Ana C.

Laurente BSN 1 Scsc12n MWF 7:00-8:00 09/07/2018

My Thought Paper on the First Voyage of the World

Francisco Antonio Pigafetta was an Italian chronicler who joined Ferdinand

Magellan’s expedition to the Molucca Islands from 1519-1522. After the three
years of circumnavigating across the big oceans, Pigaffeta published his book
about their travel, which was the first around the world. The account of Pigafetta
is one of the most important source about the voyage of circumnavigation and
his attempt to reconstruct the world of the native people for us was exceptional
because it gave us an idea and helped us picture out how we started and how
rich our culture was. It made a more vivid picture in our minds in studying the
precolonial Philippines.

The First Voyage of the World was divided to four sections. The first section
of the account is about the journey, Magellan and his men moving from one
island to another. It gave an aura of delight and freshness as experience by the
author. The second division was them crossing the big waves of the Pacific and
can be identified as an odyssey, since it gave a sense of purpose and desire for
the men to arrive at a destination. It narrates about how the men suffered and
the difficulties they faced on their voyage. The third subdivision talked about how
there was a sense of mission in their travel, the expedition - with Magellan and
then without him after his death - turned into a quest. The final section has given
all the attributes of a pilgrimage, where they went and baptized the Filipino
people on the island of Zzubu.

What Pigafetta wrote about the geographical impact of the

circumnavigation was enormous, since the expedition overturned many of the
conventions of traditional geography. It also provided a demonstration of the
sphericity of the Earth. Moreover, Pigafetta’s description of the native people was
spectacular. It is important in understanding more the Philippine history becayse
there were numerous statements about the Filipinos. How he viewed the sense of
power and of economic and evangelical mission was communicated carefully,
and also the sense of superiority in a group. With Pigafetta’s account, we can
carefully trace back where our values and traditions came from and how our
native people build a system in their community and how they managed to
survive and kept peace between societies. It was also mentioned how rich our
country is with our natural resources and how the natives’ fashion statement could
tell if they were superior in a community or not. So it is easily concluded that there
was already a system on the hierarchy of people in a community. And that
Filipinos were already religious way before the Spaniards came in our country as
mentioned by Pigafetta’s account where there were idols that the natives used
to worship in their days.

With Pigafetta’s publication on the First Voyage of the World, it helped

proved that the earth is spherical. Also for the historians and students know how
the period of discovery was in the 16th century. It truly proved how the culture of
the Filipinos was initially rich and that Filipinos were really truly a society that thrives
ever since the native times.