Ferdinand Magellan, Portuguese navigator of the 16th century, first commander of the Spanish expedition that completed the first transoceanic journey around the world. After the feat of Vasco da Gama, who surrounded Africa to reach the Indies, and the discovery of the South Sea by Balboa, Portugal and Spain launched at the beginning of that century into a tough competition to discover and conquer new itineraries and ports for trade with the East. The Lusitanian expeditions try to impose their power on the spice routes, while Spain looks for another way to the Indian Ocean through the New World. It is the founding moment of the overseas colonial empires, which will design the economy and culture of Europe in the following centuries.
a discoverer
A sullen, solitary, silent man, with a vulgar presence and dark temper, Fernando de Magallanes (in Portuguese Fernáo de Magalháes) participated in fifteen years of adventurous life in the various events and scenarios of the audacious and violent implantation of colonialism, both at the service of Portugal as well as Spain. Despite this, it is likely that he would have been one more sailor and soldier of that feat, among hundreds of others whose names are not remembered, if his own stubbornness had not led him to find the only natural channel between the two oceans. With this discovery he opened the way —after losing his chance and his life in a clumsy combat— to his pilot Juan Sebastián Elcano, who was the first navigator in history to complete a complete orbit around the globe. With this right, Fernando de Magallanes figures among the great nautical discoverers such as Columbus, Da Gama, Cabral or Cabot, who made the old seafaring motto their own: «Navigare necesse est; I will live non est necessary».
a portuguese hidalgo
Fernando de Magallanes came from a noble family in the fourth degree, which allowed him to use his own coat of arms and enjoy the title of coat of arms hidalgo. Despite this good birth, little is known about his childhood and adolescence, except that he received military and nautical instruction at the Escuela de Pajes Reales in Lisbon and belonged for a time to the Criagao do Rey. Later he joined the Casa de Indias as a functionary, from where he made contact, albeit bureaucratically, with the world of maritime explorations and the fleets to Africa and the East.
first expeditions
At the age of twenty-four, Fernando de Magallanes had his first opportunity to go to sea, as an outstanding or reserve officer in the impressive expedition commanded by Francisco de Almeida, the new viceroy of the East Indies, who carried with him a formidable fleet of twenty powerful galleons and 1,500 men, who does not hide his warrior capacity or his character of conquest. The expedition leaves Lisbon on March 25, 1505 and almost a year later, after some skirmishes, it suffers a great defeat in Cannanore, against the zamorins of Calicut. Among the two hundred wounded is the inexperienced Fernando de Magallanes, who thus receives his baptism of fire.
His second trip to the Indian Ocean is under the orders of López de Sequeira, in search of the fabulous “spice islands”. They sighted the port of Malacca in September 1509, and the young officer saved the life of his captain by warning her of a plot by Arab troopers. It is said that Sequeira rewarded him by sending him to Lisbon with a galleon that was transporting a fortune in spices, but the truth is that in October 1510 Fernando de Magallanes was cited among the many captains summoned by the new viceroy Alfonso de Albuquerque before undertaking the siege. from Goa. This action is the beginning of the conquest of a vast territory that includes the Malabar coast and the islands of Hormuz, Malacca and Ceylon. In those fights, the fidalgo made friends with Francisco Serráo, a sailor who deserted to settle in the Sonda Islands, a true paradise of natural wealth. From there Serráo frequently writes to Magalháes, and in these letters he already suggests taking up Columbus’s idea, since the trip to the west is easier and shorter than the laborious African route.
The secret of the passage to the Indies
Graduated, Ferdinand Magellan returned to his country in 1512. In a few years, modest Lisbon had become an imperial metropolis, where a lavish court surrounded Manuel I, not without reason called the Fortunate. But the rude and unsociable fidalgo is not for those pomps. As soon as he can, he enlists in the expedition against Morocco, destined to cleanse the routes and coasts of the Mediterranean from pirates. In the battle of Azamor he is wounded by a spear, which injures his knee to the point of leaving him lame for life.. He must return once more to Portugal, where he requests and obtains an audience with the monarch. He does not get anything from him other than the pension that already corresponded to him as a nobleman and wounded in war. In his forced idleness he meets the lawyer Ruy Faleiro, a cartographer and astronomer who has studied the maps and portulanos kept in the crown archive since the times of Enrique the Navigator.. And therein lies the secret of the passage to the Indies: it is clearly indicated by the map by Martín Behaim and the Newen Zeytung drawn up for the German traffickers, which hardly anyone remembers or knows about. In 1515, Johann Schoner’s world map confirms this key fact: there would be a passage between the “Ocean Sea” and the “Mar Dulce” of Solís, at about 40 degrees south latitude.. But Manuel I has already made it clear that he will not entrust the grim fidalgo with any expedition, and has even left him free to serve, if he wishes, some other monarch. That is at least the argument that Fernando de Magallanes uses before Faleiro to take the project of both before the rival court of Spain.
