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'The Untold Magellan Story': New nonfiction reveals 1519 global circumnavigation journey in Magellan's words
A newly published book on Magellan's circumnavigation of the globe reveals that a native of modern-day Sumatra had a hand in cementing the Portuguese navigator's place in history.
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Spanish Navy sailors take part in the celebrations marking the 500th anniversary of Ferdinand Magellan's sea voyage around the globe in front of the Torre del Oro Maritime Museum of Seville, in this handout picture taken and released by the Spanish Navy on Aug. 10, 2019. (Handout/ARMADA ESPANOLA/AFP/File)
T
he world celebrates the first circumnavigation of the planet in 2019-2022. The voyage that took place five centuries ago is now universally considered humankind’s greatest maritime achievement, which led to our realization of an essentially single humanity circumscribed by Earth.
It was not the Spaniard Juan Sebastian del Cano, but rather Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan and his Indonesian Muslim servant “Enrique” or “Henrique” who were the first to circumnavigate the globe, sailing under the Spanish flag.
The Untold Magellan Story by Charles Avila, published in April 2021 establishes this.
Though he has been called the greatest navigator in recorded history, the Portuguese explorer did not sail solo during his timeless achievement. He was actually quite fortunate to find himself ably assisted in his venture by a native of “Taprobana”, or modern-day Sumatra, whom he employed as a factotum after the Fall of the Malaccan Empire in 1511.
So, on the crew of the world’s first circumnavigator was an Indonesian who had lived in Malaysia. Enrique was also familiar with the chief from the Philippines’ Luzon island who was the head of all Muslim traders in Malacca.
Much has been written about Magellan and his times, and yet it seems, not enough. In the concise Untold Story, author Avila has used a unique nonfiction format based on the rigorous, solid and collective research scholars have done through the ages and succeeds in allowing the great conquistador tell his own tale as “history, not fiction”.
As the promotional blurb says “Undoubtedly a thriller and a page-turner, it takes the form of a Letter from Magellan to the Peoples of the Oceans, the Islands, the Archipelagos and the Continents.”
