MAGELLAN, FERDINAND (c. the first to undertake a voyage around the globe, was born at Sabrosa in the Villa Real district of the Traz-os-Montes province of Portugal. He was a son of Pedro de Magalhaes, and belonged to the fourth order of Portuguese nobility (fidalgos de cota de armas). He was brought up as a page of Queen Leonor, consort of King John II. "the Perfect." Service in the Indies.—In 1495 he entered the service of Manuel "the Fortunate," John's successor, and in 1504 enlisted as a volunteer for the Indian voyage of the first Portuguese viceroy in the East, Francisco d'Almeida. He sailed on March 25, 1505; was wounded at Cannanore on March 16, 1506; was then sent with Nuno Vaz Pereira to Sofala to build a Portuguese fortress at that place ; returned to India early in 1508; and was again wounded at the battle of Diu on Feb. 3, 1509. At Cochin (Aug. 19, 1509) he joined Diogo Lopes de Sequeira on his famous voyage intended for the Spice Islands, when the Portuguese almost fell victims to Malay treachery at Malacca. Before Oct. T 0, isio he had been rewarded for his many services with the rank of captain. He again distinguished himself at the taking of Malacca by Albuquerque (July–Aug., 1511), and was then sent on by the viceroy with Antonio d'Abreu to explore the Spice Islands (Moluccas). Leaving Malacca at the end of December 1511, this squadron sailed along the north of Java, passed between Java and Madura, left Celebes on their left, coasted by the Gunong Api volcano, touched at Bura, and so reached Amboyna and Banda. At the last-named they found such abundance of spices that they came straight back to Malacca without visiting Ternate, as had been intended.
reached Seville on Oct. 20, 1517, and thence went to Valladolid to see Charles V. With the help of Juan de Aranda, one of the three chief officials of the India House at Seville, and of other friends, especially Diogo Barbosa, a Portuguese like himself, naturalized as a Spaniard, who had acquired great influence in Seville, and whose daughter he now married, he gained the ear of Charles and of the powerful minister, Juan Rodriguez de Fonseca, bishop of Burgos, the persistent enemy of Columbus, the steady supporter of his great successor.
Magellan proposed to reach the Spice Islands of the East Indies by the west ; for that purpose he hoped to discover a strait at the extreme south of South America, and is said to have declared him self ready to sail southwards to 75° to realize his project. Ruy Faleiro the astronomer, another Portuguese exile, aided him in the working out of his plan, and he found an invaluable financial ally in Christopher de Haro, a member of a great Antwerp firm, who owed a grudge to the king of Portugal. On March 22, 1518, Magellan and Faleiro, as joint captains-general, signed an agree ment with Charles V., by which one-twentieth of the clear profits were to fall to them ; further, the government of any lands dis covered was vested in them and their heirs, with the title of Adelantados. On Aug. so, 1519, the fleet of five vessels, under Magellan's command, left Seville and dropped down the Guadal quivir to S. Lucar de Barrameda, at the mouth of the river, where they remained more than five weeks. On Sept. 20, the armada put to sea. Of the vessels which composed it, the "Trinidad" was the flagship, and the "Vittoria" the only one which accomplished the circumnavigation. Antonio Pigafetta of Vicenza, an Italian gentleman who has left the best history of the voyage, went as a volunteer in Magellan's suite. Faleiro stayed behind, having cast his horoscope and found that the venture would be fatal to him. Before starting, Magellan made his will and addressed a memoran dum to Charles V., assigning geographical positions connected with the controversy he was intending to settle : viz., the proper drawing of a demarcation-line between the spheres of Spain and Portugal in the East Indies, and the inclusion of the Moluccas within the Spanish sphere.