"Ferdinand Magellan:  The greatest voyager of them all"
 
by:  Raymond Schuessler
 
in:  "Sea Frontiers" (Sep-Oct 1984)
 
     Ferdinand Magellan, initiator and leader of the first
expedition to circumnavigate the globe, in 1519-22, never re-
ceived the acclaim he deserved for his great feat.  Compared to
Columbus's voyage of 8,000 miles over the relatively quiet
Atlantic, Magellan's expedition of 42,000 miles--22,000 of them
over waters no white man had ever seen--was an achievement
without parallel in an era of fragile wooden ships.
     Few voyages have been so filled with intrigue, treachery,
mutiny, murder, scurvy, starvation, and death.  Only a lone,
bedraggled ship out of a fleet of five managed to complete the
journey.
     Had it not been for a clandestine diary kept by Antonio
Pigafetta, a Venetian nobleman aboard that ship, the record of
the venture would have been quite different.  Only the distorted
accounts of deserters, mutineers, and jealous officers eager to
usurp Magellan's glory would have survived, for Magellan was
murdered midtrip.  It is a miracle that the diarist, Pigafetta,
through all this mayhem, did manage to be one of the handful of
survivors.  Even then, his diary was expurgated by Spanish
authorities who were jealous of Magellan, the Portuguese inter-
loper who had executed many of the Spanish noblemen aboard the
ships.  They called him a "spawn of the devil, witness his cloven
hoof."  (Magellan had a club foot.)
     Magellan was born in Oporto, Portugal in 1480 of middle-
class nobility.  When Columbus made his famous voyage in 1492,
Magellan thrilled to the account and had visions of his own
voyages some day.  In 1505, he enlisted in the navy.
     He learned seamanship and naval warfare under the Portuguese
viceroys in India.  In 1509, he took part in the great battle of
Die, which gave Portugal supremacy over most of the Indian Ocean.
For seven years, he traded from Cochin, China to Malacca and
perhaps even the Moluccas.  During all these years, he had but
one dream:  to sail around the globe heading west from Europe.
     Magellan had studied enough charts and stories to know that
other explorers had probed the South American coast, and he was
sure there existed an opening through the land mass that
stretched from the North Pole south to the vast ocean Balboa saw
at Panama in 1513.  He did not believe, as some did, that the
land mass stretched all the way to the South Pole.
 
