The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - PREVIEW： Epochs #230 ｜ Magellan： Part XI

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome back to the penultimate episode of my story of Magellan and his men's

00:00:20.360 voyage around the world, the first circumnavigation of the globe. If you remember last time we were

00:00:26.860 in the Philippines, Magellan and his men were in the Philippines, the island of Cebu. So let's pick

00:00:33.340 up the story there. So Lawrence Burgreen in his excellent book, Over the Edge of the World, which

00:00:37.980 I've been reading from, tells us that Pigafetta wrote this, quote, at noon on Sunday, April the 7th,

00:00:44.320 and we're in the year 1521, remember, we entered the port of Cebu, passing by many villages where

00:00:50.880 we saw many houses built upon logs. On approaching the city, the Captain General ordered the ships

00:00:55.800 to unfurl their banners. The sails were lowered and arranged as if for battle, and all the artillery

00:01:02.040 was fired, an action which caused a great deal of fear to those people, end quote. Yeah, Magellan loves

00:01:07.800 doing this. It's one of his sort of signature things, is firing off aquabuses or even their bigger

00:01:13.780 artillery pieces from their ships. And of course, you know, of course, it causes massive fear and

00:01:21.640 confusion among the indigenous peoples. They've never, ever heard or seen such a thing before.

00:01:27.520 And of course, it would be terrifying, wouldn't it? It's like the only thing they would ever know,

00:01:31.780 even remotely close to it, would be thunder. But he even does it. Sometimes they try to explain

00:01:37.700 to these island people that, no, it's meant as a nice or good greeting. If they're going to celebrate

00:01:44.380 an important day, a feast or a festival or a mass or something, to sort of celebrate that,

00:01:51.100 they'll fire off their cannon. So to the Europeans, it's not scary, it's good. It's sort of cool,

00:01:59.260 if you like, in a way. But obviously, to the indigenous people, it's going to be terrifying. 1.00

00:02:02.940 And also, Magellan knows that as well. So it is like a dominance thing, like, you know,

00:02:09.680 announcing yourself and, you know, immediately saying, we're more powerful than you. We can do

00:02:15.440 things you can't dream of, sort of thing. So, okay, Magellan loves doing it. Bergering goes on.

00:02:20.440 Once the ships dropped to anchor, Magellan dispatched his illegitimate son, Cristobal Rebello,

00:02:26.320 and Pigafetta says, as ambassador to the king of Cebu, along with the slave Enrique to serve as an

00:02:32.620 interpreter. Arriving on land, Rebello and Enrique found a vast crowd of people together with the king,

00:02:38.800 all of whom had been frightened by the Mortons, Green says. To reassure the distraught inhabitants,

00:02:43.840 Enrique explained that it was the fleet's custom to discharge their weapons when entering such places

00:02:49.440 as a sign of peace and friendship, quote. Yeah, and you know, they're not going to necessarily know

00:02:53.680 it's a sign of peace and friendship, are they? They're almost certainly not going to take it that

00:02:58.520 way. But there you go, just a classic, a classic sort of miscommunication, a classic misunderstanding

00:03:05.480 between two worlds. But again, I suspect, well, we kind of know as well, don't we, that Magellan and

00:03:12.460 his men also knew, you know, that it would be scary for the people. His words had their intended effect

00:03:18.000 and soon the local chieftain was asking what he could do for them. Enrique stepped forward again

00:03:22.840 and announced that his captain owed allegiance to, quote, the greatest king and prince in the world

00:03:27.860 and that he was going to discover the Moluccas, obviously the greatest king and prince's,

00:03:32.580 childs of Castile, he means, Spain. And Enrique continues to explain to, to that his captain had

00:03:39.100 decided to pass this way because of the great report that he had of him from the king of Limasawa

00:03:45.020 and to buy food, end quote. So remember, they just come from this, the island of Limasawa,

00:03:49.840 which is very, very peaceful, very, very friendly and inviting and generous and peaceful

00:03:54.300 on Limasawa. And they're told Magellan, if you remember last episode, they're told Magellan

00:03:59.440 that go over to Cebu, they're sort of bigger, more important, richer, you know, if you're looking

00:04:06.820 for trading posts and civilisation, essentially, you want to go to Cebu, they're bigger and more

