Of Magellan, Rousseau and The Social Contract

Ladrones- Hunter from Marianas from "Boxer's Codex"

One of the strangest episodes in the chronicles of the Magellan Voyage written by Pigafetta was perhaps the first encounter between the crew of Magellan and the natives of the Mariana Islands -- which includes the present day Guam.

Think about this; A group of Europeans whose basic driving force in undertaking a perilous voyage to the unknown was greed, even ready to slit each other's throats for bags of spices, meeting for the first time, a race of people whose concept of private property was probably nonexistent. A clash of culture?

Pigafetta wrote: "The people of these islands entered into the ships and robbed us, in such a way that it was impossible to preserve oneself from them. Whilst we were striking and lowering the sails to go ashore, they stole away with much address and diligence the small boat called the skiff, which was made fast to the poop of the captain's ship, at which he was much irritated.."

Pigafetta continued: "These people live in liberty and according to their will, for they have no lord or superior.."

Once in Geneva, I stood in front of the facade of the house where the Philosopher of the Enlightenment, Jean-Jacques Rousseau lived. I was reminded of his concept of the origins of private property -- How primordial man established borders or "fences" in nature to declare certain parts of it as his own. In such a process, wealth and power accumulated in the hands of some, up to the point that they asserted their sovereign to others. Rousseau's "The Social Contract" questions this alleged imposition by those who hold power against those who unknowingly or forcefully were converted into "the governed". Obviously, the natives Magellan stumbled upon in the Marianas were never touched or covered by any form of social contract similar to that of Europe.

The islands which Magellan's fleet encountered, they later named "Islas de los Ladrones" (Islands of thieves), for the obvious reason or about how the native conducted themselves with the newly arrived visitors.

I  wonder how Rousseau would have reacted if had witnessed how Magellan's crew took revenge against the stealing natives.-- How the crew burned their houses and killed seven men of the village.

Pigafetta had some horrendous lines about it before Magellan and some of his men attacked the village:

 "Before we went ashore some of our sick men begged us that if we killed man or woman, that we should bring them their entrails, as they would see themselves suddenly cured."

The noble savage or noble Europeans?