The first trip around the world. §14 First circumnavigation of the world

At the beginning of the 16th century, not all people were sure that the earth was round. That is, many believed in it, but there was no direct evidence. There were no doubts left after the first one was crowned with success. circumnavigation under the leadership of Ferdinand Magellan.

Magellan was Portuguese. By 1519, he had already thoroughly served the Portuguese crown: he traveled and fought a lot.

In those days, travelers often fought.

You come to new lands, and other people live there. These other people were sometimes hospitable and sometimes not. And they had reasons for this; the newcomers tried to seize their lands and enrich themselves at the expense of the natives.

So, Ferdinand Magellan returned to Portugal after many years of travel in India and the Indian Ocean. He is 32 years old, the king granted him a pension, but the pension is small. Magellan fought in Morocco for a couple more years and resigned. He asks the king to increase his pension, but is refused. Who knows, if the king had then given him an increase, Magellan would have lived in his Portugal and raised his children, and we would never have known his first or last name.

Meanwhile, Magellan came up with a plan for an expedition that was destined to glorify him. Magellan asks the Portuguese king to entrust him with naval service and send him on a voyage. The king refused. Magellan went to Spain and persuaded the Spanish king.

On September 20, 1519, a Spanish naval expedition began under the leadership of Ferdinand Magellan. It was not a major goal to circumnavigate the world; the plan was to open a western route to India. In total, the expedition consisted of five ships, on which about three hundred people went to sea. Among them was Magellan's slave named Enrique. He was born in Sumatra and was destined to become the first person to circumnavigate the world.

Around the world led by Magellan

So, the flotilla led by Magellan set off to the west. They had to cross the Atlantic Ocean, go around South America, open the Strait of Magellan and go to Pacific Ocean. Everything was successful, but it was not easy for Magellan. Three of the five ships were commanded by Spanish nobles.

They didn't trust the Portuguese. This mistrust was not born out of nowhere; the Spaniards had long been competing with the Portuguese in developing new lands and making profits from it. Magellan had to fight the rebels for his supremacy. He won, but the Spanish captains never became his friends.

People of that time did not have an accurate idea of the size of the Earth. Magellan assumed that the Pacific Ocean was much smaller in size than it actually turned out to be.

The sailors had to travel at least 17 thousand kilometers before they reached land. But they were lucky with the weather, they called this ocean “Quiet”, not a single storm along the way. On March 17, 1521, travelers landed on the island of Homonkhom. The Pacific Ocean is left behind.

Members of Magellan's expedition became the first Europeans to land on the Philippine Islands. They continued their journey among the islands, on one of which Enrique (a slave of Magellan, born in Sumatra) met people who spoke his native language. As they write in history textbooks: “the circle is closed”, man for the first time went around Earth.

On April 27, Ferdinand Magellan died in battles with the local population on the island of Mactan. He was 41 years old. The first trip around the world continued without him.
The sailors had to round the cape Good Hope and along west coast Africa return home.

On September 6, 1522, the Victoria, the only surviving ship of the five that set sail, reached Spain. There were 18 survivors. Another 18 people returned home from Portuguese captivity a few months later. The rest died: many from scurvy, others during mutinies and battles with the natives.

Those who returned home were the first people to lose a day while circumnavigating the world. Their calendar was a whole day behind the calendar of their compatriots. Then Jules Verne described this phenomenon in his novel Around the World in 80 Days. And today this time difference is not a problem due to the introduction of local time, different from universal time.

The expedition led by Magellan was successful not only educationally, but also commercially. The value of the cargo from the ship "Victoria" paid for all the expenses of the voyage, and brought significant profits to those who gave money to carry out the enterprise. Magellan was not destined to meet a prosperous old age in his homeland, but judging by his actions, this was not what he dreamed of.

And the names of the 18 who returned to Spain after the First Voyage around the World can be found on Wikipedia: captain, sailors, pilots, cabin boy, gunner, cabin boy's mate.

This is interesting. History is made by people, people with destiny and biography.

After Balboa discovered the South Sea, the Spaniards became very suspicious of the appearance of Portuguese ships in Caribbean waters. Spanish authorities on the island. Hispaniola (Haiti) at the end of 1512 received an order from King Ferdinand to “monitor the non-existent strait” and seize any ship. The first casualty of this order was the Portuguese captain Isteván Frois in 1512, hunting for slaves off the northern shores South America. His caravel required repairs, 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 Froish, under the command of Joao Lizboa, already familiar to us, managed to disappear and safely reach Madeira; then, apparently without fear, he entered the Spanish port of Cadiz, where he sold his cargo of brazil wood. In the port or in Madeira, as they now say, he was interviewed by a “correspondent” of a small newspaper published in Augsburg.

It is difficult to say whether the Spaniards knew about the voyage of Froish and Lizboa, but it is certain 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. He appointed Juan Diaz Solis as its commander, who became the main pilot of Castile in 1512 (after Amerigo Vespucci). Solis sailed no earlier than October 8, 1515, but it is not known where he touched the South American continent, and, moving along the Brazilian coast deviating to the southwest, at 35 ° S. w. reached the new "Fresh Sea". He then rounded a minor protrusion (Montevideo) and traveled west for about 200 km, probably convinced that he had found a passage to the Eastern Ocean. But he opened the mouths of two

big rivers

- Parana and Uruguay.

Solis landed on shore in mid-February 1516 and was killed there by 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 mid-16th century - La Plata). Magellan's project and the composition of his expedition IN a poor Portuguese nobleman took part in the conquest of India and Malacca from 1505 to 1511 Ferdinand Magellan - that’s what they call him; His real name is Magalhães. He was born around 1480 in Portugal, in 1509 and 1511. on Portuguese ships 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. Insulted, Magellan left for Spain and entered into company with a Portuguese astronomer. Rui Faleiro , who claimed that he had found a way to accurately determine geographical longitudes . In March 1518, both appeared in Seville at the Council of the Indies An institution in charge of the affairs of the newly discovered territories.

After a long bargaining with the royal advisers, who negotiated for themselves 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 supply the expedition with supplies for two years. Before sailing, Faleiro abandoned the enterprise, and Magellan, undoubtedly the soul of the whole affair, became the sole leader of the expedition. He raised the admiral's flag on the Trinidad (100 tons). The Spaniards were appointed captains of the remaining ships: “San Antonio” (120 tons) - Juan Cartagena , who also received the powers of the royal controller of the expedition; "Concepcion" (90 t) - Gaspar Quesada ;"Victoria" (85 t) - Luis Mendoza and “Santiago” (75 t) - Juan Serrano. The staff of the entire flotilla numbered 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, a very important primary source is the entries in the ship's logs that Francisco Albo, the assistant navigator, kept on the Trinidad. An international team set off on the first voyage around the world: in addition to the Portuguese and Spaniards, it included representatives of more than 10 nationalities. On September 1519, the flotilla left the port of San Lucar at the mouth of the Guadalquivir. While crossing the ocean, Magellan developed good system.