00:04:14.440 important than us. So they just come from Limasawa, so remember that. And in fact, they've

00:04:18.480 got the king of Limasawa with them, say king, it's just basically like a tribal chief,

00:04:24.660 really, is what it is. This is the king of Cebu. Impressed, the king welcomed the visitors,

00:04:29.120 but he advised, quote, it was their custom for all ships that entered their ports to pay tribute,

00:04:34.320 end quote. Only four days before, a junk from Siam, quote, laden with gold and slaves, quote,

00:04:39.600 had called on the island and paid its tribute. To back up his story, the king produced an Arab 1.00

00:04:44.700 merchant from Siam who had remained behind. The merchant explained that it was necessary to pay

00:04:50.340 tribute to the local rulers in exchange for safe passage, and he urged Magellan to follow his

00:04:55.460 example. Now, Magellan sort of makes a, you know, a tactical decision here. We're told,

00:05:01.920 Magellan scorned the Arabs' live-and-let-live approach to the islanders and refused to pay 1.00

00:05:07.400 anyone. He saw the local populace as prey, as helpers and as heathen, not as equals, and he intended

00:05:14.280 to claim their territory for Spain and their souls for the church. Negotiations between Magellan and

00:05:20.000 the king of Cebu broke down when Magellan, through Enrique, insisted that his king, King Charles of

00:05:25.120 Castile, was the greatest in all the world and the Armada de Molucca would never pay tribute to a 0.97

00:05:30.720 lesser ruler. He ended by declaring, quote, if the king wished peace, we would have peace, but if war

00:05:37.040 instead, then he would have war, end quote. So Magellan there is being really quite belligerent. You know,

00:05:42.780 people have looked back on it and thought, you know, kind of needlessly belligerent. There's no

00:05:47.840 need for him to be like this. Remember, he's the first explorer in the Philippines. He really is

00:05:53.840 still in uncharted waters. So there's no need for him to sort of try and claim the lands for Spain,

00:06:01.320 try and convert all the people to Christianity. That wasn't in his orders, his official orders

00:06:06.360 from the court of Castile. He wasn't charged with doing that, and he just doesn't have to do it.

00:06:12.540 It's not part of his remit, but that's exactly what he's deciding to do. He's making a rod for

00:06:19.740 his own back, Magellan. He's giving himself bigger, more difficult tasks than need be necessary. He

00:06:26.660 could have just paid the king of Cebu, a guy called Hamabon, Raja Hamabon. He could have just

00:06:32.600 paid him some tribute. Or, you know, he could have just said, you know, he could have just played it

00:06:37.600 another, a number of ways, rather than being haughty and sort of insisting that he's the more

00:06:44.900 important party here. But that's what Magellan decides to do. Bergering says, at this point,

00:06:50.400 the merchant from Siam uttered a few words that pique effect to mean, have good care, O king.

00:06:55.800 And in this sense, the king is, he's talking to Magellan. Have good care, O king, that what you do

00:07:01.340 for these men are of those who have conquered Calicut, Malacca, and all India the greater.

00:07:07.440 If you give them good reception and treat them well, it will be well for you. But if you treat

00:07:12.060 them ill, so much the worse it will be for you. Enrique seconded the merchant's advice. If the king

00:07:18.020 of Cebu refused to yield, then the captain general would send so many men that they would destroy him.

00:07:24.280 End quote. So Magellan's getting pretty aggressive straight off the bat. You know, he's been asked

00:07:30.660 for some tribute, which seems to have been the normal custom. He said, not only am I not going

00:07:35.360 to pay any tribute, but if you ask me again, if you push me on it at all, I'm just going to start 0.69

00:07:40.080 attacking you. Basically what he says. So yeah, that's aggressive. Magellan hasn't really been acting

00:07:47.000 like this before, has he? So it's interesting to see, again, from our point of view, looking back

00:07:53.880 on it centuries later, it looks like some sort of change has come over Magellan. It's probably not

00:07:58.640 necessarily the case. He probably always had these traits in him, but for whatever reason, this is how

00:08:04.600 he's deciding to act at this point of the voyage. And, you know, even despite the relatively large

00:08:11.680 amount of accounts we've got from Pigafetta, from Demaphra, from one or two others, we don't know the

