When they arrived in the Marianas on March 6, the inhabitants of the island boarded their ships and "stole whatever they could lay their hands on. In his chronicle, Pigafetta said that their previous experience ten days before, in what is now Marianas Islands, made them wary of landing on the big island of Samar. often we ate sawdust from boards. Rats were sold for one-half ducado apiece and even then we could not get them. But above all misfortunes, the following was the worst. The gums of both the lower and upper teeth of some of our men swelled, so that they could not eat under any circumstances and therefore died. Nineteen men died from that sickness (scurvy). Twenty-five or thirty men fell sick in the arms, legs or in another place, so that but few remained well.”Īt dawn of Saturday of March 16, 1521, the expedition of Ferdinand Magellan came upon an island called “Zamal” (Samar). which had become exceedingly hard because of the sun, rain and wind. We drank yellow water that had been putrid for many days. We also ate some ox hides. We ate biscuit which was no longer biscuit, but powder of biscuits, swarming with worms, and stank. we entered into the Pacific sea, where we remained three months and twenty days without taking in provisions or other refreshments. “Wednesday, the twenty-eighth of November, 1520. Many had died and still many had succumbed to scurvy. The chronicles of Antonio Pigafetta served to provide a clearer picture of what took place during Magellan's arrival on Philippine shores. Photo from Wikimedia Commonsĭuring those three months, they did not see any land from which they could get provisions, thus they suffered from hunger and thirst. Because of this they named the ocean, “Pacifico,” which is Spanish for peaceful. The sea was so calm, they did not even encounter any storm. Pacifico, for "peaceful"įrom Seville, Spain, it took Ferdinand Magellan more than a year to navigate this western route along Africa, South America and finally on November 28, 1520, they began their journey through the Pacific Ocean and sailed through this sea for three months and 20 days. While there were other accounts-by a Genoese pilot of the voyage, another by a Portuguese companion of Duarte Barbosa (brother-in- law of Magellan, also killed in Cebu), and by Francisco Albo, a pilot who kept a log book of the voyage-it was Pigafetta’s that was the principal account, containing more details of the expedition. If he did not survive the voyage, we would not have a more detailed story of this long, perilous but amazing journey. Photo by Juanmatassi on Wikimedia Commonsįortunately, one of the survivors was the expedition’s chronicler, Antonio Pigafetta. Victoria Magallanes, the only one of the five ships able to complete the circumnavigation of the world.
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