Magellan passed through the straits that bear his name and
so penetrated to the Pacific, that ocean being first so
called by him. He was the first European to reach it from
the Atlantic. Magellan was killed by natives in the
Philippines, April 27, 1521; but his ships continued their
course. One by one they were lost from the expedition,
except the Victoria, on which was Pigafetta, who wrote for
Charles V an account of the voyage. The Victoria returned to
Spain in September, 1522, completing the first
circumnavigation of the earth. Bautista was pilot and
afterward captain of the Trinidad, one of the lost vessels.
In 1898 the Philippines and Guam, one of the Ladrones, were
acquired by the United States as a result of the
Spanish-American War.
JOAN BAUTISTA
Magellan steered to the southwest to make the island of Teneriffe, and
they reached the said island on the day of St. Michael, which was
September 29th. Thence he made his course to fetch the Cape Verd
Islands, and they passed between the islands and the cape without
sighting either the one or the other. Having to make for Brazil, and as
soon as they sighted the other coast of Brazil, he steered to the
southeast along the coast of Cape Frio, which is in 23 deg. south latitude;
and from this cape he steered to the west, a matter of thirty leagues,
to make the Rio Janeiro, which is in the same latitude as Cape Frio, and
they entered the said river on the day of St. Lucy, which was December
13th, in which place they took in wood, and they remained there until
the first octave of Christmas, which was December 26th of the same year.
They sailed from this Rio de Janeiro on December 26th, and navigated
along the coast to make Cape of St. Mary, which is only 35 deg.; as soon as
they sighted it, they made their course west-northwest, thinking they
would find a passage for their voyage, and they found that they had got
into a great river of fresh water, to which they gave the name of River
St. Christopher, and it is in 34 deg., and they remained in it till February
2, 1520.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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