00:08:17.820 exact detail, you know, day by day, what's going on in Magellan's head. So we can't tell exactly what his

00:08:25.940 thought processes are, exactly what his calculations were to start acting like this. But this is how he

00:08:32.660 decides to act at this stage of the voyage, you know, very bellicose. Burgreen says, the king of Cebu

00:08:38.520 shrewdly replied that he would confer with his chieftains and return the next day. As a sign of

00:08:44.960 his peaceful intentions, he offered the landing party, quote, refreshments of many dishes, all made

00:08:50.640 from meat and contained in porcelain platters beside many jars of wine, end quote. He sent them happily

00:08:57.420 stumbling back to their waiting ships, where they told Magellan and the ever-present Pigafetta the

00:09:02.720 details of the exchange. Despite his belligerent words, Magellan possessed one diplomatic

00:09:08.280 asset, the king of Limusawa, who they, you know, they brought with them, who had come along on this

00:09:13.400 leg of the journey and was pleased to, quote, speak to the king of the great courtesy of our

00:09:18.260 captain general, quote. So he got the king of Limusawa to speak to the king of Cebu and say,

00:09:24.020 tell him that, look, these guys, you know, they sound belligerent, they're being a bit aggressive

00:09:28.440 here, but they're not crazy. They're not devils. They're not, you know, they're not here just to

00:09:32.560 completely do bad things. They'll barter. You know, they've actually got things that are cool that we want,

00:09:38.280 you know, like beads and mirrors and cloth caps and stuff. So it seems like the king of Limusawa

00:09:44.600 sort of calms the situation down a bit with the king of Cebu. So we're told, Berggring tells us

00:09:52.320 that the local king's soothing words had the desired effect, and on Monday morning, the Armada's

00:09:57.700 notary, i.e. that is Pigafetta, accompanied by Enrique, held a formal meeting with the king of Cebu,

00:10:04.660 that's the Raja or king, Hamabon. This time, Hamabon offered to pay tribute to the most powerful

00:10:10.820 king in the world, rather than demanding it for himself. So completely, it completely worked.

00:10:16.320 But Magellan's belligerence completely worked. Not only does he not need to pay any tribute to

00:10:21.940 Hamabon anymore, he's going to get some in return. So you can see why Magellan might be acting like

00:10:29.600 this. If he's a little bit of belligerence, like on Limusawa and on Guam and other places,

00:10:34.760 a little bit of aggression has served him well. It has sort of worked out well for him so far.

00:10:41.600 If you show your power a bit, most of the time, or nearly all the time so far, that's worked out

00:10:47.820 well. The indigenous island peoples have just submitted to any sort of show of strength, 0.99

00:10:54.140 puffing his chest out, or sabre rattling. It has worked. I mean, this time, again,

00:11:00.080 it seems to have worked perfectly. So you can see if that's what's going on in Magellan's mind,

00:11:04.780 all he needs to do is act aggressively, and he gets everything he wants. And that's repeatedly worked.

00:11:10.880 Why wouldn't you keep doing that, I suppose? Okay.

00:11:13.760 The impasse was broken. Magellan acknowledged Hamabon's generous offer and announced he would

00:11:18.840 trade with him and no others. Prompted by the ruler of Limusawa, the Cebuan ruler offered to

00:11:25.000 become blood brothers with Magellan. The captain general had only to send a drop of his blood from

00:11:30.460 his right arm, and he would do the same as a sign of the most sincere friendship. Almost despite

00:11:35.560 himself, Magellan had found a home in Cebu. The next day, Tuesday, Magellan had more good news.

00:11:41.840 The Limusawaan king announced that Hamabon was preparing a great feast to send to the ships,

00:11:47.080 and that after dinner, he would send two of his nephews with other notable men to make peace

00:11:52.560 with him, quote. After gratefully receiving the food, Magellan decided to make another show of force

00:11:57.280 and trotted out an armor-clad seaman whose demonstrations of European-style combat

00:12:02.360 predictably alarmed the Cebuan emissary, who seemed more intelligent than the others, quote.

