized to be in circulation between the ninth and the twelfth centuries similar to those in Java over the same period.
This inter-island connections were visible in the cultural affinity which evolved among these villages otherwise geographically isolated. Citing as a proof was the distribution of the two major cultural-linguistic groups on the island of Negros, the Cebuano or the Sugbuhanon, considered by experts as “the most polished and elegant of them all” and the Hiligaynon. The people residing on the eastern side of Negros, facing the island of Cebu, were Cebuano speaking; those on the western side, facing Panay, spoke Hiligaynon, the dominant language of the island of Panay. Although the region had variety of dialects, it had a distinctive regional language also known as Bisayan which Alcina thought was borrowed from the Borneans: “…the Tagalogs learned their characters, and from them the Visayans, so they call them Moro characters or letters because the Moros taught them; and although the accursed sect did not reach the Visayas, or they did not accept it, they learned their letters, which many use today, and the women much more than the men, which they write and read more readily than the latter.”
This inter-island commercial and cultural exchanges were also enriched by the involvement of foreigners who took advantage of the rich potentials of the local markets. Chinese vessels had been visiting Visayas in the eleventh century, including the northern part of Mindanao such as Butuan, an island then regarded as part of the inter- island Visayan polities. By 1206, the cotton-producing settlements in such places as Mindoro, Palawan, Basilan, and “San-shu” which might even be Cebu, were already part of the trading network of the Chinese and in 1225, these further expanded to include Babuyanes, Lingayen, Luzon, and Lubang Islands.
The commercial traffic was not a unilateral affair since the world of the pre-Magellanic Visayans and its neighboring cluster of southern islands of what is now northern Mindanao was not confined to the secured inland waters of their maritime region. Ancient records from Asian sources, as far back as the eleventh century, had documented the saga of seafarers from the Visayas and Mindanao who braved the dangerous waters of the China Sea and reached the imperial palace of the Chinese emperors. The reports of these long-range seafaring feats of the ancient Visayans were recorded in the Song Hui–yao, a Chinese text compiled in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries which provided a useful account of the vibrant trade relations in which a few names of localities believed to be referring to certain parts of what is now the Philippines were listed. Among those mentioned were Mayi which could be Manila or Mindoro, (some said, Bae in Laguna) and Butuan. These two localities were mentioned in connection with their commercial ties with Champa, the central and southern coastal region of what is now Vietnam.1 The extensive commercial relations of these places with Cham had immense impact on their cultural life, particularly on their language. His comparison with the Cham scripts and those of the Philippines, including the Visayans, led the orientalist, Geoff Wade, to trace the origin of these Philippine scripts to Cham.
Early trade with China
In the Song Chinese texts, the polity of Butuan appears from a date equivalent to 1001 C.E. and missions from there to China were recorded for the first decade of the eleventh century. From Butuan, described as a small country to the east of Champa, traders brought camphor, tortoise-shell, cloves, mother-of-pearl and other aromatics to China during this period. They took back from China gold and silver as well as flags and pennons. But this was not the only time that Butuan paid a visit to the Chinese court. For four years, Butuan’s king, named Kiling or Ch’i-ling sent missions every year: on 3 October 1003, the native minister, Li-ihan and his assistant, Gaminan, presented red parrots in addition to the usual native products like tortoise shells. In 1004, the court handed down an edict forbidding export of Chinese goods, gold, and silver by direct market purchases, specially ceremonial flags and other banners which were among the favorite items of these Visayans. In 1007 Kiling sent another envoy, known to the Chinese as I-hsu-han, with a formal memorial requesting equal status with Champa, at least in their access to certain commodities, which were exclusive to privileged. Customers.
Not all Visayans, known to the Chinese as P’i-she-ya (Visaya), were peaceful and friendly merchants; others were dreaded as fierce. pirates such as those who raided the Fukien coast in 1171. Launched with great ferocity, this raid compelled the governor of the locality. to relocate two hundred families to reinforce coastal defenses, even offering a huge reward for the raiders’ capture. For this, according to Scott, they earned notoriety among the Chinese as slave raiders that, according to a 1349 report, other islanders of the eastern ocean ran away at the mere mention of their name.
