Magellan and the first voyage around the world. Magellan discovered what? Magellan's discoveries. Magellan's expedition

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after Balboa discovered the South Sea, the Spaniards became very suspicious of the appearance of Portuguese ships in the Caribbean. Spanish authorities on about. Hispaniola (Haiti) at the end of 1512 received an order from King Ferdinand to "monitor the non-existent strait" and capture any ship. The first victim of this order was the Portuguese captain Ishtevan Froisch in 1512, hunting for slaves off the northern shores of South America. His caravel was in need of repair, and he decided to approach the shores of Hispaniola. Here he was immediately captured and thrown into prison with his entire team. Another caravel, accompanying Froisch, under the command of the already familiar to us João Lijboa, managed to disappear and safely reach Madeira; then, apparently without hesitation, he entered the Spanish port of Cadiz, where he sold his cargo of Brazilian wood. In the port or in Madeira, he is now said to have been interviewed by a "correspondent" for a small newspaper published in Augsburg. Lijboa told the "journalist" that somewhere in South America there is a long strait through which you can go to the "East Indies". A note about this discovery, published no later than 1514, reported, without mentioning the names and names of ships, about the voyage "to the Plata River". Historians of discoveries in our day believe that I. Froisch and J. Lizhboa reached approximately 35 ° S. sh., entered the La Plata Bay, but did not fully explore - its length is 320 km - and therefore was taken for the strait. We can, therefore, say that they discovered the coast of South America from 26 ° 15 "S to 35 ° S lat. For more than 1.5 thousand km.

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it is hard to say whether the Spaniards knew about the voyages of Froisha and Lijboa, but it is known for sure that King Ferdinand, who received news of the discovery of the South Sea in 1514, decided to send a flotilla of three ships to search for the strait. Its commander, he appointed Juan Diaz Solis, who from 1512 (after Amerigo Vespucci) became the chief pilot of Castile. Solis sailed no earlier than October 8, 1515, but it is not known where he touched the South American mainland, and, moving along the sloping Brazilian coast to the south-west, at 35 ° S. sh. reached the new "Fresh Sea". He then rounded a minor ledge (Montevideo) and walked westward for about 200 km, probably convinced that he had found a passage to the Eastern Ocean. But he opened the mouths of two large rivers - Parana and Uruguay. Solis landed in mid-February 1516 and was killed there by the Indians. Two ships of his flotilla returned to Spain in September of the same year. Later, Magellan named the common mouth of the two rivers Rio de Solis (from the middle of the 16th century - La Plata).

Magellan's project and the composition of his expedition

the conquest of India and Malacca from 1505 to 1511 was attended by a poor Portuguese nobleman Fernand Magellan - so it is customary to call it; his real surname is Magalyansh. He was born around 1480 in Portugal, in 1509 and 1511. on Portuguese ships it reached Malacca, and according to S. Morison, even the "Spice Islands" (Ambon Island). In 1512 - 1515. he fought in North Africa, where he was wounded. Returning to his homeland, he asked the king for a promotion, but was refused. The offended Magellan left for Spain and joined the company with the Portuguese astronomer Ruy Faleiro, who insisted that he had found a way to accurately determine geographic longitudes. In March 1518, both appeared in Seville to the Council of India The institution in charge of the affairs of the newly discovered territories. and declared that the Moluccas, the most important source of Portuguese wealth, should belong to Spain, since they are located in the western, Spanish hemisphere (according to the treaty of 1494), but it is necessary to penetrate these "Spice Islands" by the western route, so as not to arouse the suspicions of the Portuguese, through South Sea, open and annexed by Balboa to the Spanish possessions. And Magellan convincingly argued that between the Atlantic Ocean and the South Sea there must be a strait south of Brazil. Magellan and Faleiro first demanded the same rights and advantages that had been promised to Columbus.

After a long bargaining with the royal advisers, who had negotiated a substantial share of the expected income, and after concessions from the Portuguese, an agreement was concluded with them: Charles I undertook to equip five ships and provide the expedition with supplies for two years. Before sailing, Faleiro abandoned the enterprise, and Magellan, undoubtedly the soul of the whole business, became the sole chief of the expedition. He raised the admiral's flag on "Trinidad" (100 tons). The Spaniards were appointed captains of the remaining ships: San Antonio (120 tons) - Juan Cartagenawho also received the authority of the royal controller of the expedition; "Concepcion" (90 tons) - Gaspar Quesada; "Victoria" (85 tons) - Luis Mendoza and "Santiago" (75 t) - Juan Serrano... The staff of the entire flotilla was estimated at 293 people, there were another 26 freelance crew members on board, among them a young Italian Antonio Pigafetta, future historian of the expedition. Since he was neither a sailor nor a geographer, the records in the ship's logbooks that Francisco Albo, assistant navigator, kept on the Trinidad are a very important primary source. An international team set off for the first round the world voyage: in addition to the Portuguese and Spaniards, it included representatives of more than 10 nationalities.

september 1519 the flotilla left the port of San Lucar at the mouth of the Guadalquivir. When crossing the ocean, Magellan developed a good signaling system, the various types of ships of his flotilla never parted. Disagreements between him and the Spanish captains began very soon: beyond the Canary Islands Cartagena demanded that the chief consult with him regarding any change of course. Magellan calmly and proudly replied: "It is your duty to follow my flag during the day and my lantern at night." A few days later Cartagena raised the issue again. Then Magellan, who, despite his small stature, had great physical strength, grabbed him by the collar and ordered him to be kept in custody on the Victoria, and appointed his relative, a "supernumerary" sailor, as the captain of the San Antonio Alvar Mishkita.

On September 26, the flotilla approached the Canary Islands, on November 29 reached the coast of Brazil near 8 ° S. sh., December 13 - Guanabara Bay, and December 26 - La Plata. The navigators of the expedition were the best at that time: while determining latitudes, they made adjustments to the map of the already known part of the continent. So, Cape Cabo Frio, by their definition, is not at 25 ° S. sh., and at 23 ° S. sh. - their error was less than 2 km from its true position. Not trusting the messages from Solis's satellites, Magellan surveyed both low-lying shores of the La Plata for about a month; continuing the discovery of the Pampa plains begun by Lijboa and Solis, he sent the Santiago up the Parana, and, of course, found no passage to the South Sea. Further, an unknown, sparsely populated land stretched. And Magellan, fearing to miss the entrance to the elusive strait, on February 2, 1520 ordered to wean anchor and move as close to the coast as possible only in the afternoon, and stop in the evening. At a stop on February 13 in the large bay of Bahia Blanca he discovered, the flotilla withstood a terrifying thunderstorm, during which the lights of St. Elmo appeared on the masts of ships. Electric discharges in the atmosphere in the form of glowing brushes. On February 24, Magellan discovered another large bay - San Magias, circled the Valdes Peninsula he had identified and took refuge for the night in a small harbor, which he called Puerto San Matias (the Gulf of Golfo Nuevo of our maps, at 43 ° S lat.) ... Further south, near the mouth of the river. Chubut, On February 27, the flotilla stumbled upon a huge swarm of penguins and southern elephant seals. To replenish food supplies, Magellan sent a boat to the shore, but an unexpected squall threw the ships into the open sea. The sailors who remained on the shore, so as not to die from the cold, covered themselves with the bodies of killed animals. Taking the "procurers", Magellan moved south, pursued by storms, explored another bay, São Jorge, and spent six stormy days in a narrow bay (estuary of the Rio Deseado, near 48 ° S lat.). On March 31, when the approach of winter became noticeable, he decided to spend the winter in San Julian Bay (at 49 ° S lat.). Four ships entered the bay, and the Trinidad anchored at the entrance to it. The Spanish officers wanted to force Magellan to "follow the royal instructions": to turn to the Cape of Good Hope and to walk the eastern route to the Moluccas. A riot broke out that night. Cartagena was released, the rebels captured Victoria, Concepcion and San Antonio, arrested Mishkita, and Quesada mortally wounded an assistant loyal to Magellan. They aimed their guns at the Trinidad and demanded that Magellan come to them for negotiations. Against the two ships of the admiral, there were three mutineers who were preparing for battle. But the rebels did not trust their sailors, and on one ship they even disarmed them.

