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Ferdinand Magellan (Portuguese: Fernão de Magalhães; Spanish: Fernando de Magallanes; c. 1480 – April 27, 1521) was a Portuguese explorer. He was born at Sabrosa, in northern Portugal, but later obtained Spanish nationality in order to serve King Charles I of Spain in search of a westward route to the "Spice Islands" (modern Maluku Islands in Indonesia).

Magellan's expedition of 1519–1522 became the first expedition to sail from the Atlantic Ocean into the Pacific Ocean (then named "peaceful sea" by Magellan; the passage being made via the Strait of Magellan), and the first to cross the Pacific. It also completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth, although Magellan himself did not complete the entire voyage, being killed during the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines. (Magellan had, however, traveled eastwards to the Malay Peninsula on an earlier voyage, so he became one of the first explorers to cross all of the meridians of the globe.) Of the 237 men who set out on five ships, only 18 completed the circumnavigation and managed to return to Spain in 1522, led by the Basque navigator Juan Sebastián Elcano, who took over command of the expedition after Magellan's death. Seventeen other men arrived later in Spain: twelve men captured by the Portuguese in Cape Verde some weeks earlier and between 1525 and 1527, and five survivors of the Trinidad.

Magellan also gives his name to the Magellanic Penguin, which he was the first European to note, and the Magellanic clouds, now known to be nearby dwarf galaxies.

Early life and travels

Magellan was born around 1480 at Sabrosa, near Vila Real, in the province of Trás-os-Montes, in Portugal. He was the son of Rui de Magalhães (son of Pedro Afonso de Magalhães and wife Quinta de Sousa) and wife Alda de Mesquita and brother of Duarte de Sousa, Diogo de Sousa and Isabel de Magalhães. After the death of his parents during his tenth year he became a page to Queen Leonor at the Portuguese royal court because of his family's heritage.

In March 1505, at the age of 25, Magellan enlisted in the fleet of 22 ships sent to host D. Francisco de Almeida as the first viceroy of Portuguese India. Although his name does not appear in the chronicles, it is known that he remained there eight years, in Goa, Cochin and Quilon. He participated in several battles, including the battle of Cannanore in 1506, where he was wounded. In 1509 he fought in the battle of Diu and later sailed under Diogo Lopes de Sequeira in the first Portuguese embassy to Malacca, with Francisco Serrão, his friend and possibly cousin. In September, after arriving at Malacca, the expedition fell victim to a conspiracy ending in retreat. Magellan had a crucial role, warning Sequeira and saving Francisco Serrão, who had landed. This performance earned him honors and a promotion.

In 1511, under the new governor Afonso de Albuquerque, Magellan and Serrão participated in the conquest of Malacca. After the conquest their ways parted: Magellan was promoted, with a rich plunder, and in the company of a Malay he had indentured and baptised Enrique of Malacca, returned to Portugal in 1512. Serrão departed in the first expedition sent to find the "Spice Islands" in the Moluccas, where he remained, having married a woman from Amboina and becoming a military advisor to the Sultan of Ternate, Bayan Sirrullah. His letters to Magellan would prove decisive, giving information about the spice-producing territories.

After taking a leave without permission, Magellan fell out of favour. Serving in Azemmour he was wounded and got a permanent limp. He was also accused of trading illegally with the Moors. The accusations were proved false, but there were no further offers of employment after May 15, 1514. Later on in 1515, he got an employment offer as a crew member on a Portuguese ship, but rejected. In 1517 after a quarrel with king D. Manuel I, who denied his persistent demands to lead an expedition to reach the spice islands from west, he left for Spain. In Seville he befriended his countryman Diogo Barbosa and soon married his daughter Beatriz Barbosa having had two children: Rodrigo de Magalhães and Carlos de Magalhães, both of whom died at a young age. Meanwhile he devoted himself to studying the most recent charts, investigating, in partnership with cosmographer Rui Faleiro, a gateway from the Atlantic to the South Pacific and the possibility of the Moluccas being Spanish according to the demarcation of the Treaty of Tordesillas.

