Magellan killed at Mactan

On 27 April 1521 Ferdinand Magellan, leading a Spanish fleet that was trying to reach the Spice Islands by sailing west, was killed on the beach of Mactan, a small island in the central Philippines. He had arrived the previous month, crossing the Pacific from the strait that now bears his name, and made friends on Cebu with the ruler Rajah Humabon, who accepted baptism. When Humabon asked for help against a rival, Lapulapu of Mactan, Magellan agreed to lead a small force against him.¹²

Spain had funded Magellan after the Treaty of Tordesillas had divided the non-European world between Spain and Portugal, and after Portuguese ships had reached the Spice Islands in 1512. Magellan, a Portuguese navigator in Spanish service, believed the islands lay in Spain's half. The account of the voyage by Antonio Pigafetta, who was there, says Magellan took about fifty armored men, and that Lapulapu had well over a thousand warriors. Shallow coral kept the ships' guns out of range, and the Spaniards fought in the water.¹²

Magellan was cut down while covering the retreat of his men. The fleet's survivors, now leaderless, abandoned a ship, were betrayed in a banquet at Cebu and left the islands. In September 1522 the Victoria, under Juan Sebastian Elcano, reached Spain with eighteen men, completing the first voyage around the world. Lapulapu is remembered in the Philippines as a hero of resistance, with a statue and monument on Mactan, and the islands were later claimed for Spain, which began colonizing in 1565.¹²