A Civilized and Prosperous Society
According to the sixteenth century Jesuit chronicler, Francisco Colin, the Spaniards’ arrival in the Visayas had been foretold by a native priestess of Bohol named Cariapa, “through mournful voices and sad lamentations (voces sentidos y llantos tristes)” long before the actual coming of these white men. The premonition of the coming of “white men” was seemingly universal among the natives. The Dominican chronicler, Fray Diego Aduarte, also wrote of this prophecy:
The local demon complained to his native pagans that he would soon be gone and would not return, because from now on an Other will have to be responsible for them without announcing who this Other would be. He just said to them: Be careful not to believe the words of these men who have now arrived dressed in long robes. I know for certain that they are going to resurrect the dead. Referring to their ancestors, he hinted that they will suffer greatly once back to life, since they will be isolated, seeing that their living descendants will have abandoned what they always believed.
Whether this was a prophetic utterance or a matter of inferential deduction of a native religious practitioner drawn from sketchy information brought by travellers who learned of the Portuguese presence in Asia, is hard to tell, but there was no doubt that this anticipated the advent not only of the Spanish conquistadores but also of the Christian missionaries.
An almost similar prophetic utterance was recorded by the seventeenth century Augustinian chronicler, Fray Gaspar de San Agustin:
Before Ferdinand Magellan came, they had news of his arrival through their oracles and three years before the arrival of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, the devil told them. in a Maganito or sacrifice: “Our ancient friendship is over because white, blond men of great power are coming with great strength and bravery, accompanied by others who are more than men, black wearing large skirts, with shaven beards and heads, as well as ministers of the Great God who inhabits the heights of the clouds.” They had many oracles of this type.
All these prophesies carried a warning not only of the immense transformation to happen but also of the destruction of their traditional world. This was the message given by one of the daitan, a native priestess in Samar to her followers during a trance “that the devil had told her to have a good time, because soon they would have them someone who among would prevent them to live in the way they were living.” The priestess. concluded his prophecy with a melancholic message that “they would no longer have such a grand time as they had until then.” The prophecy was initially fulfilled with Magellan’s arrival and subsequently, through the colonizing force of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi.
The Spanish encounter of Los Indios of the islands, whom they later on referred to as Filipinos, was the most exciting episodes of their coming to the Philippines. “Monday, the 18th of March, after dinner, we saw a boat come towards us with nine men in it,” wrote Pigafetta. Upon landing, the chief went to the Captain-General expressing his joy in seeing these “white men.” Five of them stayed with the Spanish visitors while the rest remained on their boat and some went to call others who were fishing. These were the first native inhabitants the Spaniards met in the islands. Known to the natives as Suluano or Suluan, this was one of the tiny islands mentioned in the geographic dictionary of the Augustinians, Buzeta and Bravo, adjacent to the eastern coast of the grand island of Leyte, farther by some sixteen leagues. The earliest description of this island was made by Alcina in 1640 when the conditions were virtually similar some hundred years earlier:
“There is such an island near Guiuan called Suluan which was the first land, according to some, touched by Magellan when he discovered these islands and after whom the Strait is named. This island is so fertile and abundant in trees, that the trunks stand almost as close as the fingers of the hand,.. One cannot reach this said island without going through the north of the Strait which lies between the island of Ibabao and Mindanao. The currents are so strong here that people can go to the island to harvest the coconut at certain times of the year.
At the time of Magellan’s arrival, the Suluan island was inhabited. and ruled by a chief mentioned by Pigafetta as Schione or Si Oni who “was old, and had his face painted, and had gold rings suspended to his ears…” As a manifestation of the locality’s wealth, Pigafetta was fascinated by the golden jewelry including rings and bracelets worn by these chiefs of these islands.
Enrique, Magellan’s interpreter
Magellan had anticipated the communication problem in travelling to strange lands and meeting with people who spoke a different language. For this particular concern, Magellan primarily relied on the translation skill of his slave, Enrique. The slave’s linguistic skill which initially facilitated the dialogue between the natives and the Spaniards, was hailed by historians as a rallying point of Filipino pride by considering the possibility that Enrique was a Visayan, captured young by slave raiders from Sumatra and taken to the Malacca slave market. This was a possibility ruled out by Magellan himself. Rejecting also the speculation of his Sumatran origin, it was claimed that the language there was completely different from that of the Visayas and a native Sumatran could not be understood in Limasawa or Cebu. Enrique’s powerful role in the initial but immensely historic encounter between the east and the west made him a valuable material for a myth-making project.”
