How strange is it that the first man to attempt to circumnavigate our planet Earth by sea, Ferdinand Magellan, was born in the only land-locked province of Portugal? He was a country lad, born of noble parents, in approximately 1480. In those days, instead of sending off a prosperous family's son to college, they would send him to be one of the king's or queen's 'pages,' at court.
In Lisbon, young Magellan became enamored of the busy sea trade and everything nautical. He soon gained much experience at sea; at that time, Portugal was a major sea power. Traveling extensively to the East past India and close to the Philippine Islands, Magellan survived battles and being wounded several times in the pursuit of spices. "For, after seven years of the smell of powder and the scent of spices, seven years of the most stirring episodes of Portugal's history, the erstwhile mountain boy who had been the queen's page returned. . . a seasoned veteran, to an even busier Lisbon," The Greatest Voyage in the Annals of the Sea, J.R. Hildebrand, National Geographic Magazine, December, 1932, p. 705.
FYI: The European peoples were so desperate for spices because they had no preservatives, other than salt, for their food. Some spices may have acted as a preservative, but, by and large, they were used to mask the foul taste of spoiled food. And also, spices were used to add to flavor. Spices were grown in the far East and were incredibly expensive to ship back to Europe. When the Western European nations started bypassing the Arabian middlemen to round Africa's Cape of Good Hope, the fierce Muslims attacked European ships which were vastly superior. Thus, there was incentive to discover a new route.
Magellan teamed up with an astronomer he met in Lisbon, Ruy Faleiro, to plan a trip sailing West to reach the spice islands. They proposed the journey to the king of Portugal who promptly rejected it. Like Christopher Columbus, they then went to the king of Spain, Charles V. In March of 1518, the king gave permission for the incredible journey which would sail West and round the southernmost tip of South America. Magellan was to have five ships and almost 300 sailors. The trip was projected to last two years.
The voyage required extensive preparations due to no civilized ports for much of the journey. Finally, in September, 1519. the five ships sailed from Sanlucar, Spain. After two months of sailing westward, the ships reached South America on the coast of Brazil. Meanwhile, one of the ships' captains had to be imprisoned because he threatened mutiny. The five ships joyously feasted on native food and replenished their food and wood supplies.
Let's end today's account on this happy note. Tomorrow we resume the journey south along the coast of South America. Will our adventurers all survive?
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