Loyal to a dream
     Help for his great adventure would not be forthcoming from
his native land, however.  He had once served as a page in court,
but he and the king, Dom Manuel, had grown to dislike each other.
Magellan once petitioned the king on his knees as a commoner for
increase in rank and pay.  The king refused.  Perhaps to command
one of the royal ships sailing to the Spice Islands?  Again he
refused.  Humiliated, Magellan asked if he might serve another
court; the king brusquely told him to serve where he pleased.
When Magellan bent forward to kiss the king's hand, Dom Manuel
put his hands behind his back.
     Spain was eager to have such a daring and experienced young
adventurer, and Magellan presented a good petition.  When, in
1493, Pope Alexander VI divided the world in half, the eastern
part went to Portugal, the western to Spain.  Since no one knew
exactly the Pope's boundaries in the East, Magellan proposed to
the Spanish monarch that he would be able to mark the boundaries
between Spain and Portugal in the Pacific and perhaps prove that
the Moluccas, the coveted Spice Islands, lay within Spanish
influence.  King Charles approved such a voyage, and Magellan
prepared to sail in September 1519 with five ships and 280 men.
     The ships, not as renowned in history as those of Columbus,
were San Antonio, Santiago, Trinidad, Victoria, and Concepcion.
Besides a huge store of supplies, they carried 10,000 fish hooks,
20,000 small bells, combs, mirrors, knives, and bracelets.
     Even before he sailed, Magellan's troubles began.  The
jealous King of Portugal hired agents to load empty water barrels
on the ship and change invoices to show twice the amount of
supplies on board as were actually there.  And Spanish officers,
suspecting that Magellan might secretly be working for the
Portuguese, made plans to overthrow and kill him at sea.
Luckily, when Magellan stopped at the Canary Islands to resupply,
a fast ship from Spain arrived to warn him of the conspiracy.  At
the first opportunity, he put the men in chains.
     Three months after leaving Spain, they sailed into the bay
where Rio de Janeiro now stands, one of the most beautiful
natural harbors in the world.  There they were greeted by the
Guarani Indians who believed the white men to be gods and
showered everything they owned upon the visitors, even their
women.  Never would the crew enjoy themselves so much in so
perfect a paradise as they did there for two weeks.  When they
finally pulled anchor, the Indians cried and followed them out to
sea in canoes, begging them to stay.
     As they sailed south, they hit Cape Santa Maria, which
curved west.  Magellan and his men were excited with hope that
this might be the passage west to the Orient.
     One of the ships, Trinidad, was ordered to sail as far west
as possible.  In a few days, the ship returned with the dis-
couraging news that the water became shallow and stayed fresh
throughout.
     It was late summer now (February) and a crucial decision had
to be made:  should they return and rest in the warm bay at Rio
or continue south into frigid and storm-tossed Antarctic waters
and hope to find a passage that would take them to the warm Spice
Islands.  Against great opposition, Magellan convinced them to
sail south.  The voyage now was arduous.  They hugged the coast
where rocky reefs protruded.  The weather became colder and
colder as they fought almost constant storms for 60 days.  The
crew was disgruntled, and many talked openly of mutiny.
     Finally, they pulled into a bay (Port St. Julian).  A group
demanded to sail back.  But Magellan refused, and his own men on
Trinidad and Santiago remained loyal.
     Magellan now faced a rebellion that took control of three
out five ships and 170 out of 265 men.  The odds were over-
whelming.  But Magellan was not one to panic or to surrender.  He
sent two of his men with six others, secretly armed, to take a
message to Captain Luis de Mendoza of Victoria.  The message
ordered Mendoza to report at once for a conference.  If he
refused, the six men were to kill him.  Meanwhile, another
boatload of 15 men were to row up to Victoria's stern and board
immediately if they heard a scuffle.
     When the note was delivered, the rebel captain Mendoza,
exclaimed, "Would I be that stupid?"  He looked up to see half a
dozen daggers slashing at his throat.  The 15 men from the second
boat boarded and subdued the half-drunk and bewildered crew.
     Now Magellan had three ships, and with them he blockaded the
bay.  That night all ships were darkened.  The stalking game was
played in ghostly black silence.
     Suddenly, San Antonio drifted carelessly into Trinidad.
Immediately, grappling hooks were thrown, and torches flared as
Magellan's crew boarded and subdued the mutineers.  The remaining
ship was easily taken.
     The rebel ringleader's servant was offered pardon if he
would agree to act as executioner.  He agreed.  With prayers on
his lips he hacked the head from his master's body and then
quartered him.  The body of Captain Mendoza was also quartered,
and both remains impaled on stakes ashore as a grim reminder to
the rest of the crew.  Two other men, one of them a priest, were
stranded on the coast as punishment and left to survive a la
Robinson Crusoe.
     Santiago was sent to explore further south.  The ship sailed
for 60 miles until it reached a large river.  Since the water was
salty, the explorers thought they had reached the strait, but at
ebbtide the water became fresh, and they knew it was just another
river.  That night the ship was caught in a gale that rammed her
against the sand, breaking her open like a peach basket.  Two men
made it back to the main fleet after 11 days of hardship trekking
through swamps, frozen plains, and subsisting on berries and
roots and melted snow, and the crew of 37 men was rescued.
     They stayed at the site of the wreckage for two months.
Seals were slaughtered, salted, and stored for the great journey
ahead.
 
Westward or perish
     By mid-October, with the stores bulging with food and water,
and the men rested, they set sail again.  But not before many
officers and crew leaders again begged Magellan to turn east to
reach the Spice Islands via India where waters were familiar.
Magellan was adamant:  "We must by Providence search for the
passageway until we find it or perish."
     On October 21, they found a beautiful horseshoe-shaped bay
which they named the Cape of the Eleven Thousand Virgins.  In the
distance were mountains, hardly a likely spot for a strait.
Should they waste time exploring this unlikely spot or keep
sailing south?  Magellan insisted to his recalcitrant crew that
no possibility should be overlooked.  He ordered San Antonio and
Concepcion to explore the bay.
     Suddenly, a quick storm drove Trinidad and Victoria to open
sea, but San Antonio and Concepcion, close to the bay, had to
head for the inlet.  Dashed about so close to the shore, they
were last seen bouncing toward some rocks and shoals and then
disappeared.  Magellan had lost two more ships.
     But the storm was threatening his own two ships.  As the
fury of the wind increased, the mast was torn from Victoria.  The
immense waves towered high over the ships, but miraculously each
time the ships rode the crest, although some men were swept
overboard.  For two days, the storm raged.  When it cleared, the
ships limped back into the bay.  Surely their sister ships and
their hundred men must lost.
     The next morning, Magellan slowly up the bay--when suddenly
the lookout gave a shout "Two Sails!"  There, running at great
speed toward them, their lines flying pendants, and the men
waving and shouting were the two lost ships.  It could mean only
one thing:  They had found the strait leading to the vast ocean
beyond.
     A day or two after this, San Antonio deserted presumably
heading back to Spain--with more than a third of the expedition's
provisions.  Again disaster had struck.  The expedition appeared
to be cursed.
 
