My friend Chad (not his real name) didn’t quite imagine he would one day travel and see the whole world. Born to poor parents who were farmers tilling a portion of the vast Velez-Paulin landholdings in Minglanilla, he went to school barefoot. His teachers sensing his sincerity and determination encouraged him to keep on with his studies.
Over bottles of fundador and other imported wine, he and his fellow seamen shared to me their lives and adventures traversing the world’s oceans. It’s not as colorful and enviable always as others often picture the lives of OFWs to be, they said. As a matter of fact, they all dream of being able to settle in the country one day, not having to work abroad and be separated from their loved ones.
Our kids were classmates at a school in the south where mostly children of OFWs went to study. And just as our kids bonded, so did we.
What struck me most during our conversations was Chad’s tale of fascination with Magellan’s arrival in Cebu. He said, when he was a kid helping his father till the land, he would often think of Magellan’s journey across the oceans and reaching Cebu in 1521. As a young boy, he fancied being able to do same when he grows up. He, like Magellan, wanted to circumnavigate the world.
There is much interest on Magellan’s supposed first circumnavigation of the world as evidenced by the numerous websites that touch on the matter. Naturally, Cebu and the two protagonists: Lapulapu and Humabon figure prominently in these websites. But it is Magellan who is taking centerstage. Magellan seems to have captured the imagination of people around the world for his dogged, brave almost impossible quest of finding an alternative route to the spices of India.
Before his discovery of the narrow straits at the tip of South America that now bears his name and his voyage across the Pacific ocean, the first by any European navigator, Vasco da Gama discovered for Portugal the route to India via the Cape of Good Hope at the tip of Africa, thereby winning the race for a sea route instead of the land trip from India across Asia and into Europe of the much needed and valued spices of the East.
Magellan was a Portuguese who presented himself before the Spanish crown for a chance to lead a voyage across the Atlantic and finding an altenative route to the Indies. He was given less than remarkable ships and men and just enough provisions that He had to sneak in into Portuguese territory somewhere in what is now Brazil to get some supplies.
In Cebu, Magellan met his tragic end, denying him the honor and reward of his exploits. His death put the island (more particularly, Mactan) quite unexpectedly in European maps.
Pigafetta’s account of the battle of Mactan talked of the captain, Magellan stucked in the mud. Before the battle commenced, they made the fatal error of getting off their galleon and wading the treacherous, swampy shores of Mactan. (Pigafetta, may be the first travel writer in history as he paid for the chance to ride with Magellan in his search for a route to the valued spices of Asia just to be able to write about his travels.)
He observed that Magellan’s galleon couldn’t come nearer the shores of Mactan as the water was shallow and had to anchor farther from where Lapulapu’s forces were gathered. The Mactan warriors were not also within reach of the Spanish cannons, their most reliable, deadly weapon thereby forcing Magellan to get off his galleon and take that stupid walk in the swampy shores of Punta Engaño.
In the first place the battle was unnecessary as he was already welcomed by the native leader of Cebu, Humabon. I can’t say if Humabon is a cool, crafty, visionary or a cowardly sell-out but he did make it easy for Spain to make its first colony in the Indies and a vital post in the protection of its interest in this side of the world. Talk of geopolitics. Was that good for Cebu? It’s hard to tell what could have happened otherwise if he drove him away.
Pigafetta recounted that when Magellan sensed defeat, he ordered his men to retreat. Arrows rained on his warriors ironically after he lost the advantage of his cannons. He obviously underestimated the locals who can be defiant, proud and brave as opposed to his amiable newly found comrade Humabon. Lapulapu knew hand to hand combat with the big, tall white men was not necessary as they made for a good target practice. When Magellan clad in armor, big and heavy that he is ordered retreat, an arrow hit him in the leg.
Lapu-lapu’s warriors then lunge on the helpless Spaniards, probably cutting them to pieces. And who knows maybe some of his vital parts may have served as amulet and prize catch for the warrior tribe of Mactan.
One funny website made this hallucinatory claim that Magellan’s men were able to claim his body. They did so by maligning Pigafetta to discredit his eyewitness account. The fact is, Magellan’s body was left in the shallow shores of Mactan.
Some five centuries later, his story still inspire some people. Like my friend Chad whose dreams of seeing the world traversing the vast oceans, probably began with a classroom discussion, in Grade 3 of how Cebu came to be "discovered" by a Portuguese sailor in the service of the Spanish crown.
The world has indeed become smaller with the internet, cable tv and cellular phones. But it was Magellan who probed first that it was round.
I don’t want to romanticize the way my life revolved around this street but someone else beat me to it. The artist Celso Pepito - who used to have an art gallery in what is now ‘Till Dawn convenience store – used to tell me his fondness for this street.
