The troubles that then led to the war and the death of Magalhães began with the burning of the aforementioned village. The sub-commander of the rebel prince of Maktan asked Magalhães for help against his ruler, and Magalhães agreed on the spot, causing the ruler of Cebu to go on a military expedition, even though he initially resisted.
Magalhães himself went on the expedition, with sixty men. The Sultan of Sebu had a thousand men and many war-canoes; The Spanish left in three boats. The small island of Mactan is right next to Cebu, forming its port. We set off at night and arrived at dawn. Magalhães first sent an invitation to his adversary to agree to pay the tax, in which case nothing bad would happen to him. But the enemy received a sharp support in response. The inhabitants of Maktan had fortified their city with fences, moats and pits. The king of Cebu offered to attack and settle the battle himself, but Magalhães did not want to know anything about it, but, burning with fighting enthusiasm, said on the contrary that the Spaniards intended to show their new ally how they knew how to fight. However, because of the coral reefs, the boats could not reach the shore, but the Spaniards had to scuttle some distance and leave them outside. But Magalhães, with forty-eight men in his crew, had scarcely landed before he was surrounded by an enemy force numbering thousands of combatants. Spears, arrows and stones rained down from all sides, but the enemy did not get so close that the attackers could have used their edged weapons. The Spanish simply used up their ammunition. Even though the armor was a good protection, one after another they started getting wounds on their limbs. Magalhães set the village on fire, but that only made the enemies more ferocious. A couple of Spaniards were killed when they set fire to the village. Magalhães saw that he could not accomplish anything, and ordered a retreat. He would have wished the retreat to be gradual and in good order, but the Spaniards, dreading the threat of defeat and the horror of captivity, dashed to flight, leaving their chief, who had received a wound in the leg, slowly retreating towards the shore with a dozen men to hold their side. Magalhães did reach the shore, but the boats were so far away that they were of no help.
After retreating in the sea because the water reached up to the knees, the natives, who were swarmed on all sides, made a ferocious attack. Pigafetta describes the final stage of the case as follows:
»Thus we fought for an hour, or more, until finally an Indian wounded the captain (Magalhães) in the face with a bamboo spear. Magalhães, enraged, plunged his spear into the Indian’s breast and left it there. But when he was about to unsheath his sword, he could only half draw it from the scabbard, because he had received a spear wound in his arm. Seeing this, all the enemies attacked Magalhães, and one of them with a great sword struck his left leg so hard that he fell on his face. Then the Indians attacked him with iron-tipped bamboo spears and swords and all the weapons they had, and pierced his body—our mirror, our light, our comforter, our faithful guide—until they killed him. With the Indians closely harassing him, he turned round towards us several times to see if we were all safe, as if his obstinate resistance had had no other object than to delay the enemy, so that his men were forced to flee. We who fought with him to the last and were full of wounds, when we saw him fall, we attacked our boats, which were just leaving… Eight of our people and four baptized Indians fell with him. Besides, a large part of us were wounded, myself along with others. The enemy lost only fifteen men.» so that his men were forced to flee. We who fought with him to the last and were full of wounds, when we saw him fall, we attacked our boats, which were just leaving… Eight of our people and four baptized Indians fell with him. Besides, a large part of us were wounded, myself along with others. The enemy lost only fifteen men.» so that his men were forced to flee. We who fought with him to the last and were full of wounds, when we saw him fall, we attacked our boats, which were just leaving… Eight of our people and four baptized Indians fell with him. Besides, a large part of us were wounded, myself along with others. The enemy lost only fifteen men.»
Magalhães thus, through his imprudence, met a miserable end, just when his great enterprise had succeeded. The whole campaign against Maktan was a pointless frenzy with too few forces. But he didn’t get the support from his Spanish warriors that he was used to when he fought with his compatriots in India. The grief over the fall of the Commander-in-Chief was great and the King of Cebu is said to have wept when he heard the news. The boats returned to the ships and that same evening, ambassadors were sent to the king of Maktan to ask for the body of Magalhães. But even though a large ransom was promised for it, the enemy did not give it up. The place where he fell is probably not known, but the Spaniards later built a memorial statue nearby.
