Ferdinand Magellan Journal Entries

Journal Entries

Letter to Magellan's wife

April 27, 1521

Dear Beatriz,

My name is Juan Sebastián del Cano. I am writing this letter to inform you that your husband, Ferdinand Magellan, has died in a battle against the islanders of Mactan, Philippines on April 27th. At Limasawa, he negotiated Spain’s first alliance in the Pacific. In Cebu, he baptized King Humabon of Cebu along with thousands of his subjects. His religious fervor was so strong that he threatened to kill those chieftains that resisted converting to Christianity, and this harsh decree ultimately proved to be his downfall. When a king named Lapu-Lapu refused to convert, Magellan’s men burned his village on the island of Mactan. Magellan later returned to Mactan with 49 men and demanded that Lapu-Lapu yield to his authority. The king refused, and in the ensuing battle Magellan was killed after he was struck by a spear and then repeatedly stabbed by the islanders’ cutlasses and scimitars. His determination and spirit will keep us going. I give you my prayers.

Sincerely,

March 29, 1521

We are nearing to where we want to be. I know the approximate location of our whereabouts because I have sailed here in the past. Pride reigns in my soul, for I am the leader of the first Europeans to have sailed across the Pacific Ocean. When we land, we will go from island to island collecting spices. Through these weeks, we hope to create alliances and influence many natives of this area. In sailing from the Marianas to the islands later called the Philippines, instead of heading directly to the Spice Islands, I decided it was a better idea. By dominating by the idea of gathering provisions, there was the advantage of securing a base before visiting the Moluccas. We then sailed from Cebu to the neighboring island of Mactan.

I loath in the riches, hoping it never ends.

March 22, 1518

Our proposal received royal assent. By the Treaty of Tordesillas, all newly discovered and undiscovered territories east of a line of demarcation (370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands) were assigned to Portugal; all that lay west belonged to Spain. I want to prove that the Spice Islands lay west of the line of demarcation—that is, within the Spanish, not the Portuguese, hemisphere. I said that the Portuguese maps had been falsified to conceal this fact. I have offered to use my knowledge of Portuguese secrets to prove this claim. Both of us were appointed joint captains; general of the expedition directed to seek an all-Spanish route to the Moluccas. I am not the first to think of travelling west instead of east to the Moluccas. Others had sought a passage by which vessels sailing continuously westward would reach the East and thus avoid the African Cape of Good Hope, which was controlled by the Portuguese. In the royal agreement, we were directed to find “the” strait, referring to the hypothetical passage through Tierra Firme. I plan to reach the Spice Islands by sailing westward through a strait that I hope to discover at the southern tip of America.

March 31, 1520

Since my last entry, we have sailed southwest from Spain. My fleet has stopped at the Canary Islands, Cape Verde Islands, the Bay of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de la Plata and had other short stops along the route. Today, we have reached Port Saint Julian (San Julián, Argentina). On Easter day at midnight, the Spanish captains led a serious mutiny against the Portuguese commander. Since we have people that are from Portugal and Spain, our fleet is not getting along very well. With resolution, ruthlessness, and daring, I executed one of the mutinous captains and left another to his fate ashore. I expect that we will rest in Port San Julian for a while because we need to stock up on supplies. Let me tell you, we met these giant people! We now call them 'Patagonians'.

Sept. 19

The Spanish king accepted my proposal after many arguments and conflicts. My fleet will be leaving tomorrow from Sanlúcar de Barrameda. There will be about 270 men, predominantly from Spain and Portugal but also from far-flung parts of Europe and North Africa. We will sail on five different caravels. They are not in the condition I would have preferred, but we have to make do. I will miss my wife, Beatriz, and son, Rodrigo, very much. I know that the journey is a risk, but the values make the danger worth it.

