It is significant to give an appreciation to the primary eye witness and the writer of

the book The First Voyage Round the World, Antonio Pigafetta. He was also known by
the name Francisco Antonio Pigafetta and was born in Vienza, Italy. He was an Italian
traveller who became a friend of Magellanus when he went to Spain in 1519. He and
Juan Sebastián Elcano accompanied Magellanus on his famous expolaration which is
called to “the mollucas”; in which the famous battle in Mactan come into existence,
begun in August 1915 and completed in September 1522. He died in 1534 at the same
city where he was born. The document was written during the board of five ships that
was first to circumnavigate the world that was led by Magellan, a Portuguese navigator.
After the death of Pigafetta during the voyage, it was continued by Juan Sebastian
Elcano, a slave of Magellan from Malaca who is the translator of the document. It
serves as a record to their expedition to different parts of the world and was also used in
cartography during their time.
Antonio Pigafetta, as the author, wrote the book for Lord Philippe Villiers de
L’Isle-Adam. All locations along the journey were written down with the help of
coordinates in the globe. The document showed how religion influenced the lives of the
Spaniards along with Magellan. Pigafetta labelled significant dates in their journey with
the affiliation of the feast of their Saints. The document emphasized the trades they
have made with the people they met in the midst of their journey and among these
people were the kings in his first arrival in the Philippines to which he planted a cross.
As recorded in history, Magellan died under the command of the chieftain of Mactan
who refused any type of colonization by foreigners who dared step a foot on his land.
Lapu-Lapu is now considered a hero by the country in contrast with Pigafetta’s account.
The documents and information we have gathered served as a kickstart or a
gateway for us to understand the ideology and question the legitimacy of the history that
once we taught before, such as Lapu-lapu was not the one who killed Magellan, rather
in most cases one of his men. Another inaccuracy was Pigafetta’s writing about
Magellan’s crew fighting thousands of Lapu-lapu’s men. According to Trizer D.
Mansueto in his article in 2013, he may also have intentionally bloated the number of
Lapu-Lapu’s men so the Spaniards would appear heroic before the eyes of his
European audience. As we seek legitimacy, the history we knew before change as we
start to gather and read documents presented and researched, we sought credible and
accurate sources. This is very important for the grand narrative of Philippine History for
we are trying to complete a master idea about the history of our country with legitimate
facts and accurate information as this is a major factor.
Lapu-Lapu is so great to us but to the account of Antonio Pigafetta, he differently
narrated what we know as he only wrote the travel journey because of the King of Spain
and even if Lapu-Lapu was not the one who killed Magellan the credit still goes to him;
he is the leader after all. Story always differs based on the eyewitness. Pigafetta
happened to record the events based on what he saw and felt. We would not know if
there are other people who happen to witness and not record it they just passed it as a
legend, it happens that Pigafetta’s is the only account that was written down.