Magellan’s grocery list
March 16, 1521, is a date that opens Yoyoy Villame’s folksy “Magellan” song. It is the only fact, the only thing worth remembering in his amusing retelling of Magellan’s short visit to the Philippines. March 16, 1521, was the day Magellan sighted Samar after a long voyage on the waters we know today as the Pacific. Anyone who has taken the trouble to read Antonio Pigafetta’s “First Voyage Around the World” in full, not just the Philippine part, will appreciate the hard realities of the long voyage often romanticized in classroom history.
Magellan was a Portuguese put in charge of a Spanish enterprise. He had a multinational crew of 237 men, the majority from Spain (64 Andalusians, 29 Basques, 15 Castilians, seven Galicians, five Asturians, three from Navarra, two from Aragon, two from Extremadura, one from Murcia, and 11 whose origins were not indicated). Other nationalities were: 31 Portuguese (including some who passed for Spaniards), 26 Italians (including 18 from Genoa), 19 French, nine Greeks, five Flemish, four Germans, two Black Africans, two Irish, one English, one from Goa, one Malay (probably Enrique/Henry Magellan’s slave and interpreter in the Philippines), one Portuguese-Brazilian mestizo and last but not least one Spanish-Indian mestizo. There were probably a little over 250 men, considering those not on the manifest, plus the stowaways in search of fame and fortune.
Magellan faced mutiny and desertion. In November 1520, in the middle of the Strait that now bears his name, the San Antonio abandoned the expedition. It was the largest and best provisioned in the fleet, headed by Magellan’s cousin Alvaro de Mesquita, who was put in chains by a mutineer, Estêvão Gomes, who set course back to Spain. Magellan dealt with another mutiny by executing the conspirators—not all of them, though, because one happened to be a priest. This one was marooned on a desolate island in what is now Argentina. Magellan was cruel for a reason; when he ordered the execution of a crewmember for sodomy, it was punishment meted out not just for discipline and morality but to instill the kind of fear on which Magellan’s continued authority rested.
During long stretches at sea without sighting land, it was understandable for people to question Magellan’s navigation toward uncharted lands they could not even imagine. This doubt grew when food and drink became scarce due to spoilage. Going through the provisions for food and drink provided in the 1,087-page critical edition of the Magellan voyage by Xavier de Castro (2nd edition 2010) helps us imagine life on board:
2,174 quintales and three arrobas (100,039 kilograms (kg)) “vizcocho” or “biscuit” is not the snack we have today. Magellan’s biscuit was a dense, seemingly inedible food known to sailors as “hardtack.” 415 casks (pipa) of wine or 184,482 liters were divided into daily rations per crew member, but I can’t help but imagine that Magellan brought enough to open a bar in Cebu! 7,666 liters of oil; 3,228 liters of vinegar; 2,220 liters of flour; 125 kg of sugar; 102 kg of rice, 2,274 liters of fava beans; 4,387 liters of chick peas; and 53.5 liters of lentils. For seasoning: 535.5 liters of mustard, plus garlic, onions, and an unspecified amount of salt.
While they had the cooking staples, they didn’t seem to carry enough meat: only six live cows for beef and three pigs for pork. Was this part of the diet or did they plan or source more along the way? They did have a lot of smoked or salted fish on hand, all of 1,576 kg of an assortment that included: dogfish, sea bream, and hammerhead shark! 1,295 kg of hard cheese was stored in barrels of oil. Other items listed were: 622 kg of honey, 642 liters of almonds, 862 kg of dried raisins, 92 kg of prunes, 736 kg of figs, 70 cases of marmalade, three jars of capers, and 150 boxes of anchovies.
Remember, the pantry of the Armada de Maluco was not refrigerated and resulted in spoilage. Untreated freshwater turned a slimy yellow. Wine turned to vinegar. Cheese fermented and smelled like “decaying corpses.” Meat dried and salted into “jerky” turned putrid, and the hard biscuits infested with weevils became powdery. Thirsty sailors who drank went mad. When biscuits ran out, sailors resorted to sawdust from ship planks. Jerky was substituted for leather belts and shoes, soaked and softened in seawater before grilling. The most expensive food on board were the rats that sold for half a gold ducat a piece! For more information, I recommend Felice Sta. Maria’s “Pigafetta’s Philippine Picnic” (2023).
Five ships sailed in 1519, but only one returned in 1522, aptly named “Victoria.” A crew of 237 departed in 1519, but only 18 stragglers returned. While these figures may paint a picture of loss, Magellan himself did not complete the voyage; an accounting of the expedition shows profit. The cost of outfitting the expedition was about 8.75 million maravedis, but the sale of the cloves earned about 7.9 million maravedis. Add the cinnamon and sandalwood and you have enough spice and profit to season Spanish ham for a decade! Beyond the circumnavigation and the Battle of Mactan, Magellan’s voyage is a human story of exploration, endurance, and hope.
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Comments are welcome at ambeth.ocampo@inquirer.net
Cleansing our palates of Duterte