Pigafetta’s Log

Magellan’s fleet · the first voyage around the world · 1519–1522

Summary of Pigafetta’s First Voyage Around the World

Antonio Pigafetta sailed with Magellan in 1519 and was one of the eighteen men who came home three years later. This is his account in brief, chapter by chapter, with the key events in the Philippines.

The account in brief

Pigafetta, a young gentleman from Vicenza, joined Ferdinand Magellan’s fleet of five ships and 237 men at Seville in 1519, to see the ocean for himself and to write down everything he saw. The fleet crossed the Atlantic to Brazil, wintered in Patagonia, found the strait at the tip of South America in October 1520, and crossed the Pacific, starving, to reach the islands now called the Philippines in March 1521.

Magellan was killed on Mactan in April 1521. The survivors burned one ship for lack of men, reached the Spice Islands in November 1521 and loaded cloves, and split up when the Trinidad sprang a leak. The Victoria, under Juan Sebastián Elcano, crossed the Indian Ocean, rounded the Cape of Good Hope and reached Spain on 6 September 1522 with eighteen men. Pigafetta was one of them.

The voyage at a glance

Commander
Ferdinand Magellan (Fernão de Magalhães), killed on Mactan on 27 April 1521
Fleet
Five ships: the Trinidad, San Antonio, Concepción, Victoria and Santiago
Crew
237 men sailed; eighteen came home on the Victoria
Sailed
Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain, 20 September 1519
Returned
Sanlúcar, 6 September 1522, under Juan Sebastián Elcano
The author
Antonio Pigafetta of Vicenza, one of the eighteen
The account
Written after his return; four manuscripts survive, one in Italian and three in French

In the Philippines, 1521

Homonhon, 16–17 March. The fleet sights Samar and anchors at Homonhon. Men from neighbouring Suluan come out to meet them; their lord is an old man, tattooed all over, with gold rings in his ears. The crew find two springs and the first signs of gold, and call the place the Watering-Place of Good Signs. (Chapter 16)

Limasawa, 28–31 March. At Mazaua, now Limasawa, the islanders understand Magellan’s interpreter Enrique, and Magellan and the king agree to be blood brothers. On Easter Sunday, 31 March, a Mass is said ashore and a cross planted on the highest hill, remembered as the first Mass in the Philippines. (Chapter 17)

Cebu, April. Rajah Humabon at first demands tribute, then makes peace. On 14 April he is baptised Don Carlos, with about eight hundred of his people that day: the first Christian baptisms in the Philippines. The queen is given the wooden figure of the Christ Child kept in Cebu today as the Santo Niño. (Chapter 18)

Mactan, 27 April. Magellan attacks Lapulapu, chief of Mactan, with about sixty men, and is killed in the shallows with eight of them. Lapulapu is a national hero in the Philippines, and the battle is re-enacted on Mactan every 27 April. (Chapter 19)

The Cebu banquet. Days later Rajah Humabon invites the officers to a feast. It is a trap, and the new commanders, Duarte Barbosa and João Serrão, are among the men killed. (Chapter 20)

Bohol and Palawan. Too few to sail three ships, the survivors burn the Concepción off Bohol, then find food at last on Palawan, where rice is cooked in lengths of bamboo. (Chapters 21 and 22)

Chapter by chapter

Part I · The Ocean Sea

  1. The Gentleman from VicenzaBarcelona and Seville, 1519 · Spring 1519

    Antonio Pigafetta, a young gentleman from Vicenza, joins Magellan’s fleet in 1519 to see the ocean for himself and to write down everything he sees.

  2. Islands of CloudTenerife, Canary Islands · 26 September 1519

    The fleet takes on meat, water and firewood at Tenerife, and Pigafetta hears of the Garoé, a holy tree on El Hierro that gave the islanders water from the clouds.

  3. Sixty Days of RainThe coast of Guinea · October 1519

    Sailing south past the coast of Guinea, the fleet endures sixty days of continual rain, and in the worst of the storms the sailors see St. Elmo’s fire glowing on the mastheads.

  4. The Land of VerzinThe bay of Santa Lucia (Rio de Janeiro) · St. Lucy’s Day, 13 December 1519

    In the bay of Santa Lucia, now Rio de Janeiro, the crews trade with the people of Verzin. A fishhook buys five or six chickens, and a single playing card buys six.