00:12:07.920 Once again, Magellan turned the situation to his advantage, Pigafetta says. The captain general told

00:12:13.080 him not to be frightened, for our arms were soft towards our friends and harsh towards our enemies,

00:12:18.700 and as handkerchiefs wipe off sweat, so do our arms overthrow and destroy all our adversaries

00:12:24.920 and the enemies of our faith, end quote. The lesson had its intended effect, i.e., you know, the, again,

00:12:31.620 the indigenous people of Cebu saw the strength, just like on Limusawa and Guam, they saw the strength

00:12:38.440 of Spanish armor and arms and did realize that, you know, we've got nothing like that. Armed with such 0.96

00:12:46.460 things, these men could, you know, defeat us, so we'll sort of be kind and generous towards them.

00:12:53.280 Bergering goes on. Once Magellan had alternately impressed and intimidated the Cebuans, relations

00:12:59.180 between the two proceeded like a tale in a storybook. The king's nephew came aboard Trinidad,

00:13:04.360 accompanied by a retinue of eight chieftains, to swear loyalty. Holding court, Magellan played the

00:13:09.900 part of a magnanimous potentate with gusto, Pigafetta says. The captain general was seated in

00:13:16.640 a red velvet chair, the principal men of the ships on leather chairs and the others on mats upon the

00:13:22.280 floor. The captain general asked them, through an interpreter, whether that prince had the authority

00:13:28.240 to make peace, i.e., the nephew of the king of Cebu, that prince. The captain general said many things

00:13:34.080 concerning peace and that he prayed to God to confirm it in heaven. They said that they had

00:13:39.300 never heard such words and that they took great pleasure in hearing them. The captain general,

00:13:44.180 seeing that they listened and answered willingly, began to advance arguments to induce them to accept

00:13:50.220 the faith, end quote. So again, right away, Magellan's getting involved in religion and the job of

00:13:57.280 converting these people, you know, missionary work. And once again, that's not his job. That's not his

00:14:04.680 orders to do that. He hasn't been massively interested in that before, you know, when they were sailing

00:14:10.380 down the coast of Patagonia and Brazil and things. It didn't seem to be like that was his main goal in

00:14:15.960 any way. But now it seems like it is sort of one of the most, perhaps even the most important thing

00:14:22.940 to Magellan now. You'll see how all this plays out. It seems like, once again, probably not the case,

00:14:30.820 but it just seemed like something switched in his mind at this point and converting them to

00:14:36.320 Christianity is sort of the most important thing to him. But okay, I'll carry on.

00:14:41.040 Murray Green says, rising from his special chair, Magellan abruptly changed the subject,

00:14:46.000 wanting to know who would succeed the king after his death, Pigavetta says. They replied that the

00:14:51.360 king had no son, but many daughters, and that this prince, who was his nephew, had as wife the king's

00:14:57.360 eldest daughter, and for love of her, he was called prince. And they said, moreover, that when the

00:15:02.520 father of the nephews were old, no more account was taken of them, but the children commanded them,

00:15:08.040 end quote. That's interesting, isn't it? Quite a lot of societies aren't like that.

00:15:12.280 You know, old people are revered, unless, you know, they're so old that they're sort of senile 1.00

00:15:17.400 or bedridden. You know, usually older people are revered. But in this culture, in this society,

00:15:23.500 at this time, at a certain point, old people are just commanded by their children, or so we're told.

00:15:28.680 And that's very unchristianry, that's quite un-Catholic, that sort of state of affairs. 0.97

00:15:33.240 So, Berggrini says, this state of affairs struck Magellan as contradictory to the commandments,

00:15:39.460 and he proceeded to explain some basic tenets of the Bible. Pigavetta wrote,

00:15:44.300 God made the sky, the earth, the sea, and everything else, and that he had commanded us

00:15:48.880 to honor our fathers and mothers, and that whoever did otherwise was condemned to eternal fire,

00:15:54.580 that we are all descended from Adam and Eve, our first parents, that we have an immortal spirit.

00:15:59.640 His oratory must have been highly persuasive because, all joyfully entreated the Captain

00:16:04.740 General to leave them two men, or at least one, to instruct them in the faith, end quote.

