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COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

Department of Social Sciences

NAME OF THE General Education

PROGRAM
COURSE TITLE Readings in Philippine History COURSE CODE SOC 101
PREREQUISITE/ CO- None COURSE UNIT 3 units
REQUISITE
COURSE OUTCOME CO2: Analyze the context, content, and perspective of selected primary
sources in Philippine history to critically understand the social, political,
religious, and economic problems now faced by the Filipino people
MODULE 3 Interpreting Primary Sources and Understanding Perspective
LESSON LEARNING After successful completion of this module, you should be able to:
OUTCOME/S a. distinguish the contribution of different kinds of primary sources in
understanding Philippine history; and
b. examine the context, content, and perspective of the selected primary
historical sources that were discussed.
TOPICS ⮚ Identification of the historical importance of the text and examination
of the author's main argument and point of view
⮚ How to interpret primary sources through examining the context and
content of the document
⮚ Primary Historical Sources: Examine Antonio Pigafetta’s “First
Voyage around the World”: Magellan-Elcano’s Expedition
MODALITY Synchronous (MS Teams) and Asynchronous (Neo LMS)

▪ LESSON PROPER

Examination of the author's main argument and point of view

Only historical sources and facts provide historians with access to historical representations of the
past. As a result, the historian's duties include both finding historical data and facts as well as interpreting
those facts. It is the responsibility of the historian to give these data context, arrange them
chronologically, identify causes, and write history. Only historical sources and facts provide historians
with access to historical representations of the past. He is a unique individual who is shaped by a variety
of factors, including his context, environment, philosophy, education, and influences. His bias will
unavoidably affect how he conducts his historical investigation.

Here are some guide questions in critically analyzing or examining the author’s main argument and
point of view.

⮚ What is the author’s main objective in writing the article, book, etc.?
⮚ Does the author seek to persuade, convince, to identify problem, or to provide a solution?
⮚ What are the forms of evidence used by the author? Are they effective and for whom?

A further step in the analysis of primary sources is to examine the author’s main argument or
main point of view. In the process of analyzing a primary source, a history student must closely examine
a single text written by a single author in an attempt to understand why the writer/ author wrote the
particular text in a particular way, to a particular audience and for what purpose?

Students must critically analyze or examine the text (article, book etc.) based on these guidelines:

1. What was argued or described by the writer?

2. How did the writer present his argument or point of view?
3. Why did the writer choose (for example, persuasion) as the method of presentation?
4. What evidences or arguments that the writer used in persuading his audience?
5. What does the writer ultimately hope to achieve by writing this particular text?
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COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

Department of Social Sciences

Deeds, statutes, war narratives, and other texts with important historical content can be provided
by individuals or groups expressing different points of view. These texts or documents are significant in
and interesting from a historical perspective. The degree of significance is a matter of interpretation, often
connected to the value systems of the period in which the interpretations are made, but many of the
historical documents produced today, such as personal letters, pictures, contracts, newspapers, and
medical records would be considered valuable historical documents that will survive the test of time.

By considering preservation issues and either printing documents in a manner that time capsules,
the creation of new knowledge or the application of the information is thus the fundamental purpose of
thoroughly evaluating the primary source. Therefore, creating new knowledge or using the data from the
primary source (document sample) to investigate bigger historical questions or context is the primary
purpose of thoroughly evaluating the primary source.

Examining the context and content of the document

One way to analyze primary sources is the contextual analysis or simply called textual
analysis. Understanding the historical context of a primary source is called for understanding the attitudes
and influences that shaped the creations of the primary source. If not placed into historical context, a
primary source’s true meaning might be misinterpreted.
Here are some specific questions to ask in analyzing primary sources
o What kind of document do you have? Is it a treatise letter? A manuscript, or a printed
document?
o Was it published? If yes, when and where?
o Who is the author? What positions, role, reputations, status, did the author have at the time of
writing?
o Is the author well- known today or at the time of writing?
o Who is the intended audience?
o Who read this text at that time? What are the responses of those who read it?
o What was to be gained and what were the risks in writing this text?
o How is this document related to other primary documents known to you, particularly from the
same time period?
o Does this document square with what you know from secondary sources?
o What evidence do you have for your claim about the text? A further step in the analysis of
primary sources is to examine the author’s main argument or main point of view.

