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During my childhood days in pre-World War
II Guam, we had a sixty-four dollar question, so to
speak: Did Magellan discover Guam or did we
discover Magellan? Our elders reminded us that our
ancestors discovered Guam over three thousand years
earlier after they left southeast Asia and sailed
the Pacific in search of a place to settle. At
best, Ferdinand Magellan and his crew were the
first Europeans to visit Guam. Since the Europeans
wrote the history books of that time,however,
Magellan was the recorded discoverer. This practice
was not unlike that among warring nations, whose
history books were written by the victors. In our
own country, Native American Indians have always
lamented the fact that most of the early accounts
of their culture and way of life were written
through the lens of soldiers of the U. S.
cavalry.
To
his credit, Ferdinand Magellan did much more than
to "happen" upon Guam. Sailing under the flag of
his native Portugal, Magellan reached the Spice
Islands by sailing EAST from Portugal via the
Indian Ocean and then on to the Moluccas
(Indonesia). Upon his return to Portugal, he
submitted a proposal to find another route to the
Moluccas by sailing WEST across the Atlantic and
into the Pacific. When his proposal was rejected,
he offered his services to Spain, his native
country's arch enemy.
Sailing
under the flag of Spain, Magellan reached Guam on
March 6,1521 with his crew scurvy-ridden and
starving. After taking on fresh provisions and
engaging in skirmishes with the Chamorros, he
hastily departed, disdainfully shooting arrows and
directing musket fire at his hosts as his ships
made their way to open sea.
When
he reached the Philippines, he became involved in
the internal affairs of the Filipinos, including
going to battle in support of one native faction
over another. His actions were clearly in defiance
of his contract with the King of Spain and severely
damaged his reputation from which he never
recovered. He was killed in battle in Mactan on
April 26, 1521. By the time of his death, Magellan
had already passed longitudinally the Spice Islands
which he had visited on an earlier expedition from
the opposite direction; thus, Magellan had fully
circumnavigated the globe by sailing it one-half at
a time, under the flags of two bitterly opposed
nations.
Finally,
our elders also reminded us that by replenishing
Magellan's ships with food and water, Guam played
an important role in that monumental Age of
Discovery. By nourishing Magellan and his crew, it
made it possible for them to continue their journey
which proved that the earth was round.
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