The importance of Enrique lie not so much on his ethnic affiliation but on his role as the indispensable medium for the dialogue between the east and the west. He was what the natives of Visayas would refer to as a dalubasa, an interpreter and as such Enrique had only confirmed that language is power, it could cement friendship by understanding but could also be manipulated to bring war as the Spaniards would soon learn. Because of his control of the communication with strangers, the interpreter, like Enrique, was an easy escape-goat in case of diplomatic faux pas. As a French scholar of Portuguese history had appropriately put it, the lenguas or interpreters which generally accompanied exploring expeditions, assumed the responsibility for cultural misunderstanding and therefore carried the burden of the consequences it generated.”
It is obvious that Enrique did not have to be a Visayan to understand or speak the local language. At the time of Magellan’s arrival in the islands, the Malay world was a busy center of maritime commerce and its cultural presence fluidly extending beyond the confines of what is now the Malay peninsula. But even in places located at the margins of this maritime hub, which included those in the Visayas, life was not statically lethargic as often thought. There are enormous historical and archaeological evidence indicating that the clusters of islands in the Visayas were not only engaged in domestic but also external commercial relations with their Asian neighbors, resulting in the exchange not only of commodities but also of the wide ranging features of their respective culture such as their language. In fact, Enrique was not the only mediator in this linguistic transaction, the chief, Si Oni was also at the helm. of the dialogue as Pigafetta asserted: “…the slave spoke to the king, who understood him well, because in these countries the kings know more languages than the common people.’
Wealth of the Suluanos
Magellan was impressed not only by the wealth of the Suluans but also by the warm reception accorded them by these natives. Unlike his disappointing encounter with the thievish natives of Guam, Magellan was pleased by the peaceful and friendly character of these people, and was so moved by them that he ordered food and drinks served and gifts given consisting of mirrors, combs, bells, and ivory, among others. Assured of their good nature, Magellan trustingly showed them the cargo such as cloves, cinnamon, pepper, ginger, nutmeg, mace, and gold purposively to impress the natives of the wealth of the Spaniards. Instead of being impressed, the native politely informed the Captain that these items were actually growing in their place.
A document allegedly found in 1867 furnished additional details on this first meeting by the natives with the Spaniards. On March 17, 1521, while still anchored in Homonhon, Magellan was visited by several canoes or praus, carrying the principales of Suluan named Inaroyan, Limbas, Bucad, Layong, Calipay, Badiao, Cabuling and their paramount datu, Garas-Garas. They boarded the ship of Magellan who explained to them through his interpreter, Enrique, that the King of Spain sent them to spread the Faith of Christ and convert them to the true religion. So the Spaniards disembarked, pitched their pabellones (tents) and “those suffering from scurvy were benefited by eating coconuts and other fruits and vegetables.” Meanwhile, Garas-Garas “having a number of fishing boats with nets, caught a great quantity of fish with dexterity and skill, providing the party of Magellan with the food,” wrote the account. “As they were so well received, they called Homonhon, Nueva Providencia.
The same oral account narrated how the natives reciprocated the Spaniards’ generosity with fish and a vessel of palm wine called in the native language arak, and bananas. The following day, Garas-Garas presented gifts to Magellan consisting of two large jars of rice, a bamboo tube full of honey, pigs, fowls, fruits, vegetables especially eggplants, and a gold headed truncheon. Magellan refused the gift of the truncheon, saying it was of too much value and gave Garas-Garas a pearly colored mantle of wool, a purple hat, some shirts of merino, Toledo knives, mirrors and silver buttons. Garas-Garas divided the gifts among his people and brought out a jar of tuba they drank to each other’s health. Although this local account added substantial details unheard of from any Magellan account, it is difficult to establish the historicity of this story of chieftain Garas-Garas and his companions. Could it be a part of a preserved oral account which remained unwritten or a mere fictionalized version from Pigafetta’s published narrative?
