Editors’ Note: Publishing with permission from Prof. Danilo M. Gerona, author of the book, Magellan: The Armada de Maluco and the European Discovery of the Philippines, Chapter XII: Beyond the New World, to commemorate the first world circumnavigation of September 6, 1522.

As the first to discover the Philippines, his glory lasts as long as the world remains, but his valor and his achievements hardly found recompense but only after the lapse of two hundred years that the difficulties he went through only began to be understood.

Pedro Murillo Velarde, Geografia Historia, 1753

TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE CIRCUMNAVIGATORS

As the ships slowly waded towards the shore, the assiduous chronicler, Pigafetta jots down his last few notes on the expedition: “At last when it pleased heaven, on Saturday the 6th of September of the year 1522, we entered the bay of San Lucar; and of sixty men who composed our crew when we left Maluco, we were reduced to only eighteen, and these for the most part sick. Of the others some died of hunger, some had run away at the island of Timor, and some were condemned to death for their crimes.” Overjoyed by the thought of their survival and final end to their murderous journey, Pigafetta, could only sigh with relief and bewailed the loss of so much lives. Looking back to his memoir and to the list of familiar names, this Italian chronicler could only count himself as among the lucky ones which included the following:

1. Juan Sebastian del Cano
2. Francisco Albo
3. Miguel de Rodas
4. Juan de Acurio
5. Hans
6. Hernando de Bustamante
7. Diego Carmona
8. Nicolas de Napoles
9. Miguel Sanchez de Rodas
10. Francisco Rodriguez
11. Juan Rodriguez
12. Antonio Fernandez Colmenero
13. Martin de Judicibus
14. Juan de Arratia
15. Juan de San Andres
16. Vasco Gomez Gallego (Portuguese)
17. Juan de Gubileta

Together with these eighteen were four natives who came with these returning survivors. One of them, a member of the native ruling elite, caught the interest of the court historian, Fernandez de Oviedo, who found him very “knowledgeable and astute.” Upon reaching Spain, the man impressed the Spaniards as he began inquiring on the exchange value of the Spanish real against the ducado, and from a real to a maravedis. This man also went around stalls and shops in various parts of Seville inquiring as to how much black pepper could be bought by a certain amount of maravedis.”

Upon reaching the port, del Cano, on behalf of the crew, hurriedly scribbled to the Emperor his official announcement of their return. The report of their arrival overwhelmed Charles with great joy, promptly sending a fifteen-man group led by a certain Juan Heguibar, clerk of the King, on a vessel to extend immediate medical attention to the severely sick survivors and to assist in navigating and transporting the cargo from the Victoria, docked in the port of San Lucar, to the heart of Seville. The cargo was composed of what remained from the five ships which included equipment, weapons, personal effects of the crew, merchandise, and spices.

As soon as the king received this letter, Charles issued an order from Valladolid dated 13 September 1522 summoning del Cano to promptly appear before the royal court:

I saw your letter written from San Lucar informing me of your safe arrival in the ship named Victoria, one of the five ships which went to the discovery of the Spicery, of which I greatly rejoice for your having been brought back by Our Lord in safety, for this I offer him infinite thanks. Because I wish to be informed by you, particularly of the journey you made, and of what happened there, I order you then as soon as you see this, to take with you two persons who returned with you who are more prudent and in the best of their senses (las mas cuerdas y de mejor razon). With this letter, I am writing to the officials of the Casa de Contratacion of the Indies they should dress you up and provide you and the two others with everything you need. When you come, bring with you all the documents, personal reports (relaciones de auto) made during the expedition, the twentieth part (veintena parte) which pertains to us… the fifth part (quintaladas).

A few weeks after, del Cano, accompanied by Fernando de Bustamante, one of the fleet’s barber-surgeons, and Francisco Albo, the maestre and pilot, arrived in Valladolid. The choice of his two companions raised serious questions regarding del Cano’s hidden agenda. If the meeting with the royal patron was to provide a detailed account of the expedition, there was no better person to carry out this task than Antonio Pigafetta. The Harvard biographical writer, Laurence Bergreen, was of the opinion that the reason for del Cano’s exclusion of Pigafetta was the latter’s unyielding loyalty to Magellan. As the head of this successful tornaviaje, del Cano was probably worried of Pigafetta exacting justice. by implicating him in various calamitous episodes in the expedition, including the apparent conspiracy to abandon Magellan. Or it might even be possible that del Cano simply feared Pigafetta’s rhetorical excellence who could steal from him the honor of rendering a more credible and eloquent narrative.”

