First Around the World Was the first person to travel around the earth a Filipino? Pilipino Express • Vol. 3. No. 10 gellan’s main concern was that Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Enrique spoke Malay and could May 16, 2007 serve as his interpreter. Malay was the common language for Who was the first person to trading throughout most of travel all the way around the Southeast Asia at that time. world? Most people would proba- On at least one occasion, bly answer, “Ferdinand Magellan” Magellan is known to have said – and they would be partly correct. that Enrique came from another However, ask almost any Filipinos place. In 1518 Magellan pre- about Magellan and they could tell sented Enrique to some minis- you that he died in the Philippines ters in the court of the king of fighting Chief Lapulapu. Spain as a native of the Spice Magellan didn’t survive his Islands (known today as the expedition but eventually 18 mem- Maluku Islands and formerly bers of his original crew of about the Moluccas), about 600 km 260 made it all the way back to south of Mindanao. Magellan Spain and, in so doing, completed a was trying to drum up support three-year voyage that took them for an expedition to the Spice all the way around the world. Islands at the time so it is quite Ferdinand Magellan likely that he was just using Enri- However, one member of the The Philippine connection crew might have accomplished this que as a sort of promotional gim- feat even before the voyage was mick. Just a year later, Magellan Magellan didn’t intend to “dis- finished. Some historians have wrote his last will and testament in cover” the Philippines or even to speculated that Magellan’s Malay preparation for his epic voyage. sail around the world. His mission interpreter, known as Enrique de According to the will, Enrique was was to find a water route through Malacca, was the first person to a beneficiary, approximately 26 the Americas (the Strait of Magel- travel all the way around the earth years old and “a native of the city lan), which would be a shortcut to – and some have even claimed that of Malacca” – not the Moluccas. their ultimate destination, the Enrique was a Filipino. The will also promised Enrique Spice Islands in Southeast Asia. At his freedom and the sum of 10,000 that time nobody in Europe knew Where did the first world maravedis (about $1300 Canadian that the Pacific Ocean, the largest traveller come from? today) upon Magellan’s death. body of water in the world, sepa- Enrique’s origin is the subject Regardless of where Magellan rated America and Asia. By the of some debate among historians might have thought Enrique was time Magellan’s armada got to the and it has a direct bearing on born, the most reliable account of Philippines they had been away whether he was the first person to his origin is probably that of An- from Spain for over a year and a circle the earth. tonio Pigafetta, an Italian scholar half and had survived countless Back in 1511, eight years be- who served as the expedition’s storms, starvation, scurvy and fore his final voyage began, Ma- chronicler. Much of what we know mutinies – and they were still not gellan had served his Portuguese today about Magellan’s famous sure how far they were from the king in battles of conquest that voyage has come to us from Pi- Spice Islands. took him as far east as Malacca, gafetta’s journal, including obser- Their first Philippine contact on the west coast of the Malay vations about the customs and did not make things any clearer. Peninsula. There he bought a languages of the people they en- The people from Suluan who met young slave and eventually countered. Pigafetta wrote that Magellan’s expedition on the Vi- brought him back to Portugal. The Enrique was really from Sumatra, sayan island of Homonhon could slave, whose true name was never the home island of the Malay lan- only communicate with the Euro- recorded, was baptized and given guage, directly south of Malacca peans through an improvised sign the Christian name Enrique de and now a part of modern-day language and a few words, which Malacca, or “Henry of Malacca.” Indonesia. Considering that Pi- they had taught to each other. This was the name that Magel- gafetta and Enrique spent over a Enrique’s supposed connection lan called his slave but he might year and a half together on the to the Philippines is based on the have just assumed that Enrique was voyage, it is quite likely that it was story of Magellan’s second encoun- born in Malacca because that was Enrique himself who told Pigafetta ter with