History for ready reference, Volume 1, A-ElbaLarned, J. N. (Josephus Nelson)
History
History for ready reference, Volume 1, A-Elba
Larned, J. N. (Josephus Nelson)
History -- Dictionaries
Fernando Magellan, or Magalhaes, was "a disaffected Portuguese
gentleman who had served his country for five years in the Indies
under Albuquerque, and understood well the secrets of the
Eastern trade. In 1517, conjointly with his geographical and
astronomical friend, Ruy Falerio, another unrequited
Portuguese, he offered his services to the Spanish court. At
the same time these two friends proposed, not only to prove
that the Moluccas were within the Spanish lines of
demarkation, but to discover a passage thither different from
that used by the Portuguese. Their schemes were listened to,
adopted and carried out. The Straits of Magellan were
discovered, the broad South Sea was crossed, the Ladrones and
the Phillipines were inspected, the Moluccas were passed
through, the Cape of Good Hope was doubled on the homeward
voyage, and the globe was circumnavigated, all in less than
three years, from 1519 to 1522. Magellan lost his life, and
only one of his five ships returned [under Sebastian del Cano]
to tell the marvelous story. The magnitude of the enterprise
was equalled only by the magnitude of the results. The globe
for the first time began to assume its true character and size
in the minds of men, and the minds of men began soon to grasp
and utilize the results of this circumnavigation for the
enlargement of trade and commerce, and for the benefit of
geography, astronomy, mathematics, and the other sciences.
This wonderful story, is it not told in a thousand books? ...
The Portuguese in India and the Spiceries, as well as at home,
now seeing the inevitable conflict approaching, were
thoroughly aroused to the importance of maintaining their
rights. They openly asserted them, and pronounced this trade
with the Moluccas by the Spanish an encroachment on their
prior discoveries and possession, as well as a violation of
the Papal Compact of 1494, and prepared themselves
energetically for defense and offense. On the other hand, the
Spaniards as openly declared that Magellan's fleet carried the
first Christians to the Moluccas and by friendly intercourse
with the kings of those islands, reduced them to Christian
subjection and brought back letters and tribute to Cæsar.
Hence these kings and their people came under the protection
of Charles V. Besides this, the Spaniards claimed that the
Moluccas were within the Spanish half, and were therefore
doubly theirs. ... Matters thus waxing hot, King John of
Portugal begged Charles V. to delay dispatching his new fleet
until the disputed points could be discussed and settled.
Charles, who boasted that he had rather be right than rich,
consented, and the ships were staid. These two Christian
princes, who owned all the newly discovered and to be
discovered parts of the whole world between them by deed of
gift of the Pope, agreed to meet in Congress at Badajos by
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