Antonio Pigafetta’s account of the voyage to the Moluccas

Record summary

Antonio Pigafetta’s account of Magellan’s circumnavigation includes observations from Guam and other western Pacific islands, including unfamiliar birds, bats, and large flying animals encountered in island environments. It matters because it is among the earliest European descriptions of Pacific fauna and helped establish a documentary pattern in which unfamiliar species were filtered through European categories. The text is also a translation and compilation with variant manuscript histories, so individual details need checking against editions and the original Italian. The animals may be identifiable species rather than unknown creatures.