João Rodrigues Serrão (d. May 1521), also known as Juan Rodríguez Serrano, was a Portuguese and Spanish

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

and

explorer Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...

. He served in the

Portuguese India Armadas The Portuguese Indian Armadas (; meaning "Armadas of India") were the fleets of ships funded by the Crown of Portugal, and dispatched on an annual basis from Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal to Portuguese India, India. The principal destination w ...

that secured control of the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

and the Strait of Malacca for the Portuguese but is most well known for his participation in Ferdinand Magellan's 15191521 expedition to the Spice Islands for CharlesI of

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, which discovered a path around

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

to the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

and initiated Spanish involvement in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. Serrão and Duarte Barbosa became leaders of the expedition after Magellan's death at the

Battle of Mactan The Battle of Mactan (; ) was fought on a beach in Mactan Island (now part of Cebu, Philippines) between Spanish forces led by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan along with local allies, and Lapulapu, the chieftain of the island, on th ...

but did not live to complete the

circumnavigation Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical object, astronomical body (e.g. a planet or natural satellite, moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth. The first circumnaviga ...

with Elcano. They were both killed shortly thereafter during a massacre of the Spanish by their supposed convert and ally Humabon,

raja Raja (; from , IAST ') is a noble or royal Sanskrit title historically used by some Indian subcontinent, Indian rulers and monarchs and highest-ranking nobles. The title was historically used in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. T ...

of Cebu.

Name

João Rodrigues Serrão is the Portuguese form of the Spanish

name A name is a term used for identification by an external observer. They can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. The entity identified by a name is called its referent. A person ...

Juan Rodríguez Serrano and more common in English sources, although Antonio Pigafettaa Venetian who accompanied Magellan's expedition as a supernumerary and subsequently wrote an account of his voyageconsidered Serrão notably Spanish. The name is usually shortened to Serrão rather than Rodrigues Serrão. It also appears in some sources anglicized to John Serrano.

Life

Serrão was born in Frixinal. (now Fregenal de la Sierra),

Badajoz Badajoz is the capital of the Province of Badajoz in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Extremadura, Spain. It is situated close to the Portugal, Portuguese Portugal–Spain border, border, on the left bank of the river ...

, in a border area long contested between

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

and

. He was the brother or cousin of Francisco Serrão. Like Magellan, for the first part of his life, João Serrão served the Portuguese king ManuelI. He served as the

of a round caravel in the Fourth India Armada led by Vasco de Gama in 1502. Together with Magellan and his relative Francisco, he also took part in the Seventh India Armada led by Francisco de Almeida in 1505. In that expedition, he captained the round caravel . Serrão and Magellan also took part in the Portuguese conquest of Malacca led by Afonso de Albuquerque in 1511. Subsequently, Francisco stayed in the

East Indies The East Indies (or simply the Indies) is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The ''Indies'' broadly referred to various lands in Eastern world, the East or the Eastern Hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainl ...

and wrote descriptions of the area to João and Magellan. Finding himself in disgrace in the Portuguese court and thinking Francisco's information suggested the Spice Islands (now

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

Maluku Islands The Maluku Islands ( ; , ) or the Moluccas ( ; ) are an archipelago in the eastern part of Indonesia. Tectonics, Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located in West ...

) fell within the Spanish hemisphere created by the

Treaty of Tordesillas The Treaty of Tordesillas, signed in Tordesillas, Spain, on 7 June 1494, and ratified in Setúbal, Portugal, divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between the Kingdom of Portugal and the Crown of Castile, along a meridian (geography) ...

, Magellan approached the young Spanish king CharlesI (subsequently

Emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

CharlesV of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...

) for funding. When this was granted, Serrão joined Magellan as one of the captains for his expedition. Serrão captained the across the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

in 1519. After an attempted

mutiny Mutiny is a revolt among a group of people (typically of a military or a crew) to oppose, change, or remove superiors or their orders. The term is commonly used for insubordination by members of the military against an officer or superior, ...

led to the execution or flight of the three other captains, he subsequently commanded the across the

in 1520. Magellan had hoped to meet Francisco Serrão when he arrived in the Spice Islands but, after the First Mass in the Philippines, he was killed at the 1521

while attempting to shore up the power of his convert and ally Humabon, the

of Cebu. Upon his death, Serrão became joint leader of the expedition with Magellan's in-law Duarte Barbosa. ( Francisco Serrão died shortly thereafter on

Ternate Ternate (), also known as the City of Ternate (; ), is the List of regencies and cities of Indonesia, city with the largest population in the province of North Maluku and an island in the Maluku Islands, Indonesia. It was the ''de facto'' provi ...

.) Magellan's will had provided for the freeing of his Malay

slave Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

Enrique. Either Barbosa or Barbosa and Serrão together refused to honor this provision, preferring to keep Enrique as their Malay interpreter for the rest of the mission and to return him later to Portugal as the property of Magellan's widow Beatriz Barbosa. Subsequentlyprobably though not certainly by Enrique's doingHumabon massacred the Spanish leadership at a feast on Cebu on 1 May 1521 and drove them from his lands, with Enrique surviving and escaping captivity. Serrão also survived the initial trap and reached the island's beach, where he called to the men still on the boats for rescue. João Lopes Carvalho, who became leader of the expedition at this point, feared that the Cebuanos were only using Serrão as bait to lure more men into the massacre and ordered his men not to go to shore. Serrão seems to have been recaptured and killed shortly afterwards.

References

Citations

Bibliography

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External links

* * 15th-century births 1521 deaths Explorers of Asia Portuguese explorers of the Pacific Portuguese maritime navigators 16th-century Portuguese explorers People of the Magellan expedition People from Badajoz 16th-century Spanish explorers {{Portuguese explorers