The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - September 21, 2025


PREVIEW： Epochs #229 ｜ Magellan： Part X


Episode Stats

Length

21 minutes

Words per Minute

175.84076

Word Count

3,728

Sentence Count

236


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome back to Epochs where I should be continuing once again my story, the narrative
00:00:18.540 of Magellan's terrifying circumnavigation of the globe, the first people ever to circumnavigate
00:00:26.660 the globe in the early 16th century. We're in the early part of 1521 and Magellan, if you
00:00:32.960 remember last time, had landed at Guam after a nearly four month trip across the completely
00:00:39.440 barren Pacific Ocean and he landed on Guam and was able to take on food and water and
00:00:47.600 things but it's not the Spice Islands, he was supposed to go to the Spice Islands, the Malukas
00:00:52.420 and that's not what Guam is and also he had some troubles there with the natives that
00:00:57.840 didn't have any concept of property apparently. So he left Guam sort of saving his men's life
00:01:05.140 and staving off scurvy, those that hadn't died of scurvy, staving that off and so on he goes
00:01:11.740 and he goes down to what is today the Philippines. They weren't called the Philippines then of
00:01:17.420 course. They're actually named after King Philip of Spain who isn't King yet so that gives you an
00:01:22.680 idea but as today the Philippines. So let's continue the story. Lawrence Berggrin from his great book
00:01:28.820 Over the Edge of the World which I've been reading from which is very heavy on pigafetta and elbow
00:01:34.280 quotes. I should be continuing with that because it is one of the very very best books on the topic.
00:01:39.840 So Berggrin tells us this quote, the sprawling Philippine archipelago did not exist on European maps.
00:01:44.880 So not only did it not have their name but no one had ever been there from Europe before. It was on
00:01:49.360 it was on no match. Still entirely uncharted water. And neither Magellan nor his pilots knew what to
00:01:56.320 make of their discovery. Magellan led his ships closer to the island of Samar but within a mile or two of
00:02:02.000 the shore he found only unforgiving cliffs rising from the water and nothing resembling a safe harbour.
00:02:07.920 He changed course once more heading for diminutive Suyulan where the armada dropped anchor
00:02:13.540 for a few hours respite. It was the fifth Sunday in Lent with Easter fast approaching. As I mentioned
00:02:19.240 before Easter is a massive deal for these people. Anyone that's a practicing Christian it's still a
00:02:25.780 massive deal to this day. Bigger than Christmas really. But back then to a good God-fearing Catholic
00:02:32.420 Spaniard in the early 16th century. Easter is the main the main holiday. It has to be respected.
00:02:38.540 Bear that in mind. Appropriately Lent is dedicated to Lazarus risen from the dead and like him the
00:02:45.020 surviving crew members would overcome illness to regain their strength and persevere. Magellan decided
00:02:50.480 to name the archipelago after Lazarus. 22 years later another European explorer Rui López de Villalobos
00:02:58.280 reached these islands and later named them Islas Filipinas the Philippines after King Philip of Spain.
00:03:05.080 Magellan's next landfall proved more satisfying than Seymour. Homon Hon Island did have a safe harbour
00:03:11.660 and Magellan with tremendous relief finally gave the order to drop anchor. He led his men ashore to an
00:03:18.220 oasis of dense rainforest, palm trees and abundant water where they erected two sheltering tents.
00:03:24.740 At last they were free from the stench of the ship's holds. Remember I said that towards the beginning?
00:03:29.300 That these ships stank. Absolutely stank. No amount of attempting to scrub it or clean it would
00:03:35.880 sort of make any difference. Apart from anything else. Apart from just all those men in close proximity
00:03:42.260 for days, weeks, sometimes months on end. Not just sort of the natural stink that that creates but
00:03:48.320 that sea water, fetid sea water gets into the very timbers of it. And in the very bottoms of the ship
00:03:58.320 there's always some water. These ships are not water type. To some degree these old 16th century ships
00:04:05.280 are always leaking. Even when they're brand new. Even when you're constantly repairing them to some extent
00:04:10.640 they leak. Which means there will be sort of old fetid sea water somewhere on board. And that alone
00:04:17.360 makes them stink. Apparently they stink so bad that they could be anchored offshore. Like a long way
00:04:22.800 hundreds of meters offshore. And if the wind's right you can still smell them when you're on land. It's that
