Content and Contextual Analysis

of Selected Primary Source In

the Philippines
• CHARLEMAGNE ATAAT
• IRISH MAE CATAPANG
• PRINCESS JOY CACAO
• LECEL CAGICLA
• FREDERICK KYLE CARANDANG
 Learning Objective:
• To familiarize oneself with the primary documents in
different historical periods of the Philippines.

• To learn history through primary sources.

• To properly interpret primary sources through

examining the contact and context of the document.

• To understand the context behind each selected

document.
Primary Source in
historical research
entails two kinds of
criticism.
 1. External criticism

- examines the authenticity of the document or the

evidence being used.
- (originality of the data)
Ex.
1. Date of event
2. Place of production
3. The authorship
4. Analysis of its production
5. Integrity developed by its original form of
production.
 2. Internal criticism
- examines the truthfulness of the content of the
evidence.
- (accuracy of the data)
Ex.
A historian would have to situate the document in the
period of its production, or in the background of its authors.
A BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE
FIRST VOYAGE AROUND
THE WORLD BY MAGELLAN
BY ANTONIO PIGAFETTA
 The First Voyage
Around the World
-book that w a s taken from the
chronicles of contemporary voyagers
and navigators o f the 16th century
-one of them w a s Italian nobleman
Antonio Pigafetta, Ferdinand fateful
who accompanied Magellan in his
circumnavigation of the world
ANTONIO
PIGAFETT
A
• Pigafetta’s travelogue is one of the most important primary sources in the
study of the precolonial Philippines .

• His account was also a major referent to the events leading to Magellan’s
arrival in the Philippines, his encounter with local leaders, his death in the
hands of Lapu-Lapu’s forces in the Battle of Mactan, and the departure of
what was left of Magellan’s fleet from the islands.

• The First Voyage Around the World by Magellan was published after
Pigafetta returned to Italy.
 • In Pigafetta’s account, their fleet reached what he called the Ladrones
Islands or the “Islands of the Thieves.”
He recounted:
“These people have no arms, but use sticks, which have a fish bone at
the end. They are poor, but ingenious, and great thieves, and for the sake of
that we called these three islands the Ladrones Islands.”

• These islands are located south-southeast of Japan, west-southwest of

Hawaii, north of New Guinea, and east of Philippines.
• Ten days after they reached Ladrones Islands, Pigafetta reported that
they reached what Pigafetta called the isle of Zamal, now Samar.

• Pigafetta recounted that after two days, March 18, ninemen came to
them and showed joy and eagerness in seeing them.

• Magellan realized that the men were reasonable and welcomed

them with food, drinks and gifts. In turn the natives gave them fish,
palm wine (uraca), figs, and two cochos. The natives also gave them
rice (umai), cocos, and other food supplies.
 “This palm produces a fruit named cocho, which is as large as the
head, or thereabouts: its first husk is green, and two fingers in
thickness, in it they find certain threads, with which they make the
cords for fastening their boats. Under this husk there is another very
hard, and thicker than that of a walnut. They burn this second rind,
and make with it a powder which is useful to them. Under this rind
there is a white marrow of a finger’s thickness, which they eat fresh
with meat and fish, as we do bread, and it has the taste of anyone
dried it he amlmigohnt dm, a akned b rief ad of it (p.72).”
• Pigafetta characterized the people as “very familiar and friendly”.

• The fleet went to Humunu Island (Homonhon) and there they found what Pigafetta
referred to as the “Watering Place of Good Signs.”

• They named the island with the nearby islands as the archipelago of St. Lazarus.

• The left the island, then on March 25th. Pigafetta recounted that they saw two
ballanghai (balangay), a long boat full of people in Mazaua. The leader, who
Pigaffeta referred to as the king of ballanghai, sent his men to the ship of Magellan.

• The two then expressed their desire to become brothers.

• After a few days, Magellan was introduced to the king’s brother who was also a king of
another island. They went to this island and Pigafetta reported that they saw mines of
gold.

• The king was named Raia Calambu, king of Zuluan ang Calagan (Butuan and Caragua), and
the first king was Raia Siagu.

• On March 31st, which happened to be Easter Sunday, Magellan ordered the chaplain to
preside a Mass by the shore.

