GHIST Notes

Module 1:
Analysis of Primary sources

 HISTORY
 HISTORIOGRAPHY: The practice of writing history
 The study of past events
 Provide significant information as to how present-day challenges in various areas of human experience may
be addressed
 Greek: “Historie”- means inquiry
 Kasaysayan (Ambeth Ocampo)
 “Kasaysayan” is not just a narrative or salaysay, it MUST have a saysay in history
 Salaysay and Saysay are inseparable
o Salaysay
 A narrative or story
o Saysay
 Meaning
 Challenge: Finding the meaning or saysay in history
 Patterns: Change or continuity over time

 Why study history?

 History is all around us
 History is exciting
 History teaches us important lessons
 History helps us to understand and appreciate others

 The language of History

1. TIME
o Periods, dynasty, era
o Specific points in time: BC and AD; Century
2. INFORMATION
o Historical facts VS. Opinions (people’s point of view
o Evidence: oral evidence, written evidence, pictorial evidence
o Artifacts (Source of information)

 Study of history in the context of:

 Medicine
 Aids in providing information about trends in diseases, illnesses, and their
treatments
 What went wrong and what worked
 Engineering and architecture
 Given information on the progress of building structures given a specific natural
and social context
 studying history for nation building

Historical Sources
 Materials from which historians construct meaning
 Source provides existence of an event; historical interpretation is an argument about
the event
 o Example:
 Fr. Schumacher’s using Rizal’s writings as a framework to write his
essays on Filipino Nationalism
 May be classified as either primary or secondary
 May be written and unwritten
 Artifacts that have been left by the past
i. Relics: “remains”
ii. Testimonies of witnesses to the past

 Written Sources
 Include literary works, diplomatic or legal documents, and social documents
 Narrative or Literary
o NARRATIVE SOURCE: broader than “fiction” like novels and poetry
o Chronicles or tracts presented in a narrative form (written)•
o To impart a particular message. Motives for their composition vary
widely
o SCIENTIFIC TRACT
 inform contemporaries or succeeding generations
o FILM or NOVEL
 to entertain
o MORAL TEACHING
 religious cause
o BIOGRAPHY
 praise the subject’s worth or achievement 
o NEWSPAPER
 shape opinion
o EGO DOCUMENT (personal narratives)
 Diary
o Intellectual Author
o Must be read in terms of the very individual
perspective from which they were written
 Memoir
o Selective accounts
o Highly edited accounts of the life being recorded
 Justice of the author’s action
 Record the author’s perception of events (author’s
experiences)
 Tells the writer’s political intentions and tactics, ideology
and culture of the age
 Diplomatic or Juridical
o Treated as best source
 o Usually sealed/authenticated; intended to provide evidence of the
COMPLETION OF A LEGAL TRANSACTION, proof of juristic fact,
serve as evidence in judicial proceeding
 Issued by public authorities (kings pope, congress)
 Private parties (will or mortgage agreement)
o Classic diplomatic source:
 Charter; a “legal instrument” Urkunde (German); charte or
diplome (France)
o 3 parts of Diplomatic Source
 Protocal
 Content
 Closing
o Functions:
 LAWGIVING
 Ordinances, declaration of law, statutes
 JURIDICAL
 Judgements of court
 VOLUNTARY AGREEMENTS
 Contracts, wills, social agreements
 Social Documents
o Products of record keeping bureaucracy such as state ministries,
charitable organizations, foundations, churches and schools
o Content information:
 Economic, social, political and judicial import (ambassador’s
reports, municipal accounts, findings of a commission)
o Account particular charges, meetings, business policy fiscal
structure, social structure, political administration
o HISTORIAN: NOT THE ONLY KIND OF SOURCE;
UNWRITTEN/ORAL ARE ALSO IMPORTANT