00:16:10.200 Berggrini goes on. Magellan explained that he could not leave anyone behind with them,

00:16:14.020 but if they wished, the Armada's priest, Father Valderrama, would gladly baptize the Sibuens,

00:16:20.460 and when they returned, they would bring, like, some other year, like, maybe years from now,

00:16:25.420 when they come back again, they don't, this particular group of Europeans don't, but they 0.99

00:16:30.260 say, when they returned, they would bring priests and friars to instruct them. Pigavetta reported

00:16:36.540 that the chieftains, Magellan, and the onlookers all became so excited by the prospect that everyone,

00:16:42.900 quote, wept with great joy, quote. What significance the highly emotional baptismal rite held for the

00:16:48.560 Filipinos can only be guessed, but it meant something very specific to Magellan. Baptism,

00:16:54.020 a word derived from the Greek baptismos, meant immersion, and carried with it the idea of

00:16:59.780 cleansing the soul of sin and rebirth into the Christian faith. Before he began in earnest, 0.99

00:17:05.140 Magellan cautioned the Sibuens not to convert to Christianity simply to win his favor, and promised 1.00

00:17:11.000 not to cause any displeasure to those who wish to live according to their own law, but, he said,

00:17:16.820 the Christians would get preferential treatment. Pigavetta says, all cried out with one voice that they 0.52

00:17:22.440 were not becoming Christians through fear or to please us, but of their own free will. And Magellan

00:17:28.060 was so encouraged by this response that he promised to leave behind a suit of armor, just one, in

00:17:33.580 gratitude. So, that's an interesting point. We're told that at this stage, Magellan says, you know,

00:17:40.120 I want you to. It'd be great if you all converted to Christianity. That would be brilliant. That's 1.00

00:17:44.120 exactly what I really, really, really want. But you don't have to. And certainly, if you're doing it

00:17:49.540 under coercion, under duress, or out of fear, or you're just trying to curry favor with me, don't

00:17:56.360 do it. You need to genuinely accept it, you know, accept Jesus into your heart. And you have to do it

00:18:02.580 with your own free will. And if you don't want to, you know, we won't hurt you or anything, but we are

00:18:07.980 going to give preferential treatment to those that do. Now, this comes up because quite quickly,

00:18:13.900 that's not the deal that Magellan is offering. Quite quickly, it becomes convert or we might burn

00:18:21.120 down your houses and maybe kill you. Like, very quickly, within days, that becomes the deal. But at 1.00

00:18:25.560 this early stage, he's still saying, you don't have to. And, you know, you have to do it out of your own

00:18:30.500 free will. And, you know, there's no punishment if you don't. But it was absolutely not Magellan's job

00:18:36.040 to start threatening and bullying indigenous island folk of Southeast Asia into becoming 1.00

00:18:41.520 Christian. But that's how it goes. Okay, Bergering continues. He also raised the highly sensitive

00:18:46.120 subject of sex between his men and the Sebuen women, Pigavetta says. We could not have intercourse 0.83

00:18:52.420 with their women without committing a very great sin, since they were pagans. And he assured them 0.99

00:18:57.680 that if they became Christians, the devil would no longer appear to them, except in the last moment 1.00

00:19:02.700 of their death. End quote, Bergering continues. Magellan implied that it was a lesser sin to become

00:19:08.080 intimate with Sebuen women who had been baptized. And the crew, as ravenous for sex as they were for 0.76

00:19:13.820 food, immediately took advantage of the loophole. But there is no suggestion that he became, that he,

00:19:19.340 Magellan himself, became intimate with any of the Sebuen women. He found fulfillment of a more

00:19:23.940 spiritual nature. Pigavetta again. The captain embraced them weeping and clasping one of their

00:19:29.240 prince's hands, and one of the kings between his own, said to them that he would give them

00:19:34.160 perpetual peace with the king of Spain. End quote. Okay, so in Bergering's book, over the next few

00:19:39.440 pages, quite a few pages actually, he goes on and on about sex. So let's talk about that a little bit,

00:19:45.840 because it becomes important. The men stay on Sebu, or in this part of the Philippines, for quite a while,

00:19:53.560 in this region anyway, and there's lots of sex going on, because these particular indigenous peoples 1.00

00:20:01.000 are quite open, quite free, promiscuous. I mean that with that not as a pejorative, but they're just, 0.98

00:20:09.580 the women are quite free, and the men, unlike on Guam, if you remember, the men don't seem to mind