Through the Pacific
     After they reached the Pacific, many wanted to turn back and
not face the vast expanse of water to the west.  But Magellan
insisted and, for 96 days, they sailed with the trade winds on a
greater stretch of water without land than they had ever en-
countered in any part of the world.
     The diarist wrote:  "We ate crumbling biscuits infested with
grubs, and drank water filthy and stinking . . .  We ate ox hides
from under the yardarms, sawdust and rats.  The gums of the men
swelled so much they could not chew.  Nineteen died."
     Although the men were also crippled by scurvy, the ships
finally reached the Philippines.  They had crossed the world's
greatest ocean.  But this was to be the end of the voyage for
Magellan.
     Why did he linger so long in the Philippines?  Here they had
found a paradise.  Food and supplies were plentiful and the
natives friendly, the women eager to exchange favors for trin-
kets.  Then gold was discovered in abundance among the utensils
and jewelry of the natives, and Magellan's royal charter did
state that "should you discover more than six new lands you shall
keep particular rights to any two of them, your sons and heirs in
perpetuity."
 
A grievous mistake
     But more than that, Magellan was caught up in the throes of
religious conversion.  Most of the Philippinos gladly and avidly
accepted Christianity.  When he was told that the chiefs on some
islands had refused to be converted, he became indignant and
vowed to convert them or send them directly to hell.
     Believing in God's protection, he took only 60 men to battle
some 3,000 rebellious natives on Mactan, a mistake he would not
live to regret.  Pigafetta, the chronicler, was one of the men
who accompanied the captain.  He wrote:
     "Magellan sent an ultimatum ashore but it was rejected.
When his small party landed three battalions of 3,000 islanders
attacked.  Muskets and crossbows were of little effect since the
natives had shields of bamboo.  A poisoned arrow struck Magellan
in the leg and he ordered retreat.  Most of the men fled leaving
only 7 or 8 around the captain . . .  Arrows, bamboo javelines
and stones bombarded the party.  They were now in water up to
their knees . . .  The natives threw the same lance four or five
times over as they picked it up on advancing.  The battle now had
raged for an hour.  One islander thrust the end of his lance
through the bars of Magellan's helmet.  Magellan ran the culprit
through with his lance but could not withdraw it.  He attempted
to draw his sword, but his right arm was crippled from a wound.
One savage cut Magellan across the legs with a sword.  As he fell
the Indians pounced upon him and, as the master looked implor-
ingly at his ships, they cut the life from his body."
     Only 115 men were left, not enough to sail three ships, so
Concepcion was scuttled.  All the papers, logs, letters, and
diaries of Magellan were put aboard by jealous captains before
the torch was set to destroy forever the evidence of their
treachery and mutiny.  But, meanwhile, Pigafetta kept on
scribbling.
 
Return home, just barely
     The men now turned pirates.  They captured ships, murdered
the crews, stole cargoes, raided ports for women (they kept a
harem of Muslin women on board which led to petty jealousies and
fights.)
     At the Moluccas, they loaded their ships with spices, but
Trinidad developed a leak and was scuttled.  Only Victoria
remained now.  Sebastian del Cano, one of the men who had earlier
mutinied against Magellan, was now elected captain.  He set sail
with only a crew of 47 and a few Indian natives.  They sailed by
Timor for the Cape of Good Hope avoiding the coastline where
Portuguese ships might be lurking.
     Their journey was far from over.  From the mid-Indian Ocean,
their provisions began to spoil.  The tropic sun rotted their
meat and turned their water into yellow scum.  Scurvy again laid
the men low.  Monsoon storms broke the masts.  From the intense
heat of the Indian Ocean, they headed deep into Antarctic waters
to round the Cape.
     When Victoria finally made her way back to Spain, she was
nothing more than a floating wreck.  Her sails were in shreds,
her mast askew, her seams split, and she was kept afloat with the
constant use of pumps.  Only 18 Europeans remained out of the
original crew of 290, which had set sail three years before.
     They anchored near Seville, shot their cannon, and marched
ashore barefoot with lighted candles to the church of Santa Maria
de la Victoria.  The ghost of Magellan probably walked with them,
for without him they would not have made it even to the Canary
Islands.
    As Pigafetta wrote:  "In the midst of the sea he was able to
endure hunger better than we.  Most versed in nautical charts, he
knew better than any other the true art of navigation, of which
it is certain proof that he by his genius, and his intrepidity,
without anyone having given him the example, how to attempt the
circuit of the globe which he had almost completed . . .  The
glory of Magellan will survive him."
 
 
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