Magalhães was almost 41 years old when he died. Although he had not yet arrived at Maustesaari, the goal of his journey, he had overcome the greatest difficulties. He had found a strait across South America and sailed from one end of the world’s largest, until then completely unknown sea to the other. He had completed the most famous sailing expedition of all time. Magalhães’ best help was endurance even in the greatest dangers, even in the most difficult conditions. On the way across the Pacific, he endured hunger and deprivation with his fellow men. His character has been criticized in different ways. Others have reproached him for being cruel and short-sighted in his methods, referring to the manner in which he put down the mutiny of his fleet on the coast of Patagonia. In that respect, he was a child of his time and Southland, and due to his difficult position, he was forced into acts of desperation. He was above all a warrior and a sailor, a man of action and practicality, and although we cannot place his character, any more than the world-historical significance of his voyage, alongside Columbus’s character and expedition, he must undoubtedly be mentioned as the second man in the history of voyages of discovery after the great Genoese.
Expedition in the Moluccas.
Through the death of Magalhães, the mood of the natives changed completely. The belief in the invincibility of the aliens was lost at the same time, and without delay a cunning plot was woven to destroy them. What made the king of Cebu so suddenly betray his new friends, the information is conflicting. According to one account, the expedition was betrayed by Magalhães’ slave, Enrique from Malacca, who had received a minor wound in the fight at Maktan. After the death of his master, he intended to become completely inactive, but as he was needed as an interpreter, Duarte Barbosa reprimanded him most severely, threatening to punish him at the same time, unless he immediately set out. In revenge, Enrique decided to betray the expedition, and after a few days went to the King of Cebu, killing him with little difficulty, who had conspired to destroy the Spaniards. The king invited the most prominent men of the fleet to the feasts, apparently in order to give them an expensive gift, which had to be taken to the king of Spain. Four-thirds of the Spaniards, among them the newly elected captains Duarte Barbosa and Juan Serrão, the astronomer San Martin, followed the invitation. Pigafetta remained on the ships because he had not recovered from his wounds, Carvalho because he feared betrayal. Everyone was killed at the parties, only Serrão survived. Carvalho, on hearing of the attack, had the anchors raised on the spot, and dared no longer approach as if he would have bought free the wounded Serrão, who had been brought to the shore of the sea to catch him; The end of Serrão is unknown. When the crew was no longer enough for all the ships, »Concepcion» was the worst and was set on fire. which was to be taken to the King of Spain. Four-thirds of the Spaniards, among them the newly elected captains Duarte Barbosa and Juan Serrão, the astronomer San Martin, followed the invitation. Pigafetta remained on the ships because he had not recovered from his wounds, Carvalho because he feared betrayal. Everyone was killed at the parties, only Serrão survived. Carvalho, on hearing of the attack, had the anchors raised on the spot, and dared no longer approach as if he would have bought free the wounded Serrão, who had been brought to the shore of the sea to catch him; The end of Serrão is unknown. When the crew was no longer enough for all the ships, »Concepcion» was the worst and was set on fire. which was to be taken to the King of Spain. Four-thirds of the Spaniards, among them the newly elected captains Duarte Barbosa and Juan Serrão, the astronomer San Martin, followed the invitation. Pigafetta remained on the ships because he had not recovered from his wounds, Carvalho because he feared betrayal. Everyone was killed at the parties, only Serrão survived. Carvalho, on hearing of the attack, had the anchors raised on the spot, and dared no longer approach as if he would have bought free the wounded Serrão, who had been brought to the shore of the sea to catch him; The end of Serrão is unknown. When the crew was no longer enough for all the ships, »Concepcion» was the worst and was set on fire. because he had not recovered from his wounds, Carvalho because he feared treachery. Everyone was killed at the parties, only Serrão survived. Carvalho, on hearing of the attack, had the anchors raised on the spot, and dared no longer approach as if he would have bought free the wounded Serrão, who had been brought to the shore of the sea to catch him; The end of Serrão is unknown. When the crew was no longer enough for all the ships, »Concepcion» was the worst and was set on fire. because he had not recovered from his wounds, Carvalho because he feared treachery. Everyone was killed at the parties, only Serrão survived. Carvalho, on hearing of the attack, had the anchors raised on the spot, and dared no longer approach as if he would have bought free the wounded Serrão, who had been brought to the shore of the sea to catch him; The end of Serrão is unknown. When the crew was no longer enough for all the ships, »Concepcion» was the worst and was set on fire.
