Quotes from Laurence Bergreen

These provisions made for an unhealthy diet, high in salt, low in protein, and lacking vitamins that sailors needed to protect themselves

the authorities in that distant outpost of the Spanish empire found a Portuguese caravel that had wandered into the Caribbean.

Mesquita functioned as Magellan's agent of agony, deciding who was guilty of treason and who would suffer the consequences. No wonder the men hated him.

we found by miracle a strait which we called the Cape of the Eleven Thousand Virgins.

originally published in eight volumes in Valladolid, Spain, in 1545

Why would the queen greet Winter, a mutineer, with open arms?

With modifications, this calendar was adopted by Christian churches around the world, including those in Spain.

he was told that he could do so only on condition that he "purify" Portugal by expelling the Jews

She turned out to be a ship filled with secrets. In 1511, Cristóbal de Haro had backed a covert Portuguese

Mesquita spent two weeks assessing the "evidence" of guilt before passing judgment.

After all the ordeals suffered by the armada, the discovery of the strait did lay claim to being a miracle.

Following a bitter dispute with King Manuel, Haro left Lisbon for Seville

pilot; and a priest all guilty of treasonous behavior.

marks the entrance to the strait that Magellan had sought for more than two years.

he renewed his acquaintanceship with Magellan, and combined their enthusiasm for a search for the strait.

The Casa de Contratación decreed that Magellan must limit his entire crew to 235 men, including cabin boys.

This judgment was unquestionably excessive. Their behavior was that of frightened men rather than of conspirators.

For an explorer in need of financial backing, Cristóbal de Haro was the ideal friend;

According to this account, the expedition came to a strait, entered it, and sailed west until violent storms

The hapless accountant Antonio de Coca was merely deprived of his rank.

Despite these accommodations, anti-Semitism in Portugal led to a massacre of Jews in Lisbon in 1506.

forced the ships to turn back. Lisboa might even have navigated the strait all the way to the Pacific.

But Mesquita found Andrés de San Martín, the esteemed astronomer-astrologer; Hernando Morales

Manuel punished those responsible, but the legacy of bitterness lingered, and many Jews left the country for the Netherlands.