In dire circumstances, Magellan displayed calm determination. He sent his loyal alguasil (police officer) Gonzalo Gomez Espinoso with several sailors to "Victoria" - to invite her captain for negotiations on the admiral's ship. He refused, then the alguasil thrust a dagger into his throat, and one sailor finished him off. Magellan's brother-in-law, Portuguese Duarte Barbosa, immediately took possession of the Victoria and was appointed captain. Now the rebels had only two ships, and so that they would not defect, the prudent admiral, as mentioned above, took a convenient position in advance at the exit from the bay. The San Antonio tried to break into the ocean, but the sailors, after a salvo from the Trinidad, tied the officers up and surrendered. The same thing happened at the Concepcion. Magellan dealt with the rioters-captains abruptly: he ordered to cut off Quesada's head, quartered the corpse of Mendoza, to land Cartagena on the deserted coast along with the conspirator-priest, but spared the rest of the rioters.

In early May, the admiral sent Serrano south to reconnaissance on the Santiago, but on May 3 the ship crashed on the rocks near the river. Santa Cruz (at 50 ° S lat.) And his crew barely managed to escape (one sailor died).

Magellan transferred Serrano as captain to the Concepcion. Very tall Indians approached the wintering place. They were called Patagonians (in Spanish "patagon" - big-legged), their country from that time is called Patagonia. Pigafetta exaggeratedly described the Patagonians as real giants. The name of this tribe is Tehuelchi. Capes made of guanaco skins with high hoods and moccasins made them taller than they actually were: the height of the Indians, according to measurements at the end of 1891, ranged from 183 to 193 cm. On August 24, the flotilla left the San Julian Bay and reached the mouth of Santa Cruz, where it stayed until mid-October, awaiting the onset of spring. On October 18, the flotilla moved south along the Patagonian coast, which forms in this section (between 50 and 52 ° S) the wide bay of Bahia Grande. Before going out to sea, Magellan told the captains that he would look for a passage to the South Sea and turn east if he did not find the strait until 75 S. sh., that is, he himself doubted the existence of the "Patagonian Strait", but wanted to continue the enterprise to the last opportunity. The bay, or strait leading to the west, was found on October 21, 1520, 52 ° S. lat., after Magellan discovered the previously unknown Atlantic coast of South America for about 3.5 thousand km (between 34 and 52 ° S. lat.).

Having rounded Cape Dev (Cape Virgenes), the admiral sent two ships ahead to find out if there was an exit to the open sea in the west. At night a storm arose that lasted two days. The sent ships were threatened with destruction, but at the most difficult moment they noticed a narrow strait, rushed off and found themselves in a relatively wide bay; along it they continued their way and saw another strait, beyond which a new, wider bay opened.

Young Charles I, King of Spain (later - Emperor Charles V), grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella

Then the captains of both ships - Mishkita and Serrano - decided to return and report to Magellan that, apparently, they found a passage leading to the South Sea. “... We saw these two ships approaching us in full sail with flags fluttering in the wind. Coming closer to us ... they started firing guns and noisily greeting us. " However, it was still far from reaching the South Sea: Magellan walked south for several days through narrow straits until he saw two channels off about. Dawson: one to the southeast, the other to the southwest. He sent the San Antonio and the Concepción southeast and a boat southwest. The sailors returned "three days later with the news that they had seen the cape and the open sea." The admiral shed tears of joy and called this Cape Desirable.

"Trinidad" and "Victoria" entered the southwest channel, stood at anchor there for four days and returned back to join two other ships, but there was only "Concepcion": in the southeast, it came to a dead end - in Inutil Bay - and turned back. San Antonio fell into another dead end; on the way back, not finding the flotilla on the spot, the officers wounded and shackled Mishkita and at the end of March 1521 returned to Spain. The deserters accused Magellan of treason in order to justify themselves, and they believed: Mishkita was arrested, Magellan's family was deprived of state benefits. His wife and two children soon died in poverty. But the admiral did not know under what circumstances the San Antonio disappeared. He believed that the ship was lost, since Mishkita was his trusted friend. Following along the northern coast of the heavily narrowed Patagonian Strait (as Magellan called it), he rounded the southernmost point of the South American continent - Cape Froward (on Brunswick Peninsula, 53 ° 54 "S) and another five days (23– November 28) led three ships to the north-west as if along the bottom of a mountain gorge.The high mountains (southern end of the Patagonian Cordillera) and bare shores seemed to be deserted, but in the south haze was visible during the day, and fires at night. called this southern land, the size of which he did not know, "Land of Fire" (Tierra del Fuego). According to another version, he called the southern country "Land of Smokes" (hearths) - Tierra de los Umos (as shown on the Spanish map of 1529) But Charles I renamed it "Land of Fires" on the grounds that "there is no smoke without fire. " On our maps, it is inaccurately called Tierra del Fuego. 38 days after Magellan found the Atlantic entrance to the strait, really connecting the two oceans, he passed Cape Zhelanny (now Pilar) at the Pacific outlet of the Strait of Magellan (about 550 km).

thus, Magellan left the strait into the open ocean on November 28, 1520 and led the remaining three ships first to the north, trying to leave the cold high latitudes as soon as possible and staying about 100 km from the rocky coast. On December 1, it sailed near the Taitao Peninsula (at 47 ° S lat.), And then the ships departed from the mainland - on December 5, the maximum distance was 300 km. On December 12 - 15 Magellan again approached quite close to the coast at 40 ° and 38 ° 30 "S lat., That is, at no less than three points he saw high mountains - the Patagonian Cordillera and the southern part of the Main Cordillera. From Mocha Island. (38 ° 30 "S. Lat.) The ships turned northwest, and on December 21, being at 30 ° S. sh. and 80 ° W. etc., - to the west-north-west.

It cannot be said, of course, that during his 15-day voyage north from the Strait of Magellan he discovered the coast of South America for 1500 km, but he at least proved that in the latitude range from 53 ° 15 "to 38 ° 30" S ... sh. the western coast of the mainland has an almost meridional direction.

“... We ... plunged into the vastness of the Pacific Sea. For three months and twenty days we were completely deprived of fresh food. We ate breadcrumbs, but those were no longer breadcrumbs, but breadcrumbs mixed with worms ... It smelled strongly of rat urine. We drank yellow water that had been rotting for days. We also ate the cowhide covering the yards ... We soaked them in sea water for four to five days, after which we put them on hot coals for a few minutes and ate them. We often ate sawdust. The rats were sold for half a ducat apiece, but even at that price it was impossible to get them ”(Pigafetta). Almost everyone suffered from scurvy; 19 people died, including the Brazilian and the Patagonian "giant". Fortunately, the weather was good all the time: that's why Magellan called the ocean the Pacific.

