Magellan Sails Two Seas
fewyears after the SEaniad Balboa
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"disconered"the Pacific Ocean,whidr hc called the
"South Seai a Pofttrguescseacapain sailed out into
that vzlstexpans€ of seawaterand into the pagesof
tristorf. nedinand Magetlan,begiilfng in 1519,would
lead a convoy of ships to become the first sailing
vesselsin history to complctely circufiuurvigate' of
sail fulty around,the eaith.
sailors,hadAsgryttrtb e1 ti'ums round frr many
ultitilat€typruv€dit true Uyengaging
years,Mageflan
in a voyageinto tti€ trnknoqm tbat would ultimatety
claim his |ift. .
Jltagellaqwas born tbe son'of a Portuguese
nobleman and,rasa )(}llgg men,sefrred is a Eags to
ttre quecn of ?oruryalwhen he was 17 years old'
the FortuguesceqilorcrYasco da'Garfi succcs$tlty
sailed amrnd''th€African C:pe of Good Hope, then
to India.Years la;er, * age2l,It{agellan became a
soldier and fu'ught Moslemsin India,travtling as hr
east as Singapore.During a campaign against the
Moslems in Spab (known as ttre Moors), Magellae
suffercd a wound that left him lame br the r€st'rf
his lift.
Despite his military caneer,Magellan began to
develop an intercst in ship navigationand geograpk
Vhile he knew the earttr was round, no one kn€f
how large the Facific Ocean was.As Columbus hatl,
bdi€xrcdonc could sailw€stftom F,rrropeto fre spice
Eady NortbArrurtco
a
Magellan Sails TWo Seas
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I islands of the East,so Magcllan became convinccd
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the kcific wzrsrrot a largebody of watec Hc thoqght
I he cotrld reach the Moluccas,the Spice Islands of
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the East,by sailfuiga short distancc west from the
Amedcas.To pme€ his theory,I{agellan oftred his
seryiccs in lrlT to Chafles I,lring of SpeinThe king agrced and provided Magellan with
firrc ships and a promise of 5 percent of any spice
island profits be might collect on Spain'sbchalf.In
1519,hc s€t sail forAmerica wift 2& men. IIis
plan was not to safl completcty around drc carth,
but to reach the Moluccas and ttrea r€turn the way
he had gone. Little did tre know what lay ahead
His sbips reachcd thc bay of Rio deJaneiro in
SouthAn€rica in Dccember.No Europcan bad
completely errploted the continent's coast befus€.
He searcbedfur a route tttrough or arouod South
America.Veels passedaad his meo became restless.
'When
some attcmpted a mutiny, hc put it down,
kiiling the coconspiratons.In tim€, Uagclen
rcacrcathe southq tip of thc continent and
passedthroqgb te trcaOcrou asd storsf watcnt
with great Ancutty.It took 33 days to cmplctc
thc aeduqussdl ttuoqb$e qraters kpows as the
Straits of It{agellan.Gfis rcn cail€d 6€ r€gioa
Ttqa ful fftggo,oeanilg "land d frel beeusc
they obsemed mary nztivccampfircs at nighr
Ooce trc diGcrdt and harrowing trip through
thc straits wns complcted,l{agcfian gurc 1S meo a
resg ordedry a day of rhaakryMag. Hc coavioced
his mcn to be brave and codnue rrdth htm :rcrtxls
the rast eqlassc t}rr.W ahcadot&€m-hrt srrydies
wErc nmniry lsw, and mny of @ n€rr did not hrrrc
th ryirfr to continrr ftc cr&4ustirrciourney.
In frct, not dl of his mea continucd on, nor did
alt bis ships.One of them,fu Santiagobad be€o
lost in a violent stonn-Another,dre SaaAnonio,
turned around aod sailed back to q)ain,her crew
leadiag a zucctssfrrl mutiny. Now Magellan set out
*',*te most difficult leg of his voyagF-passage
the untnown wat€ni of the largcst ocean in
t{€ Hcific-with three ships, and a
cfleFr.