00:04:28.040 bad. And so to be get away from them would just be you know that alone would be a luxury. Instead their
00:04:34.980 nostrils twitched with the mingled fragrances of palm trees, wet sand and decaying vegetation. They
00:04:41.500 slaughtered a sow that they had bought from Guam and prepared a great feast for themselves. For a time
00:04:46.940 their bellies were full and the long-suffering sailors content. On Monday March the 18th they saw a boat
00:04:52.980 bearing nine men approach from the direction of Suyulan. Calculating the risks and rewards inherent in
00:04:59.120 their second encounter with the peoples of the Pacific. Magellan made certain the arms were at the ready
00:05:03.960 and at the same time he assembled a different sort of arsenal. Shiny trinkets in case the encounter
00:05:09.680 turned out to be peaceful. This time Magellan handled the situation differently. And now these are
00:05:14.480 Pigafetta's word. The captain general ordered that no one should move or say anything without his leave.
00:05:20.240 When those people had come to us in that island forthwith the most ornately dressed of them went towards
00:05:25.900 the captain general showing that he was very happy at our coming. And five of the most ornately dressed
00:05:31.240 remained with us. While the others who stayed at the boat went to fetch some who were fishing. And
00:05:36.520 then they all went together. Then the captain, seeing that these people were reasonable, ordered that
00:05:41.680 they be given food and drink. And he presented them with red caps, mirrors, combs and bells and other
00:05:47.740 things. And when these people saw the captain's fair dealing they gave him fish and a jar of palm wine
00:05:53.720 which they call in their language baraka. Figs more than a foot long. That's bananas. Big of a foot
00:06:00.220 long figs. But it's bananas. And other smaller ones of better flavour. And two coconuts. And they made
00:06:06.220 signs with their hands that in four days they would bring us rice, coconuts and sundry other foods.
00:06:11.800 So it looks like this one is peaceful. Going to be peaceful. Remember I told you last time. You never
00:06:17.340 know. Sometimes the islanders will be duplicitous and lure you into a trap. Sometimes they'll come out
00:06:23.080 fighting right away. Other times they're totally reasonable and if they're not provoked it'll all
00:06:27.500 be fine. Sometimes they're extremely friendly. Let's say that almost childlike. Sometimes they're
00:06:34.280 extremely, extremely friendly and nice. And so you never know what you're going to get. So here when
00:06:40.520 they first land in the Philippines it all looks like it's going to be hunky-dory. Let's let
00:06:46.480 Burgreen continue. He says perhaps they had found paradise. After all at last a respite from an
00:06:52.220 expedition well into its second year. Each day Magellan fed coconut milk supplied by the generous
00:06:58.080 Filipinos to the sailors still suffering from scurvy. Pigafetta meanwhile became intrigued with
00:07:03.880 the Filipinos method of fermenting palm wine. And this is Pigafetta now. They make an aperture in the
00:07:09.480 heart of the tree at its top from which is distilled along the tree a liquor which is so sweet with a
00:07:15.580 touch of greenness. Then they take canes as thick as a man's leg with which they draw off this liquor
00:07:20.920 fastening them to a tree from the evening until the next morning and from the morning to the evening
00:07:26.780 so that the said liquor comes little by little. This palm bears a fruit named cocho. Again he's
00:07:32.560 talking about coconut. Coconuts were entirely new to them or nearly. They'd actually seen them in Guam
00:07:37.520 and stuff but this is the first time they're up close and personal. Pigafetta is able to describe
00:07:42.180 coconuts and he says which are as large as the head or thereabouts and its first husk is green
00:07:47.340 and two fingers thick in which are found certain fibers of which those people make the ropes by
00:07:53.120 which they bind their boats. Under this husk is another very hard and thicker than that of a nut
00:07:58.340 and under the said husk there is a white mallow of a finger's thickness which they eat with meat and fish
00:08:04.940 as we do bread and it has the flavor of an almond. From the center of this marrow there flows a water
00:08:10.840 which is clear and sweet and very refreshing like an apple. The Filipinos taught their visitors how to
00:08:17.140 produce milk from the coconut. They pried the meat of the coconut from the shell combined it with the
00:08:21.760 coconut's liquor and filtered the mixture through cloth. The result said the chronicler became like
00:08:27.340 goat's milk. Pigafetta was so moved by the coconut's versatility that he declared with some exaggeration