  5. The River of SolísRío de la Plata · January 1520

    At the mouth of the Río de la Plata, a gap in the coast seventeen leagues wide, the fleet hopes it has found the passage west. Then someone notices that the water is fresh.

  6. Geese and Sea-WolvesThe coast of Patagonia · Late February 1520

    On the coast of Patagonia the crews find “geese” that cannot fly, in one of the earliest European descriptions of penguins, and “sea-wolves”: South American sea lions.

Part II · The Winter of Patagonia

  1. Port San JuliánPort San Julián, Patagonia · 31 March 1520

    Wintering at Port San Julián, three of the five ships rise against Magellan. By morning he has them back: Luis de Mendoza is stabbed, Gaspar de Quesada beheaded, and Juan de Cartagena kept under guard.

  2. The Wreck of the SantiagoRío Santa Cruz, Patagonia · 22 May 1520

    Sent south to scout the coast, the Santiago is driven ashore by a gale at the Santa Cruz river. Two of her men walk back to San Julián for help, and her crew is brought back overland.

  3. The GiantsPort San Julián, Patagonia · June 1520

    At San Julián the Europeans meet people so tall that Pigafetta calls them giants. Magellan names them Patagoni, perhaps for their large skin-wrapped feet, and the country is still called Patagonia.

  4. The River of Santa CruzRío Santa Cruz, Patagonia · 24 August 1520

    After nearly five months at Port San Julián the four remaining ships sail on, leaving behind Juan de Cartagena and the priest Pedro Sánchez de Reina, marooned for plotting against Magellan.

  5. The Eleven Thousand VirginsCape of the Virgins · 21 October 1520

    On 21 October 1520, the feast of St. Ursula and the eleven thousand virgins, the ships round a headland of white cliffs at 52 degrees south, at the mouth of the strait.

Part III · The Strait

  1. The StraitThe strait (now the Strait of Magellan) · Late October 1520

    Threading the strait takes more than a month. The San Antonio, carrying much of the fleet’s food, deserts and sails home, and on 28 November 1520 the other three ships come out into the Pacific.

Part IV · The Pacific Sea

  1. The Peaceful SeaThe Pacific Ocean · December 1520

    Out of the strait, the fleet meets no storms in all the weeks that follow, so they call the ocean the Pacific, the peaceful sea. At night Pigafetta describes the clouds of stars now named after Magellan.

  2. Leather and SawdustThe middle of the Pacific · February 1521

    More than three months without fresh food: biscuit turned to powder and full of worms, leather cut from the yards, sawdust, and rats at half a ducat each. Scurvy kills men one by one.

Part V · The Islands of the West

  1. The Islands of ThievesGuam, the Mariana Islands · 6 March 1521

    At Guam the Chamorro carry off whatever they can from the ships, including a skiff, which to them may have been fair exchange. Magellan burns their houses, takes the skiff back, and names the islands the Ladrones: the Islands of Thieves.

  2. The Watering-Place of Good SignsHomonhon, the Philippines · 16–17 March 1521

    On 16 March 1521 the fleet sights Samar and anchors at Homonhon, where the men find two springs of clear water and the first signs of gold. They call it the Watering-Place of Good Signs.

  3. MazauaLimasawa, the Philippines · Thursday, 28 March 1521

    At Mazaua, now Limasawa, the islanders understand Magellan’s interpreter Enrique, and Magellan and the king agree to be blood brothers. On Easter Sunday, 31 March 1521, a Mass is said ashore and a cross planted on the highest hill.

  4. ZubuCebu, the Philippines · Sunday, 7 April 1521

    At Cebu, Rajah Humabon makes peace with Magellan, and on 14 April 1521 he is baptised with about eight hundred of his people. The queen is given a wooden figure of the Christ Child: the Santo Niño, still kept in Cebu.

  5. MactanMactan, the Philippines · Friday, 26 April 1521

    On Saturday, 27 April 1521, Magellan leads about sixty men against Lapulapu, chief of Mactan. Wounded in the leg and outnumbered in the shallows, he is killed covering his men’s retreat, with eight of them.