@Millikco Publishfog Company
A Voyage Around the Ys11fu
No* Magellanand his men prepanedto set a
course acnossthe Pacific Ocean,ruunrneof its size
or qfrat perits lay before them.Vith two ships
gonc,(rr€ capsizdand the otheraken bymuti
neers,tlre trio of small rrcssels(Magellan'slargest
ship was probabty no motrethan 70 feet long)
continued their journey.
Those frw Spaniatdswho had seen this grcat
ocean had named it th€ Souttr Sea.But Magellan
rcnarrredit ttre "Facific" becauseits waters wene so
r?lm of passir/€comparadto ttie cloppy, trcactrerous
watefs of ttre SouthAmerican straits in the region
of Cape Horn.
On they sailed,aod ftar soon gripped the crew.
There was no land sighdng for 98 straight drys,
excqrt fur a cor4rlc of dcserted islands which
could oftr no shelter,food, or hope.The zupplies
onboard the threc vesselscittrcr rao out or wer€
spoiled,making them practicdly inedible. One of
the men on the vctlag€,a mystef,iousman named
Antonio Pigafttt4kqrt a dctailed journal of thc
dry4oday drallengc tbcse explorers frced as they
he wnote:
trarmsed ttrc Pacific.[n one 1xrssagc,
t
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'We
werc three months and twenty dcys witb
out getting auy kind of ftcstr food\Fe ate biscuit"
whidr was no longer biscuit,but powder of
biscuit scarming widr worms,for they had
ea;tentbe good.It stank str,onglyof the urine of
rats ...And of the rzrb ... some of us could not
get enor4h.
Mcn began to drop ftom malnutrition 3a6
disease,dying one after another.The ship's wirtef,
supply spoiled, but they were brced to drink it
anyway.Thecnewrnenat€ anything they cotrld get
their hands on-stripo of leather,shoes,ttre ships'
rigging, sawdust,and,of courge,fiils.
Vtrcn the shilx finally arrircd in the Mariana
Islands of the South Pacific,they were nearty all
starved or sick.But Magellanand his men wer€
able to get fuod and water from the natives of :
Micronesia,wtrom ttrey encountered on these
!try
@ Miltikco hblishing
C-oopaoy
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A Voyage Around the World
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islands.Sometimes,the Spaniardsforced the
islandersto provide them food.
Itagelan continued rniling west unttl he readre
an island of the Philippines. One of Magellan's
crswmen was a Moluccan slavc named Enrique,
wtro was able to speak to the island natirres.This
prorred to Magellan that he had sailedcompletely
acft)ssthe Frcific and had readred the Spice Island
Vhile in the Philippines, Magellan converted a
local drief to Christianity,then helped him in his
campaign against a neighboring tribe.Ihis provcd
Magellan'sundoing. On April 27, L521, Magellan
was killed by native qliclding spearsand cutlasses
But the r€maining crswmen contiDued on,
anxious to retunn to Spain.They explorcd the
islands of the EastIndies for months, end picked a
ca.rgoof dorrcs and other spices.By then, one of
the ttree ships had become so wormeaten,the
men burned it.The last tsro of Magellanrsorigind
firrc vesselssailed on.They became separarcd,how
ever,and theTrinidad was attacked by Pornrguce
galle5rs,stripped of b€r cargo and left to flounder
in a storm.The hst of Magellan's ships,the Victori:
successftrllycrossed the Indian Ocean and rounde
the Cape of Good Hope,to reach Spain oo
September6,l522.Onlt' lS men remained of
Magellan'soriginal crew of 24O!
Dcspitf the tossesthsy suffi,the
menwtrc
completed the fust circumnavigation of the earth
became ri&.Their cargp of 25 tons of clores, plu:
padrs of cinnamon and nutmq sold br the modei
equirralcnt of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Retileut andYrttc
1. Bebre ttre grc:at sea crptain, Ferdinand
Magellan,b€gan his momentous \Dltage acrcrs
the Pacific Ocean,wtrat losses ha61p alrcady
faced regarding his fleet of ships?
dp lvtagellan and his sailors sailed across ttre
Pacific,what ctrdlenges and fears did the crc
expcrience?
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NorthAnlo,