Battle of Mactan

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Battle of Mactan

Gubat sa Mactan (Cebuano)

Labanan sa Mactan (Tagalog)

Batalla de Mactán (Spanish)

MactanShrinePainting2.jpg

A mural painting depicting the Battle of Mactan

Date 27 April 1521

Location Mactan, Cebu, Philippines

Result Decisive Kingdom of Mactan victory

Death of Ferdinand Magellan

Belligerents

Kingdom of Mactan Rajahnate of Cebu

Spain Magellan expedition

Commanders and leaders

Lapu-Lapu Spain Ferdinand Magellan †

Rajah Humabon

Datu Zula

Strength

1,500 native warriors

(Antonio Pigafetta accounted) 49 Spanish explorers, and about 200–300 allied native warriors.

Casualties and losses

several killed and wounded At least 14 killed, including Magellan (Spaniards), and at least 150 native
warriors.

The location of Mactan Island in Cebu

The Battle of Mactan (Cebuano: Gubat sa Mactan; Filipino: Labanan sa Mactan; Spanish: Batalla de
Mactán) was fought in the Philippines on 27 April 1521, prior to Spanish colonization. The warriors of
Lapu-Lapu, a native chieftain of Mactan Island, overpowered and defeated a Spanish force fighting for
Rajah Humabon of Cebu, under the command of Ferdinand Magellan, who was killed in the battle.

Contents

1 Background

2 Battle

2.1 Aftermath

3 In Philippine culture

4 Legends

5 References

6 External links

Background

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Archaeology

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On 16 March 1521 (Julian calendar), Magellan sighted the mountains of what is now Samar while on a
mission to find a westward route to the Moluccas Islands for Spain. This event marked the arrival of the
first documented Europeans in the Archipelago. The following day, Magellan ordered his men to anchor
their ships on the shores of Homonhon Island.[1]

There, Magellan befriended Rajah Kolambu and Rajah Siagu, king of Limasawa, who guided him to
Cebu.[1] There he met Rajah Humabon, the Rajah of Cebu. Then, Rajah Humabon and his queen were
baptized into the Catholic faith, taking the Christian names Carlos, in honor of King Charles of Spain, and
Juana, in honor of King Charles' mother. To commemorate this event, Magellan gave Juana the Santo
Niño, an image of the infant Jesus, as a symbol of their new alliance and held their first mass in the
coast.[1]

As a result of Magellan's influence with Rajah Humabon, an order had been issued to the nearby chiefs
that each of them were to provide food supplies for the ships, and convert to Christianity.

Most chiefs obeyed the order. However, Datu Lapu-Lapu, one of the two chiefs within the island of
Mactan, was the only chieftain to show his opposition. Lapu-Lapu refused to accept the authority of
Rajah Humabon in these matters. This opposition proved to be influential when Antonio Pigafetta,[2]
Magellan's voyage chronicler,[3] writes,

"On Friday, April twenty-six, Zula, the second chief of the island of Mactan, sent one of his sons to
present two goats to the captain-general, and to say that he would send him all that he had promised,
but that he had not been able to send it to him because of the other chief Lapu-Lapu, who refused to
obey the king of Spain."[4]

Rajah Humabon and Datu Zula suggested to Magellan to go to the island of Mactan and force his subject
chieftain Datu Lapu-Lapu to comply with his orders.[1] Magellan saw an opportunity to strengthen the
existing friendship ties with the ruler of the Visayan region and agreed to help him subdue the resistant
Lapu-Lapu.

Battle

According to the documents of Italian historian Antonio Pigafetta, Magellan tried to convince lapu lapu
to comply with Rajah Humabon's orders the night before the battle,

At midnight, sixty of us set out armed with corselets and helmets, together with the Christian king, the
prince, some of the chief men, and twenty or thirty balanguais. [a type of Filipino boat] We reached
Mactan three hours before dawn. The captain did not wish to fight then, but sent a message to the
natives to the effect that if they would obey the king of Spain, recognize the Christian king as their
sovereign, and pay us our tribute, he would be their friend; but that if they wished otherwise, they
should wait to see how our lances wounded. They replied that if we had lances they had lances of
bamboo and stakes hardened with fire. They said that in order to induce us to go in search of them; for
they had dug certain pit holes filled with spikes between the houses in order that we might fall into
them.[4]

Pigafetta writes how Magellan deployed forty-nine armored men with swords, axes, shields, crossbows,
and guns, and sailed for Mactan in the morning of 28 April. A number of native warriors who had
converted to Christianity also came to their aid.[1] According to Pigafetta, because of the rocky
outcroppings, and coral near the beach, the Spanish soldiers could not land on Mactan. Forced to
anchor their ships far from shore, Magellan could not bring his ships' cannons to bear on Lapu-Lapu's
warriors, who numbered more than 1,500.

