Over the Edge of the World: Magellen's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe (57 page)

The most important (though not the only) source of primary information about the voyages of Magellan and other explorers is the Archive of the Indies in Seville. Martín Fernández de Navarrete edited a multivolume compilation of the archive’s chief holdings, published in Spanish in 1837, which advanced understanding of Magellan and his era; most of the archive’s records pertaining to Magellan’s voyage are in Volume 4.

As a result of this wealth of primary sources, Spanish historians have tended to feed off earlier works in Spanish, but they are not the only important Magellan chroniclers. Portuguese historians have emphasized Portuguese sources and attitudes, often sharply critical of Magellan. More recently, Englishlanguage historians, who generally portray Magellan in a heroic light, have drawn on a wider variety of sources and languages; but as the decades have passed, they, too, have become another manuscript tradition. In particular, the naval historian Samuel Eliot Morison wrote several heavily documented chapters on Magellan in his classic work,
The European Discovery of America: The Southern Voyages
(1974), to which I happily acknowledge my debt. Curiously, F.H.H. Guillemard’s
Life of Ferdinand Magellan
(1890) remains the standard biography more than one hundred years after its publication; since then, new sources and approaches to the era have emerged, making it possible to give a more three-dimensional account of the voyage, including graphic and intimate details that custom prevented Guillemard from mentioning, except, perhaps, in a Latin whisper. Also worthwhile is Tim Joyner’s
Magellan
(1992), a concise biography buttressed by a generous selection of primary sources. Martin Torodash’s “Magellan Historiography,” published in
The Hispanic American Historical Review,
surveys the entire field, offering reliable if occasionally heavy-handed assessments.

The best and most affecting eyewitness account of Magellan’s circumnavigation was written by Antonio Pigafetta, the young Venetian scholar and diplomat who was among the handful of survivors. His chronicle remains one of the most significant documents of the Age of Discovery. The best and fullest English translation, by James A. Robertson, an American scholar, was published in three substantial volumes in 1906. Robertson worked from a Portuguese translation of the original, which meant the occasional blurring of Pigafetta’s distinctive humor and irony. In 1969, R. A. Skelton’s new translation managed to convey a sense of Pigafetta’s voice and sensibility, and includes a facsimile of the Pigafetta manuscript in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. I am indebted to both of these scholars for their diligent work, as is anyone who wants to learn more about Magellan and Pigafetta. My quotations from Pigafetta’s diary are drawn largely from Robertson’s translation, but where possible I have checked it against the original and other sources, and silently corrected a number of slips and euphemisms.

Pigafetta was not a disinterested source. He was, touchingly, a Magellan loyalist, and as a result, made only the briefest mention of the various mutinies during the voyage and Magellan’s drastic efforts to quell them. To present a fuller account of these events, I have turned to the testimony of other sailors who witnessed or participated in them, including de Mafra and Vasquito Gallego. In addition to the diaries, Francisco Albo’s pilot’s log gives a day-by-day record of the voyage.

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Concerning the Treaty of Tordesillas, Samuel Eliot Morison’s
The European Discovery of America: The Southern Voyages
and Tim Joyner’s
Magellan
both contain valuable analyses of the treaty as it affected Magellan’s proposed expedition, as does Jean Denucé’s
Magellan: La Question des Moluques et la Première Circumnavigation du Globe
(pp. 46-47).

Pedro de Medina’s
A Navigator’s Universe,
ed. Ursula Lamb, sheds light on the subject of Renaissance cosmology, as does Alison Sandman’s accomplished thesis,
Cosmographers vs. Pilots.
Pablo Pérez-Malláina’s
Spain’s Men of the Sea
mentions “coarse” pilots (p. 233).

For more on spices and the spice trade throughout history, see notes to chapter 13. Maximilian of Transylvania’s remark about spices comes from Charles E. Nowell’s
Magellan’s Voyage Around the World
(p. 275), a convenient if not definitive anthology of several accounts.