On September 26, the flotilla approached the Canary Islands, and on November 29 reached the coast of Brazil near 8° S. sh., December 13 - Guanabara Bay, and December 26 - La Plata. The expedition's navigators were the best at that time: while determining latitudes, they made adjustments to the map of the already known part of the continent. Thus, Cape Cabo Frio, by their definition, is not located at 25° south. sh., and at 23° S. w. - their error was less than 2 km from its true position. Not trusting the reports of Solis's satellites, Magellan explored both low-lying banks of La Plata for about a month; Continuing the discovery of the flat territory of Pampa, begun by Lizboa and Solis, he sent the Santiago up the Paraná, and, of course, did not find a passage to the South Sea. Further on stretched an unknown, sparsely populated land. And Magellan, fearing to miss the entrance to the elusive strait, on February 2, 1520, ordered to weigh anchor and move as close to the coast as possible only during the day, and stop in the evening. In the parking lot on February 13 in what he discovered big bay The Bahia Blanca flotilla endured a terrifying thunderstorm, during which St. Elmo's lights appeared on the ships' masts. On February 24, Magellan discovered another large bay - San Magias, rounded the Valdez Peninsula he had identified and took refuge for the night in a small harbor, which he named Puerto San Matias (Golfo Nuevo Bay on our maps, at 43° S latitude) . To the south, near the mouth of the river.

Chubut, on February 27, the flotilla came across a huge concentration 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, in order not to die from the cold, covered themselves with the bodies of killed animals. Having collected the “procurers,” Magellan moved south, pursued by storms, explored another bay, San Jorge, and spent six stormy days in a narrow bay (the estuary of the Rio Deseado River, near 48° S). On March 31, when the approach of winter became noticeable, he decided to spend the winter in San Julian Bay (at 49° S). Four ships entered the bay, and the Trinidad stood at anchor at the entrance to it. The Spanish officers wanted to force Magellan to “follow the royal instructions”: turn to the Cape of Good Hope and take the eastern route to the Moluccas. That same night a riot began. with several sailors on the Victoria - invite her captain for negotiations on the admiral's ship. He refused, then Alguacil thrust a dagger into his throat, and one sailor finished him off. Magellan's brother-in-law, the Portuguese Duarte Barbosa, immediately took possession of the Victoria and was appointed her captain. Now the rebels had only two ships, and to prevent them from deserting, the prudent admiral, as mentioned above, took up a convenient position in advance at the exit of the bay. The San Antonio tried to break into the ocean, but the sailors, after a salvo from the Trinidad, tied up the officers and surrendered. The same thing happened at Concepción. Magellan dealt harshly with the rebel captains: he ordered Quesada's head to be cut off, Mendoza's corpse to be quartered, Cartagena to be landed on the deserted shore along with the conspirator-priest, but he spared the rest of the rebels.

At the beginning of May, the admiral sent Serrano to the south on the Santiago for reconnaissance, but on May 3 the ship crashed on the rocks near the river. Santa Cruz (at 50° S) and its crew barely managed to escape (one sailor died).

Magellan transferred Serrano as captain to the Concepción. Very tall Indians approached the wintering site. They were called Patagonians (in Spanish “patagon” means big-footed), their country has since been 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 really 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 San Julian Bay and reached the mouth of Santa Cruz, where it remained until mid-October, waiting for the onset of spring. On October 18, the flotilla moved south along the Patagonian coast, which forms in this area (between 50 and 52° S) the wide bay of Bahia Grande. Before going 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 a strait to 75 south. sh., i.e. he himself doubted the existence of the “Patagonian Strait”, but wanted to continue the enterprise until the last opportunity. A bay or strait leading to the west was found on October 21, 1520, beyond 52° S. sh., after Magellan discovered the previously unknown Atlantic coast South America for about 3.5 thousand km (between 34 and 52° S).

Having rounded Cape Dev (Cabo Virgenes), the admiral sent two ships forward to find out whether there was access to the open sea in the west. At night a storm arose that lasted two days. The sent ships were in danger of death, but at the most difficult moment they noticed a narrow strait, rushed forward and found themselves in a relatively wide bay; They continued along it and saw another strait, behind which a new, wider bay opened.

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

Artist: Bernard van Orley

Then the captains of both ships - Mishkita and Serrano - decided to return and report to Magellan that, apparently, they had 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 began to fire their guns and noisily greet us.” However, it was still far from reaching the South Sea: Magellan walked south through narrow straits for several days until he saw two channels near the island. Dawson: one to the southeast, the other to the southwest.

He sent the San Antonio and 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 shed tears of joy and named this cape Desired. "Trinidad" and "Victoria" entered the southwest channel, stood at anchor there waiting for four days and returned back to join two other ships, but only the "Concepcion" was there: in the southeast it reached a dead end - in Inutil Bay - and turned back. San Antonio hit another dead end; on the way back, not finding the flotilla in place, the officers wounded and shackled Mishkita and at the end of March 1521 returned to Spain. The deserters accused Magellan of treason to justify themselves, and they were believed: Mishkita was arrested, Magellan’s family was deprived of government 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 northern shore. The high mountains (the southern end of the Patagonian Cordillera) and bare shores seemed to be deserted, but in the south haze was visible during the day and the lights of fires at night. And Magellan called this southern land, the size of which he did not know, “Land of Fire” (Tierra del Fuego). According to another version, he called southern country“Land of Smokes” (hearths) - Tierra de los Humos (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 later, after Magellan had found the Atlantic entrance to the strait that actually connected the two oceans, he passed Cape Desired (now Pilar) at the Pacific outlet of the Strait of Magellan (about 550 km).

So, Magellan left the strait into the open ocean on November 28, 1520 and led the remaining three ships first north, trying to quickly leave the cold high latitudes and staying about 100 km from the rocky coast. On December 1, it passed near the Taitao Peninsula (at 47° S), and then the ships moved away from the mainland - on December 5, the maximum distance was 300 km. On December 12 - 15, Magellan again came quite close to the coast at 40° and 38°30" S, that is, he saw high mountains- Patagonian Cordillera and southern part Main Cordillera. From Fr. Mocha (38 ° 30 "S) the ships turned to the northwest, and on December 21, being at 30 ° S and 80 ° W, - to the west-northwest.

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

“...We... plunged into the vastness Pacific sea. For three months and twenty days we were completely deprived of fresh food. We ate crackers, but they were no longer crackers, but cracker dust mixed with worms... It smelled strongly of rat urine. We drank yellow water that had been rotting for many days. We also ate cowhide covering the yards... We soaked them in sea water for four to five days, after which we placed them on hot coals for a few minutes and ate them. We often ate sawdust.