"When morning came, forty-nine of us leaped into the water up to our thighs, and walked through
water for more than two cross-bow flights before we could reach the shore. The boats could not
approach nearer because of certain rocks in the water. The other men remained behind to guard the
boats. When we reached land, [the natives] had formed in three divisions to the number of more than
one thousand five hundred persons. When they saw us, they charged down upon us with ear-shattering
loud cries... The musketeers and crossbow-men shot from a distance for about a half-hour, but
uselessly..."[5]

The musketeers were too far back to aim, and could only shoot halfway from the distance of the
natives.[citation needed]

Magellan and his men then tried to scare them off by burning some houses in Bulaia. But the natives
surprised them by raining a barrage of arrows, but due to the shields and helmets of the Spaniards, they
left no permanent damage.

"Seeing that, Magellan sent some men to burn their houses in order to terrify them. When they saw
their houses burning, they were roused to greater fury. Some of our men were killed near the houses,
while we burned twenty or thirty houses. So many of them rained down upon us that the captain was
shot through the right leg with a poisoned arrow. On that account, he ordered us to a frontal assault.
But the men took to flight, except ten to fifteen of us who remained with the captain. The natives shot
only at our legs, for the latter were bare; and so many were the spears and stones that they hurled at us,
that we could offer no resistance. The mortars in the boats could not aid us as they were too far
away."[5]
When the natives charged to their position, Magellan ordered his men to fire at them using their rifles
and crossbows, but for a short period of time. Out of ammunition, they switched to their swords and
axes and fought with the captain. At least 10 Spaniards were killed and the others withdrew.

Many of the warriors specifically attacked Magellan. In the struggle, he was wounded in the arm with a
spear and in the leg by a kampilan. Those who stood beside him were easily overpowered and killed,
while the others who tried to help him were hacked by spears and swords. With this advantage, Lapu-
Lapu's troops finally overwhelmed and killed Magellan. Pigafetta and a few others managed to escape.

"Recognizing the captain, so many turned upon him that they knocked his helmet off his head twice... an
Indian hurled a bamboo spear into the captain's face, but the latter immediately killed him with his
lance, which he left in the Indian's body. Then, trying to lay hand on sword, he could draw it out but
halfway, because he had been wounded in the arm with a bamboo spear. When the natives saw that,
they all rushed themselves upon him. One of them wounded him on the left leg with a large cutlass,
which resembles a scimitar, only being larger. That caused the captain to fall face downward, when
immediately they rushed upon him with iron and bamboo spears and with their cutlasses, until they
killed our mirror, our light, our comfort, and our true guide. When they wounded him, he turned back
many times to see whether we were all in the boats. Thereupon, beholding him dead, we, wounded,
retreated, as best we could, to the boats, which were already pulling off..."[5]

According to Pigafetta, several of Magellan's men were killed in battle, and a number of natives
converted to Christianity who had come to their aid were immediately killed by the warriors.[4]

Magellan's allies, Humabon and Zula, were said not to have taken part in the battle due to Magellan's
bidding, and they watched from a distance.

Aftermath

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When the body of Magellan was recovered by the warriors, Humabon ordered him to return the bodies
of Magellan and some of his crew who were killed, and they would be given as much merchandise as
they wished. Lapu-Lapu refused.[citation needed]
Some of the soldiers who survived the battle and returned to Cebu were poisoned while attending a
feast given by Humabon. Magellan was succeeded by Juan Sebastián Elcano as commander of the
expedition, who ordered the immediate departure after Humabon's betrayal. Elcano and his fleet sailed
west and returned to Spain in 1522, completing the first circumnavigation of the world.[citation needed]

In Philippine culture

A depiction of Lapu Lapu at the Lapu Lapu shrine.

The memorial to Magellan built by the Spanish.

