The Quixotic Magellan -- The Battle of Mactan

Ferdinand Magellan by Charles Legrand (Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal)


In one aula discussion, I was asked to describe Spain's "Siglo de Oro" -- Spain's golden age. I mentioned the achievements in arts and letters and of course the great age of discovery that of Magellan et al. There is also Cervantes and the romantic idea of chivalry being reawaken into the said "Siglo". Being a musician, I also spoke about Spanish music of that time, particularly the character of the early "rasgueado" which I describe as different patterns of strumming the guitar (vihuela) that somehow imitates the galloping of horses. Yes, the quixotic character of the time of medieval knights and adventures, Zeitgeist, could even be deciphered in their music.
The men like Magellan were knights or horsemen in a romantic quest for glory and gold (and greed) with their converted horses fashioned out of wood-- Galleons that sailed and ventured upon seas, coming like a Trojan horse to unsuspecting lands. Still, the men inside it were driven by this zeal characteristic of the time.
In Mactan, Magellan was perhaps still thinking of that glorious time in Malacca in 1511, when Portuguese power and cunning obliterated the combined forces of Malay natives and their foreign auxiliary forces. Perhaps he even expected that some native of Mactan would betray their tactics and position etc similar to what happened in Malacca? He thought that this picked fight with Mactan was a just walk in the park. But there was not to be a repeat of Malacca or that so-called European prowess in military skills.
Five hundred years ago, Magellan lost his life in a battle that should have not happened. Describing its magnitude or minuscule size whatever, this clash could only be likened to a skirmish and not a real big battle. The problem was Magellan played with local politics and the intrigues that come with it that he willingly went to war against Lapu Lapu, Humabon's rival.
After the death of Magellan, it was the turn of his surviving crew to suffer the wrath of the Cebuanos. Somehow at the back of my mind, I was wondering what really happened, asking whether it was possible that Humabon unknowingly betrayed Magellan, delivering the unsuspecting Portuguese Captain to the hands of Lapu Lapu.
And like most stories of chivalry, their hero was slain.


'Ang Wakas ni Magallanes' by Fernando Amorsolo


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