Probably, it was during the transition through the Pacific Ocean in the southern hemisphere that the satellites of Magellan drew attention to two star systems, which were later called the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. “The South Pole is not as stellar as the North Pole,” writes Pigafetta. “There are large clusters of small stars that look like clouds of dust. The distance between them is small, and they are somewhat dull. Among them are two large, but not very bright stars, moving very slowly. " He meant two stars of the circumpolar constellation Hydra. The Spaniards also discovered "five unusually brightly shining stars located in a cross ..." - the constellation Cross, or the Southern Cross.

Crossing the Pacific Ocean, Magellan's flotilla covered no less than 17 thousand km, most of them in the waters of South Polynesia and Micronesia, where countless small islands are scattered. It is amazing that at the same time the sailors came across only "two deserted islets on which they found nothing but birds and trees." According to Albo's records, the first (San Pablo), discovered on January 24, 1521, is located at 16 ° 15 ", and the second (Tivurones, that is," Sharks ", February 4) - at 10 ° 40" S. sh. Magellan and Albo very accurately determined latitude for that time, but since the correct calculation of longitude in the 16th century. needless to say, we cannot confidently identify these islands with any islands on our maps. Most likely, San Pablo is one of the northeastern islands of the Tuamotu archipelago, Tivurones, one of the southern Line Islands (Central Polynesia). On this segment, Magellan made the first measurement of the sea depths, which can be classified as "scientific". He could not reach the bottom with the help of six connected lines of several hundred fathoms, and came to the conclusion that he had found the deepest part of the ocean.

Historians are perplexed why Magellan crossed the equator and entered 10 ° N. sh. - he knew that the Moluccas are at the equator. But this is where the South Sea lies, already known to the Spaniards. Perhaps Magellan wanted to make sure if it really was part of the newly discovered ocean.

On March 6, 1521, two inhabited islands finally appeared in the west (Guam and Rota, the southernmost of the Mariana group). Dozens of boats with balancers came out to meet the strangers. They sailed with the help of triangular "Latin" sails, sewn from palm leaves. At Guam (13 ° 30 "N) the inhabitants are swarthy, well-built people, naked, The women wore loincloths, "a narrow strip of paper-thin bark." but in small hats made of palm leaves - they climbed onto the ship and grabbed everything that came into their sight, as a result of which this group was called the "Rogue Islands" (Ladrones).

When the islanders stole a boat tied astern, an irritated Magellan landed with a detachment, burned several dozen huts and boats, killed seven people and returned the boat. "When one of the natives was wounded by arrows from our crossbows, which pierced him through and through, he swung the end of the arrow in all directions, pulled it out, looked at it with great amazement and died like that ..."

On March 15, 1521, having passed about 2 thousand km to the west, the sailors saw mountains rising from the sea - this was Fr. Samar is an East Asian group of islands, later called the Philippines. Magellan searched in vain for an anchorage - the rocky coast of the island did not present a single chance. The ships moved slightly to the south, to the Siargao island near the southern tip of the island. Samar (at 10 ° 45 "N) and spent the night there. The length of the path traversed by Magellan from South America to the Philippines was many times greater than the distance shown on the maps of that time between the New World and Japan. In fact, Magellan proved that between America and tropical Asia lies a gigantic body of water, much wider than the Atlantic Ocean.The discovery of the passage from the Atlantic Ocean to the South Sea and Magellan's voyage through this sea made a real revolution in geography. but by the ocean, and the existence of a single World Ocean was proved.

with caution, Magellan on March 17 moved from Siargao to the uninhabited island of Homonkhon, The water area to the west of it has become famous in our time: on October 24-26, 1944, the American naval forces defeated the Japanese fleet here; as a result, the Americans occupied all the Philippines, except for about. Luzon. lying south of the big island. Samar to stock up on water and give rest to people. The inhabitants of the neighboring islet delivered fruit, coconuts and palm wine to the Spaniards. They said that "there are many islands in this region." Magellan named the archipelago San Lazaro. The Spaniards saw gold earrings and bracelets, cotton fabrics embroidered with silk, and edged weapons decorated with gold at the local elder. A week later, the flotilla moved south-west and stopped at about. Limasava (10 ° N, 125 ° E, south of Leyte Island). A boat approached the Trinidad. And when the Malay Enrique, Magellan's slave, called out to the rowers in his own language, they immediately understood him. A couple of hours later, two large boats full of people arrived with the local ruler, and Enrique freely explained to them. It became clear to Magellan that he was in that part of the Old World where the Malay language was spoken, that is, not far from the Spice Islands or among them. And Magellan, who visited about. Ambon (128 ° E) as part of A. Abreu's expedition, thus completed the first ever voyage around the world.

The ruler of the island gave Magellan pilots who accompanied the ships to the large commercial port of Cebu. Albo's magazine and Pigafetta have new names for the Europeans - Leyte, Bohol, Cebu, etc. Western European historians call this the discovery of the Philippines, although they have long been visited by Asian sailors, and Magellan and his companions saw Chinese goods there, such as porcelain dishes. In Cebu they met the order of the real "civilized" world. The Raja (ruler) began by demanding that they pay a fee. Magellan refused to pay, but offered him friendship and military assistance if he recognized himself as a vassal of the Spanish king. The ruler of Cebu accepted the offer and a week later was even baptized along with his family and several hundred subjects. Soon they were baptized, according to Pigafetta, "all the inhabitants of this island and some from other islands." On about. Cebu, he talked with several Arab merchants, who gave him information about the other islands of the archipelago. As a result, for the first time, names such as Luzon, Mindanao, and Sulu entered geographical use with minor distortions.

As the patron saint of new Christians, Magellan intervened in the internecine war of the rulers of the island of Mactan, located against the city of Cebu. On the night of April 27, 1521, he went there with 60 people in boats, but because of the reefs they could not come close to the shore. Magellan, leaving the crossbowmen and musketeers in the boats, with 50 people ford to the island. There, near the village, they were awaited and attacked by three detachments. The boats began shooting at them, but arrows and even musket bullets at such a distance could not penetrate the wooden shields of the attackers. Magellan ordered to set fire to the village. This infuriated the Maktans, and they began to shower the strangers with arrows and stones and throw spears at them. “... Ours, with the exception of six or eight people who remained with the captain, immediately fled ... Recognizing the captain, many people attacked him ... but nevertheless he continued to hold on firmly. Trying to pull out the sword, he drew it only halfway, since he was wounded in the arm ... One [of the attackers] wounded him in the left leg ... The captain fell facedown, and they threw him down ... with spears and began to strike with cleavers, until they destroyed ... our light, our joy ... He kept turning back to see if we all had time to plunge into the boats "(Pigafetta). In addition to Magellan, eight Spaniards and four allied islanders were killed. There were many wounded among the sailors. The old adage was confirmed: "The Lord God gave the Portuguese a very small country for life, but the whole world for death." On the deserted shore of about. Mactan, where Magellan found his death, a monument was erected to him in the form of two cubes, crowned with a ball.

after the death of Magellan, D. Barbosa and X. Serrano were elected captains of the flotilla. The newly baptized ruler of Cebu, having learned that the ships were about to leave, invited his allies to a farewell feast. 24 sailors, including Barbosa and Serrano, accepted the invitation and went ashore, but two - G. Espinosa and the pilot of the "Concepcion" Portuguese Juan Lopes Carvalho - returned, suspecting unkindness. Hearing screams and screams on the shore, they ordered the ships to come closer to the shore and bombard the city with guns. At this time the Spaniards saw Serrano wounded, in one shirt; he shouted to stop shooting, otherwise he would be killed and that all his comrades were killed, except for the Malay translator Enrique. He begged to ransom it, but Corvalho forbade the boat to come ashore. “... And he did so with a view, - writes Pigafetta, - so that they alone would remain masters on the ships. And despite the fact that Juan Serrano crying begged him not to raise the sails so quickly, as they would kill him ... we immediately departed. " Immediately Carvalho was declared the head of the expedition, and Espinosa was elected captain of the "Victoria". 115 people remained on the ships, many of them were sick. It was difficult to operate three ships with such a crew, so the dilapidated Concepcion was burned in the strait between Cebu and Bohol.