Customs of the natives
Pigafetta’s diary, the main source of an eyewitness report on the event in Homonhon, wrote with great curiosity their discovery of the inhabitants of the nearby island “who wear holes in their ears so large that they can pass their arms through them; these people are Caphre, that is to say, Gentiles, and they go naked, except that round their middles they wear cloth made of the bark of trees.” Although the custom of having large holes in their ears was bizarre, this practice survived the onslaught of Spanish colonial culture as late as 1663, almost one hundred fifty years after the Magellan expedition. Alcina recalled seeing Visayan natives wearing gold earrings called panica or pamarang but were making two or three piercing in the ears, the lowest piercing made in the earlobe and in the course of time, the hole was made so large that, as he asserted, “without exaggeration, one could put his entire fist through the opening, so much can the flesh grow or enlarge.” This was most distinctive among the women who wore much larger pendant earrings, according to San Agustin. The ones who had their ears more elongated and open were identified as belonging to higher level of nobility. Some had two kinds of holes on their ears to hang hoops even larger than the rest.
Pigafetta probably mistook the attire “round their middles” as a bark of a tree but these commoners were probably wearing the coarse abaca fibers called guinaras. The use of high-quality fabric was a status symbol among the elite: “the more remarkable of them who wear cotton stuff, and at the end of it there is some work of silk done with a needle.” The physical features of the natives were similar, according to Pigafetta, “tawny, fat, and painted, and they anoint themselves with the oil of coco nuts and sesame, to preserve them from the sun and the wind. Their hair is very black and long, reaching to the waist, and they carry small daggers and knives, ornamented with gold, and many other things, such as darts, harpoons, and nets to fish…
After staying for eight days, Pigafetta indicated they left Homonhon on the 25th of March. Omitting to mention Homonhon, Albo plotted their route using Gada as his jump-off point after crossing the Leyte Gulf, Magellan was actually gliding down through the Surigao strait which, according to Morison, he had stumbled upon either by chance or acting upon information gained in his former Portuguese voyages to Malacca. “From here we departed and sailed W., and fell in with a large island called Seilani, which is inhabited, and contains gold…” This was the huge island of Leyte. Pigafetta who offered a richer detail on their journey to Limasawa noted: “That same day we took the course between west and southwest, and passed amidst four small islands, that is to say, Cenalo, Huinangar, Ibusson, and Abarien.” There they passed through what Pigaffeta thought to be four small islands called Cenalo (Silago), Huinanghar (Hinunangan), Ibusson (Hibuson, east of the southern tip of Leyte) and Abarien (Abuyog). Pigafetta must have mistaken them for islands but were, in fact, important landlocked settlements in the eastern coast of Leyte. Huinangar, now known as Hinunangan evolved as a settlement located near the eastern coast of the island, close to the bank of a river. Nearby was also a settlement called Hinundayan located not farther from the eastern coast of the island and a short distance from Abuyog. Up to this point, the Europeans had only found series of small islands but Magellan began entertaining the possibility that he was nearing his intended destination. For the meantime, Magellan’s concern was the recovery of the crew’s health and the exploration of whatever resources the islands could offer them.
Limasawa and the First Mass
Guided by a fire they saw in the horizon the night before, which made them suspect the presence of more villages, the expedition stumbled on another island which became famous, and at the same time controversial in history, Limasawa. The fleet, according to Albo “coasted it, and went to WS.W., a small inhabited island called Mazaba.” Pigaffeta reckoned the date as March 28. The expedition probably landed on the northern portion of the island where, according to Arana’s Derrotero, a hill loomed over the land where the Spaniards planted a cross. The natives of Limasawa informed them of “three islands in the W. S. W. direction,” wrote Albo’s log, where “they say there is much gold there, and they showed us how they gather it, and they found small pieces like beans and like lentils.”
