The Battle

 

In the morning of April 28, Magellan departed towards Mactan with 49 armored soldiers armed with swords, axes, shields, crossbows, and guns. The Spanish soldiers were unable to land on Mactan due to the rocky outcroppings and coral along the beach. Magellan's ships were forced to anchor far from shore, and he was unable to bring his ships' cannons to bear on Datu Lapu-lapu's army of over 1,500 warriors.

When Magellan's troops arrived on the island, the natives had organized themselves into three divisions, totaling around 1,500 people. When they saw Magellan and his company, they came down on them, shouting wildly. The musketeers and crossbowmen fired for approximately a half-hour from a distance, but Magellan tried to scare them away by setting fire to some houses in what is now Buaya, then known as Bulaia.

Many of the warriors attacked Magellan, he was wounded in the arm with a spear and in the leg by a kampilan. With this advantage, Lapu-Lapu's troops finally overpowered and killed Magellan. He was stabbed and hacked by spears and swords. Several of Magellan’s men were killed in battle, and a number of natives converted to Christianity who had come to their aid were killed by warriors. There are no official records of the number of casualties in the battle, although Pigafetta mentions at least 3 Christian soldiers killed including Magellan. 

Magellan's allies, Raja Humabon and Datu Zula, were said not to have taken part in the battle due to Magellan's bidding, and they watched from a distance. Pigafetta reports that the Christian king Raja Humabon sent a message saying that if they returned the bodies of Magellan and his crew, they would be given as much merchandise as they wished. Lapulapu’s immediate response was, “We will not give away the captain’s body for all the riches in the world, because his body is the trophy of our victory against invaders of our shore”.

While attending a feast hosted by Humabon, several of the troops who survived the war and returned to Cebu were poisoned. After Humabon's defection, Magellan's successor as mission commander was Juan Sebastián del Cano, who ordered the company's quick departure. Del Cano and his fleet went west before returning to Spain in 1522, completing the first global circumnavigation.