Charles demanded the turnover of official reports, prior to the hearing, such as the books and written accounts, particularly the contracts and agreements and those dealing with the expedition’s expenses. Of special concern for the Emperor was the record of those who returned with the Victoria for the processing of their benefits On October 18, 1522, a little after a month since their arrival, the three faced a grilling royal inquiry presided by Bachiller Santiago Diaz de Leguizamo of Charles’ royal council. The inquiry revolved around three major issues framed in thirteen guide questions. These guide questions by themselves betrayed the interests of Charles and the royal officials. Out of the thirteen, five questions dealt with the mutiny in San Julian (questions 1-5), six questions involved the prospects of the trade (questions 6-11), and the remaining two were on the death of Magellan (questions 12-13).

As already mentioned, some thirteen more survived the return journey but were captured by the Portuguese. As the ships’ commander, Sebastian del Cano, carried the weight of responsibility to set these men to freedom, thus, begged the King: “your Majesty to intercede with the King of Portugal for the freedom of those thirteen who, in those times. are in your service.” Still overwhelmed with euphoria, the King informed del Cano in his decree on 13 September 1522 regarding his request for the thirteen still imprisoned: “In regard to the thirteen whom you have brought to Cape Verde, I have ordered to provide what is necessary for them.”

The intervention of the Spanish monarch softened the determination of the Portuguese to detain these thirteen who were shortly after released and sent to Lisbon on a returning ship from Calicut. But upon reaching Lisbon, these Spaniards were prohibited from proceeding and were once again detained. The details of the ordeal of Gonzalo Gomez de Espinosa, Gines de Mafra and the cleric named Morales were contained in a testimony given by Juan Quemado in Granada on August 9, 1526. According to Quemado’s testimony, a few days after they left Lisbon, two large ships docked in the city’s port coming from the Indies carrying huge quantities of spices. Among its cargo were these prisoners brought by an alguacil to the public jail. One of them, Morales, was promised by the alguacil to be detained in a place more appropriate to his ecclesiastical status. But the promise was not complied with and all of them languished in the same prison for the next few years. Those detained by the Portuguese were:

1. Maestre Pedro
2. Richard, from Normandy
3. Pedro Gasco
4. Alfonso Domingo
5. Simon de Burgos
6. Juan Martin
7. Roldan de Argote
8. Martin Mendez
9. Gomez Hernandez
10. Ocacio Alonso
11. Pedro de Tolosa
12. Felipe de Rodas
13. Juan de Apega

The royal authorities held a series of investigations. After these, similar investigations were also made few years after in the wake of the release of those arrested by the Portuguese. Among those fortunate to return after imprisonment was Gonzalo Gomez de Espinosa, the fleet’s Alguacil Mayor whose loyalty to Magellan was exemplary. It took four more years before those arrested by the Portuguese were able to enjoy their freedom. On August 2, 1527, Gonzalo Gomez de Espinosa, Gines de Mafra and Leon Pancaldo appeared before the officials of the Consejo de las Indias for a gruelling inquiry which focused on the events which transpired in the Moluccas. These inquiries yielded anything of significance as it hardly reversed the official narrative made by the survivors. But it was clear that most of those who returned received a generous package of compensation, albeit the enormous delay. For the less prominent members of the crew, the reward came in the form of back pay. While the investigations on the expedition were going on, some of the survivors and the beneficiaries of those who perished in the expedition began demanding compensation.”

Charles was not disheartened by the tragic outcome of the expedition, rather, he was firmly convinced of its success as he saw the benefits heavily outweighing their losses. For one, they discovered for Spain a sprawling eastern territory producing abundant spices and also richly endowed with gold, inhabited by men with a flourishing oriental civilization distinct from their own. But outside the material benefits which could exponentially increase the wealth of the empire, Charles saw Spain’s immortal contribution to the progress of science. In his declaration before the official royal inquiry, del Cano emphasized one of the major accomplishments of the expedition. He wrote:”…Your Majesty will know better that we ought to esteem and fear that we have discovered and made a return around the circularity of the world, that going for the occident we have returned to the orient.” What used to be a lingering theory in the minds of ancient cosmographers and explorers for thousands of years suddenly became confirmatory evidence of a scientific fact, that the world was indeed round! Unquestionably, this was one of the unparalleled legacies of the expedition which even the Emperor had fully recognized. Even for this alone, Charles was prepared to confer on the crew their respective benefits.