Voyage of circumnavigation

Background: Spanish search for a westward route to Asia

The aim of Christopher Columbus' 1492–1503 voyages to the West had been to reach the Indies and to establish commercial relations between Spain and the Asian kingdoms. The Spanish soon realized that the lands of the Americas were not a part of Asia, but a new continent. The 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas reserved for Portugal the eastern routes that went around Africa, and Vasco da Gama and the Portuguese arrived in India in 1498. It became urgent for Spain to find a new commercial route to Asia, and after the Junta de Toro conference of 1505, the Spanish Crown set out to discover a route to the west. Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa reached the Pacific Ocean in 1513 after crossing the Isthmus of Panama, and Juan Díaz de Solís died in Río de la Plata in 1516 while exploring South America in the service of Spain.

Funding and preparation

In October 1517 in Seville, Magellan contacted Juan de Aranda, Factor of the Casa de Contratación. Then, following the arrival of his partner, Rui Faleiro, and with the support of Aranda, they presented their project to the Spanish king, Charles I, future Charles V. Magellan's project was particularly interesting, since it would open the "spice route" without damaging relations with the neighbouring Portuguese. The idea was in tune with the times. On March 22, 1518 the king named Magellan and Faleiro captains so that they could travel in search of the Spice Islands in July. He raised them to the rank of Commander of the Order of Santiago. The king granted them:

• Monopoly of the discovered route for a period of ten years.
• Their appointment as governors of the lands and islands found, with 5% of the resulting net gains.
• A fifth of the gains of the travel.
• The right to levy one thousand ducats on upcoming trips, paying only 5% on the remainder.
• Granting of an island for each one, apart from the six richest, from which they would receive a fifteenth.

The expedition was funded largely by the Spanish Crown and provided with ships carrying supplies for two years of travel. Expert cartographer Jorge Reinel and Diogo Ribeiro, a Portuguese who had started working for Charles V in 1518 as a cartographer at the Casa de Contratación, took part in the development of the maps to be used in the travel. Several problems arose during the preparation of the trip, including lack of money, the king of Portugal trying to stop them, Magellan and other Portuguese incurring suspicion from the Spanish and the difficult nature of Faleiro. Finally, thanks to the tenacity of Magellan, the expedition was ready. Through the bishop Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca they obtained the participation of merchant Christopher de Haro, who provided a quarter of the funds and goods to barter.

The fleet

The fleet provided by King Charles V included five ships: the flagship Trinidad (110 tons, crew 55), under Magellan's command; San Antonio (120 tons, crew 60) commanded by Juan de Cartagena; Concepcion (90 tons, crew 45) commanded by Gaspar de Quesada; Santiago (75 tons, crew 32) commanded by Juan Serrano; and Victoria (85 tons, crew 43), named after the church of Santa Maria de la Victoria de Triana, where Magellan took an oath of allegiance to Charles V, commanded by Luis Mendoza. Trinidad was a caravel, and all others rated as carracks or "naus".

The crew

The crew of about 234 included men from several nations: including Portuguese, Spanish, Italians, Germans, Flemish, Greeks, English and French. Spanish authorities were wary of Magellan, so that they almost prevented him from sailing, switching his mostly Portuguese crew to mostly men of Spain. Nevertheless, it included about 40 Portuguese, among them Magellan's brother in law Duarte Barbosa, João Serrão, a relative of Francisco Serrão, Estêvão Gomes and also Magellan's indentured servant Enrique of Malacca. Faleiro, who had planned to accompany the voyage, withdrew prior to boarding. Juan Sebastián Elcano, a Spanish merchant ship captain settled at Seville, embarked seeking the king's pardon for previous misdeeds and Antonio Pigafetta, a Venetian scholar and traveller, had asked to be on the voyage accepting the title of "supernumerary" and a modest salary, becoming a strict assistant of Magellan and keeping an accurate journal. The only other sailor to report the voyage would be Francisco Albo, who kept a formal logbook.

Departure and crossing of the Atlantic

On August 10, 1519, the five ships under Magellan's command – Trinidad, San Antonio, Concepción, Victoria and Santiago – left Seville and descended the Guadalquivir River to Sanlúcar de Barrameda, at the mouth of the river. There they remained more than five weeks. Finally they set sail on September 20.