 Unwritten Sources
 Pertain to artifacts and oral testimonies
 Archaeological evidence
o One of the most important categories of unwritten evidence
o Tells: Culture, way of life, ambitions, commercial, socio-cultural
interconnections
 Relics or Remains
o Offers a clue about the past by virtue of their existence
o Wooden columns in prehistoric settlements= culture
o Compare with other places= (Commercial or intellectual relations)
o Cycladen Island of Satorini and Crete (Frescos)
 Testimonies
o Oral or written reports (event)
o Simple or complex
(e.g. record of property exchange,
donations, speeches, commentaries)
o Historical information that
o Provide:
 What happened?
 How and in what circumstances the event occurred?
 Why is occurred?
o Historian supplements the raw material available in the source
itself.
 Relics and testimonies
o Created for specific purpose of the age
o Relics: objects of practical use => historical source
o Testimonies: oral or written contemporary proof of an act or a
right; inform about a fact; content more important than its form
o Historian’s principal task:
o to uncover the original purpose or function of the relics or
testimonies that have come down to posterity
o to divine what they were intended to serve and what
purposes they actually served at the time they were created
 Testimonies and Artifacts
o ORIGINALLY TO SERVE AS RECORDS => intentional
o Other purpose => unintentional
(e.g. Kennedy’s assassination filmed for private enjoyment)
o No historical question in mind
o Historians: to consider the conditions under which source produced
= Intentions that motivated it
1. Reliability
2. Historical context
 Coin hoards, paper currencies
o Government, economic condition, trade relations, fiscal policy
 ORAL EVIDENCE (PROTEST SONGS, ARTISTIC)
o TALES AND SAGAS OF ANCIENT PEOPLE
 Historical and historiographical contexts: the HEART OF HISTORICAL
INTERPRETATION
o Example: Birth of Filipino Nationalism
 Execution of the GOMBURZA in 1872
 Rizal’s writing of the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo
  A. Bonifacio’s Revolutionary Movement (Katipunan
Primary Source
o First hand or direct evidences to an event
o Sources were made specifically during the time period being examined
o Originated from the past, come from the time the event occurred
o They can be eyewitness accounts, records, photographs, original documents to name
a few
o Example:
 Documents, physical objects, oral/ video accounts, artwork, letters, coins,
diaries, artifacts, diaries, memoirs, interview of eyewitnesses, speeches
made by participants themselves, documentaries, audio-visual
documentation of people and places, journals, maps, architectural
perspectives, paintings, advertisements and photographs
o Direct or Indirect
 Direct Primary Source
 (e.g. letters or chronicles from 18th century businessman)
 law code written in 846
 Poem penned yesterday
 Unclear boundary between a source and a historical study
 Not always clear
 Herodotus & Thucydides:
 both historians of their ages
 creators of historical interpretations
 authors of sources in that they provide modern
historians
 evidence both about these events and about the
intellectual
 culture of the ages in which they wrote
 Sources of former historians ---lost >>>their
historical interpretation becomes “source of sources”
 Historian’s task: to distinguish carefully information from
source itself or a personal interpretation of the material
 Indirect Primary Source
(e.g. 18th century inventory listing the letters and books found in an
educated woman’s study)
 Scholars could deduce about the kind of training she had received and her
intellectual interests
 Examples:
 Church history left by Eusebius of Caesaria (265-340)
 MENTIONS countless texts lost
  Interpreting first Christian history
 HISTORIANS: for the literal content of a citation---what is
transcribed from the source itself—historians have no ethical
responsibility
 Accountable for the meaning they impart to that material

 Locating Primary Sources

 National Library, National Archives
 Academic institutions (UP Diliman, Ateneo de Manila, UST, Siliman University,
University of San Carlos)
 Private Museum and Archives (Ayala Museum in Makati, Lopez Museum in Pasig)
 Religious congregations (Augustinians, Dominicans, Jesuits, Recoletos)
 Outside Philippines (Spain and US)
 Online libraries and archives

Secondary Source
o Interpretations of the primary source
o Provide interpretations of Historical events
o Records that were made after the event happened
o Original information that have been written after the fact with benefit of hindsight
o Have been made recently about the past
o Written by people who were not present during the event and who were merely
compiled stories
o Examples:
 A Roman coin that was made by the Romans is a primary source, but a
drawing of a Roman coin made in 2003 would be a secondary source.
 Journal articles, textbooks, etc.
 Records generated by an event but written by a non-participant in the
event
 Often attempt to interpret, explain, or analyze primary sources
 Existing data collected for another purpose that you employ to answer
your research question
 Documents that have no direct connection with events or people being
researched