The expedition also stumbled on another scientific fact unknown until then in the history of science, the problem of global time. Peter Martyr of Anghiera, the eminent Lombard chronicler of the court of Charles, wrote in his early sixteenth century book, De Orbe Novo, of a dramatic event which led to this discovery: “It only remains for me to mention a fact which will astonish my readers, especially those who suppose they have a perfect knowledge of celestial phenomena.” According to him, when the Victoria reached the Cape Verde Islands, the sailors noticed a discrepancy in the date of their calendar with those of residents when they were informed that it was Thursday, while their fleet’s calendar showed it was only Wednesday. Thus, they realized that they lost one day during their arrival and probably throughout their three-year journey. These provoked those in the crew whom Peter Martyr was talking with to propose a number of causes, but which proved inadequate to account for this discrepancy which compelled this author to propose his own answer. “My friends,” wrote Peter Martyr, “remember that the year following your departure, that is to say, the year 1520, was a bissextile year, and this fact may have led you into error.” A bissextile is a year in the Gregorian calendar having 366 days, with the extra day, February 29, intercalated to compensate for the quarter-day difference between an ordinary year and the astronomical year. But everyone affirmed that they took account of the twenty-nine days in the month of February during that year and were aware of the bissextile of the same year. Although Martyr de Anghiera was not convinced, acknowledging that these eighteen men were “mostly ignorant,” they were nonetheless unanimous and consistent in their replies. This made way for the discovery of the principle which underlie global chronometry.”

On February 4, 1522, even before Espinosa was released from his imprisonment, the Emperor had already acknowledged his merits and conferred upon him, in absentia, a coat of arms divided in three parts. In the middle part of this escutcheon on the upper part, a snatching eagle (rapante) between two linnet (pardilla) columns in golden field. The columns represent the efforts exerted in the navigation by this recipient. The lower portion was divided into two parts: the first, on the right side, was a hand with a head in green field, signifying the Captain-General who died in the sea. On the left hand contained symbols depicting the five islands discovered while on the right was a naked king, representing the chief of Luzon he captured. On the other left side, another naked king representing that oriental potentate of Pulam (Palawan) whom he also captured and had an inscription: “Tu fuistes uno de los primeros que la vuelta me distes.” Above the said coat of arms was a helmet also containing another coat-of-arm where a globe rested, indicating their circumnavigation. Although none of these were ever recorded in the Nobiliaria, the book containing the records of those conferred the noble status, these other survivors of the expedition also received individualized coat-of-arms as expressions of royal gratitude. These were Martin Mendez, accountant of the Victoria; Hernando Bustamante, the barber; and Miguel de Rodas, the maestre of the Victoria.

Maestre Miguel de Rodas, a resident of Seville, was conferred his hidalguia status in a dramatic moment on 20 August 1522 by Charles V in his large hall in Valladolid. While on his knees, the Emperor took his sword and touched de Rodas’ head and invoked his supplicatory prayers for this newly-inducted sailor to knighthood: “May God and St. James make you a good knight.” Thereafter, the Emperor commanded his secretary, Francisco de los Cobos, to draft a document of his admission into the rank of a knight and the conferment of a coat-of-arms.

As the captain of the returning vessel, Sebastian del Cano was the recipient of the most generous rewards. As part of royal benevolence, Charles did not only waive the royal duties on the spices they brought home but offered a quarter of his own proceeds from the voyage to del Cano and the three survivors he summoned to testify in Valladolid. The most important financial compensation came in the form of a perpetual royal grant amounting to five hundred ducats which del Cano would receive annually (asentados en esta casa para en toda su vida quinientos ducados de oro en cada un ano.). This annual pension translated to 175,000 maravedis, almost three times the salary of Magellan and nearly equal to the cost of the smallest ship of the expedition. It was also higher than the salary of one of the most important royal assistants of Charles V, Francisco de los Cobos, who was receiving 100,000 maravedis per annum. With this pension, the once impoverished sailor, del Cano, instantly became a rich man.

On top of this monetary reward, del Cano earned his greatly enhanced social status which elevated him to the rank of a world celebrity, with the royal conferment of the title, “the first circumnavigator of the world.” Inducted to the knighthood, del Cano was conferred on 20 May 1523 a coat-of-arms immortalizing his achievement as a sailor. This escutcheon prominently depicted a castle, spices, two Malay kings, a globe, and the inscription “Primus circumdedesti me (Thou first encircled me).” In conferring the armas conocidas, Charles extolled del Cano’s achievement:

Inasmuch as you, Juan Sebastian del Cano, resident of Guipuzcoa, captain of the ship Victoria, who discovered our spicery, are the first to make the discovery of the said spicery and brought it to our kingdoms, where you have labored so much and we have received your most distinguished service for our kingdoms, both for our benefit and honor, and in respect for those mentioned, and because from you and from those mentioned services of yours, and of the said journey which could be preserved in perpetual memory, you and your descendants may be greatly honored.