"Victoria" and "Trinidad", leaving the strait, passed the island, "where people are black, as in Ethiopia" (the first indication of the Filipino Negritos); the Spaniards named this island Negros. In Mindanao, they first heard of the large northwest. Luzon. Random pilots led ships across the Sulu Sea to Palawan, the westernmost island of the Philippine group.

Pigafetta, an accurate and thorough chronicler, was not a professional cartographer. But as an impartial artist, he made rough sketches of a number of islands in the Philippine archipelago that were touched by Magellan's expedition. They have no resemblance to the originals and can be identified only by their names: Samar, the first of the islands visited, Homonkhon, where the first landing was made, Mactan, the place of Magellan's death, as well as Panaon, Leite, Cebu and Palawan. From about. Palawan Spaniards arrived - the first of the Europeans - to the giant Fr. Kalimantan and on July 9 anchored near Brunei, after which the whole island they, and then other Europeans began to call Borneo. The Spaniards made alliances with local rajas, bought food and local goods, sometimes robbed the oncoming ships, but still could not find out the way to the Spice Islands.

Pigafetta made productive use of the monthly stopover of "Victoria" - he spent most of July as a guest of the Sultan of the city of Brunei and collected the first reliable information about Fr. Kalimantan: “This island is so big that it will take three months to circle it on the prau” (Malay ship).

On September 7, the Spaniards set sail along the northwestern coast of Kalimantan During this detour, Pigafetta saw a rocky peak and christened it "Mount St. Peter" - this is Kinabalu (4101 m), the highest point of the Malay archipelago. and, reaching its northern end, they stood for almost a month and a half near a small island, stocking up on food and firewood. They managed to capture a junk with a Malay sailor who knew the way to the Moluccas. Carvalho was soon dismissed "for failure to comply with royal decrees" and Espinosa was elected admiral. The former assistant navigator at the Concepcion Basque became the captain of "Victoria" Juan Sevastian Elcano, otherwise - del Cano. On October 26, in the Sulawesi Sea, the ships withstood the first storm after leaving the Strait of Magellan. On November 8, a Malay sailor brought ships to the spice market on about. Tidore, off the western coast of Halmahera, the largest of the Moluccas. Here the Spaniards bought cheap spices - cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves. "Trinidad" was in need of repair, and it was decided that upon its completion, Espinosa would go east, to the Gulf of Panama, and Elcano would lead the "Victoria" home by the western route - around the Cape of Good Hope.

december "Victoria" with a crew of 60 people, including 13 Malays captured on the islands of Indonesia, moved south from Tidore. At the end of January 1522 a Malay pilot brought the ship to about. Timor. On February 13, the Spaniards lost sight of him and headed for the Cape of Good Hope, spending three times more time wandering among the Malay Islands than crossing the Pacific Ocean.

Elcano deliberately stayed away from the usual path of Portuguese ships, meeting with which threatened the Spaniards with prison and, perhaps, execution. In the southern part of the Indian Ocean, the sailors saw only one island (at 37 ° 50 "S, Amsterdam). This happened on March 18. On May 20, the Victoria circled the Cape of Good Hope.

Having passed the first in this part of the Indian Ocean, Elcano proved that the "Southern" continent does not reach 40 ° S. sh. During the passage through the unknown sea expanses of the Indian Ocean, the ship's crew was reduced to 35 people, including four Malays. On the Cape Verde Islands belonging to Portugal, where a stop was made in order to replenish fresh water and food supplies, it turned out that the sailors "lost" one day, bypassing the land from the west; For this "loss" all the surviving members of the Victoria's crew were subjected to a humiliating punishment - public repentance: from a church point of view, such "negligence" led to improper observance of fasts. This fact is a vivid illustration of the clergy's ignorance, who refused to even suggest the possibility of a natural explanation for the interesting fact of the "loss" of the day, which first appeared during the circumnavigation of the world by Magellan and his companions. here, at Santiago, another 12 Spaniards and one Malay, who were arrested on suspicion of having got to Molucca by the eastern route, lagged behind. On September 6, 1522, the "Victoria", having lost another sailor on the way, reached the mouth of the Guadalquivir, making the first round-the-world voyage in 1081 days.

Of the five ships of Magellan, only one circled the globe, and only 18 of its crew of 265 returned home (there were three Malays on board). The 13 sailors arrested at Sant'gu arrived home later, released by the Portuguese at the request of Charles I. But "Victoria" brought so many spices that the sale of them more than covered the costs of the expedition, and Spain received the "right of first discovery" to the Mariana and Philippine Islands and made claims to the Moluccas.

Magellan, by his circumnavigation, proved that the greatest body of water stretches between America and Asia, and established the existence of a single World Ocean. Magellan has put an end to the controversy about the shape of our planet forever by providing practical evidence of its sphericity. Thanks to him, finally, scientists were able to establish the true dimensions of the Earth not speculatively, but on the basis of irrefutable data.

the repair of the Trinidad dragged on for more than three months, and she sailed from Tidore under the command of Espinosa (navigator Leone Pancaldo) with a crew of 53 people and an almost 50-ton load of spices only on April 6, 1522. Having rounded the northern end of Fr. Halmahera, Espinosa immediately headed east to Panama. However, opposing winds soon forced him to turn north. In early May, he discovered the Sonsorol Islands (at 5 ° N, in the extreme west of the Carolina chain), and between 12 and 20 ° N. sh. - 14 other islands from the Mariana group. From one of them, most likely from Fr. Agrikhan (at 19 ° N), a native was taken on board. Struggling with easterly winds, stormy weather and cold, Espinosa reached 43 ° N on 11 June. sh. How far to the east the ship moved, now we can only guess - probably the Spaniards were between 150 and 160 ° E. e. 12-day storm, poor food and weakness forced the sailors to turn back. More than half of the team had died of hunger and scurvy by this time. On the way back on August 22, Espinosa discovered several more northern Mariana Islands, including Maug at 20 ° N. sh., and returned to the Moluccas around October 20, 1522, a sailor who had deserted at Maug Gonzalo Vigo went later by boat to about. Guam with the help of the indigenous people. Having familiarized himself in this way with almost all the significant islands between Maug and Guam, he completed the discovery of the Mariana chain, stretching for more than 800 km.

Meanwhile, in mid-May 1522, a Portuguese military flotilla approached the Moluccas. Antonio Brito... Fulfilling the task - to take possession of the archipelago and prevent violation of the Portuguese monopoly, he built a fort on about. Ternate. Having received news at the end of October that a European ship was near Molucca, Brito sent three ships with the order to seize it, and they brought the Trinidad to Ternate, which had 22 men. Brito seized the cargo and took the seaworthy tools, maps and, no doubt, the ship's log. This explains the awareness of the Portuguese about the route of Magellan's expedition, his death and later events, and Brito received additional information by interrogating the seamen he had captured "with passion". After a four-year imprisonment, only four of the Trinidad crew survived and in 1526 returned to Spain, including Gonzalo Espinosa, also completing their circumnavigation.

