Ferdinand Magellan
Ferdinand Magellan, who would become a famous Portuguese navigator, was born around 1480 in Porto or Sabrosa, in the region of Trás-os-Montes. The son of a Portuguese nobleman, Ferdinand was raised at the court of John II of Portugal. After 1495, the young man entered the service of Manuel I, who succeeded to the throne.
From 1505 onwards, Ferdinand took part in various maritime expeditions to India and the Spice Islands in Southeast Asia, which allowed him to gain extensive experience in navigation. The sailor returned to Portugal in 1512, where he took part in fighting in North Africa. However, Magellan fell out of favor with the king and was forced to leave royal service. He then broke with his homeland and went to Spain. With the help of influential friends, he met King Charles I of Spain, the future Emperor Charles V, and presented him with a plan: to reach the Spice Islands not by the known route around Africa, but by sailing west across the Atlantic Ocean and then searching for a passage through South America.
Charles V was impressed by the project. In 1518, a contract was concluded, guaranteeing Magellan a share of the revenues from the lands he might discover during his voyage. The agreement also granted him certain rights over the territories discovered, as well as to his descendants.
On September 20, 1519, Ferdinand, leading an expedition of five ships, left Sanlúcar de Barrameda, after departing from Seville, and set sail. The fleet passed through the Canary Islands, then crossed the Atlantic and reached the coast of Brazil. The sailors then followed the coast of South America southward and explored the estuary of the Río de la Plata in search of a passage to the west. Finding no passage, the expedition continued along the coast of Patagonia. At the end of March 1520, the sailors established their winter quarters at Puerto San Julián, where Magellan had to suppress a major mutiny among his men.
The expedition set sail again on August 24, 1520, and on October 21 finally reached the entrance to the strait they had been searching for several months. This passage would later be known as the “Strait of Magellan.” Crossing the strait was extremely difficult and took thirty-eight days. In the meantime, the ship Santiago was wrecked, while the San Antonio abandoned the expedition and returned to Spain. Finally, the three remaining ships reached the great ocean, where relatively calm conditions prevailed, leading Magellan to name it the “Pacific.” The sailors navigated this ocean for almost three months. The crossing pushed the men to the limit: food supplies and fresh water began to run out on board; deaths caused by scurvy were considerable and, to make matters worse, the mood among the crew became increasingly alarming.
On March 6, 1521, the fleet finally reached Guam, in the Mariana Islands, where the sailors stayed for some time to rest and replenish their supplies. They then continued their journey toward the Philippines, which they reached a few days later.
The expedition then continued its journey through the Philippines. Magellan arrived on the island of Mactan and attempted to impose Spanish authority on the local chief, Lapulapu. On April 27, 1521, the navigator was killed during fighting with the island’s inhabitants. Some of his crew were also killed. The survivors subsequently left the Philippines with the remaining ships. On their way to Europe, they reached the Moluccas, in present-day Indonesia, where they took on a valuable cargo of spices.
Only one of the five ships of Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition, the Victoria, eventually succeeded in returning to Spain. Commanded by Juan Sebastián Elcano, the ship arrived at Sanlúcar de Barrameda on September 6, 1522, after taking the route around the Cape of Good Hope. This return completed the first known circumnavigation of the Earth, although Magellan himself did not live long enough to complete it.