00:08:33.180 that two palm trees could sustain a family of 10 for a hundred years. Their id all lasted a week
00:08:39.480 each day bringing with it new discoveries and a growing intimacy with their genial Filipino hosts.
00:08:45.060 Pigafetta once again says, these people entered into very great familiarity and friendship with us
00:08:50.080 and made us understand several things in their language and the name of some islands which we
00:08:54.980 saw before us. We took great pleasure with them because they were merry and conversable.
00:09:00.260 So, they're nice. There's no question, no hint of violence or anything like that.
00:09:07.220 But Magellan nearly destroyed the idl when he invited the Filipinos aboard Trinidad.
00:09:12.220 He incautiously showed his guests all merchandise, namely cloves, cinnamon, pepper, walnut, nutmeg,
00:09:18.640 ginger, mace, gold and all that was in the ship. Clearly, he felt he was no longer among thieves.
00:09:24.320 His trust was amply rewarded when the Filipinos appeared to recognize these exotic and precious
00:09:29.380 spices and tried to explain where they grew locally. The first indication that the armada was
00:09:34.380 approaching the spice islands. Actually, they were still quite a long way from there, but anyway,
00:09:38.780 we'll get to that later. Magellan's reaction can be easily imagined. Perhaps he would reach the
00:09:43.320 Malukas after all, against all odds. He then did his guests a single honour, or so he thought,
00:09:48.960 by ordering his gunners to discharge their artillery. The awkward aquabuses, so artillery in inverted
00:09:55.100 commas there, the roar shattered the silence and reverberated against the distant hills of
00:09:59.860 Homon Hom, terrifying the Filipinos who, afraid for their lives, quote, tried to leap from the ship
00:10:05.080 into the sea. This might have been a gaffe, an excess of enthusiasm. Or was Magellan trying to
00:10:10.320 impress these defensive islanders and himself with the power of his weapons? At the very least,
00:10:15.900 the display was a cruel practical joke on a tranquil tribe that had only helped to protect him and his
00:10:21.900 men. Magellan quickly realized, Magellan quickly reassured the frightened Filipinos and coaxed them
00:10:27.820 into remaining on board. At the same time, he would not fail to notice that his weapons conferred absolute
00:10:33.720 power over the islanders, should he ever feel the need to exert it. After a week in Homon Hom,
00:10:39.020 Magellan gave the order to weigh anchor on Monday, March the 25th. While light rain dappled the water's
00:10:44.720 surface, as the three black ships were brought about to head out of the harbour on a west-southwest
00:10:50.320 course, deeper into the Philippine archipelago towards the Malukas. Then there's a little story
00:10:55.400 where Pigafetta himself fell overboard, just accidentally slipped on a wet deck and fell
00:11:01.720 overboard. If no one had noticed him, he would have been lost. He could have, you imagine,
00:11:07.960 swum to the nearest island, but then was lost. The ship could have just gone without him.
00:11:12.100 There was a rope dangling behind the ship. It was called the Clue Garnet of the Mainsail.
00:11:18.780 I don't know enough about sailing to tell you exactly what the Clue Garnet of the Mainsail was. It was
00:11:24.200 basically a rope that was dangling in the water and trailing behind the ship. He was able to grab
00:11:29.140 onto that and start shouting and screaming, and eventually someone noticed him, and they dragged
00:11:33.760 him in, and his life was saved. But yeah, very nearly, very nearly lost. And how terrible would that
00:11:38.560 be if he was lost? We would have very, very little. We'd have Albo's account, which is much less reliable
00:11:43.620 and much, much less in depth. Okay, Pigafetta narrowly escaped death. It won't be for the last
00:11:48.840 time. Burgreen continues the story here, saying, the following night, the crew spied an island
00:11:53.120 distinguished by a dull red glow, the unmistakable sign of campfires, and they knew they were not
00:11:58.700 alone. In the morning, Magellan decided to risk approaching, and in a now familiar ritual, they were
00:12:04.860 greeted by another small boat, this one bearing eight warriors with unknown intentions. Magellan's slave,
00:12:11.080 Enrique, addressed them in a Malay dialect, and to Magellan's astonishment, the men appeared to
00:12:16.780 understand him, and replied in the same tongue. No one, not even Magellan, knew how Enrique managed
00:12:22.480 to converse with the islanders, but the slave's background provided some valuable clues. Magellan
00:12:28.040 had acquired Enrique 10 years earlier in Malacca. Malacca is in modern-day Malaysia, about as far east
00:12:35.280 as any Europeans had gone, is the west coast of Malaysia. So still a fair way from the east coast