Except for Pigaffeta, who omitted any mention of this place, others, including Albo, referred to this island in various names as Mazaua, Limasawa or Limasagua. Numerous theories were presented regarding the reference of the name. One claimed it referred to the five wives of the polygamous chief of that island, “lima-asawa.” The other had something to do with the presence of many pythons, masaua or limasaua. Whatever its etymological root was, the geographic dictionary of Buzeta and Bravo identified this small island as adjacent to the coast, south of the island 31 The 1875 of Leyte at the southwestern entrance to Surigao Strait.”” Derrotero of Arana provided one of the earliest, albeit sketchy, geographic and topographic details of this island:
Located 2 miles southeast of the extreme southern portion of Leyte it is narrow but elongated having 4 1/2 miles of extension from north to south and 1 mile in its extreme width with its highest portion on the northern part where a hill towers. Its shore is clear and has the depths of 5 to 16 meters. On its southeast portion is a sandy shore which has 5 meters of water where one could dock safely protected from the winds.
Abundance of gold
By all indications, despite its diminutive size, Limasawa was, a settlement richly endowed with gold which, according to Pigafetta, as big as a walnut or an egg which could be found, “just by seeking in the ground.” As further proof of the abundance of gold in this island, the chronicler confessed in amazement what he saw in the house of the chief that “all the vessels which he makes use of are made of it, and also some parts of his house, which was fitted up according to the custom of the country.” Even Sebastian del Cano’s testimony also spoke of the fabulous wealth of these islands: “We did not encounter any land except two small uninhabited islands, then we reach an archipelago of many islands sufficiently abundant in gold.
Gold was only one of the most precious items found; the island also offered a variety of edible plants. Magellan himself recognized this and took advantage of their presence in this island to secure adequate provisions for his fleet. At one time, overwhelmed by Magellan’s hospitality after giving the local potentate and his followers an entertainment on the ship and provided them with lavish gifts, the local chief offered Magellan with a large bar of solid gold and a chest full of ginger which the leader judiciously declined.
Kulambo, the chieftain
The inhabitants of Limasawa were no different from those of the nearby islands such as Suluan where Magellan employed the same strategy to win them by dadivas or “give-aways,” such as knives and mirrors. The most expensive of these gifts consisting of “a robe of red and yellow cloth, made in the Turkish fashion, and a very fine red cap…,” were reserved to the chief named Kulambo, described by Pigafetta as “the handsomest man that we saw among these nations.” One striking feature of this man, according to Pigafetta, was his very black hair reaching down his shoulders, with a silk cloth on his head known among the natives as puding, as recorded by Alcina. The quality of the fabric of the pudung, Alcina noted, reflected their social classification: for the principales, “had linen completely embroidered with silk and twisted about the head many more times.”
Kulambo, like most pre-Hispanic chiefs, wore two large gold earrings. Pigafetta’s account adds this information: “On each of his teeth he had three spots of gold, so that his teeth appeared to be bound with gold.” Known among the Visayan elite as bansil or pansil, these gold- fillings were small golden nails (clavitos de oro) which adorned the teeth by piercing one side to the other using an awl. A perquisite of the chiefs, according to the Augustinian chronicler, Fray Gaspar de San Agustin, “The leaders inlay their teeth with very pure gold, making holes on them for this effect.” Kulambo’s chiefly status was revealed on his tawny or tanned complexion with elaborate tatoos called batuk, which expressed in symbolic forms his accomplishment as a warrior and a chief, a distinctive feature of Visayan culture, for which they were known as Los Pintados, “The Painted Ones.” At the time of their meeting, Kulambo was wearing “a cloth of cotton worked with silk” covering him from waist to his knees, with a long gold-handled dagger and a sheath of carved wood. A very vain man, Kulambo, always carried with him a perfume of storax and benzoin.
After savoring the hospitality of the friendly natives, Magellan tried not only to impress the native chief but also to psychologically coerce him to enter into a treaty of friendship. It was along this intention that Magellan liberally exposed their military might such as by firing cannons or displaying the various armament and martial and regal vesture. Pigafetta wrote:
After that the Captain showed him clothes of different colors, linen, coral, and much other merchandise, and all the artillery, of which he had some pieces fired before him, at which the King was much astonished; after that the Captain had one of his soldiers armed with white armor, and placed him in the midst of three comrades, who struck him with swords and daggers. The King thought this very strange, and the Captain told him, through the interpreter, that a man thus in white armor was worth a hundred of his men. After that the Captain showed him a great number of swords, cuirasses, and helmets, and made two of the men play with their swords before the King.