»Trinidad» and »Victoria» then set off to find Spice Island, wandering for a long time in this vast archipelago before finding their destination. Under the leadership of Carvalho and Espinosa, they first sailed south to Mindanao and from there to Cagayan, near Borneo, where they met Moors expelled from Borneo. Then we headed northeast to Palavan, still in search of the Spice Islands, and got provisions from there. After that, we returned to Borneo, Brunei, which was a quite city built on stilts in the sea. The Spaniards did business there, even visited the king’s palace, riding elephants, but then, through an inexplicable misunderstanding, a skirmish arose and, having learned from the accident, they thought it wisest to leave. A couple of sailors remained in Brunei — perhaps they were deserters,
From Borneo they sailed east again and came to the southern tip of Mindanao, and only from there steered south to the Moluccas, where they finally arrived on the 8th of November. 1521. It had been a total of two and a quarter years on the journey before it was finally possible to drop anchor in the port of Tidor with cannons banging, flags flying and a solemn anthem rising into the air. The Portuguese had spread the same rumor that the Moluccas were in a shallow sea, that fogs and echoes hindered sailing, but the Spaniards now found these rumors to be false, because the channels, on the contrary, were clean and deep.
Tidor’s radsha received the Spaniards with great rejoicing, and was pleased to conclude with them the most favorable trade agreement, for the Spaniards paid much higher prices for spices than the Portuguese, who had settled at Ternate, Tidor’s rival. The Spaniards hearing it, sent a messenger to the Portuguese, bidding them come to a peaceful negotiation; but the Portuguese forbade it, because it would have offended the ruler of Ternate. This, however, afterwards gave permission, and Lorosa, the Portuguese commercial agent, who had resided in India ten years, became the guest of the Spaniards, much wondering that they had paid such high prices. At the same time, he told that King Manuel had sent ships both to the river La Plata and off the Cape of Good Hope to arrest the fleet of Magalhães, who, besides India, was to send six ships of war to the Moluccas, to prevent Magalhães from getting there; but the war against the Turks had meant that these ships were needed in the Red Sea.
»Victoria» sails around the world.
In the middle of December, »Trinidad» and »Victoria» had taken full cargoes of spices and left the beach with new sails, which had the cross of St. James of Galicia and the inscription: »This is the image of our happiness.» But then »Trinidad» unexpectedly got a leak, which the radsha divers could not stop. »Victoria» had to go alone and »Trinidad» had to be dismantled for repairs. On the 21st of December »Victoria» went to sea, having lightened her load somewhat, because the ship had taken too many cloves. The captain was now Sebastian del Cano, the crew consisted of 47 Europeans and 13 Indians. First we stopped at Buru, then at Ombai and on the north coast of Timor to take food supplies and water. On the south side of Java they still sailed so far south that Amsterdam Island was seen, which is in the southern part of the Indian Ocean, Between Africa and Australia. Maybe we passed Australia very close. This deviation from the usual passage into quite unknown waters was, of course, to avoid the prowling Portuguese; perhaps del Cano also hoped to find the “Gold and Silver Islands” on this trip, where they could throw an expensive cargo of spices into the sea and pick up a ship full of pure gold nuggets.
The long journey finally began to tire both the ship and the crew.⁻ On April 3rd, it was necessary again, as often before, to furl all the sails and start repairing the vessel. It leaked quite a bit. The crew, after being in the hot atmosphere for so long, began to suffer from cold. The meat had deteriorated so that it could no longer be eaten; the lack of salt had prevented it from being preserved properly. There was nothing to eat but rice. Diseases began to wreak havoc and finally there was general weakness to such an extent that there was a lot of thought about whether we should not sail to Portuguese Mozambique to get help. “But the greater part of us considered honor even more precious than life,” says Pigafetta, “and that’s why we decided to go straight to Spain, come what may.”