00:20:15.060 particularly. It's a polygamous society, so the men will have many, many quote-unquote wives. They'll

00:20:22.920 have one principal wife, but on top of that, they'll have many wives. And so, yeah, it's just one of

00:20:28.840 those societies where, yeah, there isn't any, hardly any stigma or prudishness about sex. So,

00:20:38.260 and the women go around topless quite often, if not sometimes just completely naked. So, yeah, 1.00

00:20:45.260 so, as you can imagine, whenever possible, sex is going on. Okay, so one of the things to mention

00:20:54.580 is that they do it very differently. And as I say, in Bergering's books, and in other books about this,

00:21:01.500 there's usually an aside at this stage all about it. So there's a thing in this part of the world,

00:21:07.300 which gets called Palang. And what it is, is some sort of genital jewelry that the men wear.

00:21:15.260 It's described as like a bolt straight through the penis. I mean, there's something similar now. 0.99

00:21:20.520 I haven't got any piercings, personally, if you want to know. Certainly not downstairs. But that's

00:21:26.780 a thing, isn't it? Some people got that. Is it like a Prince Albert? I don't even know what it's

00:21:30.800 called. But a big bolt straight through your dick, right? It's pretty serious. I mean, I think you 1.00

00:21:37.380 can, if you're not careful, certainly in the pre-modern age, and it's not a professional

00:21:41.360 doing it, you might like some serious blood vessels or whatever. But anyway, apparently all the men

00:21:46.960 have got this, this bolt through their dick, right? And there's even, it even describes as, 0.99

00:21:52.180 that there's even like some barbs on it. So, okay. And their fashion of having sex is, I mean,

00:22:00.380 I don't want to get too, too explicit here, but it's not to sort of thrust in and out, but just to

00:22:06.820 like go inside and then just hold it there. Because otherwise it would be too brutal. It'd be, it would

00:22:11.780 damage the woman, wouldn't it? It would be too much, be too aggressive. It could internal,

00:22:17.100 internally wound the woman. So there's no real thrusting. You just hold it there. And apparently 1.00

00:22:22.400 for hours and hours, or even as long as a day, you're just locked in this embrace for like a day,

00:22:27.600 maybe, or certainly hours and hours. And that's how they did it. That was how they did it. And

00:22:32.540 so to Pigafetta and these Europeans, that's sort of entirely new. They've never heard of or seen 1.00

00:22:39.020 anything like it. And to them, they think it's, they think it's weird. You can imagine they think

00:22:46.240 it's weird. They think it's a quote, brutal custom. And they describe it as a bizarre sexual

00:22:52.400 custom. You know, different folks, different strokes, right? Whatever floats your boat.

00:22:57.800 But the 16th century Europeans thought it was weird and bizarre. I mean, okay, this quick paragraph

00:23:04.680 from Bergering sort of sums it up. It says, quote, Pigafetta's clinical description contained

00:23:09.600 enough details to suggest that he observed the islanders having intercourse. And he came away both 0.58

00:23:15.040 excited and dismayed by what he saw. And these are his words. Those people make use of that device,

00:23:21.240 the penis piercing of Palang. Those people make use of that device because they are of a weak nature. 1.00

00:23:27.480 He thought that made them weak. And he equated weakness with pleasure loving. Like the fact that

00:23:33.000 they had intercourse for hours and hours and hours on end. To Pigafetta's mind, that made them weak.

00:23:37.740 And he went on to explain that, quote, they have as many wives as they wish, but one of them is their

00:23:43.360 principal wife, Bergering says, both the practice of Palang, with its emphasis on increasing pleasure

00:23:49.740 and polygamy, which Pigafetta associated with it, ran counter to Catholic teachings. For all these

00:23:55.860 reasons, Pigafetta found Palang disconcerting. And to prove his point, he insisted, quote,

00:24:01.700 all the women loved us very much more than their own men, quote, presumably because the unadorned

00:24:07.180 Europeans lacked the cumbersome accessories. For the Armada de Moluca and the Spanish expeditions

00:24:12.880 that followed, Palang was just one of many unacceptable customs practiced by the Islanders. 0.98

00:24:18.700 It was said that the Filipino families of the ruling class resulted to infanticide by burying the

00:24:25.380 victims or hurling them into the sea. Also, unmarried women regularly underwent abortions to make it easier 0.98

