|
Ferdinand Magellan
A Portuguese aristocrat named Ferdinand Magellan was the leader
of the very first circumnavigation of the world. Magellan had
already had a few journeys to find some trade routes for Portugal. Magellan had an argument with the king of Portugal, so he went to sea for the Spanish. The Spanish wanted to establish trade routes to some of the Eastern territories and claim it as their land. In 1519 five ships left for the Spice Islands. The names of them were the Trinidad, the Victoria, the Santiago, the Conception and the San Antonio. They had enough trading goods, but they did not have enough food and supplies. The trip took much longer than Magellan had thought it would. They did not have good luck with the weather, so they stopped in Patagonia. They stayed there for the whole winter. The crew was trying to take over the ship, so the captain stopped it by killing the leaders. A short time afterwards, the Santiago was shipwrecked. The rest of the ships found a little route through a sea passage that is now called the Straits of Magellan. Later the San Antoniošs crew deserted the ship, sailing away with a lot of the fleetšs food. Twenty men starved to death. After loading up at the Marshall Islands, the fleet continued to the Philippines. Then tragedy struck. Magellan became involved in a fight with some chiefs. Magellan and forty of his men were killed. |