Technological innovations
o 3000 B.C. writing was invented
o 12th century written communication was dominant
o Writing and printing
o ORAL WRITTEN MATERIAL SOURCES MIXTURE
o 1900 FILMS, DOCUMENTARIES
 o SOUND RECORDINGS 1887
o 1980S COMPACT DISC
o RADIO 1896
o TAPE RECORDER 1931
o TELEVISION 1927 (LONDON 1936, NEW YORK 1941)
o 1940-1970- WIDELY USED IN THE WORLD

o COMPUTER 1983-LOST RECORDS

 (risk of erasure and inaccessibility) 1983 U.S. using Japanese technology
o political and financial commitment
o All complementary

Evaluating Evidence (The three Cs)

 Credibility
o Trustworthy witness
o Who was the person/author and did the person have a reason to lie?
 Consistency
o Logical coherence and accordance with the facts
 Corroboration
o Does one piece of evidence agree with another? Does evidence from an artifact
support what was written long time ago? When 2 or more people have written
about the same event, does the second account agree with the first?

Challenges in Philippine history

 Ability to read and understand text in foreign language (Spanish language)
 Discern the cultural context and historical value of primary sources
 Entails discerning mind (authenticity and reliability)
 Issues in writing Philippine History (biased, discriminatory, and self-serving ends)

Issues in writing Philippine History

(Biased, discriminatory, and self-serving ends)
 Political Narratives
 Colonial Histories in Historical Narratives
 Elite-centric perspectives
 Patriarchal orientations in Historical narratives
 Emphasis on Lowland Christianized Filipinos

What to do?
1. Narrow-minded view has to be reevaluated in order to correct misrepresentations (Muslims,
Indigenous Peoples)
2. Encourage the writing of local histories to correct national histories)
3. Attend conferences and trainings for updates in Philippine History

Notable Filipino Historians

1. Teodoro Agoncillo
 Pioneered nationalist historiography in the country by highlighting the role of the
Filipino reformists and revolutionaries from 1872.
2. Renato Constantino
 The writings of Constantino were a major influence in the intellectual formation of
countless young Filipinos who staked their lives and future in opposing the Marcos
dictatorship.
3. Zeus Atayza Salazar
 A Filipino historian best known as a leading proponent of the historical movement
known as “Pantayong Pananaw.”
4. Reynaldo Ileto
 His major works include Maguindanao, The Career of the Datu Uto of Buayan,
Pasyon and Revolution, Popular Movement of the Philippines, Filipinos and their
Revolution, Events, Discourses and Historiography.
5. Samuel K. Tan
 He is best remembered for his mainstreaming the role and relevance of Filipino
Muslims in the country’s national history.
THE FIRST FILM
 In 1894 the ‘Sortie de I’usine Lumiere de Lyon was filmed
 Translation: ‘Workers leaving the Lumiere Factory”
 Filmed by the Lumiere brothers, Auguste and Louis
 In 1985, the Lumiere brothers released a film in the first private screening, of a train
coming towards the camera.
 Due to the viewers never seeing this before, it caused to have stampede because the
audience were so alarmed at the train coming towards them.

Jan Vansina
o Flemish historian teaching in US
o One of the first to recognize the relation of oral traditions to written texts
o Contributed to historical methodology
o Student of West African culture: stories handed down are stable and reliable like
written chronicles and personal narratives that survived Western European past
o Several tests: a) external to text? (narrator/writer member of the group?) b)
internal: reporter’s tale conform to the linguistic, stylistic, ritualistic norms of the
period
o Oral testimonies verifiable?
War and historical accounts social upheaval
o e.g. Al Santoli of the Vietnam War
 33 veterans never made it to official documents(personal account that cannot be
written)

INTERVIEW-NO SIMPLE ART

o Carefully designed questions
o Flexible interviewer
o Hard interviews-real value to historian
o Soft interviews

FACT FINDING EXPEDITION WITH EXTREME CARE

o Story becomes richer
o More nuanced more understandable
o Not where innocence is proven or cause vindicated

Additional notes:
o In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source (also called an original
source or evidence) is an artifact, document, diary, manuscript, autobiography,
recording, or any other source of information that was created at the time under study