Forging an allliance
What Magellan ordered his men to demonstrate, according to the Chilean historian, Medina, was a form of war dance, popular in the ancient cities in Spain such as in Toledo and Seville. Referred to as Danzas de Espadas, a traditional Spanish dance where the participants wore a shirt and a greguescos, a wide sort of linen breeches made in the Grecian fashion, with some tocadores or handkerchief round the head while carrying steel blades and performed many steps involving turnings (grandes vueltos y revueltos) and a movement called la degollada or decapitation. At this stage of the dance, they pretended to make shrifts on various parts of the body and pretended to drop. This was also done in Seville where Magellan had watched a war dance being performed during certain feasts. After this presentation, the King was rendered “almost speechless.” Magellan even boasted before the mesmerized chief that he had two hundred men in each ship armed in that manner. This was, of course, a lie, Magellan’s style of psychological warfare. It was nonetheless a useful and morally acceptable method of intimidating the natives without recourse to actual use of force which the Spanish conquistadores of the sixteenth century were notorious for.
Magellan’s effort attained his intended result when the chief ritualized their alliance in what was known to the natives as casicasi probably from casingcasing, which means “heart.” The seventeenth century Mentrida dictionary, also mentioned the word casicasi in relation to a customary maritime ritual of forging a friendship, he defined as “cataviento, banderillas de sus navios or “a long narrow flag, usually with forked ends, especially one attached to the masthead of a ship.” It is not clear though why the word casicasi was attached to this ceremony of brotherhood of sandugo. The existing oral account nonetheless also made reference to this event when Garas-Garas, Inarayon, and the others entered into a treaty of friendship drawn up by Leon de Espeleta with Magellan representing the Spanish Monarch. Espeleta was among the crew of Magellan whose name appeared in the official record of the expedition.
Easter Sunday mass and the significance of the cross
Limasawa was officially recognized by the pertinent government office as the venue of the first mass. But others insisted in claiming such honor as the small town in Butuan called Masau and even the island of Homonhon where mass was supposedly celebrated and a tall cross was raised near the shore. The skepticism on Limasawa was valid since, although the first mention of a mass by Pigafetta was in Limasawa, an earlier celebration could have been made elsewhere, including Homonhon, or even in Guam. In Ley V of the Siete Partidas, Spain’s medieval statutory code, laid down the rules on the celebration of masses: “…those in the ship are not to say Mass due to the risk of what could happen on the sea, or due to the movement of the winds (Pero esto non se entiende andando sobre mar, ca en ningun navio non se deve dezir Missa, por el peligro que podia acaescer por la mar, o por movimiento de los vientos).” But an added provision actually allowed such on a certain condition: “But when such risk does not exist, then one can say Mass aboard the ships (Mas cuando no hay este peligro, se dice Missa a bordo de buques).” The speculation by some historians that Masses were even probably held right on the deck of the ships, was indeed possible! It was most likely that after surviving a long and difficult. trans-Pacific voyage, the expedition could have celebrated a thanksgiving Mass in Guam or in Homonhon where they brought on shore a number of crew recuperating from lingering sickness. But some scholars suspected that Pigafetta considered the places trivial and not worthy of mention. As rightly indicated by an American historian, Richard Field, the Mass had been a regular part of their life but it was the presence of certain personalities that made it historically significant.”
After almost two years of stressful and mortifying trans-oceanic journey, the first two weeks of the fleet’s foray in the Philippine waters had been both auspicious and physically invigorating. Notwithstanding the rigid rules imposed on mortification during the Holy Week, Magellan was tolerant with small transgressions of his men on the precepts of abstinence and fasting. Because of this, Magellan saw greater reason to celebrate the Easter Mass. On Sunday, 31st of March 1521, Magellan sent the chaplain, Pedro de Valderrama, on the shore of Limasaua to say Mass. Magellan assigned fifty men to wear military attire with their swords, in accordance with the tradition of knighthood. Even the crew’s landing on the shore was highlighted by a dramatic roaring of the six of the ships cannons, a palpable violation of the Instruccion of Charles forbidding the firing of artillery once they reached a native territory. According to another source, the Transylvanus manuscript, a small chapel made of the sails and boughs was built. For the Spaniards, the Mass was the most appropriate sacramental expression of gratitude to God for miraculously surviving their ordeals. But for the chieftain and “the great number of Indians, who seemed in every way delighted by this worship of the gods” according to Transylvanus, it was a spectacular event punctuated by cannon explosions and colorful ceremonies where they participated only by mimicry: “…the two kings went to kiss the cross like us, but they offered nothing, and at the elevation of the body of our Lord they were kneeling like us, and adored our Lord with joined hands.”