Rats were sold for half a ducat apiece, but even for that price it was impossible to get them” (Pigafetta). Almost everyone suffered from scurvy; 19 people died, including a Brazilian and a Patagonian "giant". Fortunately, the weather was good all the time: that is why Magellan called the ocean Pacific. It was probably during their passage across the Pacific Ocean in the southern hemisphere that Magellan's satellites noticed two star systems, which later became known as the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. “The south pole is not as stellar as the north,” writes Pigafetta, “clusters are visible here large number

small stars resembling clouds of dust. There is little distance between them and they are somewhat dim. Among them are two large, but not very bright stars, moving very slowly.” He meant the two stars of the circumpolar constellation Hydra. The Spaniards also discovered “five unusually brightly sparkling stars arranged in a cross...” - the constellation Cross, or Southern Cross. Crossing the Pacific Ocean, Magellan's flotilla covered at least 17 thousand km, most of them in the waters of Southern Polynesia and Micronesia, where countless small islands are scattered. It is amazing that during this entire time the sailors encountered only “two deserted islands, on which they found only 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, i.e. "Sharks", February 4) - at 10° 40" S. w. Magellan and Albo determined latitude very accurately for that time, but since the correct calculation of longitude in the 16th century. Needless to say, it is impossible to confidently identify these islands with any islands on our maps. It is most likely that San Pablo is one of the northeastern islands of the Tuamotu archipelago, Tivurones is one of southern islands Line (Central Polynesia)., which can be classified as "scientific". He was unable to reach the bottom with the help of six connected lines of several hundred fathoms and came to the conclusion that he had discovered the deepest part of the ocean.

Historians are puzzled why Magellan crossed the equator and went beyond 10° N. w. - He knew that the Moluccas are located at the equator. But that’s where the South Sea lies, already known to the Spaniards. Perhaps Magellan wanted to make sure whether it was really 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 balance beams came out to meet the strangers. They sailed using triangular “Latin” sails made from palm leaves. Guam (13°30" N) has inhabitants who are dark-skinned, well-built people, naked, Women wore loincloths, "a narrow strip of paper-thin bark."

but wearing small hats made of palm leaves, they climbed onto the ship and grabbed everything that caught their eye, as a result of which this group was called the “Robber Islands” (Ladrones).

When the islanders stole a boat tied behind the stern, an irritated Magellan went ashore with a detachment, burned dozens of 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, he swung the end of the arrow in all directions, pulled it out, looked at it with great amazement, and so died...” On March 15, 1521, having traveled about another 2 thousand km to the west, the sailors saw mountains rising from the sea - it was about. Samar is an East Asian group of islands later called the Philippines. Magellan looked in vain for a place to anchor - the rocky coast of the island did not offer a single chance. The ships moved a little south, to the island of Siargao near the southern tip of the island. Samar (at 10 ° 45 "N) and spent the night there. The length of the path traveled by Magellan from South America to the Philippines turned out to be many times greater than the distance that was 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 expanse of water, much wider Atlantic Ocean

Out of caution, Magellan moved from Siargao to desert island 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 Philippine islands except Fr. Luzon. lying south of the big island. Samar to stock up on water and give people a rest. Residents of the neighboring island delivered fruits, coconuts and palm wine to the Spaniards. They reported 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 from the local elder. A week later, the flotilla moved southwest and stopped at about. Limasawa (10°N, 125°E, south of Leyte Island). A boat approached the Trinidad. And when the Malayan Enrique, Magellan's slave, called out to the rowers in his native 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 himself to them. It became clear to Magellan that he was in that part of the Old World where the Malay language was widespread, that is, not far from the “Spice Islands” or among them.

And Magellan, who visited about. Ambon (128° E) as part of the expedition of A. Abreu, thus completed the first circumnavigation in history. The ruler of the island gave Magellan pilots who accompanied the ships to the large trading port of Cebu. In Albo's journal and in Pigafetta, new island names appear for Europeans - Leyte, Bohol, Cebu, etc. Western European historians call this the discovery of the Philippines, although they had 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, if he recognizes himself as a vassal of the Spanish king. The ruler of Cebu accepted the offer and a week later he was even baptized along with his family and several hundred subjects. Soon, according to Pigafetta, “all the inhabitants of this island and some from other islands” were baptized. On about. Cebu, he talked with several Arab merchants, who gave him information about other islands of the archipelago. As a result, for the first time, names such as Luzon, Mindanao and Sulu entered into geographical use with minor distortions.

As the patron of new Christians, Magellan intervened in the internecine war of the rulers of the island of Mactan, located opposite 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 get close to the shore. Magellan, leaving crossbowmen and musketeers in the boats, waded to the island with 50 people. There, near the village, three detachments were waiting for them and attacked. The boats began firing at them, but arrows and even musket bullets at such a distance could not penetrate the wooden shields of the attackers. Magellan ordered the village to be set on fire. This enraged the Mactanians, and they began to shower the strangers with arrows and stones and throw spears at them. “... Our people, with the exception of six or eight people who remained with the captain, immediately fled... Having recognized the captain, many people attacked him... but still he continued to hold firm. Trying to pull out his sword, he only drew it halfway, as he was wounded in the arm... One [of the attackers] wounded him in the left leg... The captain fell face down, and then they pelted him... with spears and began to strike him with cutlasses, until they destroyed... our light, our joy... He kept turning back to see if we had all managed to get into the boats” (Pigafetta). In addition to Magellan, eight Spaniards and four allied islanders died. There were many wounded among the sailors. The old saying was confirmed: “God gave the Portuguese a very small country to live in, but the whole world to die.”

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 Concepción pilot, Portuguese Joao Lopes Carvalho - returned, suspecting evil. Hearing screams and cries on the shore, they ordered the ships to come closer to the shore and fire their guns at the city. At this time, the Spaniards saw Serrano wounded, wearing only his 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 be ransomed, but Corvalho forbade the boat to approach the shore. “...And he did this with the goal,” writes Pigafetta, “so that they alone would remain masters of 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 left.” Immediately, Carvalho was declared the head of the expedition, and Espinosa was elected captain of the Victoria. There were 115 people left on the ships, many of them sick. It was difficult to manage three ships with such a crew, so the dilapidated Concepcion was burned in the strait between the islands of Cebu and Bohol.

"Victoria" and "Trinidad", leaving the strait, passed an island "where the people are black, like in Ethiopia" (the first reference to the Philippine Negritos); The Spaniards named this island Negros. In Mindanao, they first heard about the large island located to the northwest.

Pigafetta made productive use of the Victoria's month-long stay - he spent almost the entire month of July as a guest of the Sultan of Brunei and collected the first reliable information about Fr.

Kalimantan: “This island is so large that it would take three months to circumnavigate it in a prau” (Malayan ship). On September 7, the Spaniards set sail along the northwestern coast of Kalimantan During this detour, Pigafetta saw a rocky peak and dubbed it “Mount St. Peter” - this is Kinabalu (4101 m), highest point Malay Archipelago. and, having reached its northern end, stood for almost a month and a half at 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 removed “for failure to comply with royal decrees” and Espinosa was elected admiral. The former assistant navigator on the Concepción, a Basque, became the captain of the Victoria. Juan Sevastian Elcano

, otherwise - del Cano. On October 26, in the Sulawesi Sea, the ships weathered the first storm after leaving the Strait of Magellan. On November 8, a Malay sailor led the ships to the spice market on the island. Tidore, off the western coast of Halmahera, the largest of the Moluccas Islands.