• Pigafetta reported that both kings participated in the mass.

He wrote:
“…when the offertory of the mass came, the two kings, went to kiss the cross like us, but
they offered nothing, and at the elevation of the body of our Lord they were kneeling like us,
and adored our Lord hwaitnhd sjo.”ined
After the Mass, Magellan ordered that the cross be brought with nails and crown in place.
Magellan explained that the cross, nail and the crown were signs of his emperor and that he
was ordered to plant it in the places that he would reach.

• The king concurred and allowed for the cross to be planted. This Mass would go down in
history as the first Mass in the Philippines.

• After seven days, Magellan and his men decided to move and look for islands where they
could acquire more supplies and provisions. They learned of the Islands of Ceylon (Leyte),
Bohol, and Zzubu (Cebu) and intended to go there.

• Raia Calambu offered to pilot them in going to Cebu, the largest and richest of the islands.
• By April 7th of the same year, Magellan and his men reached the port of Cebu. The king of
Cebu, through Magellan’s interpreter, demanded that they pay tribute as it was customary,
but Magellan refused.

• Magellan’s interpreter explained to the king of Cebu that Magellan’s king was the emperor
of a great empire and that it would do them better to make friends with them than to forge
enmity.

• By the next day, Magellan’s men and the King of Cebu, together with other principal men of
Cebu, met in an open space. There, the king offered a bit of his blood and demanded that
Magellan do the same
Pigafetta recounts:
“Then the king said that he was content, and as a
greater sign if affection he sent him a little of his blood from
his right arm, and wished he should do the like. Our people
answered that he would do it. Besides that, he said that all
the captains who came to his country had been
accustomed to make a present to him, and he to them, and
therefore they should ask their captain if he would
observe the custom. Our people answered that he would;
but as the king wished to keep up the custom, let him begin
and make a present, and then the captain would do his duty.”
The following day, Magellan spoke before the people of Cebu abut peace and God. Pigafetta
reported that the people took pleasure in Magellan’s speech.

• Pigafetta also related how the people talked about, how at old age, parents were no longer
taken into account and had to follow the orders of their children as the new leaders of the
land. Magellan responded to this by saying that his faith entailed children to render honor and
obedience to their parents.

• Pigafetta wrote that their men were overjoyed seeing that the people wished to become
Christians through their free will and not because they were forced or intimidated.

• On the 14th of April, the people gathered with the king and other principal men of the
islands. Magellan spoke to the king and encouraged him to be a good Christian by burning all
of their idols and worship the cross instead. The king of Cebu was then baptized as a Christian.
Pigafetta wrote:
“To that king and all his people answered that thy would
obey the commands of the captain and do all that he told
them. The captain took the king by the hand,a nd they walked
about on the scaffolding, and when he was baptized he said
that he would name him Don Charles (Carlos), as the
emperor his sovereign was named; and he named the prince
Don Fernand (Fernando), after the brother of the emperor,
and the King of Mazavva, Jehan: to the Moor he gave the
name of Christopher, and to the others each a name of his
fancy.”
After eight days, Pigafetta counted that all of the island’s inhabitant were already baptized. He
admitted that they burned a village down for obeying neither the king nor Magellan.

• When the queen came to the Mass one day, Magellan gave her an image of the Infant Jesus
made by Pigafetta himself.

• When Magellan reiterated that all of the newly baptized Christians need to burn their idols,
but the native gave excuses telling Magellan that they needed the idols to heal a sick man who
was a relative to the king. Magellan insisted that they should instead put their faith in Jesus
Christ. They went to the sick man and baptized him. After the baptismal, Pigafetta recorded
that the man was able to speak again. He called this a miracle.
• On the 26th of April, Zula, a principal man from the island of Matan (Mactan)
went to see Magellan and asked him for a boat full of men so that he would be
able to fight the chief named Silapulapu (LapuLapu). Such chief, according to
Zula, refused to obey the king and was also preventing him from doing so.

• Magellan offered three boats instead and expressed his desire to go to Mactan
himself to fight the said chief.