00:24:32.160 to find a husband. Virginity was actually considered such a serious liability. It's bad to be a virgin

00:24:38.560 for them, you know, very different to 16th century Spanish Catholics, but they considered virginity to

00:24:44.420 be considered such a serious liability that professional deflowerers could be engaged to take

00:24:50.920 care of the problem. The Filipinos emphasized female sexual pleasure and women even had access 1.00

00:24:56.780 to artificial penises to assuage their lust. The Spanish, especially the clergy who came after 0.99

00:25:02.500 Magellan, were intent on eliminating the practice, which they felt was nearly as repugnant as Palang

00:25:08.840 itself. It is said that Magellan's do-or-die emphasis on conversion interfered with precious

00:25:14.660 cultural traditions, but he saw matters quite differently. He was engaged in a mission to rescue a

00:25:20.380 benighted people from barbarism in this world and perdition in the next. In contrast to his

00:25:26.760 pragmatic crew members who considered themselves travellers through an alien landscape, Magellan

00:25:31.960 conducted himself as if he were an instrument of the Lord. He believed that Providence had sent him to

00:25:37.800 the Philippines to bring Christianity to the heathen and considered the local customs as grave social ills.

00:25:44.600 In Magellan's mind, Christianity offered the best and the only cure." End quote. So, okay, back to the 0.96

00:25:51.240 narrative, the main narrative of the story. After Magellan has started his process of insisting that he and, by

00:26:02.520 extension, the King of Spain are the most important actors in this whole thing. They're the centre stage. All the

00:26:09.960 indigenous peoples must bow down to them. And beyond that, will need to accept, should really, but very soon need to 1.00

00:26:17.160 accept Christianity. They have a great feast, and there's a lot about this great feast, but I won't 1.00

00:26:24.040 necessarily bore you with all the details of that. And then the next evening, Bergering tells us,

00:26:29.240 when Magellan finally left Trinidad to make his triumphal entry into Cebu, the next day, sort of a

00:26:35.320 formal entry onto Cebu, the occasion proved every bit as majestic as he could have wished. A delegation from the

00:26:42.360 ships, including an excited Pigafetta, landed on Cebu to formally meet Hummerbon, dressed in regal 0.99

00:26:49.480 splendour to greet his guests. And these are Pigafetta's words. When we reached the city, we

00:26:55.080 found the King in his palace, surrounded by many people. He was seated on a palm mat on the ground,

00:27:00.680 with only a cotton cloth before his private parts, and scarf embroidered with a needle about his head,

00:27:07.160 a necklace of great value hanging from his neck, and two large gold earrings, fastened to his ears,

00:27:13.000 set around with precious gems. He was fat and short, and tattooed with fire in various designs.

00:27:19.000 From another mat on the ground, he was eating turtle eggs, which were in two porcelain dishes, 0.58

00:27:24.200 and he had four jars full of palm wine in front of him, covered with sweet-smelling herbs, and arranged

00:27:30.520 with four small reeds in each jar, by means of which he drank. Having duly made reverence to him,

00:27:36.840 the interpreter, Enrique, told the King that his master thanked him very warmly for his present,

00:27:42.440 and that he sent this present not in return for his present, but for the intrinsic love

00:27:47.320 which he bore for him. We dressed him in the robe, placed the cap on his head, and gave him other

00:27:52.680 things. Then, kissing the beads and putting them on his head, I presented them to him. He doing the

00:27:58.520 same accepted them. The King had us eat some of those eggs, and drank through those slender reeds.

00:28:04.840 The King wished to have us stay to supper with him, but we told him that we could not stay." 0.91

00:28:09.640 End quote.

00:28:10.280 So again, all seems to be going fairly well. The exchange of gifts, and on some level,

00:28:15.000 Hummerbon has accepted Magellan as sort of the senior partner here, on some level.

00:28:21.160 Bergring continues.