Here the Spaniards bought spices cheaply - cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves. The Trinidad needed repairs, and it was decided that upon completion, Espinosa would go east to the Gulf of Panama, and Elcano would take the Victoria to her homeland by the western route, around the Cape of Good Hope.

Having passed first in this part of the Indian Ocean, Elcano proved that the “Southern” continent does not reach 40° S. w. 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, owned by Portugal, where a stop was made to replenish supplies of fresh water and food, it turned out that the sailors “lost” one day, going around the land from the west; For this “loss”, all surviving members of the Victoria crew were subjected to humiliating punishment - public repentance: from a church point of view, such “negligence” led to incorrect observance of fasts. This fact is a vivid illustration of the ignorance of the clergy, who refused to even suggest the possibility of a natural explanation interesting fact“loss” of the day, which first appeared during the circumnavigation of Magellan and his companions. here, near Santiago, 12 more Spaniards and one Malay fell behind, arrested on suspicion of having reached the Moluccas by the eastern route. On September 6, 1522, the Victoria, having lost another sailor along the way, reached the mouth of the Guadalquivir, completing the first circumnavigation in history in 1081 days.

Of Magellan's five ships, only one circumnavigated the globe, and of his crew of 265 people, only 18 returned home (there were three Malays on board). 13 sailors arrested on Santngu arrived home later, released by the Portuguese at the request of Charles I. But Victoria brought so many spices that their sale more than covered the costs of the expedition, and Spain received the “right of first discovery” to the Mariana and Philippine Islands and laid claim to the Moluccas.

Magellan, with his circumnavigation of the world, proved that the greatest expanse of water stretches between America and Asia, and established the existence of a single World Ocean. Magellan put an end to the debate about the shape of our planet forever by providing practical evidence of its spherical shape. Thanks to him, scientists finally had the opportunity to establish the true size of the Earth not speculatively, but on the basis of irrefutable data.

The repair of the Trinidad took 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 cargo of spices only on April 6, 1522. Having rounded the northern end of the island. Halmahera, Espinosa immediately headed east, towards Panama. However, contrary winds soon forced him to turn north. In early May, he discovered the Sonsorol Islands (at 5° N, in the extreme west of the Caroline chain), and between 12 and 20° N. w. - 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. Fighting easterly winds, stormy weather and cold, Espinosa reached 43° N on June 11. w. Now we can only guess how far to the east the ship moved - probably the Spaniards were between 150 and 160° east. d. A 12-day storm, bad food and weakness forced the sailors to turn back. By this time, more than half of the team had died from hunger and scurvy. 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. The sailor who deserted from Maug Gonzalo Vigo later went by boat to Fr. Guam with the help of the indigenous people. Having become acquainted in this way with almost all the significant islands between Maug and Guam, he completed the discovery of the Mariana chain, which stretches more than 800 km.

Meanwhile, in mid-May 1522, a Portuguese military flotilla approached the Moluccas Antonio Brito. Carrying out the task of taking possession of the archipelago and preventing the violation of the Portuguese monopoly, he built a fort on the island. Ternate. Having received news at the end of October that a European ship was near the Moluccas, Brito sent three ships with orders to capture it, and they brought the Trinidad to Ternate, which had 22 people. Britu seized the cargo and took away the nautical instruments, charts and, no doubt, the ship's log. This explains the Portuguese’s awareness of the path of Magellan’s expedition, his death and subsequent events, and Brito received additional information by interrogating “with passion” the sailors he captured. After a four-year imprisonment, only four of the Trinidad crew survived and in 1526 returned to Spain, including Gonzalo Espinosa, also completing a circumnavigation.

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Hello, dear readers of the Sprint-Response website. The TV game “Field of Miracles” has started on Channel One. Let me remind you that today is March 16, 2018 on our calendars. The program is dedicated to the navigator Fernand Magellan.

This is what the question of the first round sounds like from the mouth of the show’s host, Leonid Yakubovich. The question turned out to be not difficult.

The first trip around the world under the command of Ferdinand Magellan lasted three years. What was one of the main goals of organizing this unique expedition? What is this, what are we talking about?

8 letter word.

What was the purpose of Magellan's trip around the world?

The idea of the expedition was in many ways a repetition of Columbus's idea: to reach Asia by heading west. The colonization of America had not yet brought significant profits, unlike the Portuguese colonies in India, and the Spaniards wanted to sail to the Spice Islands themselves and benefit.

The first circumnavigation of the world, a Spanish naval expedition led by Ferdinand Magellan, began on September 20, 1519 and ended on September 6, 1522. The expedition was staffed by a large team (according to various estimates, 265-280 people) on 5 ships. As a result of mutinies, a difficult crossing of the Pacific Ocean and clashes with the population of the Philippines and the Spice Islands, the team was greatly reduced. Only one ship, the Victoria, managed to return to Spain with 18 people on board.

June 26th, 2015
It was a time when ships were built from wood,

and the people who controlled them were forged from steel

Ask anyone, and he will tell you that the first person to circumnavigate the world was the Portuguese navigator and explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who died on the island of Mactan (Philippines) during an armed skirmish with the natives (1521). The same is written in history books. In fact, this is a myth. After all, it turns out that one excludes the other. Magellan managed to go only half of the way. Primus circumdedisti me (you were the first to circumvent me) - reads the Latin inscription on the coat of arms of Juan Sebastian Elcano crowned with a globe. Indeed, Elcano was the first person to commit.

circumnavigation

Let's find out in more detail how this happened...

Much in Elcano’s biography is still unclear. Oddly enough, the man who first circumnavigated the globe did not attract the attention of artists and historians of his time. There is not even a reliable portrait of him, and of the documents he wrote, only letters to the king, petitions and a will have survived.

Juan Sebastian Elcano was born in 1486 in Getaria, a small port town in the Basque Country, near San Sebastian. He early connected his own destiny with the sea, making a “career” that was not uncommon for an enterprising person of that time - first changing the job of a fisherman to being a smuggler, and later enlisting in the navy to avoid punishment for his too free attitude towards laws and trade duties. Elcano managed to take part in the Italian Wars and the Spanish military campaign in Algeria in 1509. Basque mastered maritime affairs well in practice when he was a smuggler, but it was in the navy that Elcano received the “correct” education in the field of navigation and astronomy.

In 1510, Elcano, the owner and captain of a ship, took part in the siege of Tripoli. But the Spanish Treasury refused to pay Elcano the amount due for settlements with the crew. Having left military service, which never seriously seduced the young adventurer low earnings and the need to maintain discipline, Elcano decides to start new life in Seville. It seems to Basque that a brilliant future awaits him - in his new city, no one knows about his not entirely impeccable past, the navigator atoned for his guilt before the law in battles with the enemies of Spain, he has official papers allowing him to work as a captain on a merchant ship ... But the trading enterprises in which Elcano becomes a participant turn out to be unprofitable.