the great expedition
The Portuguese crosses the border and arrives in Seville on October 29, 1517, where he introduces himself as Ferdinand Magellan. His project interests Juan de Aranda, director of the Casa de Contratación, who personally accompanies him before the Crown Council in Valladolid. There he exposes the arguments that Faleiro prepared, introduces his own Malay slave and shows Serráo’s convincing letters. On March 22, 1518, the adolescent Carlos I signed, on behalf of his mother Juana la Loca, a solemn capitulation with Ferdinand Magellan. Through it, he and Faleiro are granted one twentieth of all the income that comes from the territories to be discovered and the right to two islands, if more than six are discovered. Also the titles of governor or advance of the new lands, transferable to his heirs. For his part, Aranda privately negotiates with the navigator an eighth of his benefits in exchange for the support provided.
Preparations and crew
Magellan is very suspicious and detailed in the preparations for the expedition. The news has reached Lisbon and Manuel I takes it as a disloyal affront to his former captain and fidalgo, now willing to seize the spice islands in favor of the Spanish adversary. The Portuguese ambassador Alvaro de Costa intrigues against the navigator at court, while the consul Sebastiáo Álvarez sabotages his prestige in Seville and manages to cause an incident in the port that almost ruins Ferdinand Magellan’s plans. But the king renews his favor, although he places at his side a royal overseer and several captains he trusts. The first is Juan de Cartagena, cousin of the Bishop of Burgos, who will command the San Antonio, the largest ship in the fleet, with 120 tons. The other ships are the Trinidad, commanded by the adelantado himself; the Concepción, with Gaspar de Quesada; the Victoria, with Luis de Mendoza, and the little Santiago, commanded by the Portuguese Joáo Serráo, Spanishized Juan Rodríguez Serrano.
Magellan has managed to “sneak” some thirty compatriots into the crew, including his brother-in-law Duarte Barbosa and his cousin Alvaro de Mesquita. The suspicious navigator does not trust the royal captains, and this intuition will be more than confirmed soon after. Another of the foreigners is the young Italian Antonio Pigafetta, who will keep a detailed and valuable chronicle of the entire journey. At the last moment, Ruy Faleiro renounces boarding, citing a bad omen horoscope, much to the relief of his partner, who is thus left alone in charge of the company..
Start of the expedition
The fleet set sail from Seville on August 10, 1519 and, after touching the Canary Islands at the end of September, it kept heading south along the African coast as far as Sierra Leone. This strange course worries the captains, who know very well that Brazil falls to the southwest. In an unusual meeting of commanders, Magellan cunningly provokes Juan de Cartagena and has him arrested for indiscipline. Without further explanation, he puts Mesquita in charge of the San Antonio and, after this cautious change, he orders to set bows to the west. The ships, of different size and agility, have difficulties to navigate in convoy. Magellan devised an ingenious code of lights, through which the position and news from one deck to another are transmitted. On December 13, after four months of sailing, the fleet takes a break in the beautiful bay of Rio de Janeiro. Although it belongs to Portugal there are no settlements, and the crew members enjoy nature and the friendly disposition of native men and women. The trip continues a few days later and on January 10, 1520 they see a hill they call “Montevidi”. This rises in front of a large arm of the sea, on the 35th parallel, and Magellan believes that the great discovery of it has come. But the exploration is disappointing: it is fresh water, which forms the mouth of an extensive fluvial delta (the current Río de la Plata). Faleiro and his cartographers have confused the “Mar Dulce” of Solís with the mouth of an interoceanic canal. For the first time, the navigator doubts his own conviction. Perhaps those who maintain that the continental coast joins the polar ice and that there is no sea passage to the East are right.
Conflicts with the crew
Without revealing his overwhelm or consulting his captains, he orders them to continue south. They are in mid-March, at the gates of the harsh southern winter and short of provisions. Cartagena conspires from his chains in the Concepción, working the flammable spirit of Gaspar Quesada. On the 31st they arrive at the bay of San Julián, where Fernando de Magallanes decides to drop anchor and ration the provisions to spend the winter. The disagreement between the royal captains is evident and one night Quesada boards the San Antonio, killing the master Juan de Elorriaga with his own hand, removing Mesquita from command and leaving the pilot Juan Sebastián Elcano in his place. But he, despite everything, does not want to lead a mutiny and sends the commander a “request” asking him to discuss the fate of the fleet. Magellan reacts quickly, counterattacking on the flank: his loyalists assault the Victoria, killing Captain Mendoza. Before dawn he arranges his three ships closing the mouth of the bay. If the rebels want to return to Spain, they must first fight an uncertain battle against his leader, who has more ships and a better position. Elcano hesitates and Cartagena and Quesada decide to surrender. The commander orders to execute…