Sreedharan
o believes that primary sources have the most direct connection to the past and that
they "speak for themselves" in ways that cannot be captured through the filter of
secondary sources.
Biography of Schumacher
 Fr. John N. Schumacher, S.J.
 Born: 1927 in Buffalo, New York-
 Died: 2014 in Pasig
 Known as Fr. Jack
 Entered the Society of Jesus in 1944
 In 1948, a missioned seminarian in the Novaliches
 Ordained a priest in 1957
 M.A. in Philosophy (Philippines)
 PHD in Georgetown Univ
 Pioneer: Faculty of the Loyola School of Theology, Ateneo de Manila in
1965
 Became a Filipino citizen in 1976
 Phd Dissertation: The Propaganda Movement, 1880-1895: The Creation of
a Filipino Consciousness, the Making of the Revolution
  Interest: Church history & Filipino nationalist history

 In 1991, the Ateneo De Manila University published a collection of Schumacher’s essays

“THE MAKING OF A NATION: ESSAYS ON NINETEENTH CENTURY FILIPINO
NATIONALISM” which reflects the core premises of Schumacher about the emergence of
FILIPINO NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS after over 30 years of historical writing about
the Philippines
William M. Abbott, S.J
15 ay 2014
16 On the demise of Fr. Jack
Schumacher’s task in the Philippines
o Fr. Jack’s interest in Philippine history---began from his reading about Rizal’s insistence
on the need for Filipinos to understand their own past
o RIZAL as the framework of studying Philippine history
 Rizal’s annotation of Antonio de Morga’s book Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas: lay
foundation for the building of a nation
 Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo: to provide solutions to Philippine’s
socio-political problems
 Bonifacio, Jacinto & other Filipino revolutionists: found their literary &
nationalist inspiration in Rizal’s writings
Recovering the Past
o To show that there was “Filipino” history before 1872
o History as a tool: (lack of method than a lack of history)
 The past serving as reference point to the emergence of the events which led to
its creation (image of both past & present)
o Like what Rizal did, William Henry Scott suggests we search at historical documents &
try to find glimpses of a past previously not elaborated on
 Scott’s Cracks in the Parchment Curtain (Spanish Official Documents): prevent
modern Filipinos to have clear depiction of history
o Challenge: How to put questions to the documents (unintended references) --- a
question of methodology to uncover the past
The Formative Century: Schumacher’s insights about the Philippine Revolution
o Focus of Phil. history: Revolutionary & American colonial periods
o Problem: what has not been done by historians ---to lay the necessary foundations for
the understanding of the Revolutionary period
o e.g.1: little research on growth of the non-friar haciendas (Spanish & Filipino) and its
impact on the Filipino life of the 19th century commercialization of agriculture
o Real history of the Revolution & the war against the Americans: must include the
revolution that took place in all Philippine regions (not just Cavite, Malolos or
Luzon)---to show varying degrees & kinds of nationalist response in different regions
 o Historian’s task: further research of each region has to be done on the century before
the Revolution