In 1517, to pay off debts, he sold the ship under his command to Genoese bankers - and this trading operation determined his entire fate. The fact is that the owner of the sold ship was not Elcano himself, but the Spanish crown, and the Basque, as expected, again had difficulties with the law, this time threatening him with the death penalty. At that time it was considered a serious crime. Knowing that the court would not take into account any excuses, Elcano fled to Seville, where it was easy to get lost and then hide on any ship: in those days, captains were least interested in the biographies of their people. In addition, there were many of Elcano’s fellow countrymen in Seville, and one of them, Ibarolla, was well acquainted with Magellan. He helped Elcano enlist in Magellan's flotilla. Having passed the exams and received beans as a sign of a good grade (those who failed received peas from the examination committee), Elcano became a helmsman on the third largest ship in the flotilla, the Concepcion.

Ships of Magellan's flotilla

On September 20, 1519, Magellan's flotilla left the mouth of the Guadalquivir and headed for the shores of Brazil. In April 1520, when the ships settled for the winter in the frosty and deserted Bay of San Julian, the captains dissatisfied with Magellan mutinied. Elcano found himself drawn into it, not daring to disobey his commander, captain of the Concepcion Quesada.

Magellan energetically and brutally suppressed the rebellion: Quesada and another of the leaders of the conspiracy had their heads cut off, the corpses were quartered and the mutilated remains were stuck on poles. Magellan ordered Captain Cartagena and one priest, also the instigator of the rebellion, to be landed on the deserted shore of the bay, where they subsequently died. Magellan spared the remaining forty rebels, including Elcano.

1. The first circumnavigation in history

On November 28, 1520, the remaining three ships left the strait and in March 1521, after an unprecedentedly difficult passage across the Pacific Ocean, they approached the islands, which later became known as the Marianas. That same month Magellan discovered Philippine Islands, and on April 27, 1521 he died in a skirmish with local residents on the island of Matan. Elcano, stricken with scurvy, did not take part in this skirmish. After the death of Magellan, Duarte Barbosa and Juan Serrano were elected captains of the flotilla. At the head of a small detachment, they went ashore to the Rajah of Sebu and were treacherously killed. Fate again - for the umpteenth time - spared Elcano. Karvalyo became the head of the flotilla. But there were only 115 people left on the three ships; There are many sick people among them. Therefore, the Concepcion was burned in the strait between the islands of Cebu and Bohol; and his team moved to the other two ships - Victoria and Trinidad. Both ships wandered between the islands for a long time, until finally, on November 8, 1521, they dropped anchor off the island of Tidore, one of the “Spice Islands” - the Moluccas. Then it was generally decided to continue sailing on one ship - the Victoria, of which Elcano had recently become captain, and leave the Trinidad in the Moluccas. And Elcano managed to guide his worm-eaten ship with a starving crew through Indian Ocean and along the coast of Africa. A third of the team died, about a third were detained by the Portuguese, but still “Victoria” entered the mouth of the Guadalquivir on September 8, 1522.

It was an unprecedented transition, unheard of in the history of navigation. Contemporaries wrote that Elcano surpassed King Solomon, the Argonauts and the cunning Odysseus. The first circumnavigation in history has been completed! The king granted the navigator an annual pension of 500 gold ducats and knighted Elcano. The coat of arms assigned to Elcano (since then del Cano) immortalized his voyage. The coat of arms depicted two cinnamon sticks framed with nutmeg and cloves, and a golden castle topped with a helmet. Above the helmet is a globe with the Latin inscription: “You were the first to circle me.” And finally, by a special decree, the king granted Elcano a pardon for selling the ship to a foreigner. But if it was quite simple to reward and forgive the brave captain, then to resolve everything controversial issues related to the fate of the Moluccas turned out to be more complicated. The Spanish-Portuguese Congress met for a long time, but was never able to “divide” the islands located on the other side of the “apple of the earth” between the two powerful powers. And the Spanish government decided not to delay the departure of the second expedition to the Moluccas.

2. Goodbye La Coruña

La Coruña was considered the safest port in Spain, which “could accommodate all the fleets of the world.” The importance of the city increased even more when the Chamber of Indian Affairs was temporarily transferred here from Seville. This chamber developed plans for a new expedition to the Moluccas in order to finally establish Spanish dominance on these islands. Elcano arrived in La Coruña full of bright hopes - he already saw himself as an admiral of the armada - and began equipping the flotilla. However, Charles I appointed as commander not Elcano, but a certain Jofre de Loais, a participant in many naval battles, but completely unfamiliar with navigation. Elcano's pride was deeply wounded. In addition, from the royal chancellery came the “highest refusal” to Elcano’s request for payment of the annual pension granted to him of 500 gold ducats: the king ordered that this amount be paid only after returning from the expedition. Thus, Elcano experienced the traditional ingratitude of the Spanish crown towards famous navigators.

Before sailing, Elcano visited his native Getaria, where he, a famous sailor, easily managed to recruit many volunteers onto his ships: with a man who has walked around the “apple of the earth,” you will not be lost in the devil’s mouth, the port brethren reasoned. In the early summer of 1525, Elcano brought his four ships to A Coruña and was appointed helmsman and deputy commander of the flotilla. In total, the flotilla consisted of seven ships and 450 crew members. There were no Portuguese on this expedition. The last night before the flotilla sailed in La Coruña it was very lively and solemn. At midnight, a huge fire was lit on Mount Hercules, on the site of the ruins of a Roman lighthouse. The city said goodbye to the sailors. The cries of the townspeople who treated the sailors with wine from leather bottles, the sobs of women and the hymns of pilgrims mixed with the sounds of the cheerful dance “La Muneira”. The sailors of the flotilla remembered this night for a long time. They were sent to another hemisphere, and they now faced a life full of dangers and hardships. For the last time, Elcano walked under the narrow arch of Puerto de San Miguel and descended the sixteen pink steps to the shore. These steps, already completely erased, have survived to this day.

Death of Magellan

3. The misfortunes of the chief helmsman

Loaiza's powerful, well-armed flotilla set sail on July 24, 1525. According to the royal instructions, and Loaysa had fifty-three in total, the flotilla was to follow the path of Magellan, but avoid his mistakes. But neither Elcano, the king's chief adviser, nor the king himself foresaw that this would be the last expedition sent through the Strait of Magellan. It was Loaisa's expedition that was destined to prove that this was not the most profitable path. And all subsequent expeditions to Asia were sent from the Pacific ports of New Spain (Mexico).

On July 26, the ships rounded Cape Finisterre. On August 18, the ships were caught in a strong storm. The main mast on the admiral's ship was broken, but two carpenters sent by Elcano, risking their lives, still got there in a small boat. While the mast was being repaired, the flagship collided with the Parral, breaking its mizzenmast. The swimming was very difficult. There was not enough fresh water and provisions. Who knows what the fate of the expedition would have been if on October 20 the lookout had not seen the island of Annobon in the Gulf of Guinea on the horizon. The island was deserted - only a few skeletons lay under a tree on which a strange inscription was carved: “Here lies the unfortunate Juan Ruiz, killed because he deserved it.” Superstitious sailors saw this as a terrible omen. The ships hastily filled with water and stocked up on provisions. On this occasion, the captains and officers of the flotilla were convened for a festive dinner with the admiral, which almost ended tragically.