After the Mass, Magellan presented before the assembly a cross with the nails and the crown to which the chieftains manifested their reverence, in imitation of the Spaniards. No amount of linguistic gymnastics could have made possible for Enrique, the translator, to effectively convey the cultural symbolisms of these religious icons of Castilian Christianity. The chieftains could not have understood how the cross was used for execution of criminals since no such penal strategy existed in their culture. More incomprehensible for them to understand that the most Supreme Being for Christianity died on the cross.
As expression of differential treatment or simply out of fear for the Spaniards, the local chiefs acquiesced. Magellan told these chieftains that these were the signs of the Emperor who ordered him “to place it in all places where he might go or pass.” Playing upon the selfish instincts of the native chiefs, Magellan emphasized the material and supernatural benefits they would derive from this cross. “He told them that he wished to place it in their country for their profit,” wrote Pigafetta. Magellan argued that if a Spanish vessel passed by their place, the cross stood as a palpable sign of their friendship with the Spaniards and thus spared them from any belligerent action. Appealing to the credulity of the natives, Magellan boasted that if the cross was to be found on the highest mountain in their locality, “neither thunder, lightning, nor the tempest could do them hurt.” Accordingly, the cross was planted “on the middle. of the highest mountain” and performed their adoration by reciting the Pater Noster and the Ave Maria.
Sea lanes of the Visayas
Present in this gathering was Kulambo’s brother, Rajah Siani, Si Oni or Siagu. Kulambo also controlled Zuluan and Calagan aside. from Limasawa but went to Limasawa, according to Pigaffeta, “when the two kings (chieftains) wish to visit one another they come to hunt in this island where we were (Limasawa).” Suluan, Calagan Homonhon and Limasawa, although widely scattered in the maritime space of the major sea lanes of the Visayas, constitute a constellation of miniature units of alliances, a typical system of polity not only in the Visayas but in southeast Asia at the dawn of European incursion. As historians and archaeologists had argued, power rested not so much on the extent of controlled territory but on manpower, achieved through established alliances which, the contemporary orientalist scholar, Kenneth Hall, concluded, explained the low level of state development among these areas. Although smaller insular settlements, Homonhon and Suluan were right at the heart of the Leyte Gulf, while Limasawa and Calagan stood at the entrance of Surigao Strait and Bohol Sea. These small islands therefore were strategically located in the busiest part of the Visayan waters from where they could launch piratical raids on local and foreign ships. Likewise, these also served as strings of transit points to the main economic and political center of the Visayas, the island of Cebu whose chief many acknowledged as their superordinate lord.
The friendly reception received by Magellan’s fleet from the natives of these islands and their generous gift of fresh food did not alleviate the condition of those severely afflicted by their Pacific crossing. On 3 April 1521, Juan Villalón, bearer of arms of the ship Victoria, and Micer Baltasar former pilot of the same ship and master of the ship Santiago died of illness. The expedition remained in the island for eight days (seven days according to Pigafetta) when they decided to explore these three islands. According to Pigafetta: “We remained seven days in this place (Limasawa); then we took the tack of Maestral, passing through the midst of five isles, that is to say, Ceylon, Bohol, Canighan, Baibai, and Satighan.” Two of these five mentioned locations were identified by historians as the major island-provinces, Ceylon renamed Leyte and the other still bearing its ancient name of Bohol. Baybay, mistaken by the expedition as an island, was a coastal village of the huge island of Leyte. The shoreline of this ancient settlement. which extended to some 19 miles according to the estimate of Arana, was slightly steep, forming sharp points in certain parts interspersed with small clear and steep bays.