Filipinos. Schoolbooks tell where he was bought. After all, Ma- that he was from Sumatra. us that Magellan’s armada went to Paul Morrow • In Other Words • The Pilipino Express • May 16, 2007 Limasawa, just off the southern tip Enrique’s revenge of Leyte, and conducted the first After Magellan’s death, the Catholic mass in the Philippines surviving members of his crew with Rajah Kolambu. The location elected his brother-in-law, Duarte of this event has been refuted in Barbosa and the Spanish captain, recent years by solid research, Juan Serrano as co-commanders of championed by the historian the three remaining ships of the Vicente de Jesus, which shows that armada. They planned to leave the it likely occurred in a place called Philippines immediately and head Mazaua near Butuan in northern for the Spice Islands, but as far as Mindanao. It was here that Enrique Enrique was concerned, his slave discovered that he could easily days were done. According to Ma- converse with the locals in his own gellan’s will, he was now free and language, Malay. This was a wel- 10,000 maravedis richer. come surprise for Magellan and The co-commanders saw it several other witnesses who wrote differently though, and told Enri- about the incident because it meant que that he was still a slave and that they were getting close to the that he now belonged to Magel- Spice Islands. lan’s widow back in Spain. Enri- Some modern-day writers, que refused to work or to leave the A fanciful depiction of Magellan at the ship Trinidad to interpret on shore. such as Carlos Quirino, misinter- Battle of Mactan – Lapulapu’s warriors preted this story and have claimed resemble natives in a Hollywood western Barbosa and Serrano bullied him that because Enrique and the Vi- and threatened to whip him until sayans could understand each Enrique eventually caved in and other, Enrique must have been stormed off the ship. speaking Cebuano and therefore At this point Enrique appar- he must have been from Cebu. ently went directly to Humabon Also, because he was presumably and persuaded him to turn against captured in Cebu then taken to the Europeans – according to the Malacca, sold to Magellan and Europeans’ side of the story. At the eventually carried all the way very least, it is likely that Enrique from Spain, westward to the Phil- told Humabon that the ships were ippines, Quirino concluded that about to leave. Humabon could Enrique – a Filipino – was the first not afford to lose his heavily person to travel all the way around A replica of Victoria, the first ship to armed Spanish protectors while the world. sail around the world Lapulapu was looking to take re- Unfortunately, this interpreta- venge on all of Magellan’s allies tion does not stand up to the facts. supplies. In Cebu, the now-familiar in Cebu. Humabon had to either None of the witnesses in the 1500s story took place. Magellan ordered a appease Lapulapu or he had to get said that Enrique was from Cebu or cross to be erected on a nearby hill- Magellan’s weapons. that he spoke Cebuano to the peo- top. He then met with Rajah Huma- On May 1, 1521, Humabon ple of the Visayas. Pigafetta said bon who, with some other local invited all the Europeans to a that Enrique was from Sumatra and rulers, subsequently submitted to farewell banquet, promising a big another witness, Gines de Mafra, Spanish rule and allowed himself, feast and many more treasures to said that he spoke Malay to the his wife and about 2200 other Fili- take home to the king of Spain. islanders, which was the common pinos to be baptized as Christians. About 30 members of the crew, language of trade in most of South- However, Lapulapu, one of the including the commanders, ac- east Asia. As Pigafetta wrote, “the rulers of the nearby island of Mak- cepted the invitation. Once they slave [Enrique] spoke to the king tan, refused to submit even after were well fed, and probably [Rajah Siaiu], who understood him Magellan had one of his villages drunk, Humabon’s men attacked well. For, in that country, the kings burned to the ground. In the final and slaughtered 27 of the guests. know more languages than the showdown Magellan arrogantly The three ships escaped Cebu and common people do.” refused the aid of hundreds of Captain Serrano was left on the shore, a hostage begging for his And the rest is history… Cebuano allies who had to stand on the sidelines as more than 1000 life while angry Cebuanos de- After spending several days in of Lapulapu’s warriors easily de- stroyed the cross that had been Mazaua, Magellan’s armada sailed feated Magellan’s force of 49 erected.