Method in History
o Can history be objective?
1. History is always written from a point of view: Documents are not self-
interpreting; Historian may bring his point of views, biases and prejudices
2. Observing TRUISM in writing history (19th century approach to history)
 History is a science with laws
 How? Through critical historical method ----use of documentation;
assertions and interpretation based on facts found on documents;
content validity of documents; government records, memoirs, letters,
literary works, books of prayers, folk art
o DOCUMENTS AS SOURCES OF HISTORY
 Official documents
 e.g. Declaration of Philippine Independence from Spain (June 12,
1898)
 Memoirs and letters
 e.g. Rizal’s correspondence
 Literary works
 e.g. Reynaldo Ileto’s Pasyon and Revolution
 Literary Works can be sources of history if:
 The historian can formulate the proper question to them putting new
questions of the past because history never delivers ready-made
answers
Nationalist History
o An expectation from every Filipino historian who loves his country
o A more profound and exact knowledge of the past will help the nationalist historian
build the future
o Problem: some “nationalist history” have obstructed, instead of promoted, the national
cause
“Obstructionist nationalist history”
1. Pedro Paterno’s supposed pre-Hispanic past
 Distorted genuine documents
 Argues about mythical inborn qualities of race which existed before Spanish
colonization
2. Forgeries of Jose Marco
 Povedano and Pavon manuscripts and the Code of Kalantiyaw
 Rectified by W.H. Scott in his Prehispanic Sources for the History of the Philippines
Futility of Reconstructing the Filipino Past
o TENDENCY:
  Historical fiction – distortion of reality to craft an idealized image
o TRULY FILIPINO HISTORY
o (a history of the Filipino masses and their struggles)
TRUE FILIPINO PEOPLE’S HISTORY
o Filipino people as primary agents of their HISTORY
o Historical research that aims to provide SOCIAL JUSTICE and PARTICIPATION in all
FILIPINOS
o Understanding ALL ASPECTS of the EXPERIENCE OF ALL FILIPINOS
o REFORMING AND RESHAPING the society toward a better future (depicting whole
Filipino reality)
Renato Constantino
o Born: March 10, 1919 in Manila
o Died: September 15, 1999 in Quezon City
o Education & early career: UP Diliman
 During WW2 ---fought in Bataan; journalist
 Executive secretary of the Philippine Mission to the United Nations (1946-
1949)
 Counselor for DFA (1949-1951)
o Academic Career:
 Professor (UP Diliman & Manila, FEU, Adamson Univ., Arellano University)
 Visiting lecturer abroad
Works:
o The Miseducation of the Filipino (1959)
o Excerpts from the Speeches of Claro M. Recto (1965)
o Veneration Without Understanding (1969)
o The making of a Filipino: A story of Philippine colonial politics (1969)
o Dissent and Counter-consciousness (1980)
o The Philippines: A Past Revisited (1975)
o Philippines: A Continuing Past (1978)
o History Myths and Reality (1992)
What is history according to him?
o Towards a people’s history
Colonial Scholarship
 Filipino historians:
o Trained as captives of Spanish and American historiography
o Wrote Philippine history from the lens of past colonizers
o The need to rewrite Philippine History from the point of view of Filipinos
o There were scholars who tried but they failed
The Task at Hand
 Task: to advance the writing of a truly Filipino History
 Main focus: must be on the anonymous masses of individuals and social forces generated by
their collective lives and struggles
 History is the story of man the collective, not the story of man the individual (associated
man)
 “Without society there can be no history and there are no societies without men”
 “Struggle as the essence of life”
 Human society: the cause and result of people in motion and in constant struggle to realize
the human potential
 Human being: the only species with unlimited possibilities for development
Motivators of History
 Mass of human beings: the motivators of change and of history
 The common people possess the capacity to make history
 Historic struggles: provide the people with lessons in their upward march and give
form and strength to the constantly changing society
 What has hitherto regarded as history is predominantly a conscious record of the
rich and powerful… not necessarily just and correct
“History is the recorded
struggle of people for ever
increasing freedom and for
newer and higher realizations
of the human person.”
---Renato Constantino
The Inarticulate in History
o The individuals who made history colorful could not have made history without the
people
o The advances of society, the advent of civilization, the great artistic works were all
inspired and made by the people who were the mainspring of activity and the producers
of wealth of societies
o The inarticulate as individuals cannot have their deeds recorded in history. However,
their collective effort can and should be chronicled and given its deserved importance
o All powerful leaders, and especially tyrants, exerted efforts to insure that the history
would be written in their image.
o It is only within the context of a people’s history that individuals, events, and
institutions can be correctly appraised
o It is the people who make or unmake heroes---ultimate judge of an individual’s role in
history
o A people’s history can serve as a concrete guide for understanding a developing society
Redressing the Imbalance
o New approaches and new techniques in viewing events and writing history is a reaction
to the official histories used to justify the backward conditions of their colonies
 o When intellectual decolonization shall have been accomplished, a historical account can be
produced which will present a fuller, more balanced picture of reality

