Magellan the "Lusitanian"



Ferdinand Magellan is resented in this print with Latin inscriptions: "Ferdinandus Magagelanes Lusitanus". The last word "Lusitanus" stands for his homeland Portugal. "Lusitania" was the old Roman name of the province that corresponds to what is now Portugal.

Magellan was a veteran officer in the Portuguese army that conquered the fabled sultanate of Malacca (southern Peninsular Malaysia) in the year 1511, under the command of Alfonso de Albuquerque.

Some great men went to wars and were left with scars of great battles. Miguel Cervantes for example was wounded in the Battle of Lepanto 1571, which rendered his left hand useless. For this, he was known also as 'El Manco de Lepanto"- in Tagalog 'Ang Komang ng Lepanto". (Yes Tagalogs like the game of jumbled- reverse words...binaligtad lang yung "manco". Same as in "cinco or singko" reverse in to "kusing). 

He was wounded in one battle in Africa, that left him walking limp. Indeed with such disability, the Battle of Mactan could be judged as "one-sided", if it was really a one on one duel.  A "simplified murder" or even suicide on the part of the celebrated Portuguese explorer.

After Malacca and the skirmish in Africa, Magellan was back in Europe and was corresponding with his friend Francisco Serrão, who was living in the Moluccas (Spice Islands, Indonesia). Serrão was also a veteran of the Malacca campaign, he sailed and stayed in the Moluccas after the Portuguese took Malacca. Their letters became part of a blueprint for an expedition quite different from other undertakings.

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