Ferdinand Magellan

Portuguese explorer

• Born: c. 1480
• Birthplace: Probably Sabrosa, Portugal
• Died: April 27, 1521
• Place of death: Mactan Island, the Philippines

Although he died while trying, Magellan was the first person to command an expedition that would eventually circumnavigate the globe. During the expedition, he discovered the southernmost point of South America (later called the Strait of Magellan), was the first to sail across the Pacific Ocean (which he named), and discovered the Philippine Islands. His feat also proved that the earth is indeed round.

Early Life

Ferdinand Magellan (FEHRD-ehn-and muh-JEHL-luhn) was born the third child of Dom Roy and Donha Alda Magalhães. His father was high sheriff of the district and city of Aveiro, located south of the city of Pôrto on the Atlantic coast. Magellan grew up with his siblings sister Isabel and brother Diogo in the Torre de Magalhães, the family farmhouse, and had a pleasant childhood in this rustic setting. At the age of seven, he attended school in the nearby monastery of Vila Nova de Mura, where he learned basic arithmetic, Latin, and the importance of harboring a strong faith in the power of Christianity.

When he was twelve, Magellan, with his father’s influence, was able to travel to Lisbon and attend Queen Leonora’s School of Pages with his brother, Diogo. The king of Portugal, John II , was a great supporter of marine exploration, and the young pages were expected to master such subjects as celestial navigation, cartography, and astronomy as well as the regular court subjects such as court etiquette, hunting, jousting, and swordsmanship.

Life’s Work

In March, 1505, Magellan, his brother Diogo, and his cousin Francisco Serrano sailed with the fleet of Francisco de Almeida to the Orient, the three young squires having signed for a three-year service with the fleet. Magellan would serve eight years in the Orient, leaving as an extra sea hand and returning as an accomplished captain. During his service in the East, he helped establish major ports from the East African coast all the way to the Malay Peninsula. He was also involved in major confrontations with Muslim and Indian forces and was wounded several times.

Magellan, stocky in height with dark, swarthy features and piercing yet sympathetic eyes, developed strong leadership qualities and a keen appetite for adventure during his years in the East. He was also known as a fair and just man who many times risked his life for his fellow crewmen. He was a soldier, one who could remain calm and decisive during a crisis, but one who preferred the excitement of discovery to the life of a military officer.

In July, 1511, Magellan captained a Portuguese caravel to a destination that remains unclear but was probably the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, in Indonesia. Pepper, which was used as a food preservative by all the major countries and was therefore nearly as valuable as gold, was exported largely from the Spice Islands. During his travels, Magellan became convinced that there was an alternate route to the Spice Islands and the East Indies, one that could be attained by sailing west from Europe as Christopher Columbus had done. Unlike Columbus, Magellan had knowledge of a passage around the newly discovered South American continent, previously explored by a fellow navigator and friend, John of Lisbon. John had also informed Magellan that an unexplored ocean existed through the South American passage and that the Spice Islands could be reached in a few weeks time by sailing across this ocean.

When Magellan returned to Portugal in 1512, he was eager to find backing for an expedition to discover the new sea route. He found no support from John II’s successor, King Manuel I , who was much less receptive to new exploratory ventures. Rebuffed by Portugal, Magellan sailed to Spain in October, 1517, hoping to present his proposal to King Charles I. Magellan’s chief contact in Spain was Diogo Barbosa, a former Portuguese navigator who had made a fortune in the spice trade and who was now the wealthy governor of the Castle of Seville. Magellan married Barbosa’s daughter, Beatriz, in December, 1517. The marriage gave Magellan much pleasure, as well as a son, Rodrigo. On March 22, 1518, Magellan secured an audience with Charles. Charles was so impressed with Magellan and his proposal that he approved the expedition that same day. Preparations were then made for what would turn out to be the most epic voyage in the history of exploration.

During the year it took to prepare for the voyage, Magellan dealt with all details, from the rigging and loading of the ships to preventing riots and pilferage caused by spies sent from Portugal and Venice to sabotage the voyage. In the end, Magellan triumphed and finally set sail on September 20, 1519, from San Luca, Spain, with 277 crewmen and five ships: the Victoria, the Santiago, the Concepción, the San Antonio, and the Trinidad.

Soon after leaving Spain, Magellan’s Spanish captains, led by second-in-command Juan de Cartagena, began ridiculing Magellan’s authority, attempting to provoke him so that they could justify a mutiny and take command of the voyage. Magellan, however, refused to be provoked.

After suffering major storms along the African coast and disturbing doldrums near the equator, the ships successfully crossed the Atlantic by early December, 1519. On December 8, the coast around Cape Roque in northern Brazil was sighted. Knowing that this area was under Portuguese domain, Magellan headed south into unclaimed territory and landed in what is now Rio de Janeiro on December 13. There the crewmen secured provisions and had friendly relations with the South American Indians. Two weeks later, they set sail down the coast, looking for el paso, the pathway first revealed to Magellan by his friend John of Lisbon.