The western coastline of Leyte and the islands toward Cebu
Satighan, one of the Cuatro Islas off Leyte, was farther from Cebu, their next destination, by some fifteen leagues or more than seventy kilometers. Ceylon possibly referred to Hilongos, a coastal village below Baybay on the western side of Leyte. Pigafetta estimated the distance from Limasawa to Satighan to be 20 leagues west, approximately 96 kilometers. Based on Alcina’s reckoning of maritime travel in the Bisayan waters, a distance of three leagues generally took them 3 to 4 hours. Following the same system of measurement, from Limasawa to Pacijan (Satighan) could have taken them about 12 to 16 hours.
It was on their next leg of westward course that they saw the three islands identified by Pigafetta as Polo, Ticobon and Pozzon, names still bear striking similarity with the three large islands in the Camotes now known as Poro, Pacijan and Ponson. Albo, apparently skipped the mention of the five islands referred to by Pigafetta as it only mentioned Seilani and the three islands:
We departed from Mazaba and went N., making for the island of Seilani, and afterwards coasted the said island to the N. W as far as 10° and there we saw three islets; and we went to the W., a matter of 10 leagues, and then we fell in with two islets, and at night we stopped.
The island of Poro, according to Camilo Arana’s Derrotero was totally surrounded by water except on the northwest where a small reef (arrecife) jutted some 1/2 mile from the coast. Located on the western coast, this island was an excellent source of drinking water for the ancient natives. According to Buzeta y Bravo, Poro was facing the coast of Leyte with an estimated circumference of two and a half leagues in length and one and three fourth in width. The canal to the west of Poro had also very little depth (fondo) and at low tide the reefs were virtually dry and linked to each other (bajamar, queda casi en seco el arrecife que las une). At the time of Magellan’s arrival, Poro was inhabited by what the chronicler of the Loaisa expedition, sent five years after Magellan, described as “cafres.”
From Polo, the same Spaniard recalled seeing “a round-shaped island not so large” with three other smaller islands and this was northeast and southwest of the said island of Polo, farther by four leagues. “This round-shaped island was called Sandigar, according to the indio we have taken in our ship,” wrote an on-board chronicler of the expedition. The island of Pacijan was almost of similar size with Poro which Arana’s Derrotero described as eight and a half miles in size, and the westernmost from among the group. Its coastlines were very steep (acantilada) and clear of any obstacles. Its western part could be coasted. some one half mile, but the islands did not appeal to the expedition which simply passed by them.
The canal near Poson had two miles of width with thirteen meters in depth, its coastline was sandy and rocky. It was clear and accessible for all classes of ships. Buzeta and Bravo described Ponson as an island adjacent to the western coast of Leyte, farther by one league. The discovery of these series of islands with extremely uneven underwater geological formation must have led Magellan to feverishly anticipate a landfall on the part of mainland Asia. But whatever Magellan was contemplating, the expedition had reached the doorway to the next and most important settlements in the entire archipelago, the port island of Cebu.
About the author
DR. DANILO MADRID GERONA spent years of serious research in various archives in the Philippines and Europe. As a historian, Prof. Gerona has devoted a substantial part of his work in the study of the early history of Bicol and the Spanish colonial era in the Philippines. He is the only non-Spanish member of Sevilla 2019-2022, a multicultural committee based in Seville City, which spearheaded and coordinated the global celebration of the 5th centenary of the Magellan-Elcano’s circumnavigation of the world. He is currently a member of the faculty in the Graduate School of the Universidad de Santa Isabel in Naga City and a Research Associate of the University of San Carlos Press in Cebu City. Click the link below to purchase his book, Ferdinand Magellan: The Armada de Maluco and the European Discovery of the Philippines.
About the featured artist
RODERICK COLMINAS MACUTAY is a muralist and contemporary painter. He studied fine arts with major in painting at the University of Santo Tomas and graduated in 1992. He also trained with the Angono masters. He has painted historical figures and topics of cultural heritage from the pre-Spanish era and the age of exploration. He did the graphic work for the Historical Atlas of the Republic of the Philippines, published by The Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office in 2016. He drew the historically researched pen and ink sketches depicting the historical episodes for the Quincentennial of the First Circumnavigation of the World commemoration in 2021. These became the basis for the monuments erected in key sites along the Magellan route. The artist was also involved in Tagbo, the 2021 quincentennial commemorations exhibit at Museo Sugbu in Cebu City. Contact with the artist can be made through his FB page.