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"Magellan's whole life, up through his last moments on earth, echoes with the clash of egos and the din of constant conflict. ... " enabled him to prevail over seemingly impossible odds. Magellan brought a wealth of Portuguese seafaring experience to the service of the Spanish crown. Born in the rugged north of Portugal to a family of the lesser nobil ity, he was orphaned at age l 0 or 12 and entered the service of the Queen as a page. In 1505 , aged about 25, he sailed with Francisco de Almeida to India. Almeida, sailing as the first Portuguese viceroy in India, set about establishing forts around the periphery of the Indian Ocean, blasting all Arab opposition out of the way with stronger ships, more advanced guns and superior warfighting doctrine. These fortified outposts made up the network of bases that would end the Arab monopoly of seaborne trade and open the rich traffics of the Indian Ocean to the Portuguese. The Arabs, it will be remembered, had long served as middlemen in Western trade with the Indies, to the benefit of themselves and their Western trading partners, led by Venice. With the new Portuguese dominance in the Indian Ocean, that long-standing fo1m of East-West trade began to dry up, while the new pattern of direct trade by oceanic ro utes went from strength to strength . Magellan pl ayed an active role in this. As an aggressive young commander, he took part in the capture of the seaport of Malacca in Malaya, and went as captain of one of the three Portuguese ships that sailed on from Malaya to the Moluccas, opening direct European trade with these fabled Spice Islands of the East Indies. Although Columbus had failed to reach the Indies by the western route, Magellan believed that Columbus's idea was ri ght, and he planned with his friend Francisco SeITao, who had stayed on in the Moluccas , to mount a westward voyage to the Indies. Returning to Portugal afire with his scheme, Magellan was ordered by King Manuel to join a campaign in Morocco. There he distinguished himself, but was also accused of a scandal regarding sale of captured cattle. He came home to clear hi s name, but got onl y a cold reception from the King, and, fa iling to get royal back ing fo r hi s westward voyage to the Indies, he quit Portugal in 15 17. He bade farewell to Manuel in a frosty meeting, and put himself at the service of Spain. Things went better in Seville, which had become a worldclass seaport on the strength of the monopoly it held on trade with the Americas. Here Magell an had fri ends in the Portuguese community, and in March 15 18 the outward-looking young King Charles I (soon to become the Emperor Charl es V) iss ued a contract sponsoring Magellan's voyage. From the outset the fl eet was packed with court favorites, headed by one Ju an de Cartagena-probably the illegitimate son of hi s bishop sponsor- who was named as junior co-comm ander. Morison , who carefull y studied the dramatis personae of these voyages , notes that in the five ships ass igned to the fl eet, Magellan had onl y one captain he could reall y count on: Juan Serrano of the Santiago, brother or nephew of hi s great friend Francisco Serrao, who awaited him in the Spice Islands. It was a fleet of warri ors, and Morison observes griml y: "Several of those who swore obedience to Magellan were already pl otting to kill him and take over. " The Ships and Their Crews The fleet consisted of Magellan 's fl agship Trinidad, of 100 tons, with a crew of 6 1; San Antonio, 120 tons , 57 in crew; Concepcion, 90 ton s, 44 in crew; Victoria, 85 tons, 45 in crew; and the caravel Santiago of 75 tons, 31 in crew. The crews came from all over, telling us much about the seafaring SEA HISTORY 79, AUTUMN 1996
population that gathered at the crossroads of northern and southern Europe in Seville. There were Portuguese (which the Emperor--or perhaps his eager beaver aides-sought to limit in number, since Portugal's ri valry with Spain made Portuguese subjects always suspect), and men from the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus and Rhodes, as well as Greece, Sicily and the Italian city states led, as always, by Columbus's Genoa. And there were men from France, Flanders, Germany, Ireland and England . The chief gunner aboard the fl agship was a Master Andrew of Bristol, England , and Mori son makes the percipient observation that all the gunners in the fl eet were from outside Spain. They came from England , Flanders, France, Germany and Lorraine- all northern Euro pean countries-revealing a curious weakness in the Spanish economy. Despite the soaring revenues Spain reaped from its conquests in the Americas, the nation remained pastoral and agricultural in the medieval pattern , while the world was changing aro und it-and changing not just in metallurgy and the technol ogy of guns, but in banking, in art, even in how people saw the world and conceived of their pl ace in it. Spain, underdeveloped but awesomely powerful , res isted change and stood outside its ameliorating stream. Silver from American mines flowed through Spain like fine sand through a sieve, expended to maintain the powerful Spanish army and the fast-growing bureaucracy needed to advance and administer the burgeoning affa irs of state and of the state ideology, Roman Catholi c Chri sti anity. Thi s ideology, which dictated an absolute truth about the nature of things and required absolute adherence by its subjects, became more aggress ive as it fo und itself challenged by Protestant Christianity , which, springing from roots in Bohemi a, Switzerland and some German states, defied the authority of the Rom an Catholic pope, asserting the indi vidual's direct relation with hi s Creator. On 20 September 15 l 9, all hands hav ing gone ashore to confess and be absolved of their sins, the fi ve ships put to sea. The fl eet reached the Canaries in a week, and from there ran south along the African coast before cutting ac ross to South America, in order to avoid the Portuguese warships they learned had been sent out to intercept them. Here they had their first bad weather, in gales colorfull y recorded by Antonio Pigafetta, the young scribe from the papal embassy to Spain, who had met Peter Martyr at the Span ish court and had been seized of a desire, as he put it, to see with hi s own eyes "the very great and awfu l things of the ocean." The newly di scovered lands and wonders of the ocean world , indeed, had all Europe talking since the Portuguese and Spanish had opened up that world onl y a generati on earlier-and Pigafetta was to prove a sensiti ve if occas ionally overimaginative narrator of the voyage that finally encircled the whole of planet Earth. Cartagena made his bid to take over the expedition as the fiv e vessels stood across the South Atlantic, bound for the now-familiar coast of Brazil. At a meeting aboard the flagship, Cartagena directly challenged Magellan, saying he would not fo llow his orders any longer. Magellan 's armed guard, waiting outside the door, thereupon burst into the cabin and seized Cartagena, who called out to his confederates to kill Magellan "according to plan." Cartagena was spared, on the urging of the other captains, but deprived of his command. On raising the Brazilian coast, the fleet avoided Portuguese settlements and headed south for two weeks of revelry and (Continued on page 33.)
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