King Manuel I ordered a Portuguese naval detachment to pursue Magellan, but Magellan avoided them. After stopping at the Canary Islands, Magellan arrived at Cape Verde, where he set course for Cape St. Augustine in Brazil. On November 27 the expedition crossed the equator; on December 6 the crew sighted South America.

As Brazil was Portuguese territory, Magellan avoided it and on December 13 anchored near present-day Rio de Janeiro. There the crew was resupplied, but bad conditions caused them to delay. Afterwards, they continued to sail south along South America's east coast, looking for the strait that Magellan believed would lead to the Spice Islands. The fleet reached Río de la Plata on January 10, 1520.

On 30 March the crew established a settlement they called Puerto San Julian (Argentina). On April 2 a mutiny involving two of the five ship captains broke out, but it was unsuccessful because most of the crew remained loyal. Juan Sebastián Elcano was one of those who were forgiven. Antonio Pigafetta, related that Gaspar Quesada, the captain of Concepcion, was executed; Juan de Cartagena, the captain of San Antonio, and a priest named Padre Sanchez de la Reina were instead marooned on the coast. Another account states that Luis de Mendoza, the captain of Victoria, was executed along with Quesada. Reportedly those killed were drawn and quartered and impaled on the coast; years later, their bones were found by Sir Francis Drake.

Passage into the Pacific

The journey resumed. The help of Duarte Barbosa was crucial to face the riot in Puerto San Julian, becoming since then captain of the Victoria. The Santiago was sent down the coast on a scouting expedition and was wrecked in a sudden storm. All of its crew survived and made it safely to shore. Two of them returned overland to inform Magellan of what had happened, and to bring rescue to their comrades. After this experience, Magellan decided to wait for a few weeks more before again resuming the voyage.

At 52°S latitude on October 21 the fleet reached Cape Virgenes and concluded they had found the passage, because the waters were brine and deep inland. Four ships began an arduous trip through the 373-mile (600 km) long passage that Magellan called the Estrecho (Canal) de Todos los Santos, ("All Saints' Channel"), because the fleet travelled through it on November 1 or All Saints' Day. The strait is now named the Strait of Magellan. Magellan first assigned Concepcion and San Antonio to explore the strait, but the latter, commanded by Gómez, deserted and returned to Spain on November 20. On November 28 the three remaining ships entered the South Pacific. Magellan named the waters the Mar Pacifico (Pacific Ocean) because of its apparent stillness. Magellan was the first European to reach Tierra del Fuego just east of the Pacific side of the strait.

Death in the Philippines

Heading northwest, the crew reached the equator on February 13, 1521. On 6 March they reached the Marianas and Guam. Magellan called Guam the "Island of Sails" because they saw a lot of sailboats. They renamed it to "Ladrones Island" (Island of Thieves) because many of Trinidad's small boats were stolen there. On 16 March Magellan reached the island of Homonhon in the Philippines, with 150 crew left. Members of his expedition became the first Spaniards to reach the Philippine archipelago, but they were not the first Europeans.

Magellan was able to communicate with the native tribes because his Malay interpreter, Enrique, could understand their languages. Enrique was indentured by Magellan in 1511 right after the colonization of Malacca and was at his side during the battles in Africa, during Magellan's disgrace at the King's court in Portugal and during Magellan's successful raising of a fleet. They traded gifts with Rajah Siaiu of Mazaua who guided them to Cebu on April 7.

Rajah Humabon of Cebu was friendly towards Magellan and the Spaniards, both he and his queen Hara Amihan were baptized as Christians. Afterward, Rajah Humabon and his ally Datu Zula convinced Magellan to kill their enemy, Datu Lapu-Lapu, on Mactan. Magellan had wished to convert Lapu-Lapu to Christianity, as he had Humabon, a proposal of which Lapu-Lapu was dismissive. On the morning of April 27, 1521, Magellan sailed to Mactan with a small attack force. During the resulting battle against Lapu-Lapu's troops, Magellan was shot by a poisonous arrow and later surrounded and finished off with spears and other weapons.