A brief summary of first voyage around the world by Antonio Pigafetta

Pigafetta is an Italian scholar and explorer from Italy, who organized the Spanish Expeditions to the East
Indies from 1519-1522 to search for western route to the Maluku Islands (the Spice Island) resulting in
the first circumnavigation of the Earth, completed by Juan Sebastian Elcano.

He traveled with the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan and his crew by order of the King Charles
1 of Spain on their Voyage around the world. His travelogue is one of the most important primary sources
in the study of pre-colonial 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-
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COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

Department of Social Sciences

lapu’s forces in the Battle of Mactan and in the departure of what was left of Magellan’s fleet from the
islands.

On March 16, 1521, Antonio Pigafetta wrote his first-hand observation and general impression of the Far
East including their Experiences in the Visayas. In Pigafetta’s account, their fleet reached what he called
the Ladrones Islands or the “Islands of the Thieves” “These people have no arms, but use sticks, which
have a fishbone 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”. It is presently known as Marianas Islands. It is located
south-southeast of Japan, west-southwest of Hawaii, north of New Guinea, and east of Philippines.

Pigafetta reported that they reach the isle of Zamal, now Samar, but Magellan decided to land in another
uninhabited island for greater security where they could rest for a few days. After two days, March 18,
nine men came to them and show joy and eagerness in seeing them and welcomed them with food, drinks,
and gifts. The natives gave them: fish, palm wine (uraca) figs, cochos, and Rice (umai). Pigafetta
described what seemed like a coconut. “This palm produces a fruit names cocho, which is large as the
head, or thereabouts: its first husk is green, and two fingers in thickness, in its they find certain threads,
with which they make the cords for fastening their boats. Under these husks there is another very hard,
and thicker than that of a walnut. They burned this second rind, and make with it a powder which is
useful to them. Under this rind there is a white marrow of a fingers thickness, which they eat fresh with
meat and fish, as we do bread, and it has the taste of almond, and if anyone dried it, he might make bread
of it.

The natives willingly showed them different islands and the names of this islands. They went to Humunu
Island (Homonhon) where they found the first signs of gold in the island. They named the island with
the nearby islands as the Archipelago of St. Lazarus and on March 25, they saw two ballangai (balangay).
The leader (or king) Raja Siagu, sent his men to the ship of Magellan. The king offered to give Magellan
a bar of gold and chest of ginger; Magellan declined. Instead, Magellan asked for money for the needs of
his ships. The king responded by giving them the needed provisions and food in chinaware. Magellan
exchanged gifts of robes in Turkish fashions, red cap, knives and mirrors.

The two men expressed their desire to become brothers. Magellan also boasted of his men in an armor
who could not struck with swords and daggers. The king was fascinated and remarked that men in such
armor could be worth one hundred of his men. Magellan showed other weapons, helmets and
artilleries. He also shared his charts and maps and how they found the islands. Magellan was introduced
to the king’s brother who was also king of another island. They went to this island and they saw mines of
gold. The gold was abundant that the parts of the ship and the house of the second king were made of
gold. Magellan and his men met Raja Calambu, Pigafetta described him as the most handsome of all men
that he saw in this place. He was adorned with golden accessories like golden dagger, which he carried
with him in a wooden polished sheath.

On March 31, 1521 (Easter Sunday), Magellan ordered the chaplain to preside a Mass by the shore. The
king sent two dead pigs and attended the Mass with the other king. “…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 with joined hands.” After the Mass,
Magellan ordered that the cross be brought with nails and crowned in place. Magellan explained that the
cross, the nail, and the crown were the signs of his emperor and that he was ordered to plant it in the
places that he would reach and the cross would be beneficial for their people because once the Spaniards
saw this cross, then they would know that they had been in this land and would not cause them troubles,
and any person who might be held captives by them would be released.

April 17, 1521. Magellan and his men reached the port of Cebu, the largest and the richest of the islands
with the helped of Raja Calambu. The king of Cebu, Rajah Humabon, demanded that they pay tribute
as it was customary but Magellan refused. Magellan said that he was the captain himself and thus would
not pay tribute to the other king. Magellan’s interpreter explained to the king of Cebu that Magellan’s
king was the emperor of the great empire and that it would do them better to make friends with them than
to forge enmity.
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COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

Department of Social Sciences

The king consulted his council and the next day, together with the other principal men of Cebu, they met
in an open space and the king offered a bit of his blood demanded that Magellan do the same. “Then the
king said that he was content, and as a greater sign of affection he sent him a little of his blood from his
right arm, and wish 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.”