A huge, unknown breed of fish was served on the table. According to Urdaneta, Elcano’s page and chronicler of the expedition, some sailors who “tasted the meat of this fish, which had teeth like a large dog, had such stomach pain that they thought they would not survive.” Soon the entire flotilla left the shores of inhospitable Annobon. From here Loaisa decided to sail to the shores of Brazil. And from that moment on, a streak of misfortune began for the Sancti Espiritus, Elcano’s ship. Without having time to set sail, the Sancti Espiritus almost collided with the admiral's ship, and then fell behind the flotilla for some time. At latitude 31º, after a strong storm, the admiral's ship disappeared from sight. Elcano took command of the remaining ships. Then the San Gabriel separated from the flotilla. The remaining five ships searched for the admiral's ship for three days. The search was unsuccessful, and Elcano ordered to move on to the Strait of Magellan.

On January 12, the ships stood at the mouth of the Santa Cruz River, and since neither the admiral's ship nor the San Gabriel approached here, Elcano convened a council. Knowing from the experience of a previous voyage that there was an excellent anchorage here, he suggested waiting for both ships, as was provided for in the instructions. However, the officers, who were eager to enter the strait as quickly as possible, advised leaving only the Santiago pinnace at the mouth of the river, burying a message in a jar under the cross on the island that the ships were heading to the Strait of Magellan. On the morning of January 14, the flotilla weighed anchor. But what Elcano took for a strait turned out to be the mouth of the Gallegos River, five or six miles from the strait. Urdaneta, who, despite his admiration for Elcano. retained the ability to be critical of his decisions, writes that Elcano’s mistake really amazed him. That same day they approached the present entrance to the strait and anchored at the Cape of the Eleven Thousand Holy Virgins.

An exact copy of the ship "Victoria"

At night a terrible storm hit the flotilla. The raging waves flooded the ship to the middle of the masts, and it could barely stay on four anchors. Elcano realized that everything was lost. His only thought now was to save the team. He ordered the ship to be grounded. Panic began on the Sancti Espiritus. Several soldiers and sailors rushed into the water in horror; everyone drowned except one, who managed to reach the shore. Then the rest crossed to the shore. We managed to save some of the provisions. However, at night the storm broke out with the same force and finally destroyed the Sancti Espiritus. For Elcano, the captain, the first circumnavigator and chief helmsman of the expedition, the crash, especially through his fault, was a big blow. Elcano had never been in such a difficult situation. When the storm finally subsided, the captains of other ships sent a boat for Elcano, inviting him to lead them through the Strait of Magellan, since he had been here before. Elcano agreed, but took only Urdaneta with him. He left the rest of the sailors on the shore...

But failures did not leave the exhausted flotilla. From the very beginning, one of the ships almost ran into rocks, and only Elcano’s determination saved the ship. After some time, Elcano sent Urdaneta with a group of sailors to pick up the sailors left on the shore. Urdaneta's group soon ran out of provisions. It was very cold at night, and people were forced to bury themselves up to their necks in sand, which also did little to warm them. On the fourth day, Urdaneta and his companions approached the sailors dying on the shore from hunger and cold, and on the same day Loaiza’s ship, the San Gabriel, and the pinassa Santiago entered the mouth of the strait. On January 20, they joined the rest of the flotilla.

JUAN SEBASTIAN ELCANO

On February 5, a strong storm broke out again. Elcano's ship took refuge in the strait, and the San Lesmes was thrown further south by the storm, to 54° 50′ south latitude, that is, it approached the very tip of Tierra del Fuego. In those days, not a single ship sailed further south. A little more, and the expedition could open a route around Cape Horn. After the storm, it turned out that the admiral's ship was aground, and Loaiza and his crew left the ship. Elcano immediately sent a group of his best sailors to help the admiral. On the same day, the Anunciada deserted. The captain of the ship, de Vera, decided to independently get to the Moluccas past the Cape of Good Hope. The Anunciada has gone missing. A few days later, the San Gabriel also deserted. The remaining ships returned to the mouth of the Santa Cruz River, where the sailors began repairing the admiral's ship, which had been battered by storms. Under other conditions it would have had to be abandoned altogether, but now that the flotilla had lost three largest ship, this could no longer be afforded. Elcano, who, on his return to Spain, had criticized Magellan for staying at the mouth of this river for seven weeks, was now forced to spend five weeks here. At the end of March, the somehow patched up ships again headed for the Strait of Magellan. The expedition now consisted of only an admiral's ship, two caravels and a pinnace.

On April 5, the ships entered the Strait of Magellan. Between the islands of Santa Maria and Santa Magdalena, the admiral's ship suffered another misfortune. A boiler filled with boiling tar caught fire and a fire broke out on the ship.

Panic began, many sailors rushed to the boat, not paying attention to Loaiza, who showered them with curses. The fire was still extinguished. The flotilla moved on through the strait, along the banks of which at high mountain peaks, “so high that they seemed to stretch to the very sky,” lay eternal bluish snow. At night, Patagonian fires burned on both sides of the strait. Elcano was already familiar with these lights from his first voyage. On April 25, the ships weighed anchor from the San Jorge parking lot, where they replenished their supplies of water and firewood, and again set off on a difficult voyage.

And there, where the waves of both oceans meet with a deafening roar, a storm struck Loaisa's flotilla again. The ships anchored in the bay of San Juan de Portalina. On the shore of the bay rose mountains several thousand feet high. It was terribly cold, and “no clothing could warm us,” writes Urdaneta. Elcano was on the flagship the entire time: Loaiza, having no relevant experience, relied entirely on Elcano. The passage through the strait lasted forty-eight days - ten days more than Magellan. On May 31, a strong northeast wind blew. The whole sky was overcast. On the night of June 1 to 2, a storm broke out, the most terrible that had occurred so far, scattering all the ships. Although the weather later improved, they were never destined to meet. Elcano, with most of the crew of the Sancti Espiritus, was now on the admiral's ship, which numbered one hundred and twenty people. Two pumps did not have time to pump out the water; it was feared that the ship could sink at any minute. In general, the ocean was Great, but by no means Quiet.

4. The helmsman dies as an admiral

The ship was sailing alone; neither sail nor island were visible on the vast horizon. “Every day,” writes Urdaneta, “we waited for the end. Due to the fact that people from the wrecked ship moved to us, we are forced to reduce rations. We worked hard and ate little. We had to endure great hardships and some of us died.” Loaiza died on July 30. According to one of the expedition members, the cause of his death was loss of spirit; he was so worried about the loss of the remaining ships that he “became weaker and died.” Loayza did not forget to mention his chief helmsman in his will: “I ask that Elcano be returned the four barrels of white wine that I owe him. Let the crackers and other provisions lying on my ship Santa Maria de la Victoria be given to my nephew Alvaro de Loaiza, who should share them with Elcano.” They say that by this time only rats remained on the ship. Many on the ship suffered from scurvy. Wherever Elcano looked, everywhere he saw swollen pale faces and heard the groans of the sailors.