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citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2017) (Learn
how and when to remove this template message)

Today, Lapu-Lapu is retroactively honored as the first "Philippine national hero" to resist foreign rule,
even though the territory of the "Philippine Islands" did not exist at the time, or was even named or
imagined that way. It might be considered a historical inaccuracy to consider the Battle of Mactan a
"fight to resist foreign rule",[citation needed] as Magellan's forces were fighting to defend the interests
of Rajah Humabon, the local chieftain of Cebu. Rajah Humabon was among the first indigenous converts
to Roman Catholicism after he, his wives, and his subjects were baptised by the expedition's priest on 14
April 1521. The Battle of Mactan was in fact one of many tribal wars common in the archipelago prior to
the arrival of the Spanish, with the added component that a European force fought for one of the sides,
and lost.[citation needed]

Lapu-Lapu is remembered by a number of commemorations: statues on the island of Mactan and at the
Cebu Provincial Capitol, a city bearing his name, and a local variety of red grouper fish. Kapampangan
actor-turned-politician Lito Lapid starred in a film called Lapu-Lapu, and novelty singer Yoyoy Villame
wrote a folk song entitled "Magellan" that tells a humorously distorted story of the Battle of Mactan.[6]

There is a spot in Mactan Island called the Mactan shrine where the battle is reenacted during its
anniversary. In the same shrine, next to the Lapu-Lapu statue, there is an obelisk erected in Magellan's
honor by the Spanish colonial authorities and defaced shortly after the US military occupation of the
Philippines.[citation needed]

Magellan is also honored for bringing Catholicism to the Philippines in general and the Santo Niño (Child
Jesus) to Cebu in particular. The Magellan's Cross and the aforementioned Magellan's shrine were
erected in Cebu City and Mactan Island. Many landmarks and infrastructures all over the Philippines
bear Magellan's name, mostly using its Spanish spelling (Magallanes), which is also a widely used Filipino
surname.[citation needed]

The inhabitants of the Sulu archipelago believe that Lapu-Lapu was a Muslim (Lapu Lapu among Khidr
Army.) of the Sama-Bajau.[7]

On April 27, 2017, in honoring Lapu-Lapu as the first hero who resisted foreign rule in the country, the
date April 27 when the battle happened was declared by President Rodrigo Duterte as Lapu-Lapu
Day.[8][9]

Legends

According to native legend, Lapu-Lapu never died but turned into stone, and has since then been
guarding the seas of Mactan. Fishermen of the island would throw coins at a stone shaped like a man as
a way of asking for permission to fish in the chieftain’s territory.[10]

Another myth passed on by the natives concerns the statue of Lapu-Lapu erected on a pedestal at the
center of the town plaza in Lapu-Lapu City. The statue faced the old city hall building, where the mayors
used to hold office; it held a crossbow in the stance of appearing to shoot an enemy. Some superstitious
people of the city proposed to change this crossbow with a sword, after a succession of three mayors
died due to a heart attack.[10]

Another legend suggests that after the battle, Lapu-Lapu left Mactan and lived on a mountain.[citation
needed]

References

Agoncillo, Teodoro (2006). Introduction to Filipino History. Garotech Publishing.

David, Hawthorne (1964). Ferdinand Magellan. Doubleday & Company, Inc.

"Battle of Mactan Marks Start of Organized Filipino Resistance Vs. Foreign Aggression". Retrieved 9
April 2009.

Nowell, Charles E. (1962). Magellan's Voyage Around the World: Three Contemporary Accounts.
Northwestern University Press.

"The Death of Magellan, 1521". Archived from the original on 7 June 2008. Retrieved 9 June 2008.
"MAGELLAN Lyrics by Yoyoy Villame". Archived from the original on 10
February 2008. Retrieved 4 February 2008.
Frank "Sulaiman" Tucci (2009). The Old Muslim's Opinions: A Year of
Filipino Newspaper Columns. iUniverse. p. 41. ISBN 9781440183430.
Kabiling, Genalyn (27 April 2017). "April 27 declared as Lapu-Lapu Day".
Manila Bulletin. Retrieved 22 May 2017.
Romero, Alexis (27 April 2017). "'Hero' Lapu-Lapu gets special day".
The Philippine Star. Retrieved 22 May 2017.
"Battle of Mactan: history and myth".
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Battle of Mactan.
The Death of Magellan according to Pigafetta
Reliving the Battle of Mactan
Battle of Mactan: History and Myth
Coordinates: 10.3106°N 124.0151°E

Categories: 1521 in the PhilippinesBattles involving SpainBattles

involving the PhilippinesCivil wars of the Middle AgesConflicts in
1521History of CebuLapu-Lapu, PhilippinesMilitary history of the
PhilippinesHistory of the Philippines (1521–1898)Visayan
historyMagellan–Elcano circumnavigation