The Challenges of Circumnavigation
On August 10, of 1519, Juan Sebastian Elcano departed Seville with 270 men and five ships on the first recorded circumnavigation of the globe. Never heard of him? History is so rarely considerate to staff. The voyage was actually led by the Portuguese missionary Ferdinand Magellan. Sponsored by Spain, Magellan sought westward passage to the Spice Islands, in compliance with a papal decree prohibiting Spanish ships from navigating the easier route east. But a Portuguese flying the Spanish flag? Scandalous!
The passage was largely uneventful, except for unceasing storms, conspiracy, sodomy, mutiny, scurvy, and starvation. An exhausted Magellan arrived in Guam and the Philippines in 1521 ready for zealous trade and Christian conversions.
At first he succeeded. But Magellan's passion for conversions eventually got the better of him at the island of Mactan where local leader Datu Lapulapu and his warriors resisted the arrival of the strange, metal clad men. When they made clear they preferred not to accept Christianity, a battle ensued, and European armor failed to overcome a 1500 to 60 numerical disadvantage. Magellan caught a bangkaw (metal, fire hardened Ratan spear) to the body and was hacked to death. Lapulapu kept the "ambassador's" remains as a trophy.
Monument to the Discoverers, Lisbon (Photo-Chip Walter)
Lapulapu - Photo Elmer B. Domingo
Following Magellan's death, the crew reorganized. Two functioning ships remained, but only the Victoria, commanded by Elcano, would sail for home. In truth, history has not forgotten Elcano. Though Magellan gets most of the notoriety, Elcano received formal credit for completing the expedition, bringing the remaining 18 crew and a dozen strays back home. Ironically, modern suspicions are that none of those 19 was truly the first to circumnavigate the world. Enrique of Malacca, conscripted a decade earlier, would have closed the circle late in 1521 had he made the 2500 km crossing home from Cebu, his last recorded location.
Remarkable as it was, it would take 60 more years before Magellan's passage would be repeated. Matters of national interest and impracticality deflected nations from that route.
In Lisbon today, there are monuments to Magellan, Prince Henry the Navigator and the others whose voyages of discovery took them to every corner of the globe. In the Philippines, people celebrate a man who resisted colonization just as fiercely. Both cultures consider these men heroes. History and human behavior works this way. Tribalism still abides, whether it’s football games or outright war. We seem to be making progress, but can we find better ways to celebrate diversity without demonizing those who are different?