Philippine E-Journals

Was the First Circumnavigator of the Globe A Filipino?

Eulogio B. Rodriguez

Discipline: History

 

Abstract:

About one and a half decades ago, there was printed in the Philippines a press dispatch from the United States to the effect that a recent historical investigation showed that the first circumnavigator of the globe was not a Spaniard nor a Portuguese as is recorded in history but a Filipino. He was not Sebastian del Cano, nor Ferdinand Magellan but one by the name of Enrique or Henry, believed to be of Sumatran origin. Enrique was the interpreter used by Magellan during his epoch-making voyage around the globe, particularly in his dealings with the natives of Cebu.