Pigafetta and Ginés de Mafra provided written documents of the events culminating in Magellan's death:

"When morning came, forty-nine of us leaped into the water up to our thighs, and walked through water for more than two cross-bow flights before we could reach the shore. The boats could not approach nearer because of certain rocks in the water. The other eleven men remained behind to guard the boats. When we reached land, [the natives] had formed in three divisions to the number of more than one thousand five hundred people. When they saw us, they charged down upon us with exceeding loud cries... The musketeers and crossbow-men shot from a distance for about a half-hour, but uselessly... Recognizing the captain, so many turned upon him that they knocked his helmet off his head twice... A native hurled a bamboo spear into the captain's face, but the latter immediately killed him with his lance, which he left in the native's body. Then, trying to lay hand on sword, he could draw it out but halfway, because he had been wounded in the arm with a bamboo spear. When the natives saw that, they all hurled themselves upon him. One of them wounded him on the left leg with a large cutlass, which resembles a scimitar, only being larger. That caused the captain to fall face downward, when immediately they rushed upon him with iron and bamboo spears and with their cutlasses, until they killed our mirror, our light, our comfort, and our true guide. When they wounded him, he turned back many times to see whether we were all in the boats. Thereupon, beholding him dead, we, wounded, retreated, as best we could, to the boats, which were already pulling off."

Magellan provided in his will that Enrique, his interpreter, was to be freed upon his death. However, after the Battle of Mactan, the remaining ships' masters refused to free Enrique. Enrique escaped his indenture on May 1 with the aid of Rajah Humabon, amid the deaths of almost 30 crewmen. Pigafetta had been jotting down words in both Butuanon and Cebuano languages — which he started at Mazaua on Friday, 29 March and grew to a total of 145 words — and was apparently able to continue communications during the rest of the voyage. The Spaniards offered the natives merchandise in exchange for Magellan's body, but they were declined and so his body was never recovered.

Return

The casualties suffered in the Philippines left the expedition with too few men to sail all three of the remaining ships. Consequently, on May 2 they abandoned Concepción and burned the ship. The fleet, reduced to Trinidad and Victoria, fled westward to Palawan. They left that island on June 21 and were guided to Brunei, Borneo by Moro pilots who could navigate the shallow seas. They anchored off the Brunei breakwater for 35 days, where Pigafetta, an Italian from Vicenza, recorded the splendour of Rajah Siripada's court (gold, two pearls the size of hens' eggs, etc.). In addition, Brunei boasted tame elephants and armament of 62 cannons, more than 5 times the armament of Magellan's ships, and Brunei disdained cloves, which were to prove more valuable than gold, upon the return to Spain. Pigafetta mentions some of the technology of the court, such as porcelain and eyeglasses (both of which were not available or only just becoming available in Europe).

After reaching the Maluku Islands (the Spice Islands) on November 6, 115 crew were left. They managed to trade with the Sultan of Tidore, a rival of the Sultan of Ternate, who was the ally of the Portuguese.

The two remaining ships, laden with valuable spices, attempted to return to Spain by sailing westwards. However, as they left the Spice Islands, the Trinidad began to take on water. The crew tried to discover and repair the leak, but failed. They concluded that Trinidad would need to spend considerable time being overhauled, but the small Victoria was not large enough to accommodate all the surviving crew. As a result, Victoria with some of the crew sailed west for Spain. Several weeks later, Trinidad departed and attempted to return to Spain via the Pacific route. This attempt failed. Trinidad was captured by the Portuguese, and was eventually wrecked in a storm while at anchor under Portuguese control.

Victoria set sail via the Indian Ocean route home on December 21, commanded by Juan Sebastián Elcano. By May 6 the Victoria rounded the Cape of Good Hope, with only rice for rations. Twenty crewmen died of starvation before Elcano put into Cape Verde, a Portuguese holding, where he abandoned 13 more crew on July 9 in fear of losing his cargo of 26 tons of spices (cloves and cinnamon).

On September 6, 1522, Elcano and the remaining crew of Magellan's voyage arrived in Spain aboard the last ship in the fleet, Victoria, almost exactly three years after they departed. Magellan had not intended to circumnavigate the world, only to find a secure way through which the Spanish ships could navigate to the Spice Islands; it was Elcano who, after Magellan's death, decided to push westward, thereby completing the first voyage around the entire Earth.