Following the fortieth and fortieth parallels of latitude, we continued sailing towards the west, we sailed for a whole month, because we were in the zone of westerly winds and thus against the wind. On the 8th of May we finally met the high shore of South Africa and the next day we anchored. In “Victoria” it was thought that we had already passed the Cape of Good Hope a long time ago. On the 16th of May, the top of the foredeck and the raw timber were lost in a heavy storm off Cape Agulhas. When we got past the cape, we went ashore to repair. Then we went forward again with difficulty to fight, even though scurvy and hunger had taken away almost all of our strength. Almost a third of the Europeans had died since leaving the Moluccas, nine out of thirteen Indians. Pigafetta was almost the only one who was still healthy. »We noticed a wonderful thing», he says, »while throwing bodies into the sea. The Christians stayed in the water with their faces towards the sky — but the Indians turned their faces downwards.»
On the west coast of Africa, the drifting ended, and it was possible to sail again with favorable winds. summer On the 8th day, we crossed the equator, but the ship was so dilapidated in every way that it was thought impossible to sail beyond the Viheriä cape islands. Even though they were in the possession of the Portuguese, it was therefore decided to go ashore to repair and especially to get food supplies. So we landed at the port of S. Jago and were said to be on our way back from America. Among other things, we inquired about the day of the week, because we wanted to compare whether the days were correctly marked on the ship. »It surprised us a lot», said Pigafetta, »that they had Thursday, even though we only had Wednesday on the ship. And yet every day I had noted the cases in my diary, because I was always healthy. Only later did we find out that we were not mistaken, and we did not leave one day excepted, but that the like difference arises when one sails round the earth through the west to the east. Then the time is shortened by one day compared to those who are at the same place.»
When the “Victoria” boat rowed ashore for the third time, it was arrested, because in the meantime it had been found out on shore that the ship was indeed one of Magalhães’ ships. Sebastian del Cano was demanded to surrender. Without delay, however, he weighed anchor, leaving the men ashore, and happily arrived at the mouth of the Guadalquivir, the harbor of S. Lucar. Only eighteen men were left from the whole expedition, and they were mostly sick. On the 8th of September we arrived in Seville. The next day, the men of “Victoria”, i.e. those who could walk, went in a solemn procession to the church of Santa Maria del Antigua to thank them for their happy return. Then the whole returned group went to the king in Valladolid. Del Cano and his men were graciously received and received a coat of arms, where on top of the featherweight there was a picture of the globe and the inscription Primus circumdedisti me (first you went around me). Pigafetta gave the king his handwritten diary on this occasion. It deserves to be mentioned that, although so many ships were lost, the cargo brought by the »Victoria» was so valuable that it compensated the expenses of the entire expedition.
Transsylvanus expresses the feelings of admiration and pride that this journey evoked in the following words: »Our men truly deserve eternal honor with greater reason than the Argonauts who sailed with Jason to Colchis, and better their ship (Victoria) would deserve a place in the star gardens than the Argo.»
Even before Sebastian del Cano reached Valladolid, the men who had been left there arrived home from the islands of Viheriäniemi; they came in a Portuguese ship returning from India, and arrived at Valladolid to a joint reception.
End of »Trinidad«.
It was worse for those who had stayed with “Trinidad” in the Moluccas. When the ship was repaired, it set sail at the beginning of April in 1522, with a valuable cargo and 50 Europeans, as well as two islanders as pilots. Espinosa, who was in command of the ship, decided to return back across the Pacific, but contrary winds drove his ship far to the north. Wandering for months and suffering a lot of cold and lack of food, the ship lost a large part of its crew and then in a storm that lasted five days it broke down badly and lost its big mast. “Trinidad” had to go back to the Moluccas, where in the meantime a considerable Portuguese fleet under Brito had arrived, and finally surrender to the Portuguese’s mercy. The cruel treatment to which these shipwrecked people were subjected is illustrative of the jealousy of the Portuguese. »Trinidad» was unloaded, but in the middle of the unloading drifted ashore in a sudden storm and was crushed. Its crew was humiliated in every way in front of the islanders in order to lose their trust in Spain. Then they were taken to Ternate, where they were kept for four months in the hope, as Brito publicly confessed in his letter to King Manuel, that they would die there in the unhealthy atmosphere – after all, he did not want to hang them without the king’s permission. From Ternate, the unfortunate crew of the “Trinidad” were taken to Banda, then Malacca and further to Kotshin, where they were allowed to spend a whole year before finally being able to return to Spain. By deliberately keeping these roaches in unhealthy regions, the Portuguese reduced their numbers to such an extent that finally only four arrived in Lisbon,
In total, 35 men returned to Spain out of the 280 who had left with Magalhães.
