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Originally Posted by fernando
Also Pigafetta didn't leave his credits with allien hands:
"fin che lo specchio, il lume, el conforto e la vera guida nostra ammazzarono".
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"... until they killed our mirror, our light, our comfort, and our true guide."
Well, I still feel like squirming whenever I read that!
I mean how can Pigafetta be so corny or mushy?!
On the other hand, that only means that Magalhães was that good.
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Originally Posted by fernando
... There is only one version, that of Pigafetta, which may as well be a distorted one.
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Well actually, we do have the accounts of Oliveira, the Genoese pilot, et al., all eyewitnesses. I wonder what you meant by that?
But yes, Pigafetta has got the most details, and thus most useful.
On the errors that crept into the narration itself and then into the translations, I think for so long as we are aware of the biases, then we can always make our own adjustments.
For instance, Pigafetta estimated that Lapulapu's men must have numbered about 1,500. Now many have already written that Lapulapu could not have assembled that many a company.
But we can understand that he wouldn't want to put his boss in a bad light, thus the exaggeration.
But we can fry Pigafetta in his own fat
to correct the error in his estimate. Like he mentioned that in Cebu the towns and their chiefs were --
Cingapola: the chiefs were Cilaton, Ciguibucan, Cimaninga, Cimaticat, and Cicanbul [and these chiefs must had been all the ones under Humabon?];
Mandani [Mandaue?]: chief was Aponoaan
Lalan: chief was Teten
Lalutan: chief was Japau
Lubucin: chief was Cilumai
Matan [Mactan]: one side was under Zula, then the other portion was under Cilapulapu [Lapulapu].
So let's say Cebu had 11 chiefs representing 11 towns.
Now the Philippines has 80 million people now, and about 2 million of those would be in Metro Cebu (i.e., 2.5% of the total).
The prehispanic Phil. population was about 800,000. So we can suppose that Humabon & company's Cebu would have a population of about 20,000.
Now divide 20,000 by 11 towns and you'll have 1,800 population per town. Half of those would be women. And of the remaining half, the kids and oldies would be say 30% -- so we are down to about 600 able-bodied men who can be the warriors.
You can adjust the assumptions but I think you'll never be able to reasonably come up with Pigafetta's "1,500".
So I guess that's it ... Pigafetta can say one thing, but we can always make our own adjustments!