Magellan, Ferdinand

(Portuguese Fern o de Magalh es; Spanish Fernando de Magallanes) (1480?-1521), Portuguese navigator and explorer, the first European to cross the Pacific Ocean and the first person to circumnavigate the globe.

On September 20, 1519, Magellan sailed from Sanl car de Barrameda with five ships and in November of that year reached South America. In February 1520 he explored the R o de la Plata estuary, and on March 31, 1520, his fleet put into Port San Juli n, where it remained for nearly six months. During that period one ship was wrecked and a mutiny occurred. After the mutiny had been quelled, Magellan sailed into the passage to the Pacific Ocean that is now named for him, the Strait of Magellan, losing another ship, by desertion, en route. After 38 days and a journey of 530 km (330 mi), on November 28, 1520, his three ships sailed into the ocean, which Magellan named "Pacific" because of its calmness. He reached the Marianas, or Ladrone, Islands on March 6, 1521, and ten days later discovered the Philippines, landing on the island of Cebu on April 7. There he made an alliance with the ruler of the island and agreed to aid him in an attack on the natives of the neighboring island of Mactan. Magellan was killed on April 27 during the Mactan expedition.

Following Magellan's death, one of the vessels in his fleet was burned, but the other two escaped and reached the Moluccas on November 6, 1521. One of the vessels, the Victoria, commanded by the Spanish navigator Juan Sebasti n del Cano, completed the circumnavigation of the globe, arriving by way of the Cape of Good Hope route in Seville on September 6, 1522. Although Magellan did not live to complete the voyage, he did circumnavigate the globe by passing the easternmost point he had reached on an earlier voyage.

 

 

Magellan was born in Sabrosa of a noble Portuguese family, and he spent his early years as a court page. In 1506 he went to the East Indies, participating in several military and exploratory expeditions in Malacca (now Melaka) and the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, and by 1510 he had been promoted to the rank of captain. He returned to Portugal in 1512 and in 1513 was stationed in Morocco, where he received wounds that left him lame for life.

After his request for an increase in his royal allowance was rejected by Emanuel, king of Portugal, who was indifferent also to Magellan's scheme to seek a westward route to the Moluccas, Magellan renounced his Portuguese nationality and in 1517 offered his services to the king of Spain, Charles I (later Holy Roman Emperor Charles V).

Magellan subsequently secured the approval of Charles for an expedition that would attempt to reach the Moluccas by sailing west. The success of the voyage would bring great wealth to Spain, since the eastward route to the islands was controlled by Portugal.

On September 20, 1519, Magellan sailed from Sanl car de Barrameda with five ships and in November of that year reached South America. In February 1520 he explored the R o de la Plata estuary, and on March 31, 1520, his fleet put into Port San Juli n, where it remained for nearly six months. During that period one ship was wrecked and a mutiny occurred. After the mutiny had been quelled, Magellan sailed into the passage to the Pacific Ocean that is now named for him, the Strait of Magellan, losing another ship, by desertion, en route. After 38 days and a journey of 530 km (330 mi), on November 28, 1520, his three ships sailed into the ocean, which Magellan named "Pacific" because of its calmness. He reached the Marianas, or Ladrone, Islands on March 6, 1521, and ten days later discovered the Philippines, landing on the island of Cebu on April 7. There he made an alliance with the ruler of the island and agreed to aid him in an attack on the natives of the neighboring island of Mactan. Magellan was killed on April 27 during the Mactan expedition.

Following Magellan's death, one of the vessels in his fleet was burned, but the other two escaped and reached the Moluccas on November 6, 1521. One of the vessels, the Victoria, commanded by the Spanish navigator Juan Sebasti n del Cano, completed the circumnavigation of the globe, arriving by way of the Cape of Good Hope route in Seville on September 6, 1522. Although Magellan did not live to complete the voyage, he did circumnavigate the globe by passing the easternmost point he had reached on an earlier voyage.

The cargo of spices carried back to Spain by the Victoria alone paid for the expenses of the expedition. The passage through the Strait of Magellan was too long and difficult to be a practical route from Europe to the Moluccas, however, and Spain sold her interests there to Portugal. Nevertheless, the voyage laid the foundation for trade in the Pacific between the New World and the East, and although Spain did not immediately recognize the importance of the Philippines, before the end of the century, Manila had become the greatest Spanish trading center in the East.