The man who was among the ring leaders of the mutiny suddenly became one of the privileged and honored heroes of Spain!

But there were among these survivors who truly deserved royal gratitude, one of them was Antonio Pigafetta who related in his own. words the concluding chapter of his saga:

Then, leaving Seville, I repaired to Valladolid, where I presented to His sacred Majesty Don Carlos neither gold nor silver, but other things far more precious in the eyes of so great a sovereign. Thence I set out as best I could, and went to Portugal, where I related to King John the things which I have seen. Returning by way of Spain, I came to France, where I presented some things from the other hemisphere to the Regent-mother of the most Christian. King Don Francis. Then I turned my face towards Italy, where I gave myself and what slight services I could render to the renowned and most illustrious Signor, Philip de Villers Lisleadam, the most worthy Grand Master of Rhodes.

Pigafetta received his reward not necessarily from Charles but from the global accolade he continually receives even today.

As to the fate of the Victoria, the ship which accomplished the circumnavigation of the world, information varied. Early historians such as the sixteenth century chronicler, Gomara, claimed it was kept in Seville for eternal remembrance, others suspected it was in Cadiz. A nineteenth century author of a history book of San Lucar de Barrameda, seemed to support the belief that it was in Cadiz: “Emperor Charles decreed that the mentioned ship must remain in the port of San Lucar in perpetual repose as a memento of her accomplishment, and it was in this state that she remained for many years until it crumbled to pieces and disappeared.”

San Lucar, the historic seacoast village was and still a part of the territory of Cadiz but one of the earliest authors of del Cano’s biography, Eustaquio Fernandez de Navarette, suspected that this famous ship underwent repair and refitting since “they would not spend money in making another,” he noted. It was his belief that this most historic ship was also used for journeys of lesser importance compared with what it had already accomplished. Borrowing from the information obtained by Fernandez de Oviedo, it said: “the Victoria after having earned greatness for her first journey, undertook other journeys from Spain to Sto. Domingo, from the Island of Española and returned to Seville. From Seville she returned again to the Island and in her return journey to Spain, she was lost, and nothing was known of her again, neither the persons who went with her.” Fernandez Navarette grudgingly concluded that the royal officials, “are not giving value to those things which truly deserved. attention (no dar el aprecio debido a las cosas).”

Unknown to the survivors, a number of others were alive in the Indies either as slaves or had established themselves in the local native community. One of them was discovered when the Loaysa expedition reached Guam, in an island called Botaha. A Christian on a canoe arrived and greeted them in Spanish: “En buenhora vengays, Señor Capitan, maestre y la compania! (What a great moment you come, Señor Capitan, maestre and the company!).” Overjoyed hearing someone spoke Spanish, the crew replied by asking what brought him to the island. The man replied that he was one of the crew of the armada of Capitan Gonzalo Gomez de Espinosa which returned and reached Maluco but failed to proceed to Nueva España because the crew of the ship were dying from a certain disease. “I, and two other Portuguese companions, had escaped for fear of dying and reached an island nearer the northern part,” the man explained, There the natives killed his two companions, but he safely escaped to that island and lived with the indios. The man identified himself: “soy gallego y me llamo Gonzalo de Vigo, y se muy bien la lengua de las islas (I am a Galician, and my name is Gonzalo de Vigo, and very fluent with the language of the islands).” Vigo joined the ship, but nothing was heard of him after.

THE FATE OF FERDINAND MAGELLAN

It is unfortunate that those who rightly deserved the rewards, owing to their loyal services to the Crown and the magnitude of their accomplishments, were the ones deprived of them. Such injustice fell upon Magellan and his heirs, the tragic hero of this important episode in world history. Jose Ferrer de Couto, the author of the Historia de la Marina Real Española, an early nineteenth century book documenting the naval development of Spain, bewailing the failure of Magellan to reap the fruit of his services, wrote: “One of the unfortunates who failed to share in the rewards and honors conferred by the Crown and the applause and public adulation of his companions who succeeded in such a noble but risky enterprise, due to his early death,” was Magellan.” But neither did his family receive the compensations due Magellan’s heirs.