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Strange, fantastic this is true,
was a sight to behold when four ships first
in the history of mankind slowly and silently
entered the silent, gloomy strait,
where from time immemorial man has not penetrated.
A terrible silence meets them.

Stefan Zweig. "Feat of Magellan"

On October 21, 1520, Fernand Magellan discovered the strait separating South America and the Tierra del Fuego archipelago during his first round the world voyage. Magellan's ships entered the strait on All Saints Day and first named it Estrecho de Todos los Santos - All Saints Strait. Seven years later, the strait received its current name, in honor of Fernand Magellan.

flagship caravel "Trinidad"

fernand Magellan's expedition in the ocean

If you have a large map of the world, play Magellan's Journey with your child. Spread it on the floor, take a suitable small boat or mold it from plasticine. Prepare to play so that you can share interesting details with your child as you travel.

Magellan long asked the Portuguese king Manuel I to equip an expedition to the "Spice Islands". However, the king not only did not agree to the expedition, but on the contrary dismissed Magellan from the service, allocating him an allowance, which was barely enough for a living. Magellan pondered a lot about the possibility of reaching the "spice islands", and he fired up the idea to accomplish what Columbus once failed to do - to open the western route to the East, which Magellan thought would be shorter than the eastern route. He was helped by the Spanish king, and on September 20, 1519, along with the flagship of Magellan "Trinidad" in the direction of South America, 4 other ships sail from the mouth of the Guadalquivir: "San Antonio", "Concepcion", "Victoria", "Santiago" with a crew in 265 people.
So, Magellan's ships sailed out of Spain, sailed across the Atlantic Ocean past the shores of Africa, the Canary Islands and sailed into the Gulf of Rio de Janeiro. Then they circled South America and passed through the strait, later called Magellanic. Then the ships went to the Pacific Ocean and sailed on it for a long time, not expecting such distances and experiencing enormous hardships. In the Philippine Islands, Magellan was killed during a battle with local residents. The remaining ship Victoria crossed the Indian Ocean, rounded the Cape of Good Hope and returned to Spain across the Atlantic Ocean. There were only eighteen survivors on the ship, their journey lasted almost three years! This first ever voyage around the world proved that the Earth is a ball, that there is more water on earth than land, and that the Pacific Ocean stretches between America and Asia.

Magellan's circumnavigation map 1519-1522

How to play Magellan's swimming with children?

a) the sailors called the Pacific Ocean the Pacific, because during the entire voyage they did not get into a single storm. And if there was a storm? Wrap yourself in a blanket and throw a violent storm on the couch.

b) Light small candles and place them on the territory of Tierra del Fuego. When your ship gets there, turn off the light in the room and then you will see what Magellan's team saw: a lot of lights on the island. It was the natives who burned signal fires for their comrades who went out to sea.

c) Place the penguin figurine on the southernmost point of South America. This is where the Europeans
we saw this bird for the first time. Magellan's expedition called the penguins “goslings”: “There is a great number of goslings there beyond counting. Those goslings are black and white and have feathers all over their bodies of the same length and quality. They cannot fly and feed on fish. "

d) During the voyage, Magellan's expedition tasted a new, previously unknown fruit. This is how the chronicler of the expedition described this fruit: "Similar to large round spruce cones, but extremely sweet and delicious." You can ask the child this riddle, ask him to close his eyes and give him a taste of a piece of ... pineapple. Will he be able to guess what it is?

e) Prepare the spices for which Magellan's expedition went on a trip around the world: pepper, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg. Invite your child to determine by smell, where is what spice. Discuss why spices were so prized by Europeans.

And some beautiful photos of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego.
Off the coast of South America, the expedition of Magellan noticed tall Indians, whose faces were painted with red paint, dressed in animal skins. The very large feet seemed especially unusual to the Spanish sailors. "Patagono" ("Big Paw") - so they called the Tehuelche Indians. This is how the southern tip of South America was called Patagonia, and the inhabitants were called Patagonians.

Types of Fire Earth

A fascinating round-the-world journey of the crew of the two-masted yacht "Duncan" in search of Captain Grant began from Patagonia. Across the Atlantic Ocean, passing the Strait of Magellan along rocky shores and islands indented by fjords, adventure seekers hoped to find a shipwrecked captain in this wild land.

Mount Darwin is the highest peak in the Tierra del Fuego archipelago (2488 m).

Tierra del Fuego island.

Magdalena Island (Isla Magdalena).
This small island in the Strait of Magellan is located 35 km from Punta Arenas.
In 1982, the island was declared a national natural monument.

Penguins
The growth of the Magellanic penguin reaches 70 cm, weight - about 4 kg. Breeds on Tierra del Fuego, Falkland Islands (Malvinas), Juan Fernandez Island and southern coasts of Patagonia and Chile.

photo from here - http://sl.photo-traveller.net/Foto/Chile/Chile2008/index10.htm

Interesting Tierra del Fuego Facts:

The geographical names of Tierra del Fuego are a kind of historical chronicle. The strait, through which for the first time in history Europeans got from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, is named after Magellan. Another strait connecting two oceans, separating South America from Antarctica and being the southernmost point of the New World - the widest on Earth, bears the name of the English navigator and pirate Francis Drake, who first sailed through it. Finally, the third strait and the highest mountain of Tierra del Fuego are associated with the great scientist Charles Darwin: the peak is named after him, and the strait is named after the ship "Beagle", on which the naturalist collected materials for the "Origin of Species".

The southernmost settlement is the tiny Chilean village of Puerto Toro, located on the island of Navarino, part of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago. Now only 36 people live there - families of fishermen who hunt fish and crabs in the Beagle Channel. South of this village there are only scientific stations in Antarctica.

from here - http://ruslan-r-safin.livejournal.com/33528.html

Despite the harsh climate, Tierra del Fuego is home to a large number of sea lions, seals, llamas (here called guanacos). There are many cormorants and gulls, which form noisy bird colonies on both sides of the straits.

from here - http://skitalets.livejournal.com/10702.html

For many years Magellan remained the only captain who passed through the strait of his name and did not lose a single ship. In general, the coastal waters of Cape Horn are the largest ocean graveyard of sunken ships. Every sailor who was lucky enough to survive on the way from the Atlantic to the Pacific had the right to wear a silver earring in his left ear. Nowadays, every tourist who has circled Cape Horn receives a corresponding certificate.

from here - http://1001fact.ru/2013/12/ognennaya-zemlya-interesnye-fakty/

And you can also tell children that Magellan's sailors lost one day during their round-the-world voyage. A participant and historian of the Magellan expedition, the Italian Antonio Pigafetta, wrote in his diary at the end of the trip, when the ships entered one of the Portuguese ports: “Wanting to know if our diary was kept properly, I asked the Portuguese on board what day of the week they had. I was told that Thursday, which surprised me very much, since according to my diaries we had Wednesday. We could not think that we were mistaken in one day: I was surprised by this more than others, since I always kept my journal very regularly and noted, without missing, all days of the week and day of the month. We learned later that there was no mistake in our account. "
How did it happen that the travelers lost the whole day? Magellan's satellites have traveled around the world. If they sailed to the east, then every day they would see the morning 24 hours earlier than "necessary", that is, they would run ahead for the whole day. For them, Wednesday would be Thursday. On the contrary, they sailed to the west, saw the sun later and later, and at the end of the journey “lost a day”.

On September 20, 1519, the flotilla left the port of San Lucar at the mouth of the Guadalquivir. When crossing the ocean, Magellan developed a good signaling system, the various types of ships of his flotilla were never separated. Disagreements between him and the Spanish captains began very soon: beyond the Canary Islands Cartagena demanded that the chief consult with him regarding any change of course. Magellan calmly and proudly replied: "It is your duty to follow my flag during the day and my lantern at night."

