Republic of the Philippines

BOHOL ISLAND STATE UNIVERSITY

Main Campus
CPG North Avenue, Tagbilaran City

Vision: A premier S & T university for the formation of a world class and virtuous human resource for sustainable development in Bohol and the country.
Mission: Committed to provide quality higher education in the arts and sciences, as well as in the professional and technological fields; undertake research and
development, and extension services for the sustainable development in Bohol and the country.

CASOCOT, ANNIE ROSE M.

BTVTED HRS 3-2
ACTIVITY:
1. Being the earliest detailed document, what can you say about Pigafetta’s work?
 As one of the earliest written accounts, Pigafetta was seen as a credible source for a
period, which was prior unchronicled and undocumented. Pigafetta’s work is important
his surviving journal is the source for much of what is known about Magellan and
Elcano’s voyage. The relevance of his own venture, fundamentally lies in the fact that he
took part to the first globe circumnavigation, and he was able to accomplish it after the
murdere of Ferdinand Magellan, leaving a detailed description of the journey in the
report of the first trip around the world.

2. Upon knowing Pigafetta’s writing or detailed documentation on Magellan’s voyage, is

it necessary to understand its context as students of History? Why?
 As a student of history, I can say that it is necessary to understand the context on
Pigafetta’s writing on Magellan’s voyage because his work gives us detailed information
and learning because it includes an early Western description of the people and
languages of the Philippines. It was the first recorded document concerning the
language. Magellan’s voyage is important, because it was the first to circumnavigate the
globe and led to the formation of the International Date Line. It opened doors in the
places where they passed, where people, ideas and goods were coming and going. His
work involved a cartographic recordings of their findings, which included the first written
accounts about Philippine history, and therefore are fundamental to know about their
past.

ACTIVITY 2
Write a critique on Pigafetta’s chronicle on the first voyage around the world.
The First Voyage around the World by Magellan
By Antonio Pigafetta
First voyage around the world is about Antonio Pigafetta’s expedition with Ferdinand
Magellan. Antonio Pigafetta served as Ferdinand Magellan’s assistant that kept an accurate
journal of everything and this is the reason why his writing is considered as primary source.
This documentation was written by Pigafetta’s and is based on his perspective. It may
show biases because it came from one side of the story only. We do not know the other side of
the story which is the point of view of the Indios. We must understand that Pigafetta has his own
beliefs and understanding and also has his own different culture from the Indios. Therefore he
would really describe everything back according to his own view of things and happenings.
Antonio Pigafetta have stated all the scenarios and happenings back then according to
his perspective. He was one of the 18 Europeans who have survived and have returned to
Spain after that first voyage. In my thought, if Antonio Pigafetta did not survive in this voyage,
we will not able to know about this things today.
Reading through the context, I have my own insights according to my own perspective or
point of view. For me,the chronicles of Pigafetta showed the readers of nowadays how was the
pre-colonial Philippines looks like. This documentations are very important in the history of the
Philippines. We may not able to know everything about the Philippines back then, but we are
able to picture out some situations and the people living here in the Philippines (known as
Indios) on their way of living.
What happened in the past is a treasure in the present. It may be tragic or not, it is still
part of our today and will be part of our tomorrow. Therefore, it is very important to know this
things because this are treasure from our rich Philippine history.