The tragic death of the entire family, beginning with his own, followed by his infant son, Rodrigo, and after a short while, his wife, Beatriz, left no one to receive whatever compensation or benefit due the Captain-General. Understandably, without anyone from within Magellan’s immediate family to make their rightful claim, the royal authorities took extreme care in processing whatever demands made by anyone claiming in behalf of the Magallanes family. A number of claimants came forward for this purpose, one was Jaime Barbosa, Magellan’s brother-in-law.

Barbosa identified himself in his testimony, drafted in Madrid on 6 June 1540, as one of the heirs of “Capitan Hernando de Magallanes.” He stated that his father, Diego Barbosa, had already requested His Majesty in 1522 for the compliance of the contracts, agreements and grants (capitulacion y asiento y mercedes) promised to the Captain-General in behalf of his surviving heirs “in consideration of the deaths of his daughter and grandson, wife and son of the said Magallanes.” The issue, however, dragged on for decades and others came forward to make their claims, one, was Lorenzo Magallanes, the son of the Captain-General’s cousin. Despite the copious documents presented, which convincingly established his ties with the navigator, it appears that nothing positive came out of this.

Not only that Magellan was ignored, but his accomplishments were also denigrated in this letter to be delivered by the head of the next expedition, Jofre Garcia de Loaysa. The conquistador of the Aztecs, Hernan Cortes, proudly introduced himself in his letter to the chieftain of Cebu dated 28 May 1527 as “Capitan general e Gobernador desta Nueva- España.” In this apologetic letter written a little more than six years after Magellan’s death, it is clear that the royal officials were aware that a number of the Magellan crew had survived the massacre and were held prisoners in Cebu. With the ultimate purpose of securing their release, Cortes, attempted to exculpate the Spaniards in general, and found Magellan an excellent escape goat for the disastrous outcome of the expedition as well as the enmity it generated against Humabon and the local chiefs. Putting the entire blame on Magellan, Cortes provided the details of his judgement:

In his desire to know the custom and manner of trading in those parts, the king sent there his captain named Hernando de Magallanes with five ships, which, owing to bad judgement and lack of caution of the said captain, they failed to return except for one which informed the king of the cause of the loss and destruction of the others and for this everyone received the penalty which the king felt deeply sorry. It was because this captain (Magellan) had exceeded the royal decrees and instruction he carried, provoking war and discord with you and your men; because the intention with which his Majesty sent him, was not so, but only to establish friendship with you and to bring them to your submission, offering goodwill for your honor and person. For his disobedience, the Lord, the maker of everything, made him pay his act of irreverence, dying in the way he did by the wrong he intended against the will of the prince and God which did him no little good because if he returned alive, the payment for such imprudence (liviano) would not have been light.

Cortes explained to the chieftain of Cebu that, as part of the effort of the Emperor to make known to him (the Cebu chieftain) and the rest of the chiefs in those places how He felt sorry for what Magellan did, an expedition would be sent thereafter.

The fate of the Falero brothers had not been good. Around 1581, Francisco wrote to the king of their miserable condition, being still unemployed. An excerpt of his letter reads: “not only I have been left out doing things which I could have pursued with great benefits, but worst, I have lost my resources, without repose, and without any support and being tried by the fiscal of yours regarding the contract my brother was obliged to comply.” Falero made his warning: “I wish to bring to your knowledge these things so that with them I also beg that I be given whatever I could to live by…because I would be compelled to go elsewhere and serve another king just that I may have something to eat, and with this, Your Majesty, I do not have any reason to remain without any employment, because I have to go to find whatever support I could have.

SPAIN AND THE INDIES

Few years after the severely beaten ship, Victoria, docked in Spain, the royal authorities resumed their official inquiry on the expedition, focusing on the San Julian mutiny, the desertion of the ships San Antonio and Santiago and the death of Magellan and his crew. These series of interrogations conducted with the survivors were probably prompted by the complaints made by Diego Barbosa (Diogo, in Portuguese), father of Magellan’s wife, Beatriz, and Duarte Barbosa, one of the crew, and brother-in-law of Magellan. The navigator’s father- in-law, fuming in anger over the injustice suffered by Magellan, raised a number of issues in his Discurso presented to the king in 1523. One was the inaction of the royal authorities in resolving expeditiously the case of those guilty in the mutiny which “took place with the three of the largest ships, about which little justice has been done, requesting to undertake more, and not to forgive those who after their ingratitude would benefit from their deeds.” Barbosa also urged the king to send a punitive expedition, to destroy those places where the captain, Fernan de Magallanes, perished. “They must build forts or strongholds in these territories where the Casa de Factoria of Your Majesty is located, “to ensure the safety and protection of those who would remain and prevent them from being harmed by the natives of those lands. Because it is only through fear that you can make these men do what you wish them to do, but if they see that they are unprepared then they carry out their work, as these men are very disloyal.”