A few days later Cartagena raised the issue again. Then Magellan, who, despite his small stature, had great physical strength, grabbed him by the collar and ordered him to be kept in custody on the Victoria, and appointed his relative, the “supernumerary” sailor Alvar Mishpita, as the captain of the San Antonio.

On September 26, the flotilla approached the Canary Islands, on November 29 reached the coast of Brazil near 8 ° S. sh., December 13 - Guanabara Bay, and December 26 - La Plata. The navigators of the expedition were the best at that time: while determining latitudes, they made adjustments to the map of the already known part of the continent. So, Cape Cabo Frio, by their definition, is not at 25 ° S. sh., and at 23 ° S. sh. - their error was less than 2 km from its true position. Not trusting the reports of Solis's satellites, Magellan surveyed both low-lying shores of the La Plata for about a month; continuing the discovery of the Pampa plains begun by Lijboa and Solis, he sent the Santiago up the Parana, and, of course, found no passage to the South Sea. Further, an unknown, sparsely populated land stretched. And Magellan, fearing to miss the entrance to the elusive strait, on February 2, 1520 ordered to wean anchor and move as close to the coast as possible only in the afternoon, and stop in the evening. At a stop on February 13 in the large bay of Bahia Blanca he discovered, the flotilla withstood a terrifying thunderstorm, during which the lights of St. Elmo appeared on the masts of the ships. On February 24, Magellan discovered another large bay - San Matias, circled the Valdes Peninsula he had identified and took refuge for the night in a small harbor, which he called Puerto San Matias (the Gulf of Golfo Nuevo of our maps, at 43 ° S lat.) ... Further south, near the mouth of the river. Chubut, On February 27, the flotilla stumbled upon a huge swarm of penguins and southern elephant seals. To replenish food supplies, Magellan sent a boat to the shore, but an unexpected squall threw the ships into the open sea. The sailors who remained on the shore, so as not to die from the cold, covered themselves with the bodies of dead animals. Taking the "procurers", Magellan moved south, pursued by storms, explored another bay, São Jorge, and spent six stormy days in a narrow bay (estuary of the Rio Deseado, near 48 ° S lat.). On March 31, when the approach of winter became noticeable, he decided to spend the winter in San Julian Bay (at 49 ° S lat.). Four ships entered the harbor, and the Trinidad anchored at the entrance to it. The Spanish officers wanted to force Magellan to "follow the royal instructions": to turn to the Cape of Good Hope and to walk the eastern route to the Moluccas. A riot broke out that night. Cartagena was released, the rebels captured Victoria, Concepcion and San Antonio, arrested Mishkita, and Quesada mortally wounded an assistant loyal to Magellan. They aimed their guns at the Trinidad and demanded that Magellan come to them for negotiations. Against the two ships of the admiral there were three mutineers who were preparing for battle. But the rebels did not trust their sailors, and on one ship they even disarmed them.

In dire circumstances, Magellan displayed calm determination. He sent his loyal alguasil (police officer) Gonzalo Gomez Espinosa with several sailors to the Victoria to invite her captain for negotiations on the admiral's ship. He refused, then the alguasil thrust a dagger into his throat, and one sailor finished him off. Magellan's brother-in-law, Portuguese Duarte Barbosa, immediately took possession of the Victoria and was appointed captain. Now the rebels had only two ships, and so that they would not defect, the prudent admiral, as mentioned above, took a convenient position in advance at the exit from the bay. The San Antonio tried to break into the ocean, but the sailors, after a salvo from the Trinidad, tied the officers up and surrendered. The same thing happened at the Concepcion. Magellan dealt with the rioters-captains abruptly: he ordered to chop off the head of Quesads, to quarter the corpse of Mendoza, to land Cartagena on the deserted coast together with the conspirator-priest, but he spared the rest of the rioters.

In early May, the admiral sent to the south for reconnaissance Ser-early on "Santiago", but on May 3 the ship crashed on the rocks near the river. Santa Cruz (at 50 ° S lat.) And his crew barely managed to escape (one sailor died). Magellan transferred Serrano as captain to the Concepcion. Very tall Indians approached the wintering place. They were called Patagonians (in Spanish "patagon" - big-legged), their country from that time is called Patagonia. Pigafetta exaggeratedly described the Patagonians as real giants. On August 24, the flotilla left the Bay of San Julian and reached the mouth of Santa Cruz, where it stayed until mid-October, waiting for the onset of spring. On October 18, the flotilla moved south along the Patagonian coast, which forms in this section (between 50 and 52 ° S) the wide bay of Bahia Gran de. Before going out to sea, Magellan told the captains that he would look for a passage to the South Sea and turn east if he did not find the strait until 75 S. sh., that is, he himself doubted the existence of the "Patagonian Strait", but wanted to continue the enterprise to the last opportunity. The bay, or strait leading to the west, was found on October 21, 1520, 52 ° S. sh., after Magellan discovered the previously unknown Atlantic coast of South America for about 3.5 thousand km (between 34 and 52 ° S. lat.).

Having rounded Cape Dev (Cape Virgenes), the admiral sent two ships ahead to find out if there was an exit to the open sea in the west. During the night, a storm arose that lasted two days. The sent ships were threatened with destruction, but at the most difficult moment they noticed a narrow strait, rushed there and found themselves in a relatively wide bay; along it they continued their way and saw another strait, beyond which a new, wider bay opened.

Then the captains of both ships - Mishkita and Serrano - decided to return and report to Magellan that, apparently, they found a passage leading to the South Sea. “... We saw these two ships approaching us in full sail with flags fluttering in the wind. Coming closer to us ... they started firing guns and noisily greeting us. " However, there was still a long way to go to the South Sea: Magellan walked south through narrow straits for several days until he saw two channels at about. Dawson: one to the southeast, the other to the southwest. He sent the San Antonio and the Concepcion to the southeast and a boat to the southwest. The sailors returned "three days later with the news that they had seen the cape and the open sea." The admiral burst into tears of joy and called this cape Desirable.

"Trinidad" and "Victoria" entered the south-western channel, stood at anchor there for four days and returned back to join two other ships, but there was only "Concepcion": in the southeast, it came to a dead end - in Inu-til bay - and turned back. San Antonio fell into another dead end; on the way back, not finding the flotilla on the spot, the officers wounded and shackled Mishkita, and at the end of March 1521 returned to Spain. The deserters accused Magellan of treason in order to justify themselves, and they believed: Mishkita was arrested, Magellan's family was deprived of state benefits. His wife and two children soon died in poverty. But the admiral did not know under what circumstances the San Antonio disappeared. He believed that the ship was lost, since Mishkita was his trusted friend. Following along the northern coast of the strongly narrowed Patagonian Strait (as Magellan called it), he rounded the southernmost point of the South American continent - Cape Froward (on the Brunswick Peninsula, 53 ° 54 "S) and another five days (23- November 28) led three ships to the north-west, as if along the bottom of a mountain gorge.The high mountains (southern end of the Patagonian Cordillera) and bare shores seemed to be deserted, but in the south haze was visible during the day, and fires at night. And Magellan called this southern land, the size of which he did not know, "Land of Fire" (Tierra del Fuego). On our maps it is inaccurately called Tierra del Fuego. 38 days after Magellan found the Atlantic entrance to the strait, really connecting two oceans, he passed Cape Zhelanny (now Pilar) at the Pacific outlet of the Strait of Magellan (about 550 km).