Three months later, when no trace of el paso had materialized, the crew was at its breaking point. Winter storms, the worst of the expedition, began battering the ships. Magellan gave the command to seek a harbor where the ships and crew would wait out the winter for five months. The Spanish captains thought that he was mentally unstable and urged him to sail eastward for Africa’s Cape of Good Hope and follow the old route to the Indies. The crew wanted him to return to the idyllic harbor at Rio de Janeiro and spend the winter there. Magellan, however, held firm.

The armada anchored at San Julián in southern Argentina on March 31, 1520. The following evening, the Spanish captains mutinied. Under the leadership of Juan de Cartagena, they quickly secured three of the five ships. During a confusing boat exchange of crewmen between mutinous ships, Magellan was able to capture one of the small boatloads of men, substitute his own men for the mutiny sympathizers, and send the boat back to one of the Spanish captains along with another boatload of Magellan’s men. While the Spanish captain was dealing with the first boatload, one of Magellan’s men suddenly pulled out a knife and stabbed the mutinous captain as the second boat reached the ship. The rest of the boat’s passengers scrambled on deck, ready to do battle with the rebellious crew. The crew, shocked by the sudden turn of events, became sympathetic to Magellan once more. With three ships in his control, Magellan surrounded the other two ships and forced the remaining captains to surrender.

A trial was held for the mutineers. Two men were beheaded, and their ringleader, Juan de Cartagena, was set adrift in a small boat, never to be seen again. Through the ordeal of the mutiny, in fact through every ordeal the expedition faced, Magellan remained strong and decisive. The fact that he never doubted his ability to succeed with his mission ultimately inspired his crew to follow him, even when conditions were nearly unbearable.

The expedition spent a total of seven months waiting for the storms to subside, first at San Julián and then farther south at Puerto Santa Cruz, where the Santiago was smashed against the shoreline and lost. Finally, on October 18, they set sail once again in search of el paso. Three days later, they came to a narrow inlet protected on either side by jagged cliffs. The inlet seemed too dangerous to navigate, but Magellan, by now appearing nearly insane to his crew, ordered the Concepción and the San Antonio to explore the inlet.

The two ships had just entered the pathway when a storm suddenly arose and swept the ships through the inlet and out of sight, while simultaneously forcing Magellan’s Trinidad and the Victoria out to sea. For two days, Magellan fought the storm until he was able to return to the inlet where the Concepción and the San Antonio had disappeared. Close to panic, fearing that the two ships had been destroyed, Magellan entered the treacherous pathway. The following morning, a cloud of smoke was sighted. Then, miraculously, the two lost ships sailed into view, flags and pennants waving and crewmen cheering excitedly. They had found el paso.

Navigation of the strait (which Magellan called the Strait of Desire, but which was later named for him) was not complete until mid-November. During that period, the San Antonio disappeared. Magellan searched for the missing ship until it became apparent that the San Antonio had deserted and returned to Spain. Because the San Antonio was the largest ship and carried the bulk of their provisions, the crew urged Magellan to turn back as well. Magellan, however, would not be deterred. After the three remaining ships had sailed out of the treacherous strait and into the surprisingly calm waters of a new ocean, Magellan spoke to his men: “We are about to stand into an ocean where no ship has ever sailed before. May the ocean be always as calm and benevolent as it is today. In this hope, I name it the Mar Pacifico [peaceful sea].”

No one encountering the Pacific Ocean for the first time could have anticipated its immensity. In the following three months, nearly half of the remaining men died of starvation and scurvy. Magellan was unfortunate in that his course across the Pacific Ocean led him away from all the major groups of islands that would have supplied him with necessary provisions. During the ghastly voyage across the Pacific Ocean, Magellan threw his maps overboard in anguish, knowing that they were uselessly inaccurate. Some of the men began to believe the old superstition that the ocean would lead them not to the other side of the world but to the end of the world. When the food rotted and the water turned to scum, the dying men began eating rats and sawdust. On March 4, 1531, all the food was gone. Two days later, after ninety-eight days and about eleven thousand miles across the mightiest ocean on the planet, they reached Guam and salvation.

Taking on provisions at Guam was made difficult by the weakened state of the men and the hostility of the people of Guam. As quickly as he could, Magellan set sail and, on March 16, found the island of Samar in the Philippines . Magellan had now achieved his personal goal, having discovered a new chain of islands for Spain. Here the expedition rested and the sick were tended, Magellan personally nursing his emaciated men.

On March 28, during the start of Easter weekend, the crew held a pageant to which the native Filipinos were invited. Magellan had made friends with the local raja and began encouraging him and his followers to convert to Christianity, which they did by the thousands. Inspired by this enthusiastic acceptance of his religion, Magellan decided not only to claim the island chain for Spain but also to convert as many of its inhabitants to Christianity as he could. His desire to reach the Spice Islands, always of secondary importance to him, faded as he became more determined to make the Philippines his ultimate destination.

One month later, after exploring more of the Philippines and being favorably accepted, Magellan attempted to force the powerful raja of the island of Mactan to honor his presence. When the raja refused, Magellan assembled a small army of volunteers and the next morning, on April 27, 1521, led an attack on the raja and his followers. Because of all the hardships he had encountered and conquered, and because his expedition had now taken on a divine mission, Magellan must have come to think of himself as invincible. Unfortunately, he realized too late that he was not.