00:28:22.440 Impressive as they were, these exchanges were a mere prelude. The excitement began when the

00:28:28.280 Prince escorted Pigafetta, and several others, to his raised hut. They climbed ladders, and within

00:28:34.360 found four young girls were playing, one on a drum like Al's, but resting on the ground. The second,

00:28:40.440 while striking two suspended gongs alternately with a stick wrapped somewhat thickly at the end,

00:28:45.960 with a palm cloth. The third, one large gong in the same manner, and the fourth, two small gongs held

00:28:51.960 in her hand, by striking one against the other, which gave forth a sweet sound. They played so

00:28:58.040 harmoniously, that one would believe that they possessed a good musical sense." End quote.

00:29:02.840 It seems surprised that they were capable of using any sort of instrument. Okay, Bergring says,

00:29:08.280 "...the Europeans noticed more the musical ability. The girls were bare-breasted and extremely alluring." 0.99

00:29:13.880 Pigafetta writes, "...these girls were very beautiful, and almost as white as our girls, 1.00

00:29:18.440 and as large. They were naked except for palm cloths hanging from their waist, and reached to their

00:29:23.880 knees. Some were quite naked, and had large holes in their ears, with a small round piece of wood in

00:29:29.320 the hole. They have long black hair, and wear a short cloth about their head, and are always barefoot.

00:29:34.760 The prince had three quite naked girls dance before us." And that's the end of Pigafetta's 0.66

00:29:39.640 account of that. But Bergring says, "...reluctant to contradict Magellan's prohibition against

00:29:44.200 intercourse with native women until they converted to Christianity, Pigafetta refrains from describing

00:29:50.520 the frolicking and lovemaking with the female musicians, but he leaves no doubt about the evening's

00:29:55.640 outcome. All around them, similar celebrations of European Sebuan amity involving ordinary villagers and

00:30:02.920 sailors, were taking place that night. The one question is whether Magellan participated. But

00:30:08.200 given his restraint and self-denial throughout the voyage, it is unlikely that he yielded to the

00:30:12.680 temptations of the flesh, even on this occasion." So, a great night. That was always one of the things

00:30:18.040 that would draw men to go out to sea, even up to the 19th century, or perhaps even in the 20th century.

00:30:24.520 You go abroad, you go all the way around the world for the hope of treasure and fame and adventure and

00:30:33.240 women. Tahiti is famous. Tahiti isn't in this story, but in centuries to come, in decades and centuries to

00:30:39.080 come, Tahiti becomes famous for that the women are really, really beautiful and really, really easy, 0.98

00:30:44.920 for want of a better word. So yeah, if you're sort of a young man, sort of a kind of crazy young man, 0.94

00:30:50.760 you're prepared to risk your life. Yeah, you're looking for money and women. So the sailors finally 0.94

00:30:57.880 get a bit of it here in the Philippines. Okay, Bergering goes on. When they returned to the ships

00:31:04.040 that night, the four emissaries were greeted with sobering news. Two shipmates lay near death. The

00:31:10.120 next morning, April the 10th, Martin Beretta, a passenger, succumbed to the lingering effects of the

00:31:16.360 scurvy he had suffered during the 98 days of the Pacific crossing. Hours later, Juan de Areche,

00:31:23.400 a sailor, breathed his last. In the morning, Pigafetta and Enrique returned to the island to

00:31:28.760 make arrangements for Christian burials for both men. Really important that, you know, you have to

00:31:33.240 have a bit of consecrated ground. You know, they've got their father Valderrama who can consecrate a

00:31:38.440 small piece of ground and they can be buried there and the correct prayers and things said over them.

00:31:44.040 And then, you know, their souls can at least potentially go to heaven. If you don't do

00:31:48.600 those things, then, you know, it's bad news for your eternal soul. And so they start doing those

00:31:53.880 things. And so, yeah, they make arrangements for Christian burials for both men, which meant

00:31:58.840 consecrating a cemetery on Cebu, complete with a cross. The king of Cebu, as accommodating as ever,

00:32:06.520 said he wished to worship the cross as soon as it was erected. Magellan turned the occasion into a

00:32:11.560 religious lesson for the islander's benefit. Pigafetta writes, the deceased was buried in

00:32:16.600 the square with as much pomp as possible in order to furnish a good example. Then we consecrated the

00:32:22.200 place and in the evening buried another man. If you enjoyed that preview, please consider heading

00:32:28.360 over to lotusseaters.com to watch the full unabridged video.

The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - September 28, 2025

PREVIEW： Epochs #230 ｜ Magellan： Part XI

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