Magellan raised the admiral's flag on the 100-ton ship Trinidad. The captains of the remaining ships were the Spaniards - the royal controller of the expedition Juan Cartagena (San Antonio, 120 t), Gaspar Quesada (Concepcion, 90 t), Luis Mendoza (Victoria, 85 t) and Juan Serrano (Sant -Yago ", 75 t). The crew of the entire flotilla consisted of 319 people of more than 10 nationalities, and among the 26 freelance participants there was an Italian Antonio Pigafetta, thanks to whom (as well as the assistant navigator Francisco Albo) this expedition became the property of the history of navigation.

The flotilla left the port of San Lucar on September 20, 1519. And already in the first weeks of the voyage, problems began caused by the ambitions of the Spanish captains. The Royal Controller of the Expedition Cartagena demanded that the admiral coordinate with him any change in the course of the flotilla. Magellan's reaction was short and expressive: "Your duty is to follow my flag during the day and my lantern at night." When a few days later Cartagena began to "emerge" again, Magellan grabbed him by the collar and put him under arrest on the Victoria, and appointed his relative Alvara di Meshquita as the captain of the San Antonio.

Having passed the Canary Islands at the end of September, on November 29, the flotilla reached the coast of Brazil, on December 13 - Guanabara Bay, and on December 26 - La Plata, the mouth of the Parana River. Thanks to the high qualifications of the navigators of the expedition, refinements were made to the values \u200b\u200bof previously determined latitudes, and therefore corrections to the contours of a known part of the continent. Magellan, exploring the shores of La Plata for more than a month, sent the ship "Sant-Iago" up the Parana, which was designated on the secret map of Magellan as the desired strait. During two weeks of careful searches, Magellan became convinced that this was not the case.

Fearing to miss the entrance to the elusive strait and therefore not succumbing to the temptation of exploring and capturing the unknown lands opening up to travelers, on February 2, 1520, Magellan ordered to wean. The flotilla was supposed to move along the coast in the immediate vicinity of it in daylight, and stop with the onset of dusk. During such an anchorage, a terrible thunderstorm broke out in the Bay of Blanca, but the seasoned sailors were plunged into mystical horror not by thunder and almost continuous lightning, but by an unprecedented spectacle of a mysterious glow on the masts of ships. Later, this phenomenon, called the "fire of St. Elmo", would be perceived by superstitious sailors as a bad omen.

At the end of February, Magellan discovered the large San Matias Bay and the Valdes Peninsula. To the south, near the mouth of the Chubut River, the sailors discovered many penguins and unseen animals - huge seals with trunks, which made them look like elephants. They were named that way - the southern elephant seals - and came in handy for replenishing food supplies. It was cold - the winter of the southern hemisphere was approaching, and the sailors, who were determined to sail in the tropics, did not have winter clothes. At the end of March, when winter began to assert itself more and more persistently, Magellan decided to spend the winter in San Julian Bay and ordered to reduce the diet for this.

Realizing that this would cause discontent among the people, and given the poorly disguised hostility of the Spanish captains, Magellan prudently anchored his Trinidad at the entrance to the bay where the other four ships were stationed. The Spanish officers, who all this time quietly gloated over the admiral's disappointment, counting on his voluntary refusal to continue sailing and not wanting to stay here for the winter, demanded from Magellan that he turn to the Cape of Good Hope and go to the Moluccas by the eastern route. Magellan flatly refused.

On the night of April 1, a riot broke out. The rebels freed Cartagena, captured the Victoria, Concepcion and San Antonio, arrested Mishkita and killed his loyal assistant Magellan. As follows from "Sketches ..." I.P. and V.I. Magidovich, the rioters pointed their guns at the Trinidad and demanded that Magellan come to them for negotiations. Against the two ships of the admiral there were three mutineers who were preparing for battle. But the rebels did not trust their sailors, and on one ship they even disarmed them.

In dire circumstances, Magellan displayed calm determination. He sent his loyal alguasil (police officer) Gonzalo Gomez Espinosa with several sailors to the Victoria to invite her captain for negotiations on the admiral's ship. He refused, then the alguasil thrust a dagger into his throat, and one sailor finished him off. Magellan's brother-in-law, Portuguese Duartu Barbosa, immediately took possession of the Victoria and was appointed captain. Now the rebels had only two ships, and so that they would not defect, the prudent admiral, as mentioned above, took a convenient position in advance at the exit from the bay. The San Antonio tried to break into the ocean, but the sailors, after a salvo from the Trinidad, tied the officers up and surrendered. The same thing happened at Concepcion. Magellan dealt with the rioters-captains abruptly: he ordered that Quesada's head be cut off, the corpse of Mendoza was quartered, Cartagena was landed on the deserted coast together with the conspirator-priest, but he spared the rest of the rioters.

In early May, the ship "Sant-Iago" crashed on the rocks, but the crew, with the exception of one sailor, managed to escape. Magellan transferred Serrano as captain to the Concepcion. The flotilla remained at the wintering site until August 24, and then left the San Julian Bay and relocated to the mouth of the Santa Cruz River in order to remain there until spring. During the wintering, the international crew had the opportunity to get acquainted with the natives. They were Indians with beautiful faces and slender figures, very tall. The sailors were particularly struck by their leggy, which is why they were called Patagonians (from the Spanish "Patagon" - long-legged). To some sailors (perhaps, first of all, to the undersized admiral), the Patagonians seemed like real giants - such was described by the chronicler of the expedition Pigafetta. With his light hand, their whole country has since been called Patagonia.

When, at last, the air blew in spring, the admiral ordered to raise the anchors, and on October 18 the flotilla headed south along the Patagonian coast. Before going to sea, Magellan told the captains that he intends to continue the search for the strait leading to the South Sea, but in case of failure he is ready to deploy ships to the east. At the same time, he indicated the boundary of the search for the strait - 75 degrees south latitude. But luck was close - the strait leading to the west was found on October 21, 1520, 52 degrees. To find it, Magellan's ships had to travel from 34 to 52 degrees south latitude and, along the way, open the previously unknown Atlantic coast of South America for about 3.5 thousand kilometers.

At the beginning it was not completely clear whether it was a strait or just a long and deep bay. To clarify this, the admiral, having rounded Cape Virgenes, sent forward two ships - "San Antonio" and "Concepcion", commanded by Mishkita and Serrano. During the reconnaissance, the captains of both ships decided that the passage had been found, and reported this to Magellan. However, everything turned out to be not so simple. With further movement, the alleged strait was divided into several branches, and it was necessary to find the one that leads to the South Sea. However, it was still a long way to reach the South Sea: Magellan walked south through narrow straits for several days until he saw two channels turning to the southeast and southwest. He sent the Concepción and San Antonio to the southeast, and to the southwest a boat with sailors, who three days later reported seeing the promontory and the open sea. The admiral called this cape Desirable ...

The southeast-bound Concepcion and San Antonio parted ways along the way, and each ship was stumped. But if "Concepcion" turned back and went to connect with "Trinidad" and "Victoria", then on the "San Antonio", which on the opposite missed the flotilla, officer Ishtevan Gomizh raised a mutiny. Captain Mishkita, who was trying to calm the riot, was wounded and shackled. Gomizh declared himself a captain, and the deserters moved east to return to Spain at the end of March 1521. There they, in order to justify themselves, accused Magellan of treason. The authorities believed the slander, Mishkita was arrested, and Magellan's family was deprived of state benefits.