Prince Henry the Navigator’s remark about peril and reward can be found in John Noble Wilford’s
The Mapmakers
(pp. 67-69). And J. H. Parry’s
The Discovery of the Sea
contains a sweeping summary of Portuguese ocean exploration.

For extended discussions of Magellan’s ancestry, see Manuel Villas-Boas,
Os Magalhães;
Joyner (p. 309); and Morison (pp. 327-329).

The lives and influence of Spanish and Portuguese Jews have been written about by many scholars, including Jane Gerber,
The Jews of Spain;
Frederic David Mocatta,
The Jews of Spain and Portugal and the Inquisition;
and Ruth Pike,
Linajudos and Conversos in Seville.

Among the many accounts of Magellan’s early career are those by Morison; Charles Parr,
So Noble a Captain;
and F.H.H. Guillemard. Joyner’s
Magellan
(pp. 33-57) is especially robust.

Leonard Y. Andaya’s
The World of Maluku
mentions the extreme sensitivity of Portuguese maps (p. 9). Magellan’s dealings with the Barbosa clan are described by Morison (p. 333) and Denucé (p. 168). Roger Craig Smith’s thesis,
Vanguard of Empire,
offers background about the Casa de Contratación (pp. 32-33), and Denucé (p. 175) quotes Peter Martyr, as well as describing Ruy Faleiro’s decline (pp. 169-171).

Guillemard’s assessment of Adrian (p. 101) is quoted.

Donald Brand’s articles in the
The Pacific Basin
and Mairin Mitchell’s
Elcano
(p. 69) discuss Serrão, whose correspondence with Magellan was lost in the Lisbon earthquake of 1755; all that survives is accounts of it in the records of early Portuguese historians.

Las Casas’s account of Magellan’s plan can be found in Morison (p. 319), and the royal replies come from Martín Fernández de Navarrete,
Colección de los viajes y descubrimientos que hicierón por mar los españoles desde fines del siglo XV
(vol. 4, pp. 11-12, 113-116), which are available in an English translation in Rodrigue Lévesque’s History of Micronesia (vol. 1, pp. 119-121, 123-125).

Denucé (pp. 172, 210, 214-218) describes Haro’s financial arrangements for Magellan’s voyage.

Navarrete (vol. 4, pp. 121-122) contains the document formally authorizing Magellan. An English translation can be found in Blair and Robertson’s
The Philippine Islands:
1493-1898 (vol. 1, pp. 271-275).

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Magellan’s distraught letter to King Charles can be found in Licuanan and Mira,
The Philippines Under Spain
(pp. 11–13). The original mentions placing four flags on the capstan, but it was unlikely that piece of machinery would be used for that purpose. A mast was far more likely. For more, see Morison (pp. 340–341).

King Charles’s correspondence about Magellan’s voyage is reproduced in Blair and Robertson (vol. 1, pp. 277–279 and 280–292). For Magellan’s sailing orders, see Navarrete (vol. 4, pp. 130–152), and Blair and Robertson (vol. 1, pp. 256–259).

Documents pertaining to Ruy Faleiro’s role in the expedition are reproduced in Navarrete (vol. 4, p. 497) and in Ignacio Vial and Guadalupe Morente,
La Primera Vuelta al Mundo: La Nao Victoria
(pp. 44–45).

The list of navigational supplies carried by the fleet comes from Vial and Morente (pp. 85–86).

Morison (pp. 338–339) is particularly blunt on the subject of Fonseca, as is Joyner,
passim
. Documents concerning Fonseca’s dealings with the armada are contained in Navarette (vol. 2). Although it lacks source notes, Charles Parr’s biography,
So Noble a Captain
(p. 230), is strong on preparations for the voyage, including Fonseca’s machinations.

Vial and Morente (pp. 95–96) discuss the Seville waterfront and the armada’s provisions (p. 128).

The Casa de Contratacion’s efforts to reign in Magellan are detailed in Vial and Morente (p. 51) and documented in Navarrete (vol. 5). Denuce discusses Magellan’s packing the roster with his relatives (pp. 236–239) and the solemn mass at Santa Maria de la
Victoria
(pp. 241–246).