• Magellan’s forces arrived in Mactan in daylight. They numbered 49 in total and

the islanders of Mactan were estimated to number 1,500. The battle began.
Pigafetta recounted:

“When we reached land we found the islanders fifteen hundred in number,

drawn up in three squadrons; they came down upon us with terrible
shouts, two squadrons attacking us on the flanks, and the third in front.
The captain then divided his men in two bands. Our musketeers and
crossbow-men fired for half an hour from a distance, but did nothing, since
the bullets and arrows, though they passed through their shields made of thin
wood, and perhaps wounded their arms, yet did not stop them. The captain
shouted not to fire, but he was not listened to. The islanders seeing that the
shots of our guns did them little or no harm would not retire, but shouted more
loudly, and springing from one side to the other to avoid our shots, they at the
same time drew nearer to us, throwing arrows, javelins, spears hardened in
fire, stones and even mud, so that we could hardly defend ourselves. Some of
them cast lances pointed with iron at the captain-general.”
• Magellan died in that battle.

• The natives, perceiving that the bodies of the enemies were protected with armors, aimed
for their legs instead. Magellan was pierced with a poisoned arrow in his right leg. Magellan
was hit with a lance in the face.

• Magellan retaliated and pierced the same native with his lance in the breast and tried to
draw his sword but could not lift it because of his wounded arm. Seeing that the captain has
already deteriorated, more natives came to attack him. One native with a great sword
delivered a blow in Magellan’s left leg, brought him face down and the natives ceaselessly
attacked Magellan with lances, swords and even with their bare hands.
Pigafetta recounted the last moments of Magellan:

“Whilst the Indians were thus overpowering him, several

times he turned round towards us to see if we were all in
safety, as though his obstinate fight had no other object than
to give an opportunity for the retreat of his men.”
• Pigafetta also said that the king of Cebu who was baptized could have send help but
Magellan instructed him not to join the battle and tshtaey b ianlangay so that he would see
how they fought.

• The king offered the people of Mactan gifts of any value and amount in exchange of
Magellan’s body but the chief refused.

• Magellan’s men elected Duarte Barbosa as the new captain. Pigafetta also told how
Magellan’s slave and interpreter named Henry betrayed them and told the king of Cebu that
they intended to leave as quickly as possible.

• Pigafetta alleged that the slave told the king that if he followed the slave’s advice, then the
king could acquire the ships and goods of Magellan’s fleet. The two conspired and betrayed
what was left of Magellan’s men.
• The king invited his men to a gathering where he said he would present jewels that he
would send for the King of Spain and twenty four men attended. It was only a short time
when they heard cries and lamentations.

• The natives had slain all of the men except the interpreter and Juan Serrano who was
already wounded. Serrano was presented and shouted at the men in the ship asking them
to pay ransom so he would be spared. However, they refused and would not allow anyone
to go to the shore.

• The fleet departed and abandoned Serrano. They left Cebu and continued their journey
around the world.
Analysis of
Pigafetta’s
Chronicle
Pigafetta wrote:
“To that king and all his people answered that thy would
obey the commands of the captain and do all that he told
them. The captain took the king by the hand,a nd they walked
about on the scaffolding, and when he was baptized he said
that he would name him Don Charles (Carlos), as the
emperor his sovereign was named; and he named the prince
Don Fernand (Fernando), after the brother of the emperor,
and the King of Mazavva, Jehan: to the Moor he gave the
name of Christopher, and to the others each a name of his
fancy.”
Pigafetta wrote:
“To that king and all his people answered that thy would
obey the commands of the captain and do all that he told
them. The captain took the king by the hand,a nd they walked
about on the scaffolding, and when he was baptized he said
that he would name him Don Charles (Carlos), as the
emperor his sovereign was named; and he named the prince
Don Fernand (Fernando), after the brother of the emperor,
and the King of Mazavva, Jehan: to the Moor he gave the
name of Christopher, and to the others each a name of his
fancy.”
Pigafetta wrote:
“To that king and all his people answered that thy would
obey the commands of the captain and do all that he told
them. The captain took the king by the hand,a nd they walked
about on the scaffolding, and when he was baptized he said
that he would name him Don Charles (Carlos), as the
emperor his sovereign was named; and he named the prince
Don Fernand (Fernando), after the brother of the emperor,
and the King of Mazavva, Jehan: to the Moor he gave the
name of Christopher, and to the others each a name of his
fancy.”