The admiral, not knowing the reasons for the disappearance of the San Antonio, decided that the ship was lost. The remaining flotilla, following the northern coast of the narrow Patagonian Strait, rounded the southernmost point of the South American continent, Cape Froward, and moved northwest from November 23 to 28. High mountains and deserted rocky shores seemed deserted, but at night, fires were visible on the southern side of the strait. This gave the Magellan reason to give these shores the name "Tierra del Fuego" - "Tierra del Fuego". A little more than a month after the discovery of the Atlantic entrance to the strait connecting the two oceans, the flotilla passed Cape Zhelanny (Pilar) at the Pacific outlet. This 550 km long sea corridor is now known as the Strait of Magellan.

And he became the first to travel around the world. The navigator made a geographical discovery: he became the discoverer of new territories and straits, and also proved that the Earth is spherical.

It often happens that the place and time of birth of great people is unknown. The exact biography of Fernand Magellan has not reached his contemporaries, so the life of the navigator can only be judged by the guesses of scientists.

According to historians, Fernand was born at the end of the 15th century, in 1480. But about the date of birth, scientists disagree: some believe that this event took place on October 17, while others are sure that the future navigator was born on November 20. Magellan's hometown is considered either the village of Sabroza, which is located in Portugal, or the city of Port, located in the same country. Little is also known about Fernand's parents: they belonged to a poor, but noble nobility. Father Rui (Rodrigo) di Magalhães served as mayor, and what the traveler's mother, Alda de Mosquita (Mishkita), did, remains unknown.

In addition to Fernand, the family had four more children.

When the future navigator was 12 years old, he was a servant at the court of Leonora of Aviss, wife of the Portuguese king João II the Perfect. Instead of court ceremonies and fencing, the uncommunicative servant was interested in exact sciences: the page often retired in a room and studied astronomy, cosmography and navigation.

The future navigator stayed in the service of the court page until the age of 24.

Expeditions

In 1498, the Portuguese opened a sea route to India, so when Fernand Magellan turns 25, the future traveler leaves the royal court and volunteers to serve in the navy, and then to conquer the east under the leadership of Francisco de Almeida.

After serving in the navy for 5 years, Magellan makes an attempt to return to his home country, but due to circumstances, he remains in India. For his courage and courage, Fernand receives the rank of officer and honor among the military.

In 1512 Magellan returned to Portugal to the city of Lisbon. Despite the courage shown during the conquests of the east, the navigator is greeted in the homeland without honors.

During the suppression of the uprising in Morocco, Magellan was wounded in the leg, which left the Portuguese navigator lame for life, so the former officer was forced to resign.

Trip around the world

In his free time, the traveler studied the secret archives of the King of Portugal, where Fernand found an old map of a certain Martin Beychem. The navigator discovers a strait connecting the Atlantic Ocean with the unexplored South Sea. The map of the German geographer inspired Fernand to travel by sea.

During a personal reception from the ruler, Magellan asks for permission to conduct a sailing expedition, but is refused due to the fact that he acted spontaneously in suppressing the Moroccan unrest, which angered the fifth king of Portugal, Manuel I. The reason for the refusal was also the fact that the king was sending ships to India around Africa, so he did not see any benefit in Magellan's proposal.

But Manuel makes it clear to Fernand that he will not express dissatisfaction if the traveler leaves the Portuguese service. Offended by the abrupt rejection and anger of the King of Portugal, Fernand goes to the sunny country of Spain, where he buys a house and continues to work on the idea of \u200b\u200ba sea voyage around the world.

In the 15th century in European countries, oriental seasonings and spices were prized like gold. In Europe, spices were not made, and the Arabs sold them on the market at a high price. The rich in those days were even jokingly called bags of pepper.

Therefore, the meaning of sea expeditions was to discover the shortest route to the Indian spice islands. In Spain, Fernand appeals to the "Chamber of Contracts" with the idea of \u200b\u200ba sea voyage, but does not receive the support of the department. A certain Juan de Aranda privately promises to help Magellan for 20% of the profits if the sea expedition to conquer the Spice Islands is successful. But Fernand, with the help of fellow astronomer Rui Faler, concluded a more favorable agreement, which was officially certified by a notary for one-eighth of the profits.

According to a document drawn up by the Pope in 1493: the territories that opened to the east belonged to Portugal, and to the west they became the property of Spain. The king of the sunny country Charles approved the sea voyage of Fernand Magellan on March 22, 1518. The ruler hoped to prove that the rich islands, on which black pepper and nutmeg grow, lie closer to the west, and therefore pass to Spain, although at that time they were subdued by the Portuguese crown, following the Treaty of Tordesillas.

The sailors received one-twentieth share of all the wealth obtained during the expedition.

Ships were preparing for sailing with food supplies, which would be enough for two years on board. 5 ships participated in navigation:

1. "Trinidad" (flagship of Magellan),
2. San Antonio
3. "Concept",
4. "Victoria",
5. "Santiago".

The great navigator commanded the Trinidad and the Santiago was commanded by João Serran. On the other three ships, representatives of the Spanish nobility were the main ones, and, despite the scale of the voyages, the sailors had strikes with each other. The Spaniards were unhappy that the Portuguese was in command of the round-the-world expedition, the essence of which was to reach Asia by heading west, and therefore refused to obey. In addition, Fernand did not disclose the plan of action, which aroused suspicion among the commanders of other ships. The King of Spain ordered Magellan to be impeccably commanded, but the Spaniards concluded a secret agreement among themselves that they would remove the Portuguese captain if necessary.

Magellan's associate, astronomer Rui Faleira, could not take part in the expedition, as he began to experience fits of madness.

Fernand Magellan's circumnavigation of the world began on September 20, 1519, 256 sailors departed from the port of San Lucaras towards the Canary Islands.

The ships moved for a long time along the eastern coast of South America in search of the South Sea. Magellan's team became the pioneers of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, located in the southern part of the continent and very beautiful, judging by modern photos. The Portuguese believed that the group of islands was an integral part of the "Unknown Southern Land". The islands looked empty, but as the travelers sailed past, lights came on in the night. Fernand believed that these were volcanic eruptions, for which he gave the archipelago a name associated with fire. But in reality it was the Indians who kindled fires.

The ships passed between Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego (that strait is now called the Magellanic Strait), then the travelers ended up in the Pacific Ocean.

From a voyage around the world, which Fernand made, he proved that the Earth is in the shape of a ball, after 1081 days of sailing in 1522, only one ship "Victoria" returned with 18 sailors on board, commanded by Elcano.

Personal life

Outwardly, Fernand Magellan did not resemble a descendant of nobles, as he looked more like a peasant: he had an ordinary appearance, a strong physique and short stature. The traveler believed that the main thing in a person is not external data, but his actions.

In southern Spain, Fernand Magellan meets Diego Barbosa and marries his daughter, the beautiful Beatrice. The beloved has a son who dies due to illness. Fernand's wife tried to give birth to a second child, but could not stand the birth and died. Therefore, the great traveler had no descendants.

Death

Although considerable food supplies had been prepared before the expedition, after a few months of sailing, food and water ran out. Due to the lack of food, sailors had to chew the hull of the sails in order to at least slightly satisfy their hunger. The travelers lost 21 sailors, who died of starvation and scurvy.

Sailors, who had not seen land for a long time, reached the Philippine province. Magellan's team could stock up on food and then go around the world, but Fernand got into a quarrel with the leader of the island of Mactan Lapu-Lupu. The Portuguese wanted to show the natives the power of Spain and organize a military expedition against Mactan. But, to the surprise of the Europeans, they lost due to the lack of preparation and dexterity of the natives.