From the time they left the strait, thirty people died of scurvy. “They all died,” writes Urdaneta, “because their gums were swollen and they could not eat anything. I saw a man whose gums were so swollen that he tore off pieces of meat as thick as a finger.” The sailors had one hope - Elcano. They, in spite of everything, believed in his lucky star, although he was so ill that four days before Loaisa's death he himself made a will. A cannon salute was given in honor of Elcano's assumption of the post of admiral, a position for which he had unsuccessfully sought two years earlier. But Elcano's strength was running out. The day came when the admiral could no longer get out of bed. His relatives and his faithful Urdaneta gathered in the cabin. In the flickering light of the candle one could see how thin they had become and how much they had suffered. Urdaneta kneels and touches the body of her dying master with one hand. The priest watches him closely. Finally he raises his hand, and everyone present slowly kneels. Elcano's wanderings are over...

“Monday, August 6th. The valiant Senor Juan Sebastian de Elcano has died." This is how Urdaneta noted in his diary the death of the great navigator.

Four people lift the body of Juan Sebastian, wrapped in a shroud and tied to a board. At a sign from the new admiral, they throw him into the sea. There was a splash that drowned out the priest's prayers.

MONUMENT IN HONOR OF ELCANO IN GETARIA

Epilogue

Worn by worms, tormented by storms and storms, the lonely ship continued on its way. The team, according to Urdaneta, “was terribly exhausted and exhausted. Not a day went by without one of us dying.

Therefore, we decided that the best thing for us was to go to the Moluccas." Thus, they abandoned the bold plan of Elcano, who was going to fulfill Columbus’s dream - to reach east coast Asia, following the shortest route from the west. “I am sure that if Elcano had not died, we would not have reached the Ladron (Mariana) Islands so soon, because his always intention was to search for Chipansu (Japan),” writes Urdaneta. He clearly thought Elcano's plan was too risky. But the man who first circled the “earthly apple” did not know what fear was. But he also did not know that three years later Charles I would cede his “rights” to the Moluccas to Portugal for 350 thousand gold ducats. Of Loaiza's entire expedition, only two ships survived: the San Gabriel, which reached Spain after a two-year voyage, and the Santiago, under the command of Guevara, which sailed along the Pacific coast of South America to Mexico. Although Guevara saw the coast of South America only once, his voyage proved that the coast does not protrude far to the west anywhere and that South America is shaped like a triangle. This was the most important geographical discovery Loaysa's expedition.

Getaria, in the homeland of Elcano, at the entrance to the church stands stone plate, the half-erased inscription on which reads: “... the illustrious captain Juan Sebastian del Cano, a native and resident of the noble and faithful city of Getaria, the first to circumnavigate the globe on the ship Victoria.” In memory of the hero, this slab was erected in 1661 by Don Pedro de Etave e Azi, Knight of the Order of Calatrava. Pray for the repose of the soul of the one who was the first to travel around the world.” And on the globe in the San Telmo Museum the place where Elcano died is indicated - 157º west longitude and 9º north latitude.

In history books, Juan Sebastian Elcano undeservedly found himself in the shadow of the glory of Ferdinand Magellan, but in his homeland he is remembered and revered. A training sailing ship in the Spanish Navy bears the name Elcano. In the wheelhouse of the ship you can see the coat of arms of Elcano, and the sailing ship itself has already completed a dozen expeditions around the world.

The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy was made -

He forever put an end to the debate about the shape of our planet, providing practical evidence of its spherical shape. Thanks to him, scientists finally had the opportunity to determine the true size of the Earth not speculatively, but on the basis of irrefutable data.

In March 1518, Ferdinand Magellan and Rui Faleiro, a Portuguese astronomer, appeared in Seville at the Council of the Indies 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 get to these “Spice Islands” by the western route, so as not to arouse the suspicions of the Portuguese, through the South Sea, opened and annexed by Balboa to the Spanish possessions. And Magellan convincingly argued that between and the South Sea there should be a strait south of Brazil. Magellan and Faleiro first demanded the same rights and benefits that were promised to Columbus. After a long bargaining with the royal advisers, who negotiated for themselves a substantial share of the expected income and concessions from the Portuguese, an agreement was concluded with them: Charles 1 undertook to equip five ships and supply the expedition with supplies for two years. Before sailing, Faleiro abandoned the enterprise, and Magellan became the sole leader of the expedition. He raised the admiral's flag on the Trinidad. The Spaniards were appointed captains of the remaining ships: Juan Cartagena - “San Antonio”; Gaspar Quesada - "Concepcion"; Luis Mendoza - "Victoria" and Juan Serrano - "Santiago". The staff of this flotilla numbered 293 people; there were another 26 freelance crew members on board, among them the young Italian Antonio Pigafetga, the historian of the expedition. Since he was neither a sailor nor a geographer, a very important primary source is the entries in the ship's logs that Francisco Albo, the assistant navigator, kept on the Trinidad. An international team set off on the first voyage around the world: in addition to the Portuguese and Spaniards, it included representatives of more than 10 nationalities from different countries Western Europe.

The flotilla left the port of San Lucar at the mouth of the Guadalquivir on September 20, 1519. When crossing the ocean, Magellan developed a good signaling system, and the different types of ships of his flotilla were never separated.

On September 26, the flotilla approached Canary Islands, on November 29 reached the coast of Brazil, on December 13 - Guanabara Bay, and on December 26 - La Plata. The expedition's navigators were the best at that time: they determined latitudes and made adjustments to the map of the already known part of the continent. Thus, Cape Cabo Frio, by their definition, is not located at 25° south. sh., and at 23°. Magellan explored both low-lying banks of La Plata for about a month; Continuing the discovery of the flat territory of Pampa, begun by Juan Lizboa and Juan Solis, the chief pilot of Castile, he sent the Santiago up the Paraná and, of course, did not find a passage to the South Sea. Further on stretched an unknown, sparsely populated land. And Magellan, fearing to miss the entrance to the elusive strait, on February 2, 1520, ordered to weigh anchor and move as close to the coast as possible only during the day, 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 St. Elmo's lights appeared on the masts of the ships - electrical discharges in the atmosphere, shaped like luminous brushes. On February 24, Magellan discovered another large bay - San Matias, went around the Valdez Peninsula that he had identified and took refuge for the night in a small harbor, which he called Puerto San Matias (Golfo Nuevo Bay on our maps). Further south, near the mouth of the Chubut River, on February 27, the flotilla came across a huge concentration 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, in order not to die from the cold, covered themselves with the bodies of killed animals. Having collected the “procurers,” Magellan moved south, pursued by storms, explored another bay, San Jorge, and spent six stormy days in a narrow bay. On March 31, he decided to spend the winter in San Julian Bay. Four ships entered the bay, and the Trinidad anchored at the entrance. The Spanish officers wanted to force Magellan to “follow the royal instructions”: turn to the Cape of Good Hope and take the eastern route to the Moluccas. That same night a riot began. Magellan treated the rebel captains harshly: he ordered Quesada's head to be cut off, Mendoza's corpse to be quartered, Cartagena and the conspirator-priest to be thrown onto the deserted shore, and the rest of the rebels were spared.

