Ferdinand Magellan

Passing the Straits.

Steering south-west and calling at Teneriffe (Sept. 26—Oct. 3), Magellan sighted South America at Cape St. Augustine, near Pernambuco on Nov. 29; thence he fol lowed the east coast of the New World down to the La Plata estuary, which he examined in the hope of finding a passage at this point (Jan. si—Feb. 6, 152o). On March 31, following, he arrived at Port St. Julian (in 49° 20' S.) where he wintered. Here he crushed a formidable mutiny (April 1-2), and made acquaintance with the natives, whom he called Patagonians ("Big Feet"), whose great size and lofty stature are magnified by Pigafetta to gigantic proportions. Leaving Port St. Julian on Aug. 24, 152o, he dis covered on Oct. 21, the cape of the Eleven Thousand Virgins, the eastern entrance of the long-sought passage. Through this strait, 36o m. long, often narrow and very tortuous, fringed by snow-clad mountains, he guided his armada for thirty-eight days, weakened by the desertion of one vessel (the "S. Antonio"). On Nov. 21, a council of pilots and captains was held to consider the continua tion of the voyage, and on Nov. 28, the fleet rounded Cabo Deseado, the "desired" western terminus of the strait of Magellan. To the south of the passage lay the forbidding land "stark with eternal cold," which from the many fires here observed Magellan named "Tierra del Fuego." The expedition now entered the "Great Sbuth Sea," first sighted by Vasco Nunez de Balboa (q.v.), which, from the steady and gentle winds that drove the fleet across the immeasurable expanse, was by Magellan called "Pacific." For ninety-eight days Magellan crossed this sea from Cabo Deseado to the Ladrones. On the whole transit he discovered only two islands, sterile and uninhabited, which he called "St. Paul's" (Jan. 1521) and "Shark Island" (Feb. 3). The explorers had no fresh provisions, little water (and that bad), and putrid biscuit ; the rav ages of scurvy became terrible. The worst fears of Magellan were realized ; ox-hides, sawdust, and rats had to be eaten.

Magellan's Death.

At last, on March 6, 1521, the Ladrones (so named by Magellan from the thievish habits of the natives) came in sight, Guam being probably the first port of call. Here the fleet rested, watered, revictualled and refitted ; on March 9 they started again westward; and on March 16 sighted the southern point of Samar Island in the archipelago, since 1542 called the Philippines, but named by Magellan, its first discoverer, after St. Lazarus. On April 7, the squadron arrived at Cebu, south-west of Samar, in the heart of the Philippines; here Magellan contracted a close friendship and alliance with the treacherous native sov ereign, who professed Christianity the better to please and utilize his Catholic friends. Undertaking an expedition to conquer, for the Catholic faith and the king of Cebu, the neighbouring island of Mactan, Magellan was killed there in a fight with the islanders (April 27, 1521). The king of Cebu after this got into his power several leaders of the squadron, including Juan Serrano, one of the two admirals elected to replace Magellan, and then murdered them.

The survivors, burning one of the three remaining vessels, left the Philippines, and made their way to the Moluccas (Nov. 6), visiting Borneo on the way ( July —Sept.9 27, 1521). At Tidor a heavy cargo of cloves was taken in; the "Trinidad," becoming leaky, stayed behind with her crew; and the "Vittoria," under Juan Sebastian del Cano, proceeded to Europe alone (Dec. 21, 1521). To double the Cape of Good Hope the "Vittoria" reached between and 41° S. (April 7-16, 1522) and suffered from contrary winds, heavy seas, scurvy and starvation. In the Cape Verde Islands (July 9-15, 1522) 13 of the crew were detained prisoners for a time by the Portuguese. Only 18 men returned with

del Cano to Seville in the first vessel that had ever made the tour of the earth. Though Magellan had not quite reached the Spice Islands when he fell at Mactan, his task had then been accom plished. He had already reached and passed the longitude of the Moluccas, where he had already been ; the way home from the Philippines by the Indian Ocean and the Cape of Good Hope was perfectly known to the Portuguese, himself included. Magellan's name has never received its due recognition in general history. It ranks with those of Columbus, Marco Polo, and Henry the Navi gator. The circumnavigation of the globe is as great an event as the discovery of America. Magellan achieved what Columbus planned—the linking of west Europe with east Asia by direct tran sit over the western ocean.

Magellan's Straits, the Magellanic clouds (not first observed by him), and Magellan's Land—a name long given to Patagonia and that hypothetical southern continent of which Tierra del Fuego was considered only a portion, and now again bestowed by Chile on her territory in the extreme south—preserve the memory of the first circumnavigator. The largest of the oceans has also kept the flattering name given to it by the man who first crossed it.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.—No record of his exploits was left by Magellan himself ; and contemporary accounts are less detailed and consistent than could be wished. The best is that of Antonio Pigafetta, a volun teer in the fleet. It is printed in Ramusio, and exists in four early MS. copies, one in Italian and three in French.

Other authorities are: (I) The narrative of an unknown Portu guese in Ramusio's Navigationi et viaggi; (2) the Derrotero or Log Book in the Seville Archives, supposed to be the work of Francisco Albo, contramaestre of Magellan's flagship, the "Trinidad": this consists mainly of nautical observations; (3) the narrative of the so-called Genoese pilot, written in excellent Portuguese, and printed in vol. iv. of the Collecdo de noticias of the Lisbon Academy ; (4) various informaciones and other papers in the Seville Archives, especially bearing on the mutiny ; the letter of Maximilian of Transylvania, under-secretary to Charles V., to the cardinal of Salzburg; (6) the references in Correa and Herrera, often based on good information, and adding points of interest to other records. Of these (i)–(3), (5), and an instance of (6) are translated in the Hakluyt Society's volume. Magellan's two wills (i.) executed at Belem on Dec. 17, 1504, on the eve of his departure with Almeida, (ii.) executed at Seville on Aug. 24, 1519, just before starting on his voyage round the world, are both of some value for his life.

See also Lord Stanley of Alderley, The First Voyage round the World by Magellan, translated from . . . Pigafetta, etc., Hakluyt Society (London, 1874) ; Diego de Barros Arana, Vida e viagems de Ferncio de Magalhcies, a trans. of the Spanish life by Fernando de Magalhaes Villas Boas (Lisbon, 1881) ; F. H. H. Guillemard, Life of Magellan (London, 1890) ; Magellan . . . the original text of the Ambrosian MS. (of Pigafetta), with English translation, notes, bibliography, etc., by J. A. Robertson (Cleveland, U.S.A., 1906). Before the appear ance of this indispensable work, the best edition of Pigafetta had been in vol. iii. part 5 of the Raccolta di documenti e studi pubblicati nella r. commissione colombiana, edited by Andrea dai Mosto (Rome, Ministry of Public Instruction, See also 0. Koelliker, Die Umsegelung der Erde durch Magellan (1908) ; E. Oberhummer, F. Maghaldes, and die Bedeutung der ersten Erdumsegelung (1921) ; A. S. Hildebrand, Magellan (1925) ; Plischke, F. de Maghaldes (1926).