Yrenne tercra no teme: «Ferdinand Magellan». In the sixteenth century, an age of great marine and terrestrial exploration,
Ferdinand Magellan led the first expedition to sail around the world.
As a young Portuguese noble, he served the king of Portugal, but he became involved
in the quagmire of political intrigue at court and lost the king's favour. After he was
dismissed from service to the king of Portugal, he offered to serve the future Emperor
Charles V of Spain.
A papal decree of 1493 had assigned all land in the New World west of 50
degrees W longitude to Spain and all the land east of that line to Portugal. Magellan
offered to prove that the East Indies fell under Spanish authority.
On September 20.1519. Magellan set sail from Spain with five ships. More than a year
later, one of these ships was exploring the topography of South America in search of a
water route across the continent. This ship sank, but the remaining four ships searchedalong the southern peninsula of South America.
Finally they found the passage they sought near a latitude of 50 degrees S.
Magellan named this passage the Strait of All Saints, but today we know it as the Strait
of Magellan.
One ship deserted while in this passage and returned to Spain, so fewer sailors
were privileged to gaze at that first panorama of the Pacific Ocean. Those who
remained crossed the meridian we now call the International Date Line in the early
spring of 1521 after ninety-eight days on the Pacific Ocean. During those long days at
sea, many of Magellan's men died of starvation and disease.
Later Magellan became involved in an insular conflict in the Philippines and was
killed in a tribal battle.
Only one ship and seventeen sailors under the command of the Basque navigator
Elcano survived to complete the westward journey to Spain and thus prove once and
for all that the world is round, with no precipice at the edge.
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