Aires Duron August 25, 2019

BS-ENTREP 1B

MAGELLAN’S FIRST VOYAGE

In search of fame and fortune, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan

(c. 1480-1521) set out from Spain in 1519 with a fleet of five ships to discover a
western sea route to the Spice Islands. En route he discovered what is now
known as the Strait of Magellan and became the first European to cross the
Pacific Ocean. The voyage was long and dangerous, and only one ship returned
home three years later.
The captain came to a cape, which he named the Cape of the Eleven
Thousand Virgins. Then he came to the Cape de la Baya. Two ships sent
to find the way out from the said Cape. Of an opening which they found for
leaving the cape, and into which they threw themselves perforce. Then having
discovered the strait they returned to the captain
After going and setting course to the fifty-second degree toward the said
Antarctic Pole, on the festival of the eleven thousand virgins, we found by
miracle a strait which we called the Cape of the Eleven Thousand Virgins.
Which strait is in length one hundred and ten leagues, which are four hundred
and forty miles, and in width somewhat less than half a league. And it falls
into another sea called the Pacific Sea. And it is surrounded by very great and
high mountains covered with snow.
captain-general said that there was another strait which led out, saying that he
knew it well and had seen it in a marine chart of the King of Portugal, which a
great pilot and sailor named Martin of Bohemia had made. The said captain
sent forward two of his ships, one named Santo Antonio and the other
Concepcion, to seek and discover the outlet of the said strait, which was called
the Cape de la Baya, other two ships (namely the capitana, named Trinidade, and the
other Victoria)
Two ships, the Santo Antonio and Concepcion, sent to see the two openings
found. The ship Santo Antonio returned to Spain. The river of the Sardines found. The
sea found. Of the Cape of Desire. Of the ship Concepcion. Of the products of this
Pacific Sea. And of the catching of fish.
opening toward the southeast issued forth into the said Pacific Sea, fleet was fitted
out, this pilot had gone to the Emperor to arrange to have some ships for discovering
land. he conspired with certain Spaniards. And the following night they seized the
captain of his ship, who was the captain-general's brother, and named Alvaro de
Mesquita.
came to a river which we called the River of Sardines, the captain of the said ship,
named Joao Serra. , The captain general sent back the ship named Victoria, the other
ship near the river named Isleo.
The night lasted only three hours in the month of October. strait faced toward
the Siroco, which is the wind between east and south. And we called it the Pathagonico
strait. In it we found at every half league a good port, and anchorage, good water, and
wood all of cedar, and fish also like sardines, Missiglioni, and a very sweet herb called
Appio, of which there is also some of the same sort that is bitter. On Wednesday the
twenty-eighth of November, one thousand five hundred and twenty, we issued forth
from the said strait and entered the Pacific Sea, where we remained three months and
twenty days without taking on board provisions or any other refreshments, and we ate
only old biscuit turned to powder, all full of worms and stinking of the urine which the
rats had made on it, having eaten the good. And we drank water impure and yellow.
We ate also ox hides which were very hard because of the sun, rain, and wind. And
we left them four or five days in the sea, then laid them for a short time on embers,
and so we ate them. And of the rats, which were sold for half an ecu apiece, some of
us could not get enough. they died, inasmuch as twenty-nine of us died, and the other
giant died, and an Indian of the said country of Verzin. But besides those who died,
twenty-five or thirty fell sick of divers maladies.
And they are two hundred leagues distant one from another. And there is no
place for anchoring because no bottom can be found. And we saw there a very large
kind of fish which they call Tiburoni. . The first island is in fifteen degrees of latitude
going by the south wind, and the other island is in nine degrees. By this wind we made
each day fifty or sixty leagues or more, sometimes at the stern, at others at the
windward side, or otherwise. And if our Lord and the Virgin Mother had not aided us
by giving good weather to refresh ourselves with provisions and other things we had
died in this very great sea. And I believe that nevermore will any man undertake to
make such a voyage.

Reference:
https://www.history.com/topics/exploration/ferdinand-magellan
Source: Magellan's Voyage: A Narrative Account of the First Circumnavigation, by
Antonio Pigafetta.
https://utorontopress.com/us/first-voyage-around-the-world-1519-1522-3