Magellan’s father-in-law was convinced that punishing these natives would enable them to learn their painful lessons. Barbosa warned, if the natives saw “that they are not punished for what they did, there would be no forces either in the present or in the future which could prevent them from doing again what they did.” But if he condemned the guilt of the natives for the death of Magellan and his crew, he was more concerned with the need for a prompt and reasonable verdict on those ring leaders of the desertion.

Barbosa assumed the task of making sure that justice was served on those unrepentant crew of the San Antonio who “were well received and treated at the cost of Your Majesty; and the captain and some others who wished to follow in the service of Your Majesty were imprisoned and abandoned of all protection of justice.” Barbosa’s other concern was the badly handled system of trading which the fleet carried out with the natives in the East. Inasmuch as everyone was allowed to deal with his own merchandise, Barbosa had observed that “they have no respect except for his own interest.” The crew-turned-merchants were selling their goods at a much lower price than those of the royal cargo in order to achieve a quick sale. But Barbosa was convinced that it was to the great disadvantage of the royal treasury since the price they placed on their goods became the standard for the succeeding sale. Hence, he suggested that the sale should only be carried out by a “single hand” (ande todo por una mano) through the Factor. As to the issue of Portugal, Barbosa was of the opinion that she would maintain her presence in the Indies and would always ensure to flex muscle to boast of her power where she would rule through fear, punishing those who committed mistakes. Spain’s relationship with Portugal only deteriorated further.

In 1525, the Casa de Contratacion commissioned a well-connected officer, Francisco Jofre de Loaysa, to head the next Armada de Maluco and designated captain general of the island of Moluccas, with Sebastian del Cano receiving an appointment as second-in-command. The expedition also recruited another important person in the annals of Spanish navigation, a young Basque seafarer named Andres de Urdaneta who, forty years later, would accompany an expedition which successfully inaugurated. Spain’s more than three hundred years of imperial adventure in Asia. The expedition which only assigned to the Philippines a secondary role, was launched with the purpose of establishing a Spanish trading post and fort in the Spice Islands, only indicating Spain’s determination to assert her claim on the disputed territory. To sail from La Coruña to the Strait of Magellan, following the route taken by the Magellan expedition, the leader was convinced that it would be the safest and the fastest. But the expedition only showed Loaysa and del Cano’s lack of navigational expertise and thus met an even harsher fate. On October 2, 1526, the expedition reached Mindanao and proceeded to Cebu but contrary winds frustrated their plans and sailed to Moluccas instead. With only 105 men from the original crew of 450, the expedition ended in failure with their surrender to the Portuguese.

The death of Magellan had tremendous impact on the dream of Charles to expand the realm of his empire. But despite this setback, Charles was determined to clinch his claim on these clusters of southern islands and negotiation with the Portuguese monarch was resumed few years after del Cano returned. On February 4, 1523, Charles issued an order from Valladolid instructing his emissaries “to ascertain briefly what region lies within the right of our conquest, and where are the limits of our demarcation, and those of the most serene King of Portugal.”** To settle once and for all the question of their boundaries, the two monarchs had already made initial agreement to send caravels with their respective representatives “to determine the said demarcation is in perfect accord with our desires and we are quite well satisfied with the proposal.” But until such time that the issue was definitely resolved, Charles expressed his determination to maintain and protect his claim. And this he did by dispatching a series of expeditions.

The failed expedition which involved not only so much money, but also precious lives did not deter the headstrong but youthful Emperor from sending other expeditions, with equally unproductive, if not disastrous results. In less than a year’s time after the Loaysa expedition was launched, Charles sent another led by Alvaro de Saavedra Ceron, cousin of Hernan Cortes, the youthful but fierce conqueror of the Aztecs. On February 1, 1528, land was sighted, believed by a number of historians to be Surigao. Except for its successful rescue of three stranded crew of the Loaysa expedition, this also shared the unfortunate fate of the previous expeditions. As the expedition struggled to find its way home, Spain and Portugal had signed an agreement called the Treaty of Zaragoza which temporarily put to rest their squabbling in the Far East.