Joyner (pp. 286–287) has the complete text of Magellan’s will, and Denuce (p. 255) tells of Sabrosa’s sad decline after Magellan fled Portugal.

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The prayerful commands are recorded by Perez-Mallaina (p. 69).

The literature of early cartography is vast. A good place for general readers to start is Lloyd A. Brown’s
The Story of Maps,
along with Rodney Shirley’s
The Mapping of the World: Early Printed World Maps, 1472–1700
. John Noble Wilford’s
The Mapmakers
, now in a revised edition (2000), is another valuable summation.

Stephen Frimmer’s
Neverlands
offers a diverting introduction to the subject of mythical kingdoms. The quotations from Pliny the Elder are found in the Penguin edition of
Natural History
(pp. 76, 81). John Livingston Lowes’s
The Road to Xanadu
(pp. 117–118) catalogs some colorful monsters of the deep. Accounts of the Prester John phenomenon are drawn from Robert Silverberg’s
The Realm of Prester John
(pp. 41–45, 63). Marco Polo’s words come from the Penguin edition of
The Travels
(pp. 96, 106), and Mandeville’s fanciful descriptions can be found in the Penguin edition of
Sir John Mandeville
(pp. 117, 122, 129, 130). John Larner’s
Marco Polo and the Discovery of the World
(p. 166) has also been consulted. Finally, Rabelais’s satirical skewering of Hearsay can be found in the Penguin edition of
Gargantua and Pantagruel
(p. 679).

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Details of the contretemps concerning the proper form of address to Magellan come from Morison (p. 358), and the incident involving Antonio Ginoves is told most persuasively by Vial and Morente (p. 111).

For more on the social and political aspects of homosexuality in Spain, see Roger Bigelow Merriman,
The Rise of the Spanish Empire
(p. 53). It was common practice for homosexuals and even those suspected of homosexual practices to be denounced and punished in public. In August 1519, at the time of Magellan’s departure from Spain, a clergyman in Valencia used the public punishment of a number of homosexuals as the occasion for a hysterical sermon condemning the accused, and his listeners cried out for the death of those who had escaped with lesser punishments. The hysteria boiled along as the populace took up arms; the uprising appeared to end when the authorities confiscated the weapons and demanded that the protestors confine themselves to their homes, but even then the controversy continued as the protestors formed a fraternity and insisted on bearing arms.

Albo’s account of the fleet’s arrival in Rio de Janeiro can be found in Lord Stanley,
First Voyage
(p. 212), and Morison (p. 299) discusses early Portuguese efforts to exploit the region’s natural resources. Joyner (p. 125) offers details of Carvalho’s past.

Vespucci’s ripe description of Brazilian Indians is reproduced by Morison (pp. 285–286).

Morison (p. 362) discusses Magellan’s efforts to calculate latitudes.

Details of the sailor’s existence aboard ship are drawn from Perez-Mallaina (pp. 135–159) and Morison (pp. 165–171). Joyner (p. 250) has an interesting discussion of the
ampolletas
. And only Morison (p. 171), it seems, would trouble to explain the difficulties sailors faced when they had to relieve themselves at sea. Roger Craig Smith’s thesis (pp. 175–176) and the
Colección General de Documentos Relativos a las Islas Filipinas Existentes en el Archivo de Indias de Sevilla
(vol. 2, pp. 165–168) describe Bustamente’s limited store of medical supplies.

Information about the saints in the ships’ rosters comes from Perez- Mallaina (p. 238) and from Louis Reau,
Iconographie de l’Art Chrétien
(vol. 3, pp. 115–122, 169–177, 804).

For more on the
Consulado,
see Paul S. Taylor, “Spanish Seamen in the New World During the Colonial Period,”
The Hispanic American Historical Review
.

Early conceptions of the strait are discussed by Guillemard (pp. 191–193), who quotes Galvao about the “Dragon’s taile”; by Justin Winsor,
Narrative and Critical History of America
(p. 107); and by Morison (pp. 301–302). See also Mateo Martinic Beros,
Historia del Estrecho de Magallanes
(1977).

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