Magellan expedition

Did You Know?

• The fleet carried seven cows and three pigs as livestock.
• The official cost of the expedition was 8,751,125 maravedis.
• Carne de membrillo, made from preserved quince, may have unknowingly helped prevent scurvy.

Background

The 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas gave Portugal the eastern route around Africa, and Vasco da Gama reached India in 1498. Spain urgently needed a western route to the Spice Islands. Balboa reached the Pacific in 1513, and Solís died exploring South America in 1516. Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese sailor with experience in India, Malacca, and Morocco, had a friend, Fernando Romero, who reached the Moluccas in 1511 and sent letters extolling the islands. Magellan repeatedly petitioned King Manuel I of Portugal to fund an expedition to the Moluccas, but was denied. Around 1515–1516, Manuel allowed Magellan to serve another master. Magellan then met cosmographer Rui Faleiro, another Portuguese subject resentful toward Manuel, and they planned a voyage to the Moluccas to propose to the king of Spain. Magellan moved to Seville in 1517, with Faleiro following two months later.

Crossing the Atlantic

The five ships left Seville on 10 August 1519, descended the Guadalquivir to Sanlúcar de Barrameda, and finally set sail on 20 September. They stopped at Tenerife in the Canary Islands on 26 September, taking on supplies. Departing on 3 October, Magellan sailed south along the African coast to evade the Portuguese. Toward the end of October, as they approached the equator, the fleet endured storms with intense squalls; Pigafetta recorded St. Elmo's fire appearing on the mainmast, which the crew took as a good omen. After two weeks of storms, the fleet became stalled in calm equatorial waters, then was carried west by the South Equatorial Current toward the trade winds.

Passage through South America

On 29 November the fleet reached the latitude of Cape Saint Augustine. The Brazilian coastline was known to Europeans, and the Armada carried a map and a pilot, João Lopes Carvalho, who had visited Rio de Janeiro and knew some Guarani. On 13 December they reached Rio de Janeiro, a Portuguese territory with no permanent settlement. The indigenous people welcomed them, believing the fleet had brought rain after a two-month drought. The fleet spent 13 days repairing ships, stocking water and food such as yam, cassava, and pineapple, and trading trinkets for local goods and food. The crew also obtained sexual favors from local women. On 27 December they left; before sailing, Magellan replaced the fleet accountant Antonio de Coca as captain of the San Antonio with the inexperienced Álvaro de Mezquita.

Guam and the Philippines

On 6 March 1521 the fleet reached the Mariana Islands, anchoring at Guam. Chamorro people in outrigger canoes came aboard and took items including rigging, knives, and iron. A physical confrontation occurred, and at least one Chamorro was killed; the natives fled with goods and took Magellan's ship's boat. Magellan called the island Isla de los Ladrones. The next day a raiding party burned forty or fifty houses, killed seven men, and recovered the boat. They left on 9 March. On 16 March they sighted Samar and landed on uninhabited Homonhon, trading with friendly locals from Suluan. On 28 March they neared Limasawa, where Magellan's slave Enrique of Malacca could communicate with natives in Malay, indicating they were nearing familiar lands. Magellan met Rajah Kolambu and Rajah Siawi, became a blood brother to Kolambu, and demonstrated Spanish weapons and armor to the locals.