Magellan's Voyage: Part 5 - Unexpected

After having travelled north along the coast of Chile, the weary and battered sailors set sail due west on December 18th, 1520. They expected things to be quick, not knowing the truth behind what lay ahead of them as the size and scope of the Pacific was unknown to the travellers. As days turned into weeks they came across a problem; the food supplies were dwindling. Due to some bad luck, they had the misfortune of accidentally dodging some islands that would likely have helped them. That meant they were stuck on their boats for a terrible stretch of time, with a new enemy coming aboard in the form of the dreaded scurvy.

There were quite a few people on Magellan's voyage
that tried to hide away and stay in some of the places
they visited. Picking between this and sponge-gums,
I can really see the logic behind their argument.

The lack of vitamin C from the dwindling fruit supplies meant that many men were coming down with the sickness. It begins because vitamin C creates ascorbic acid, a substance that helps to produce connective tissue. Scurvy then begins to kick in when ascorbic acid is missing and the lack of connection means that things start to wear down, particularly in the mouth. Teeth begin to fall out, they get an unbearable case of bad breath, and worst of all, the gums turn incredibly painful and "spungey" as described in the book. Along the Pacific many men would come down with scurvy and twenty-nine were eventually killed by it, greatly reducing his already dwindling supply of men. Magellan and the officers, meanwhile, had quince on board, a fruit similar to an apple that prevented the onset of scurvy. If you're thinking that Magellan didn't share the fruit with anyone in a bit of selfishness, give him a pass on this one - he likely didn't know the quince was what spared him and his officers.

After ninety-eight days at sea (shouldn't it be "at ocean", or is that incorrect?) and a stunning 7,000 miles the broken and spungey men arrived in Guam where they met the Chamorro people. It didn't go well. See, the Chamorro are a people that like to share. They're of the "what's mine is yours" variety, and they mistakenly believed that the travellers would be much the same way. Right upon the arrival of the expedition the Guam natives hopped aboard their boats and began rifling through their things and taking some of what they found appealing. The Portuguese and Spanish, not following this belief and seeing the people as stealing from them in a shockingly brazen manner, became incensed and stabbed one of the "thieves". Honestly, it's mostly just unfortunate; the Europeans had to protect their things, as they wouldn't be able to return home safely without them, and the natives simply had a different view on personal belongings, and with no manner to bridge the language gap it ended in violence. But, since life being cheap is a common theme so far, they quickly got over it and began to trade. They gave up some of their metal items in exchange for an abundance of very welcome food.

Unfortunately, in what may have been another communication misstep, they took the captain's personal boat (think of it as a lifeboat sort of thing). Magellan did not take well to this. In response, he went and burned many of their houses to the ground and killed seven of their men, eventually finding and returning the boat to his ship and promptly leaving shortly after.

Deciding between finding pictures for "bizarre ancient
Philippine sexual practices" and "coconuts" I chose
the later. 

Magellan wasn't really big on leaving a lasting, positive impression.

They sailed for another ten days but this time with some food in their belly and their worries of scurvy no longer at the forefront of their minds. It would be ten more days of sailing before they landed in the Philippines. Things got off to about as great of a start as they could. First, one island had such an incredible abundance of gold that they were trading iron for it at a pound-for-pound ratio. In addition, they were also entranced by the islands themselves, taking particular interest in coconuts of all things. (Cuckoo for coconuts!)

Bouncing from island to island for a while, the next one they landed on showered them with gifts, both material and female. They went into far too graphic detail of the bizarre sexual practices of some of the islanders, and while I could indulge you with a few examples I believe it best to leave it as simply saying there were many such things that were aggressively unpleasant to read. Fortunately for the Europeans, it seems like many of the women didn't particularly like these acts, and thus took to the Europeans with their much more straightforward desires.

Really though, way, way too much detail.

Magellan may have had the armour, but
Lapu Lapu had the chiseled bod. Sure,
the Europeans had gunpowder, but you could
grate cheese on those abs.

In a hilarious contrast from one act to the next, they then began converting many of the islanders, something that, while encouraged, was not necessary for them to do. Somehow they skirted around the tenets of Christianity to get with as many native women as they could but still managed to preach the faith the next day. But really, if anything it's indicative of how much they were enjoying their time; if they didn't truly enjoy these islands they wouldn't have bothered with the conversions.

Arriving on the next island they started the conversion game again, but found that there arose two factions in response to their coming. One sided with the Europeans, feeling threatened by their astounding, futuristic weaponry (I mean, muskets, am I right?) and armour that to the Filipinos seemingly made a man invulnerable. The other believed that the men were intruders and had to be forced out or put down, a threat to their very way of life - which, to be fair, was pretty darn insightful considering the European tendency to do exactly that during the Age of Exploration. As a response, Magellan told the friendly side they would use their armour and weapons and easily crush the rebellious ones, the people called the Mactanese led by the chieftain Lapu Lapu.

Believing wholeheartedly in the strength of his men and their power of their weapons and armour, he told the natives to not even bother supporting him. Sixty of his men would be more than enough to

Pictured: Regret.

overpower what he believed would be a few dozen opponents with spears. Placing their boats far from the island as he did not believe he needed them, he went ashore searching for blood foolishly out of the range of his crossbowmen and artillery aboard. Upon reaching the island island is when things went awry; it wasn't a mere force of a few dozen, but instead an overwhelming force of many times that. Firing arrows and throwing spears, they eventually began to wear down the heavy, slower Spanish and Portuguese soldiers. Attempting a slow retreat, the men tried to return to their boats and flee. The defending force of natives focussed their efforts on Magellan specifically, and after having been struck by a poisoned arrow he began to lose mobility further. His men, unable to support him, had to retreat without their captain. Magellan was quickly overtaken and slaughtered, his body never recovered. Nothing short of a rout, the wounded made it back with nine men and their captain slain on April 27th, 1521.

So, yeah, that was a little unexpected. As it turns out Magellan's voyage had to continue from then on sans Magellan. Lapu Lapu, meanwhile, was seen as a hero and is hailed as such to this day.