Magellan spoke about peace and God. People took pleasure in his speech. Magellan asked the people
who would succeed the king after his reign and the people responded that the eldest child of the king, who
happened to be a daughter, would be the next in line. Parents were no longer taken into account and has to
follow the orders of their children as the new leaders of the land. People wished to become Christians
through their free will and not because they were forced or intimidated.

April 14, 1521. The people gathered with the king and other principal men of the island. Magellan spoke
and encouraged the king to be a good Christian by burning all the idols and worship the cross instead. The
king of Cebu was baptized as Christians. “To that the 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, and
they walk 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, all of the island’s
inhabitant were already baptized. Pigafetta admitted that they burned a village down for obeying neither
the king nor Magellan. The Mass was conducted by the shore every day. When the queen, Hara Amihan
came to the Mass one day, Magellan gave her an Image of the Infant Jesus made by Pigafetta himself.

April 26, 1521. Zula, a principal man from the island of Matan (Mactan) went to see Magellan and ask
him a boat full of men so that he could fight the chief name Silalapulapu (Lapu-lapu). According to Zula,
Lapu-lapu refused to obey the king and was also preventing him from doing so. Magellan offered three
boats and went to Mactan himself to fight Lapu-lapu. “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. They arrived in Mactan in daylight with 49 in numbers while the
islanders of Mactan were estimated to number 1500. 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 the 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. A few
of their men charges at the natives and tried to intimidate them by burning an entire village but this only
enraged the natives further. Magellan was specifically targeted because the native knew he was the
captain general. 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
arms. 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 their bare hands. 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.

The king of Cebu who was baptized could have sent help but Magellan instructed him not to join the
battle and stay in the balangay so that he would see how they fought. The king offered the people of
Mactan’s gifts of any value and amount in exchange of Magellan’s body but the chief refused. They
wanted to keep Magellan’s body as a momento of their victory. Duarte Barbosa is elected as the new
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COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

Department of Social Sciences

captain. Henry, Magellan’s slave and interpreter betrayed them and told the king of Cebu that they
intended to leave as quickly as possible. The slave allegedly told the king that if he followed his advice,
the king would acquire the ships and the goods of Magellan’s fleet. The two conspired and betrayed what
was left of Magellan’s men.

The king invited these men to a gathering where he said he would present the jewels that he would send
for the King of Spain. Twenty-four men attended while Pigafetta was not able to joined because he was
nursing his battle wounds. The natives had slain all the men except the interpreter and Juan Serrano who
was already wounded. The fleet departed and abandoned Serrano. They left Cebu and continued their
journey around the world. From the original five ships set to sail (San Antonio, Concepcion, Victoria,
Trinidad and Santiago) only Victoria returned to Spain. And from the original 237 men only 18 men
survived.

Key Notes on the Magellan-Elcano Expedition

⮚ The Magellan expedition made history's first trip around the globe. A Spanish voyage led by
Ferdinand Magellan set sail from Seville in 1519 in quest of a sea route through the Americas
and across the Pacific Ocean.
⮚ Along with becoming the first to complete a world circumnavigation, the Magellan-Elcano
expedition also laid the groundwork for numerous other historical and scientific firsts. It was now
possible to finish modern maps of the Earth and confirm the previously unconfirmed size of the
ocean separating the Americas from Asia, which Magellan named the "Pacific." The expedition
also directly confirmed that the Earth was round, even though this had long since been taken
for granted.
⮚ After Magellan was murdered in the Philippines in April 1521, Basque navigator Juan Sebastian
Elcano assumed command of the Victoria. The crew endured a lengthy, arduous voyage home
during which they were plagued by famine, scurvy, and harassment by Portuguese ships. In
September 1522, only Elcano and 21 other travelers made it to Spain and they were the first men
to complete a single-empire circumnavigation.

▪ SUPPLEMENTARY LEARNING MATERIALS

Read: The Expedition of Miguel López de Legazpi by Andrés de Urdaneta

Location: NEO LMS

Read: Accounts on Early Filipino Civilization in the book Reading in Philippine History by Zafra

▪ REFERENCES

Readings in the Philippine History by John Lee P. Candelaria and Veronica C. Alphora. First Voyage Around the World
by Antonio Pigafetta from https://pdfcoffee.com/readings-in-the-philippine-history-9-pdf-free.html

Readings in Philippine History. Teodoro Agoncillo's History of the Filipino People. Summary of Chapter 15-20