After a brief respite from his concern with the expansion of his domain in the tropical isles of the Pacific, Charles once again issued a cedula which launched another expedition in 1542 under the command of a gentleman from Malaga with a licentiate in civil law, Ruy Lopez de Villalobos, the expedition reached Mindanao in February 1543. Indeed, it took a series of such gigantic failures for the Europeans to realize the magnitude of accomplishment by the Magellan expedition.”

These series of catastrophic failures in the effort of Charles to expand his imperial domain gave birth to layers of subsidiary consequences. One of the major effects of these expeditions was the pronounced drain in the imperial resources. As he dreamed of further expeditions, Charles struggled with the increasingly exhausted coffers forcing him to expand his credit ties with international bankers, those of Augsburg, Genoa, and Antwerp which only bound him to offer greater commercial concessions to them within the Spanish dominions. The Spanish historian, Henry Kamen, estimated some five hundred contracts or asientos were entered into by Charles with financiers totaling nearly twenty-nine million ducats who exploited their leverage by expanding operations in Seville and the rest of Castile in which gold and silver from America were even used as collateral. Sometimes the payment took the form of control over certain industries such as the rich mercury mines at Almaden, which compelled the Cortes in Valladolid to express their concern that Spain was already swarming with foreigners “not satisfied just with their profits from banking, nor with obtaining property, bishoprics and estates, but are buying up all the wool, silk, iron, leather, and other goods.” At its worst, Charles had to seize as involuntary loans shipments from the Castilian merchants of Seville who could only complain, out of their helplessness, the advantages enjoyed by the foreigners.”

THE TWILIGHT OF THE VISAYAN WORLD

The ebbing resources of Spain worked in favor of the fate of the native rulers in the Indies since the Spanish aims to integrate this vast maritime world under an imperial canopy had to be postponed for the next four decades later. This therefore gave the natives a reprieve from colonial burden for almost another half a century. Life in Cebu and the rest of the Visayas continued, seemingly, as it was before, as could be gleaned from what Fernandez de Oviedo had gathered from the men of Loaysa, when he published the first part of his Libro in 1535:

The Indians gather so much gold… The men of Cebu are of tractable but warlike and possess weapons both for defense and aggression. Chinese junks, which are large ships, come annually to Cebu and Vendanao and other islands and bring so much quantity of silk and porcelain and many metal works and little chests (arquetas) of perfumed wood, and many other things highly esteemed by the natives. In exchange for what they bring, the Chinese carry from these islands gold and pearls and shells of mother of pearls (conchas de las hostias), and slaves. …It has so many islands where gold is found and in other islands, pearls.

It is undeniable that the coming of Magellan left a gradual but irreversible effect in the local cultural landscape. Seemingly unchanged, the Visayan world already trapped in the geometrical grid of the Spanish imperial cartography had become a tractable and easy prey to expeditionary incursions, not only from Spaniards but also from the Portuguese vessels which dominated the eastern waters which had become a major area of territorial wrangling.

By the time Legazpi arrived, most of the historical personae involved in the saga of Magellan were dead. Lapu-lapu, already in the seventies at the time of Magellan, was certainly dead, spared the agony of seeing his insular domain crumbled before the weight of the Spanish military juggernaut led by an aging clerk, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi. The glorious memories of Lapu-lapu and Mactan were simply erased and eventually forgotten. Succeeding Spanish chronicles mentioned nothing of the fate of his descendants who had to conceal their genealogical affiliation with the great native leader and also to live under constant fear of Spanish reprisal.

The chieftain of Cebu, Rajah Humabon, whom Argensola described as one who “accepted baptism, purposely out of fear for the Spanish arms and not because of zeal nor understanding of the faith he received,” unless killed in the May 1, 1521, massacre he orchestrated, as indicated in the native folk story, continued his rule for the next ten or twenty years until it gave way to old age or death. He was already dead when the colonizing Spanish force landed in 1565. In fact, these natives who, few weeks after Magellan’s landing, had accepted the seed of Christianity, suddenly made a violent act of apostasy ventilating their outrage on the person and objects held sacred to Christians such as the chapel, earlier built and used. The account of Fray Aganduru Moriz recorded that, while Juan Serrano was being dragged to the shore, the angry throng which passed by the makeshift chapel whose altar they violently destroyed, snatched the frontal and the altar mantles, threw the crosses and the image of the child Jesus, the Santo Niño. The cross which Magellan raised was also pulled down by the unruly crowd amid great noise as an expression of their mockery. Even the person who solemnized the ritual, Fr. Valderrama, seen being dragged by the one cured by his baptism, had not been heard of and was presumed murdered as he was among those included in the official list of casualties in the May 1 massacre. But it could be possible that he was not outright murdered or even spared and used by the natives for his “healing power.”

