How Magellan found the Philippines

Title

Year

1939

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In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

96 THE YOUNG CITIZEN March, 1939 How Magellan Found the Philippines By JOSE RAMIREZ OF all the months of the year, the month of March is one of the most important to the Filipinos, for more than four hundred years ago this month our country-the Philippineswas discovered by a European. He was Ferdinand Magellan who was born in Portugal, a small country near Spain. When 'Magellan was a boy, he was a page in the king's palace. Here he was taught about the stars and planets by learned teachers, for they wanted him to be a great sailor. The stories they told him about the voyages of Columbus had made him choose a sailor's life. One day he said to himself, "Some day when I become a man, I wiil sail the seas and discover new lands." When he was old enough, he wanted to go to the land of India. So he became a soldier, and with many of his countrymen he went to India in 1505 to fight for his king. From India he went as far as the Molucca Islands where spices were grown. Magellan believed that the earth is round, and that made him think that by going east or west from Portugal he could reach the Moluccas. He knew he had already reached them by sailing east. He planned to reach the Moluccas by sailing west because he thought that they were so far east that they could be reached more quickly by sailing west. He presented his plan to the king of Portugal. But the king did not want to listen to him, The king of Spain also wanted to send ships to the Moluccas for the spice trade. The king of Portugal was his enemy. So Magellan went to Spain to present his plan to the great Spanish king, Charles the First. King Charles knew that the Moluccas produced pepper, cinnamon, cloves, and other spices. He also knew that spices did not grow in Europe. But spices were needed by the Europeans. That is why they wanted to find the shortest way to the Moluccas. Th~ king of Spain gave Magellan five ships and about three hundred men to make the voyage. Magellan left Spain on September 20, 1519. He crossed the Atlantic Ocean to South America. He had many .troubles, 8ome of his men quarreled, for they wantrd to go back to Spain, but Magellan punished them severely. A ship was wrecked during a storm. But Magellan told them they had to go on. At the southern end of South America, Magellan found the strait which now bears his name. This happened one day in October, 1520. A month later he reached the other end of the March, i939 THE YOUNG CITIZEN 97 passage where he found a great ocean. This was the Pacific Ocean. Magellan entered the Pacific with only three ships. His men were afraid. They wanted to go back for they had very little food. But Magellan told them to be brave. "We told the king that we would cross the Pacific Ocean," he told them. "Let us cross it, even if we have to eat leather fom the masts." For more' than three months Magellan's ships sailed on and on to the west. The Pacific was so vast that the men could see nothing except the blue sky and the angry waves. Finally they passed by some rocky islands. But there were no people Jiving there. His men suffered many hardships, because their food became scarcer and scarcer every day. They were forced to eat rats and leather. The water became so bad that the men could not drink it. Nearly all of them were sick and some died of hunger. But Magellan continued to sail on. Then, one day iri March, 1521, Magellan came to a group of islands. The natives stole one ,of his small boats. · For this reason he named the islands the Ladrones, or Isles of Thieves. Then he continued to sail westward. Finally, on March 16, 1521, Magellan saw the high mountains of the island of Samar covered with tropical coconut palms. In this way he discovered the Philippines. But he did not land on the island of Samar. He sailed southward and came to the small island of Suluan. He stopped there for .the night. The following morning he sailed :west to Homonhon Island where he stayed eight days. So you see that Magellan's purpose in sailing west was to go to the Moluccas to find spices. But instead of .going there, he came to the Philippines. When you study more of the history of the Philippines, you will learn about the work of the Spaniards in the Islands. Be a Lincoln By ELENA ALBERT Through an oversight the last part of Mi<s Albert's splendid little story, Be a, Lincoln was omitted in tlie February number of The Young Citizen. Please turn to page 52 in the February issue, and after reading that page carefully, read the following, which is the ending of the story. We begin with the last sentence on page 52.-The Ed!itor. "Well, Mother, I think I'll try again," said Mariana, this time with a happy look on her face. ulf Lincoln did not give up, neither will I. HWhy, Mother," she said, "that was not a hard problem. I tried it ~gain and succeeded in solving it. After this, when I fail the first time or two, I will not give up. I will try ag.ain. I will be a Lincoln." "That iS splendid, my dear," said Mother.

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