00:12:43.320 of the Philippines, but in the same region, you know, Southeast Asia, the same region, but nonetheless
00:12:49.340 surprising that the same dialect could be used. So Enrique was acquired 10 years earlier in Malacca, where he
00:12:55.240 was baptized, and he had followed his master ever since across Africa and Europe. If Enrique had originally
00:13:01.680 come from these islands, been captured as a boy by slave raiders from Sumatra and sold to Magellan
00:13:08.180 at a slave market in Malacca, the chain of circumstances would account for his understanding
00:13:12.900 the local language. But beyond that, it meant that Magellan's servant was, in fact, the first person
00:13:18.540 to circle the globe and return home. That's quite remarkable, isn't it? Maybe Magellan's slave, Enrique,
00:13:23.460 was the first individual to have gone west all the way around the world and come back again. He doesn't
00:13:29.660 usually get the accolades for that in the history books. I think maybe of Henzing Norgay, the first
00:13:35.120 person to summit Everest. Perhaps the history books put it down as Hillary, Sir Edmund Hillary. It may
00:13:41.200 well have been his Sherpa, Henzing, who actually summited first. There you go. Bergering goes on.
00:13:47.660 As the Islanders came alongside the ship, unwilling to enter, but taking a position at some little
00:13:52.680 distance, the Captain General attempted to entice them with a red cap and other things tied to a bit of
00:13:58.480 wood. Still, they remained at a distance. Finally, Magellan's peace offerings were set out on a plank,
00:14:04.140 pushed to the canoe's direction, and the men in the boat enthusiastically seized the gifts and paddled
00:14:09.640 back to shore, where, Magellan presumed, they displayed their trophies to their ruler. And Pigafetta says,
00:14:15.100 About two hours later, he saw two Balangai coming. They were large boats. Balangai, larger type of
00:14:23.140 indigenous canoes. And they were full of men, and their king was in the larger of them, being seated
00:14:28.720 under an awning of mats. When the king came near to the flagship, the slave spoke to him, Enrique.
00:14:34.220 The king understood him, but in those districts, the kings know more languages than the other people.
00:14:39.300 He ordered some of his men to enter the ships, but he always remained in his Balangai at some little
00:14:44.700 distance from the ship until his own men returned. And as soon as they returned, he departed.
00:14:49.620 Magellan tried to conduct himself as a gracious visitor, but he was outdone by the generosity of
00:14:54.800 the king, who proffered, quote, a large bar of gold and a basket of ginger. Gold. There's gold here,
00:15:02.540 usually a bad sign. It might not be Magellan or even the second expedition, but at some point,
00:15:08.060 the Europeans are going to insist that they want all the gold. Magellan politely but firmly refused
00:15:15.500 to accept this tribute, but he remained on such friendly terms with the natives that he moved
00:15:20.620 his ship's anchorage closer to the king's hut for the night as a symbol of their newfound allegiance.
00:15:26.300 So that's one thing to say. Magellan's quite wily. He doesn't want to let these people know,
00:15:31.360 this comes up later, he doesn't want to let them know how much they covet gold, how valuable gold is
00:15:37.160 to him. They don't know. To them, it's still a precious metal to them. Anyone that's ever handled any gold,
00:15:42.080 no. It's really super heavy. So much heavier than any other sort of method. And it's so soft. And
00:15:48.560 obviously, it's sort of obviously special. It's like a gemstone or an opal. You just know that it's
00:15:55.020 valuable and precious. Nonetheless, different cultures put different value on gold. For example,
00:16:00.240 the Aztecs valued jade above gold. And in these islands, gold is so common, still not that common,
00:16:08.480 but it's so relatively common that they don't think it's the most valuable thing. And so Magellan
00:16:13.720 doesn't want to let them know that, you know, a bargaining strategy. They knew what it was really
00:16:19.480 worth back in Portugal and Spain, back in Europe. They wouldn't trade it away so easily. And of course,
00:16:24.960 that is what Magellan's looking for. Berggren continues,
00:16:26.960 this encounter with indigenous peoples was shaping up as the Armada's most peaceful and successful
00:16:32.200 since their delirious layover in Rio de Janeiro. A king willing to give gold and ginger might have other
00:16:38.340 resources and perhaps even women. But experience had shown Magellan that opening gestures could be
00:16:43.320 deceptive, if not outright dangerous. The next day, Good Friday of 1521, Magellan put his relationship