Magellan quickly realized that he and his men were hopelessly outnumbered. When he ordered a retreat, a panic ensued in which his men scrambled to the shoreline and frantically rowed back to the ships, leaving Magellan and a handful of men stranded. For more than one hour, the men defended themselves as the rest of the crew watched from the ships, until finally Magellan was struck down and killed. Antonio Pigafetta, the chronicler of the voyage, was one of the men who fought beside Magellan when he was struck down. Pigafetta was able to escape during the frenzy that followed. Later he wrote: “And so they slew our mirror, our light, our comfort and our true and only guide.”

Significance

On September 8, 1522, sixteen months after Magellan’s death, a floating wreck of a ship with an emaciated crew of eighteen men sailed into the harbor of Seville, Spain. The ship was the Victoria. The men, led by Juan Sebastián de Elcano, a former mutineer, staggered out of the ship and marched barefoot through the streets to the shrine of Santa Maria de la Victoria, Our Lady of Victory, the favorite shrine of their fallen leader. They lit candles and said prayers for their dead comrades, then proceeded through the streets of Seville, shocking the citizens with their wasted appearance. The Victoria had returned laden with riches from the Spice Islands, which had indeed been reached on November 8, 1521. As for the fate of the remaining two ships, the Concepción had been burned before reaching the Spice Islands and the Trinidad had been captured by the Portuguese, its fifty-two crewmen hanged.

Magellan’s reputation was at first defiled and degraded by his contemporaries as they learned about his behavior from the crew of the San Antonio, the ship that had deserted in South America. Later, however, the magnitude of his accomplishments could not be denied. He had proved that the Indies could be reached by sailing west, had discovered a pathway around the southern tip of South America, had named and crossed the largest body of water on the planet, had discovered a new chain of islands, had accumulated a mountain of new information about navigation, geography, and exploration, and had commanded an expedition which, after three years and possibly forty-two thousand miles, had circumnavigated the world.

Bibliography

Bergreen, Laurence. Over the Edge of the World: Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe. New York: William Morrow, 2003. Engaging and dramatic narrative of Magellan’s famous voyage, which is portrayed day by day according to ship’s logs and the journals of crew members. Includes photographic plates, illustrations, maps, bibliographic references, and index.

Cameron, Ian. Magellan and the First Circumnavigation of the World. New York: Saturday Review Press, 1973. Generously illustrated with maps, woodcuts, and drawings, this biography of Magellan details his life and his voyage and uses generous quotes from other biographers as well as passages from the journal of Antonio Pigafetta. Includes a selected bibliography.

Humble, Richard. The Explorers. Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books, 1978. Contains an overview of the accomplishments of the four most significant Renaissance explorers: Bartolomeu Dias, Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, and Magellan. Nearly one third of the book is devoted to Magellan. Includes excellent maps and charts plus an illustrated section on the ships and navigational instruments used by the explorers, as well as a detailed description of the Victoria. Includes a selected bibliography.

Joyner, Tim. Magellan. Camden, Maine: International Marine, 1992. Detailed biography that balances impressionistic detail of the voyage with historical analysis of its consequences and importance. Includes illustrations, maps, bibliographic references, and index.

Oliveira, Fernando. Another Report About Magellan’s Circumnavigation of the World: The Story of Fernando Oliveira. Translated by Pedro Sastre. Edited by Karl-Heinz Wionzek. Manila, Philippines: National Historical Institute, 2000. Firsthand account of Magellan’s voyage, written by a member of his crew. Includes illustrations, maps, and bibliographic references.

Parr, Charles McKew. So Noble a Captain: The Life and Times of Ferdinand Magellan. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1953. Reprint. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1975. The definitive biography of Magellan that traces his ancestry, details the lives of all the principal men and women who affected or were affected by Magellan, vividly re-creates the time in which he lived, and chronicles his accomplishments in minute detail. Contains an extensive bibliography, including books on such related subjects as the history of Spain and Portugal, sailing-ship construction, navigation, and various locations visited by Magellan.

Pigafetta, Antonio. Magellan’s Voyage: A Narrative Account of the First Circumnavigation. Translated by R. A. Skelton. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1969. Reprint. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover, 1994. An English translation from a French text of Pigafetta’s Italian journal. It is full of detailed descriptions of the events of the voyage, the lands discovered, the natives encountered and their habits and customs, and the tales told by the natives and examples of their vocabulary.

Sanderlin, George. First Around the World: A Journal of Magellan’s Voyage. New York: Harper & Row, 1964. An interesting reconstruction of Magellan’s life and voyage using letters and journals of Magellan’s contemporaries. The early texts are linked by comments from the author. Most of the book is composed of excerpts from Pigafetta’s journal. Illustrated, with a selected bibliography.

Zweig, Stefan. Conqueror of the Seas: The Story of Magellan. Translated by Eden Paul and Cedar Paul. New York: Viking Press, 1938. A full account of Magellan’s life from the time of his first voyage in 1505 to his death, and the results of his epic voyage. Contains maps and illustrations of the principal events taken from early texts.