Maximilianus Transylvanus interviewed some of the surviving members of the expedition when they presented themselves to the Spanish court at Valladolid in the autumn of 1522 and wrote the first account of the voyage, which was published in 1523. The account written by Pigafetta did not appear until 1525 and was not wholly published until 1800. This was the Italian transcription by Carlo Amoretti of what we now call the Ambrosiana codex. The expedition eked out a small profit, but the crew was not paid full wages.

Four crewmen of the original 55 on Trinidad finally returned to Spain in 1525, 51 of them had died in war or from disease. In total, approximately 232 Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, English and German sailors died on the expedition around the world with Magellan.

Survivors

When Victoria, the one surviving ship, returned to the harbor of departure after completing the first circumnavigation of the Earth, only 18 men out of the original 237 men were on board. Among the survivors there were two Italians, Antonio Pigafetta and Martino de Judicibus. Martino de Judicibus was a Genoese or Savonese Chief Steward. His history is preserved in the nominative registers at the Archivo General de Indias in Seville, Spain. The family name is referred to with the exact Latin patronymic, "de Judicibus". He was initially assigned to the caravel Concepción, one of five ships of the Spanish fleet of Magellan. Martino de Judicibus embarked on the expedition with the rank of captain.

Aftermath and legacy

Antonio Pigafetta's journal is the main source for much of what we know about Magellan and Elcano's voyage. The other direct report of the voyage was that of Francisco Albo, last Victoria's pilot, who kept a formal logbook. However, it was not through Pigafetta's writings that Europeans first learned of the circumnavigation. Rather, it was through an account written by Maximilianus Transylvanus, a relative of sponsor Christopher de Haro, published in 1523. Transylvanus interviewed some of the survivors of the voyage when Victoria returned to Spain in September 1522.

In 1525, soon after the return of Magellan's expedition, Charles V sent an expedition led by García Jofre de Loaísa to occupy the Moluccas, claiming that they were in his zone of the Treaty of Tordesillas. This expedition included the most notable Spanish navigators: Juan Sebastián Elcano, who lost his life then, and the young Andrés de Urdaneta. They reached with difficulty the Moluccas, docking at Tidore. The conflict with the Portuguese already established in nearby Ternate started nearly a decade of skirmishes over the possession.

Since there was not a set limit to the east, in 1524 both kingdoms had tried to find the exact location of the antimeridian of Tordesillas, which would divide the world into two equal hemispheres and to resolve the "Moluccas issue". A board met several times without reaching an agreement: the knowledge at that time was insufficient for an accurate calculation of longitude, and each gave the islands to their sovereign. An agreement was reached only with the Treaty of Zaragoza, signed on 1529 between Spain and Portugal, atributting the Moluccas to Portugal and the Philippines to Spain. The course that Magellan charted was followed by other navigators, like Sir Francis Drake, and the Manila-Acapulco route was discovered by Andrés de Urdaneta in 1565.

Magellan's expedition was the first to circumnavigate the globe and the first to navigate the strait in South America connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific ocean, its name derived from the Latin name Tepre Pacificum (peaceful sea), bestowed upon it by Magellan.

Magellan's crew observed several animals that were entirely new to European science, including a "camel without humps", which was probably a guanaco, whose range extends to Tierra del Fuego, unlike the llama, vicuña or alpaca, whose ranges are confined to the Andes mountains. A black "goose" that had to be skinned instead of plucked was a penguin.

The full extent of the Earth was realized, since their voyage was 14,460 Spanish leagues (60,440 km or 37,560 mi). The need for an International Date Line was established. Upon returning they found their date was a day behind, even though they had faithfully maintained the ship's log. They lost one day because they traveled west during their circumnavigation of the globe, opposite to Earth's daily rotation. This caused great excitement at the time and a special delegation was sent to the Pope to explain the oddity to him.

Two of the closest galaxies, the Magellanic Clouds in the southern celestial hemisphere, were named for Magellan sometime after 1800. The Magellan probe, which mapped the planet Venus from 1990 to 1994, was named after Magellan. In addition, The Ferdinand Magellan train rail car (also known as U.S. Car. No. 1) is a former Pullman Company observation car which was re-built by the U.S. Government for presidential use from 1943 until 1958.