By Beth Green
A warrior
largely ignored in the West, Lapu-Lapu was a chieftain in the 1500s who is
celebrated in the Philippines today. His claim to fame?
Image from Rare Books Division, Princeton.edu |
He killed
Ferdinand Magellan.
Most children
in the West learn about Magellan, the Portuguese sailor exploring for Spain who
set out to find the westward route to the Spice Islands around the tip of South
America. But I’m betting not so many of our readers remember the warrior who
commanded Magellan’s downfall.
Here in the
Philippines, especially in Cebu City where I now live, Lapu Lapu is a national
hero. I’ve been reading quite a bit about him—though I’m guessing there’s more
I haven’t learned yet!—and I’d like to share here something about this daring
man who fought a foreign invasion.
At the time
of Magellan’s death, Lapu-Lapu (his name varies a bit in the annals of history,
but this is the currently used version), was a datu, or ruler, of Mactan
Island. Mactan is a small island, which in present day is ringed with imported
sands and fancy resorts. It’s connected to Cebu City, the oldest city in the
Philippines, by two bridges and a lot of economic ties.
Speaking of
economics, Magellan arrived in the Philippines looking for spices, directions
to spices, and more spices. Oh, and converts to Christianity. Those were good
too. He didn’t have much luck with the spices here, but the ruler of Sugbu (now
Cebu City) and his queen decided they’d throw in with the newly presented deities
and get baptized. Now named Carlos and Juana, they set the stage for
Catholicism to enter the Philippines, and even now, more than 500 years later,
it is the most popular religion in the country.
Carlos and
Juana’s neighbor Lapu-Lapu wasn’t in such a big hurry to change his old god for
anybody new. (Some web-pages I’ve visited suggested Lapu-Lapu was Muslim, other
sources disagree.)
Either
because of the question of converting to a foreign faith was abhorrent to him, because he didn’t like these weird-looking
sailors in their strange ships, or possibly because he had a feud going with
Humabon-now-named-Carlos, Lapu-Lapu refused to bow down to the might of the foreign
ships, sovereign, or god.
Lapu-Lapu Memorial Statue. Image by whl.travel/Flickr |
One source
quoted on Wikipedia suggests that Magellan may have made a faux pas when
approaching Lapu-Lapu as well. Magellan may have approached the islands with
the idea that the ruling classes were structured like those in Europe. That
thinking would have led Magellan to believe that Carlos was more powerful than
Lapu-Lapu because the latter controlled a lesser population on a neighboring
island. However, to get to Cebu City harbor, ships would have had to pass
through a narrow channel between Cebu Island and Mactan Island. Therefore,
Lapu-Lapu probably was more powerful than Carlos because of his strategic
location even though he had a smaller population under his command, or so the
theory goes.
Anyway,
whether Lapu-Lapu disliked Magellan because he felt the European was
disrespectful, or he just had a bad feeling about the newcomers, when Magellan
told him that he’d attack Mactan Island if Lapu-Lapu didn’t swear fealty to
Spain, Lapu Lapu called his bluff.
Magellan was
accompanied on his round-the-world cruise by an Italian adventurer, AntonioPigafetta. Pigafetta kept a faithful diary of events that occurred along the
way (and unknowingly discovered the international dateline when he got back to
Europe and realized he was a day off in his diary), and it’s from his account
that we get most of our details today. Lapu-Lapu’s locals asked for one more
day’s leniency before the battle so that they could gather more troops and make
it a fairer fight. In fact, though, they had plenty of fighters, but they
wanted a little more time to dig some traps before the Spaniards disembarked.
Mactan and Cebu today. A fluvial parade. Image by Storm Crypt |
Magellan and
his men were at a clear disadvantage from the beginning. First, the men on
shore were fighting for their homes and freedom. And, once Magellan ordered his
men to set fire to huts in the village, I can imagine any locals who were
initially ambivalent about fighting the foreigners decided that Lapu-Lapu was
right to attack. Second, the Spanish were wearing heavy armor in a humid
climate. However, because of the reefs and shallows around Mactan Island (I’ve
been scuba diving there several times) Magellan couldn’t bring his ships
Victoria or Trinidad close enough to shore for either the ship’s guns to come
into play or to get the Spanish fighters off easily. Even using smaller vessels
to get nearer, the foreign troops had to exert themselves wading through water
over their knees to get to the beach—while Lapu-Lapu’s townspeople rained
poisoned arrows and bamboo spears on them from relative comfort. The Spaniards
weren’t wearing armor on their legs, and—you’d have seen this coming if it were
a movie--Magellan caught a poisoned arrow in his leg.
Realizing he
was done for, Magellan ordered the rest of his men (Pigafetta among them) to
retreat, and they watched in horror as Lapu-Lapu and his freedom fighters
hacked Magellan to bits with long knives.
Today,
Lapu-Lapu is remembered in the name of a town on Mactan Island, which still
guards the waters of the Cebu City harbor. His statue stands in the square, and
legends have cropped up around his story.
But, perhaps
the greatest token of his fame as a warrior is his depiction on the PhilippineNational Police badge, representing “the symbol and embodiment of all the
genuine attributes of leadership, courage, nationalism, self-reliance and a
people-based and people powered community defense.”
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