Limitations and a Beginning

o To obtain a comprehensive knowledge of the activities of the masses in each period of
our history will be an arduous task
o The immediate concern of the times is for a work that can present in a practical way
o The need for a real people’s history becomes a more urgent we Filipinos search for truly
Filipino solutions to Filipino problems
The Unifying Thread
o The ideas of the dominant classes predominates at any given period but they are not
the only ones that exist.
o Dissenting ideas emerged to coexist with the dominant ones and come into
confrontation with them
o Economic struggles are often fought as political and intellectual battles
o The various revolts that broke out in the Philippines constitute practice which changed
not only the circumstances but man himself
o These struggles were the schools of the masses: their quantitative occurrence as
localized or regional actions led to a qualitative change: the birth of a nation
The Motive Force
o The rich tradition of struggle has become a motive force of Philippine history
o Participation in mass actions ---raises the level of consciousness of the masses
o The more active they are the more they become active and the more telling their
contribution to the changing of society and the changing of their own attitudes
o Struggle is the people’s historic right and it alone can make them free
o The only way a history of the Philippines can be Filipino is to write the basis of the
struggles of the people, for in these struggles the Filipino emerged
o The Filipino resistance to colonial oppression is the unifying thread of Philippine history
“Renato Constantino has expounded on the
pernicious role that the official view of the
Filipino past inculcated by colonial
historiography and the American educational
system has had in disfiguring in the minds of
Filipinos the true story of their past.”
--- John Schumacher, SJ
The following primary source you will read is an excerpt from Antonio Pigafetta’s Primo Viaggio Intorno Al
Mondo, specifically focused on their encounter with the natives during and after the Battle of Mactan. You are
highly encouraged to apply the content analysis while reading the text.

Excerpt from Antonio Pigafetta’s, Primo Viaggio Intorno Al Mondo in, in E.H. Blair and J.A.
Robertson. The Philippine Islands, vol XXXIII, pp. 175-187
On Friday, April twenty-six, Zula, a chief of the island of Matan, 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 Cilapulapu, who refused to obey the king of Spagnia. He
requested the captain to send him only one boatload of men on the next night, so that they might help him
and fight against the other chief. The captain-general decided to go thither with three boatloads. We begged
him repeatedly not to go, but he, like a good shepherd, refused to abandon his flock. At midnight, sixty men
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. We reached Matan three hours before dawn. The captain did not
wish to fight then, but sent a message to the natives by the Moro to the effect that if they would obey the
king of Spagnia, 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 asked us] not to proceed to
attack them at once, but to wait until morning, so that they might have more men. They said that in order
to induce us to go in search of them; for they had dug certain pitholes between the houses in order that we
might fall into them. When morning came forty-nine of us leaped into the water up to our thighs, and walked
through water for more than two crossbow flights before we could reach the shore. The boats could not
approach nearer because of certain rocks in the water. The other eleven men remained behind to guard the
boats. When we reached land, those men 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 exceeding loud cries, two
divisions on our flanks and the other on our front. When the captain saw that, he formed us into two
divisions, and thus did we begin to fight. The musketeers and crossbowmen shot from a distance for about a
half hour, but uselessly; for the shots only passed through the shields which were made of thin wood and the
arms [of the bearers]. The captain cried to them, " Cease firing! cease firing l" but his order was not at all
heeded. When the natives saw that we were shooting our muskets to no purpose, crying out they determined
to stand firm, but they redoubled their shouts. When our muskets were discharged, the natives would never
stand still, but leaped hither and thither, covering themselves with their shields. They shot so many arrows at
us and hurled so many bamboo spears (some of them tipped with iron) at the captain-general, besides pointed
stakes hardened with fire, stones, and mud, that we could scarcely defend ourselves. Seeing that, the captain-
general sent some men to burn their houses in order to terrify them. When they saw their houses burning,
they were roused to greater fury. Two of our men were killed near the houses, while we burned twenty or
thirty houses. So many of them charged down upon us that they shot the captain through the right leg with a
poisoned arrow. On that account, he ordered us to retire slowly, but the men took to flight, except six or
eight 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. So we continued to retire for more than a good
crossbow flight from the shore always fighting up to our knees in the water. The natives continued to pursue
us, and picking up the same spear four or six times, hurled it at us again and again. Recognizing the captain, so
many turned upon him that they knocked his helmet off his head twice, but he always stood firmly like a good
knight, together with some others. Thus did we fight for more than one hour, refusing to retire farther. 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 hurled 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.