At the beginning of May, the admiral sent the Santiago south for reconnaissance, but the ship crashed against the rocks near the Santa Cruz River and its crew barely managed to escape. On August 24, the flotilla left San Julian Bay and reached the mouth of Santa Cruz, where it remained until mid-October. On October 18, the flotilla moved south along the Patagonian coast, which forms the wide bay of Bahia Grande in this area. Before going 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 a strait to 75° S. sh., i.e. he himself doubted the existence of the “Patagonian Strait” (as Magellan called it), but wanted to continue the enterprise until the last opportunity. The bay or strait leading to the west was found on October 21, 1520 after Magellan discovered the previously unknown Atlantic coast of South America for about 3.5 thousand km. Having rounded Cape Dev (Cabo Virgenes), the admiral sent two ships forward to find out whether there was access to the open sea in the west. At night a storm arose that lasted two days. The sent ships were in danger of death, but at the most difficult moment they noticed a narrow strait, rushed there and found themselves in a relatively wide bay; They continued their journey along it and saw another strait, behind 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 had found a passage leading to the South Sea. However, it was still far from entering the South Sea: Magellan sent San Antonio and Concepcion for reconnaissance. 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 named this cape “Desired.”

"Trinidad" and "Victoria" entered the southwestern channel, anchored there for four days and returned back to join two other ships, but only the "Concepcion" was there: in the southeast it came to a dead end - in the Bay of Bahia -Inutil - and turned back. "San Antonio" on the way back found itself in another dead end. The officers, not finding the flotilla on the spot, wounded and shackled Mishkita and at the end of March 1521 returned to Spain. To justify themselves, the deserters accused Magellan of treason, and they were believed: Mishkita was arrested, Magellan’s family was deprived of government benefits. 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 shore of the greatly narrowed “Patagonian Strait”, he rounded the southernmost point of the South American continent - Cape Froward (on the Brunswick Peninsula, 53с54′ S) and for another five days (November 23 - 28) he led three ships to the northwest as if along the bottom of a mountain gorge. The high mountains (the southern end of the Patagonian Cordillera) and bare shores seemed deserted, but in the south one could see haze during the day and the lights of 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 called Tierra del Fuego. 38 days later, after Magellan had found the Atlantic entrance to the strait that actually connected the two oceans, he passed Cape Desired (now Pilar) at the Pacific outlet of the Strait of Magellan (about 550 km).

On November 28, 1520, Magellan left the strait into the open ocean and led the remaining three ships first north, trying to quickly leave the high latitudes and staying about 100 km from the rocky coast. On December 1, it passed near the Taitao Peninsula, and then the ships moved away from the mainland - on December 5, the maximum distance was 300 km. On December 12 - 15, Magellan again came quite close to the coast and saw high mountains at no less than three points - the Patagonian Cordillera and the southern part of the Main Cordillera. From Mocha Island the ships turned to the northwest, and on December 21 - to the west-northwest. It cannot, of course, be said that during his 15-day voyage north from the Strait, Magellan discovered the coast of South America over 1,500 km, but he at least proved that the western coast of the mainland to the latitude of Mocha Island has an almost meridional direction.

Crossing, Magellan's flotilla covered at least 17 thousand km, most of them in the waters of Southern Polynesia and Micronesia, where countless small islands are scattered. It is amazing that during this entire time the sailors encountered only “two deserted islands, on which they found only birds and trees.” Historians are puzzled why Magellan crossed the equator and went beyond 10° N. sh., - he knew that the Moluccas are located at the equator. And it is there that the South Sea lies, already known to the Spaniards. Perhaps Magellan wanted to make sure whether it was really 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).

On March 15, 1521, having traveled to the west about another 2 thousand km, the sailors saw mountains rising from the sea - it was the island of Samar of the East Asian group of islands, later called the Philippines. Magellan looked in vain for a place to anchor - the coast of the island was rocky, and the ships moved a little south, to the islet of Siargao, near the southern tip of Samar Island, and spent the night there. The length of the path traveled by Magellan from South America to the Philippines turned out to be many times greater than the distance shown on maps of that time between the New World and Japan. In fact, Magellan proved that between America and tropical Asia lies a gigantic expanse 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 produced a real revolution in geography. It turned out that most of the surface of the globe is occupied not by land, but by the ocean, and the existence of a single World Ocean was proven.

Out of caution, Magellan moved from Siargao on March 17 to the uninhabited island of Homonkhon, lying south of the large island of Samar, to stock up on water and give people a rest. Residents of the neighboring island delivered fruits, coconuts and palm wine to the Spaniards. They reported 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 from the local elder. A week later, the flotilla moved southwest and stopped at the island of Limasawa. A boat approached the Trinidad. And when the Malayan Enrique, Magellan's slave, called out to the rowers in his native language, they immediately understood him. A couple of hours later, two large boats arrived with people and with the local ruler, and Enrique freely explained himself to them. It became clear to Magellan that he was in that part of the Old World where the Malay language was widespread, that is, not far from the “Spice Islands.” Thus, Magellan completed the first circumnavigation in history. As the patron of new Christians, Magellan intervened in the internecine war of the rulers of the island of Mactan, located opposite the city of Cebu, as a result of which eight Spaniards, four allied islanders and Magellan himself died. The old saying was confirmed: “God gave the Portuguese a very small country to live in, but the whole world to die.”

After the death of Magellan, “Victoria” and “Trinidad”, leaving the strait, passed by an island “where the people are black, like in Ethiopia” (the first indication of the Philippine Negritos); The Spaniards named this island Negros. In Mindanao, they first heard of the northwest big island Luzon. Random pilots led ships through the sea of Sudu to Palawan, itself western island Filipino group. From the island of Palawan, the Spaniards arrived - the first of the Europeans - to the giant island of Kalimantan and anchored near the city of Brunei, after which they, and then other Europeans, began to call the entire island Borneo. The Spaniards entered into alliances with local rajahs, bought food and local goods, sometimes robbed oncoming ships, but still could not find out the way to the “Spice Islands”. On September 7, the Spaniards set sail along the northwestern coast of Kalimantan and, having reached its northern tip, 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, who on November 8 led the ships to the spice market on the island of Tidore off the western coast of Halmahera, the largest of the Moluccas. Here the Spaniards bought spices cheaply - cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves. The Trinidad needed repairs, and it was decided that upon completion, Espinosa would go east to the Gulf of Panama, and Elcano would take the Victoria to her homeland by the western route, around the Cape of Good Hope.

Of Magellan's five ships, only one circumnavigated the globe, and only 18 people from its crew returned home (there were three Malays on board). But Victoria brought so many spices that their sale more than covered the costs of the expedition, and Spain received the “right of first discovery” to the Mariana and Philippine Islands and laid claim to the Moluccas.

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