00:16:50.360 with the islanders to the test. He sent Enrique ashore on the island of Limasawa. Even today,
00:16:56.140 as part of Southern Leyte in the Philippines, Limasawa is a remote, inaccessible island,
00:17:01.740 remarkable for its broad, clean, inviting beaches, occasionally interrupted by unusual rock
00:17:06.700 formations and caves. It actually looks kind of idyllic, somewhere you might like to go on a
00:17:10.440 honeymoon or something. He was not the first outsider to find safe harbour here. Without
00:17:14.620 realising it, he had arrived at an important trading post. Chinese traders had been calling
00:17:20.040 at the island for five centuries, their junks bearing sophisticated manufactured items such as
00:17:25.720 porcelain, silk and lead sinkers, you know, for fishing. The islanders traded for these items with
00:17:31.580 products from their beaches and forests, cotton, wax, pearls, betel nuts, tortoise shells, coconuts,
00:17:39.000 sweet potatoes and coconut leaf mats. The Limasawans enjoyed a reputation for hospitality and more
00:17:45.600 importantly, honesty. In 1225, Chauju Kuo, a Chinese merchant, described the orderly process of trading.
00:17:54.100 Limasawans, he said, efficiently carried away the Chinese goods they had been given and always
00:17:58.780 returned with the arranged payments. So the appearance of the armada, while unusual, was not wholly
00:18:04.260 unanticipated by the islanders, who were prepared to engage in trade with their new guests. Once he was
00:18:09.980 ashore, Enrique asked the Limasawan ruler, Raja Kolambu, to send more food to the fleet, for which payment
00:18:17.520 would be rendered. As instructed, he added, quote, that they would be well satisfied with us, for he,
00:18:23.580 Magellan, had come to the island as friends and not as enemies. The king responded favourably to the
00:18:28.760 request and came himself, along with six or eight of his men, all of whom boarded the flagship. He
00:18:34.980 embraced the captain-general, to whom he gave three porcelain jars covered with leaves and full of raw
00:18:40.720 rice and two very large oredes, which is the dorado, which is a fish. In return, Magellan gave the king a
00:18:47.660 garment of red and yellow cloth, made in the Turkish fashion, and a fine red cap. Again, these things were
00:18:53.080 very, very little for Magellan. Then the captain-general had a collation spread for them and told the king
00:18:58.480 through a slave that he desired to be Cassie Cassie with him. The king replied that he also wished to
00:19:04.780 enter into the same relationship with the captain-general, and her green continues. This was a
00:19:09.320 strong statement. Be Cassie Cassie meant that Magellan wished to become blood brothers with the
00:19:14.240 island king. A ceremony requiring the mingling of their blood, the Mafra said. Both cut their chests and
00:19:20.480 the blood was poured into a vessel and mixed together with wine, and each man then drank half
00:19:25.740 of it. I always think it's interesting when things like this happen. Not that they really know,
00:19:30.980 they definitely don't know about the germ period of disease, but before the age of penicillin,
00:19:34.880 probably try and cut yourself as little as possible. Break the skin, never, if you can help it.
00:19:39.980 You're just opening yourself to infection. But anyway, people did survive incredible wounds,
00:19:44.560 though, didn't they, as well? So I wouldn't want to do that. And of course, they didn't know about
00:19:48.880 blood diseases and things. But nonetheless, of course, they didn't know. But that's what they
00:19:52.880 do. So this is a sign that Magellan wants to, he's in friendly mode. Magellan's in friendly mode.
00:19:58.800 They're in friendly mode, so he's in friendly mode at the moment. The other thing is, you can now see
00:20:03.820 the fact that Enrique can speak their dialect, and Magellan understands something of the culture
00:20:09.760 already, this idea of becoming blood brothers, is that they've sort of come back to civilization
00:20:15.880 nearly. They've come back to a place which isn't just 100% alien, like the southern tip of South
00:20:23.720 America, or the west coast of South America, or some super remote island in the middle of the
00:20:29.940 Pacific. No, they're back to a place where, you know, the Chinese have already been there. As I
00:20:34.680 said, it's not a million miles away from Malacca, from Malaysia, where Europeans have already been.
00:20:40.860 So they're kind of out of the worst of it in terms of, simply in terms of being lost on the other side
00:20:48.700 of the world. They're coming back to something approaching civilization as they would have known
00:20:53.340 it. If you enjoyed that preview, please consider heading over to lotusseaters.com to watch the full
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