December 18, 1520

The other crews are worried that my obsession with finding passage to the Pacific was going to doom the expedition. In April 1520, a mutiny erupted and the mutineers took the San Antonio and the Concepción. My supporters and I ultimately thwarted the revolt, and I even marooned two men on an island when he found they were planning a third mutiny. After reaching the mouth of the Santa Cruz River, near which the Santiago, surveying the area, had been wrecked on May 22, I started south again. On October 21, 1520, I rounded the Cape of the Virgins. The San Antonio having deserted, only three of the ships reached the western end of the passage. I am an iron-willed admiral, but at the news that the ocean had been sighted, I broke down and cried with joy. We are currently sailing on the very clam ocean. I am naming it the Pacific ocean, which means “peaceable”. We are taking a course northwestward along the Chilean coast. All seems to be well so far. I am excited, but unsure when we will reach land. May God be with us.

Dear Diary,

My husband is such an amazing man. At age 12, him and his brother, Diogo, traveled to Lisbon to serve as pages at Queen Leonora’s court. While at the court Ferdinand was exposed to stories of the great Portuguese and Spanish rivalry for sea exploration and dominance over the spice trade in the East Indies, especially the Spice Islands, (or Moluccas, in modern Indonesia). Intrigued by the promise of fame and riches, he developed an interest in maritime discovery in those early years. A decade later, he pursued his dream. Before I met him, he had traveled far and beyond to where my mind can only imagine. The first time he went East was in 1505. Ferdinand was a part of Francisco de Almedia's fleet that sailed to India. He went back once more in 1507. On February 2–3, 1509, he took part in the great Battle of Diu, in which the Portuguese defeated a Muslim fleet and thereby gained supremacy over most of the Indian Ocean. He also sailed to Africa multiple times in the early 1510's. Through these trips, he achieved much knowledge about ships and the tools that helped sea voyages. He is such a courageous man. I miss him very much.

Beatriz Barbosa

September 8, 1522

I expect we will be in Spain again in a few hours. I will fill in from when I last wrote. After Magellan’s death, only two of the ships, the Trinidad and the Victoria, reached the Moluccas. Fellow mate, Gonzalo Gómez de Espinosa, who was also Magellan’s master-at-arms, attempted to return to Spain on the Trinidad, but it soon became evident that the ship was no longer seaworthy. We were left with the only the Victoria. Espinosa himself then was arrested by Portuguese officials and imprisoned. I was originally master of the Concepción and a participant in the mutiny at Port Saint Julian. We took the chance of continuing westward with the Victoria, as I likely determined that the crew would not survive another extremely hard voyage across the Pacific. On his way across the Indian Ocean and up the western coast of Africa, I had the chance not to be intercepted by the Portuguese ships that regularly traveled the route. Today, the leaking but spice-laden Victoria, with only 17 other European survivors, myself included, and a small number of Moluccans will once again, be back home in Spain. I am overjoyed because we are the first people to have ever travelled around the world! We learnt and impacted a lot by making the first circumnavigation of the earth. Magellan’s supreme accomplishment was the discovery and crossing of the South American strait that bears his name—a major navigational task, considering the knowledge of the period. Moreover, being the first to traverse the “Sea of the South” from east to west, he demonstrated the immensity of the Pacific Ocean and the challenges it posed to navigation. Finally, this voyage proved that the Earth was indeed a globe. We did it all because Magellan had the great passion and determination. His dream lived beyond his life.

Signing out for now,

The voyage has been difficult. We were three months and twenty days without refreshment from any kind of fresh food. We ate biscuits which were no longer biscuits, but it's powder. Swarming with worms, the rats having eaten all the good. Everything stank strongly of their urine. We drank yellow water already many days putrid. We also ate certain ox hides that covered the top of the yards to prevent the yards from chafing the shrouds, and which had become exceedingly hard because of the sun, rain and wind. We soaked them in the sea for four or five days, then placed them for a short time over the hot embers and ate them thus. We often were forced to eat sawdust. Rats were sold for half a ducat apiece, and even so, we could not always get them. Many of the crew have died of scurvy, only the strong have survived. Determination is the only thing keeping me alive.