The Battle of Mactan
On March 17, 1521,Ferdinand Magellan sighted the mountains of what is now samar while on a mission to find a westward route to the Mollucas Islands for Spain. This event marked the arrival of the first Spaniards in the Philippines. The following day, Magellan ordered his men to anchor their ships on the shores of Homonhon Island. He befriended Rajah Calambu the chieftain of Limasawa, who guided him to Cebu, then Magellan befriended to Rajah Humabon, the tribal chief of Cebu.
Raja humabon and his wife were baptized in catholic faith they gave name a carlos and juana to honor of the king and queen of spain. To commemorate this event, Magellan gave Juana the Santo Niño, an image of the infant Jesus, as a symbol of their new alliance. 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 was to pay forms of tribute to the king of Spain.Had the order been disobeyed, Magellan himself would see that those who failed were put to death, and that their property would be appropriated for the king’s use. Datu Lapu-Lapu, one of the two chiefs within the island of Mactan, was the only chieftain to show his opposition. He refused to accept the authority of Rajah Humabon in these matters, Rajah Humabon, and Datu Zula suggested Magellan to go to the island of Mactan, and kill rival chieftain Datu Lapu-Lapu. Magellan "agreed".
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. We reached Mactan 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 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 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 pit holes between the houses in order that we might fall into the them. On April 28, 1521 Ferdinand Magellan deployed 49 armored men with swords, axes, shields, crossbow,and guns, and sailed to mactan. the ships of spaniards could not land in mactan because of rocky outcroppings and coral near the beach. When morning came, 49 leaped in the water and walked with two crossbow flights., and the other 11 men guards the ship. The Filipino had formed in three division to the number of 1,500 person. Magellan trid scared them of by burning of their houses of buaya in mactan. twenty to thirty houses was was burn but 2 of men in spaniards was die. 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 onlythe legs of spaniards, and so many were the spears and stones that they hurled, that we could offer no resistance. The mortars in the boats could not aid the spaniards because they were too far away. Ferdinand Magellan has been wounded in arm by spear and in the leg by kampilan, and they knocked his helmet off his head twice. with this advantage, the people of mactan finally overpowered. Some of magellan soldiers and Antonio Pigafetta a italian historian was managed to escaped. According to Pigafetta, several of Magellan’s men were killed in battle, and a number of converted Christian Indians who had come to their aid, were killed by warriors, and soldiers. There are no official records of the number of casualties in the battle.Magellan’s body, however, was never recovered from the natives. Pigafetta reports that the Christian king sent a message saying that if they return the bodies of Magellan and his crew, they would give as much merchandise as they wished. However, they refused saying that they would not return the body in exchange for all the riches in the world for they intended to keep him as a memorial.
