MAGELLAN KILLED IN THE PHILIPPINES:

April 27, 1521

After traveling three-quarters of the way around the globe, Portuguese navigator
Ferdinand Magellan is killed during a tribal skirmish on Mactan Island in the
Philippines. Earlier in the month, his ships had dropped anchor at the
Philippine island of Cebý, and Magellan met with the local chief, who after
converting to Christianity persuaded the Europeans to assist him in conquering a
rival tribe on the neighboring island of Mactan. In the subsequent fighting,
Magellan was hit by a poisoned arrow and left to die by his retreating
comrades.Magellan, a Portuguese noble, fought for his country against the Muslim
domination of the Indian Ocean and Morocco. He participated in a number of key
battles and in 1514 asked Portugal's King Manuel for an increase in his pension.
The king refused, having heard unfounded rumors of improper conduct on
Magellan's part after a siege in Morocco. In 1516, Magellan again made the
request and the king again refused, so Magellan went to Spain in 1517 to offer
his services to King Charles I, later Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.In 1494,
Portugal and Spain, at the prompting of Pope Alexander VI, settled disputes over
newly discovered lands in America and elsewhere by dividing the world into two
spheres of influence. A line of demarcation was agreed to in the Atlantic
Ocean--all new discoveries west of the line were to be Spanish, and all to the
east Portuguese. Thus, South and Central America became dominated by the
Spanish, with the exception of Brazil, which was discovered by the Portuguese
explorer Pedro ýlvares Cabral in 1500 and was somewhat east of the demarcation
line. Other Portuguese discoveries in the early 16th century, such as the
Moluccas Islands--the Spice Islands of Indonesia--made the Spanish jealous.To
King Charles, Magellan proposed sailing west, finding a strait through the
Americas, and then continuing west to the Moluccas, which would prove that the
Spice Islands lay west of the demarcation line and thus in the Spanish sphere.
Magellan knew that the world was round but underestimated its size, thinking
that the Moluccas must be situated just west of the American continent, not on
the other side of a great uncharted ocean. The king accepted the plan, and on
September 20, 1519, Magellan set sail from Spain in command of five ships and
270 men.Magellan sailed to West Africa and then to Brazil, where he searched the
South American coast for a strait that would take him to the Pacific. He
searched the Rýo de la Plata, a large estuary south of Brazil, for a way
through; failing, he continued south along the coast of Patagonia. At the end of
March 1520, the expedition set up winter quarter at Port St. Julian. On Easter
day at midnight, the Spanish captains mutinied against their Portuguese captain,
but Magellan crushed the revolt, executing one of the captains and leaving
another ashore when his ship left St. Julian in August.On October 21, he finally
discovered the strait he had been seeking. The Strait of Magellan, as it became
known, is located near the tip of South America, separating Tierra del Fuego and
the continental mainland. Only three ships entered the passage; one had been
wrecked and another deserted. It took 38 days to navigate the treacherous
strait, and when ocean was sighted at the other end Magellan wept with joy. He
was the first European explorer to reach the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic.
His fleet accomplished the westward crossing of the ocean in 99 days, crossing
waters so strangely calm that the ocean was named "Pacific," from the Latin word
pacificus, meaning "tranquil." By the end, the men were out of food and chewed
the leather parts of their gear to keep themselves alive. On March 6, 1521, the
expedition landed at the island of Guam. Ten days later, they reached the
Philippines--they were only about 400 miles from the Spice Islands.After
Magellan's death, the survivors, in two ships, sailed on to the Moluccas and
loaded the hulls with spice. One ship attempted, unsuccessfully, to return
across the Pacific. The other ship, the Victoria, continued west under the
command of the Basque navigator Juan Sebastiýn de Elcano. The vessel sailed
across the Indian Ocean, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and arrived at Seville
on September 9, 1522, becoming the first ship to circumnavigate the globe.