  6. The BanquetCebu, the Philippines · 28–30 April 1521

    Days after Mactan, Rajah Humabon invites the fleet’s officers to a feast. It is a trap: the new commanders, Duarte Barbosa and João Serrão, are among the men killed, and the ships flee Cebu.

Part VI · Lost Among Islands

  1. The Burning of the ConcepciónBohol and Mindanao · Early May 1521

    About 115 men are left of the 237 who sailed from Seville, too few to sail three ships. Off Bohol the survivors strip the Concepción of everything useful and set her on fire.

  2. The Land of PromiseCagayan Sulu and Palawan · June 1521

    Short of food again, the fleet reaches Palawan, the land of promise: rice cooked in lengths of bamboo, bananas as thick as an arm, rice wine and cockfights.

Part VII · The Court of Burne

  1. BurneBrunei, Borneo · 8–9 July 1521

    At Burne, now Brunei, the Europeans ride elephants to the court of Rajah Siripada, and Pigafetta counts twenty-five thousand hearths in a city built on piles over the water.

  2. The Walking LeavesThe north coast of Borneo · August 1521

    Repairing the ships on the coast of Borneo, Pigafetta finds trees whose fallen leaves get up and walk. He keeps one in a box. They are leaf insects.

  3. The Road to MalucoThe Sulu Sea and Mindanao · Early October 1521

    Lost among the islands, the fleet seizes boats and pilots by force, until one pilot points to four islands on the horizon and says that they are Maluco.

Part VIII · The Spice Islands

  1. TadoreTidore, the Moluccas · Friday, 8 November 1521

    On 8 November 1521 the Trinidad and the Victoria enter the harbour of Tidore, in the Moluccas. Sultan al-Mansur tells them he had dreamed of their coming, and consulted the moon to be sure.

  2. The Clove HarvestTidore, the Moluccas · 14 November 1521

    Pigafetta goes ashore on Tidore to see how cloves grow and describes the clove tree better than anyone in Europe ever had. The ships fill their holds with the spice they crossed the world to buy.

  3. The PartingTidore, the Moluccas · 18 December 1521

    As the ships make sail from Tidore, the Trinidad springs a leak. She stays behind for repairs, and the Victoria, with sixty aboard under Juan Sebastián Elcano, sets off west for home alone.

Part IX · The Way Home

  1. The Victoria AloneThe Banda Sea · Late December 1521

    The Victoria sails on alone through the Banda Sea, past the only islands in the world where nutmeg and mace then grew.

  2. TimorTimor · Sunday, 26 January 1522

    At Timor, Pigafetta sees the white sandalwood that grows there “and nowhere else,” and that merchants came from Java and Malacca to buy.

  3. The Great Southern SeaThe Indian Ocean · 11 February 1522

    To avoid the Portuguese, Elcano takes the Victoria far south across the Indian Ocean. It takes nine weeks to fight round the Cape of Good Hope, “the largest and most dangerous cape in the world.”

  4. The Lost DayThe Cape Verde Islands · May–June 1522

    At the Cape Verde Islands the men learn it is Thursday, though by Pigafetta’s careful diary it is Wednesday. Sailing always west, following the sun, they had lost a day.

Part X · Home

  1. Eighteen MenSanlúcar and Seville · Saturday, 6 September 1522

    On 6 September 1522 the Victoria reaches Sanlúcar with eighteen men under Juan Sebastián Elcano. Of the 237 who had sailed, they were the only ones to come home in the ship that went all the way round.

  2. The BookValladolid, and beyond · Autumn 1522

    Pigafetta gives the emperor Charles V a book of the voyage written in his own hand. That book has never been found, but four manuscripts of his later account survive, one in Italian and three in French.

Why the account matters

It is the fullest eyewitness record of the first voyage around the world, and the earliest European account of the Philippines. Pigafetta wrote down the words he heard and the prices of things, and what people wore, ate and believed. He left one of the earliest European descriptions of penguins, the clouds of stars now named after Magellan, and the day the crew lost by sailing west around the world.

Read it critically, too. Pigafetta wrote for European patrons, as a Catholic who admired Magellan. He calls the Patagonians giants, describes the islanders through European eyes, and never mentions Juan Sebastián Elcano, the captain who brought the Victoria home, by name.

Read the full retelling →

Quotations in the book are from James Alexander Robertson’s 1906 translation. About this book and its sources →