The Christian king would have aided us, but the captain charged him before we landed, not to leave his
balanghai, but to stay to see how we fought. When the king learned that the captain was dead, he wept. Had
it not been for that unfortunate captain, not a single one of us would have been saved in the boats, for while
he was fighting the others retired to the boats. I hope through [the efforts of] your most illustrious Lordship
that the fame of so noble a captain will not become effaced in our times. Among the other virtues which he
possessed, he was more constant than ever any one else in the greatest of adversity. He endured hunger better
than all the others, and more accurately than any man in the world did he understand sea charts and
navigation. And that this was the truth was seen openly, for no other had had so much natural talent nor the
boldness to learn how to circumnavigate the world, as he had almost done. That battle was fought on
Saturday, April twenty-seven, I52I. The captain desired to fight on Saturday, because it was the day especially
holy to him. Eight of our men were killed with him in that battle, and four Indians, who had become Christians
and who had come afterward to aid us were killed by the mortars of the boats. Of the enemy, only fifteen
were killed, while many of us were wounded. In the afternoon the Christian king sent a message with our
consent to the people of Matan, to the effect that if they would give us the captain and the other men who
had been killed, we would give them as much merchandise as they wished. They answered that they would not
give up such a man, as we imagined [they would do], and that they would not give him for all the riches in
the world, but that they intended to keep him as a memorial. On Saturday, the day on which the captain was
killed, the four men who had remained in the city to trade, had our merchandise carried to the ships. Then we
chose two commanders, namely, Duarte Barboza, a Portuguese and a relative of the captain, and Johan
Seranno, a Spaniard. As our interpreter, Henrich by name, was wounded slightly, he would not go ashore any
more to attend to our necessary affairs, but always kept his bed. On that account, Duarte Barboza, the
commander of the flagship, cried out to him and told him, that although his master, the captain, was dead, he
was not therefore free; on the contrary he [i.e., Barboza] would see to it that when we should reach Espagnia,
he should still be the slave of Donia Beatrice, the wife of the captain-general. And threatening the slave that if
he did go ashore, he would be flogged, the latter arose, and, feigning to take no heed to those words, went
ashore to tell the Christian king that we were about to leave very soon, but that if he would follow his advice,
he could gain the ships and all our merchandise. Accordingly they arranged a plot, and the slave returned to the
ship, where he showed that he was more cunning than before. On Wednesday morning, the first of May, the
Christian king sent word to the commanders that the jewels which he had promised to send to the king of
Spagnia were ready, and that he begged them and their other companions to come to dine with him that
morning, when he would give them the jewels. Twenty-four men went ashore, among whom was our astrologer,
San Martin de Sivilla. I could not go because I was all swollen up by a wound from a poisoned arrow which I had
received in my face. Jovan Carvaio and the constable returned, and told us that they saw the man who had
been cured by a miracle take the priest to his house. Consequently they had left that place, because they
suspected some evil. Scarcely had they spoken those words when we heard loud cries and lamentations. We
immediately weighed anchor and discharging many mortars into the houses, drew in nearer to the shore. While
thus discharging [our pieces] we saw Johan Seranno in his shirt bound and wounded, crying to us not to fire
any more, for the natives would killhim. We asked him whether all the others and the interpreter were dead.
He said that they were all dead except the interpreter. He begged us earnestly to redeem him with some of
the merchandise; but Johan Carvaio, his boon companion, [and others] would not allow the boat to go ashore
so that they might remain masters of the ships. But although Johan Serrano weeping asked us not to set sail
so quickly, for they would kill him, and said that he prayed God to ask his soul of Johan Carvaio, his comrade,
in the day of judgment, we immediately departed. I do not know whether he is dead or alive.

Explain
The assigned reading material is an excerpt from the work of Antonio Pigafetta, Primo Viaggio Intorno Al
Mondo, which was published sometime in the 1550s, roughly two decades after his death. The entire work
documents the Magellan expedition of 1519-1522 which originally was intended to locate the Westward route to
the Spice Islands. The excerpt narrates, among others, the battle of Mactan upto the escape of the Spanish
survivors.

Elaborate
Antonio Pigafetta, born in Italy in 1491, served in Magellan’s expedition in 1519 as the chronicler. He recorded
the events that transpired during the expedition even after the death of the Captain in 1521. He was
fortunate to be one of the 18 men to return to Spain aboard the ship Victoria captained by Juan Sebastián
Elcano in 1522. After the voyage, he related his experiences through the report Primo Viaggio Intorno Al
Mondo which were distributed to the European nobility. The report was published posthumously (Pigafetta died
in 1531) in the 1550s by Italian historian Giovanni Battista Ramusio. Originally written in Italian, the document
in subsequent publications has been translated. The excerpt above was the translation of James Alexander
Robertson.