The Rise and Fall and Rise of Magellan (Part 2)

Magellan and his crew knew that they survived only by the skin of their teeth. Since supply was low, they continued to feed on penguin and seal meat. But when you reach the bottom, there is no other way but to go up. Magellan believed that they had reached the bottom, literally and figuratively. He decided to sail north, thankful the tide had finally turned, and their entire adversity would be worthless without reaching Spice Island, which they assumed was just a couple of weeks ahead. Of course, nobody in the crew realized that the greatest expanse of water on the planet separated them from their destination. Inevitably, a great danger awaited them. Magellan sealed the deal when he sailed northward and west, avoiding all the 25,000 islands. Instead, he took the most barren transpacific route and sighted only an empty atoll into which he poured all his frustration, dubbed the Island of Disappointment. Lightning does not strike twice, not for Magellan.

Joining the adventure was a captive Patagonian Giant called Paul, who became Pigafetta's unexpected BFF. Were they starting a bromance? Feeling a bit isolated in the middle of nowhere? Fear not, as per Roman Catholic belief, scoring a conversion to Christianity guaranteed a spot in the VIP section of heaven. So, Pigafetta managed to pull off the ultimate conversion right before Paul's final curtain call.

Scurvy killed more sailors than combat, storms, shipwrecks, and all other diseases combined. Slow, painful, and vile deaths due to scurvy were assumed to be 50% mortality from men on any major expedition. Suffering from scurvy was a fate worse than death, and about thirty men kicked the bucket. Men on the Magellan expedition were dining on rats, marinating to soften the leather trimmings of sails, serving biscuits infested with worms, reeking in rats' urine, and filling their stomachs with sawdust from boards. The officers fared better due to the preserved quince, which was potent anti-scorbutic. After sailing for almost three months, Magellan was desperate and depressed, confused by the distance, and without sighting any land.

Magellan felt a heavy weight off his shoulders when they finally sighted Guam, which was initially called Ladroni due to the thievery of the indigenous people, the Chamorros. Magellan's fleet anchored in the Umatac Bay, and immediately, the Chamorros surrounded the fleet and quickly boarded the ships. They started pillaging the ships, looting the metal tools. The natives never hesitated to steal anything loose, moving faster than the crew could react. After the welcoming party cleared the ships, expectedly, Magellan organized a raiding party of forty armed men to retrieve from the natives the small boat stolen from the Captain's flagship. They burned forty to fifty houses and several boats and killed seven men, according to Pigafetta. Hence, Magellan set the gold standard for Europeans in dealing with people in the Pacific, "kill and burn."

"The only thing more dangerous to ignorance is arrogance," Magellan et Al. have both. Have you ever seen an enormous crowd rushing to a buy-one-take-one and sales promo in S&R? Are they mad and looters? Of course not. The Chamorros thought these Europeans riding in their awkward caracks were there to trade, hence the frantic rush. They were not looting. They were stampeding to grab novelty items. They were expecting the Europeans to come to shore and bargain, and if they did not settle for the value of these commodities, they were free to take them back. Thus, they were surprised that the crews were there burning and killing.

The Chamorros did not take these lying down. They dealt with it on their terms. After the carnage, the Europeans started to depart in their clumsy caracks. The Chamorros knew that European weapons, armor, long swords, and cannons were effective on land but not on seas. They struck back, riding their fast outriggers, pelted the departing crews with stones, and fled. Though under full sail, the outriggers quickly passed the fleet, proving the Chamorros' superior sailing skills and ship technology. The incident presented the encounter between the European and Chamorros technology. In this case, the pilot of Trinidad, as an eyewitness, gave an account of the surprising boat skills and technology of the Chamorros. Unfortunately, before the expedition departed, they managed to chart the island. It was not the last time the Europeans encountered the Chamorros. In the early 1700s, population estimate was between 50,000 to 100,000. Succeeding encounters with Europeans who brought diseases reduced their population to 1,000 during the early 1800s.