Did the ruling family of Cebu apostatize? A Cebuano folklore claimed that, although the cross Magellan planted was uprooted and vandalized during the frenzied moments of the massacre, Juana, the wife of Humabon, had recurring dreams of a child begging her to restore the cross on its original site. When Juana found out that the boy in her dreams resembled the infant Jesus given during baptism, she promptly begged Humabon to restore this symbol of Christianity who obliged, and thus Cebu preserved this historic icon. It was also assumed that Juana had kept the Santo Niño which remained in the village until recovered in 1565 by Juan Camus. The early seventeenth century Augustinian lexicographer, Fray Alonso de Mentrida, noted in his entry on the word bathala which he defined as “the image of diuata,” that “This is how the natives referred to the child Jesus in our convent in Zebu left by Magellan in that town and remained in possession of the indios of Zebu, until the Spaniards returned to establish settlement fifty years after, they called it bathala.” According to the Jesuit historian, Francisco Chirino, who wrote the chronicles of his Order in 1604, even eighty years after the event transpired, the natives of Cebu still referred to the image as “Diuata de los Castillas.”

As to what happened to Humabon, the story of Fray Gaspar de San Agustin provided the answer. San Agustin claimed that a Spanish. soldier who came with the Legazpi expedition named Juan de Castilla, while digging deep in the ground for a foundation of his house to support the huge wooden columns, unearthed a coffin believed to contain the remains of the chieftain whom the natives called Rajah Carli, or Carlos, the Christianized name of Humabon. San Agustin wrote:

On the same day that the Adelantado Miguel Lopez de Legazpi died in Manila, an event occurred in Cebu worthy of remembering. This was the miraculous discovery of an image of Ecce Homo found in the city on Wednesday, August 20, 1572, in the place where a famous and ancient leader of the island named Rajah Carli was said to be buried.”

Castilla found the chief in a casket holding a small cross in his hand and an image known in Catholic iconography as the Ecce Homo lying on his chest. The Ecce Homo was a Catholic icon which earlier on depicted Pilate and Christ, the mocking crowd and parts of the city of Jerusalem. In the fifteenth century, artists began to portray Jesus alone, in half or full figure with a purple robe, loincloth, crown of thorns and torture wounds, especially on his head. But the Ecce Homo given to Humabon was only a bust of Christ carved on a wood, supposedly brought to the Philippines together with the Santo Niño image and given to the chief as a baptismal gift. It was said to have been buried with him since the bust was one of his most cherished possessions. What amazed everyone, according to San Agustin, was that “the body was dry and in good condition.”

The other chiefs who accepted baptism most likely had also apostatized, the Friars Buzeta y Bravo believed that the chieftain of Limasawa was among them. In 1565, Legazpi met in Leyte a chief named Bangar whom these Augustinian authors believed was one of the chiefs baptized by Magellan.

One of the key personalities who lived through the times of Magellan and could have shed so much details of that historic encounter was Tupas, the heir to the throne. In his adulthood at 23 when Magellan arrived, Tupas must have assumed the place of Humabon 10 or 20 years after, when the old chief had passed away. It was undeniable that this chief had developed deep hatred towards the Spaniards and refused to accept baptism even during the arrival of Legazpi, more than 44 years after. But after long and sustained effort to convince him, Tupas, already 67 years old, relented as San Agustin pointed out: “He slowly became closer to the Spaniards, and began losing the suspicion in which he had grown up with.” Baptized with Tupas were other notables of the place including a Moro, described by Legazpi as “an indian, an interpreter of the Malay language.” Could he be Enrique? Or was he the same moro interpreter of Humabon who mediated with Magellan?

When asked by the men of Legazpi why they resisted the Spaniards, the natives of Cebu led by Tupas replied they were afraid of the Spaniards whom they thought were to demand them to account for the death of Magellan and his men. Far from the Spanish wrath he was expecting, the Spaniards gave them a general pardon. This only indicated the profound impact of the incursion of Magellan’s Armada in the life of the Cebuanos. But the lingering trauma inflicted by the death of Magellan for almost half a century was surpassed by the happy tradition of their pious devotion to the Santo Niño which continued to influence and shape the course of life not only of the Cebuanos but of the Filipinos in general, both Catholics and otherwise.