Quotes from Laurence Bergreen

Although incomplete, the description of Lisboa's clandestine voyage was consistent with the strait that Magellan eventually explored.

Winter, in London, was thrown into prison for deserting the captain general.

Núñez de Balboa had glimpsed the vast ocean to the west: the Pacific

Within months of hearing the news, King Ferdinand once again sent Juan de Solis to find the strait

Winter had navigated the Strait not just once, as Magellan and Drake had, but twice.

Portugal retained its ambition to wrest control of the spice trade from the Arabs, and to reach the Spice Islands

On the day before the fleet's departure from Seville, August 9, 1519, Magellan was summoned from his frantic last-minute

the black ships reached the expansive mouth of San Matías Gulf, on the coast of Argentina.

he confused Behaim's rendition with that of another Nuremberg mapmaker, Johannes Schöner, a professor of mathematics who

sailed along its coast, and spotted a tribe that seemed friendly, at least from a distance. In good spirits

The farther south he went, the more concerned Magellan became that he had accidentally passed the strait.

long and checkered history in the service of the Portuguese empire in Africa: Fernão de Magalhães, or Ferdinand Magellan.

Qualified sailors were rare in Seville, and qualified sailors willing to risk their lives on a voyage to the Spice Islands rarer still.

went ashore with a landing party of seven men to greet them.

To Magellan, the gulf appeared far more likely to lead to the strait than the Río de la Plata

Schöner's maps closely resembled Behaim's, and Pigafetta could easily have mistaken one for the other

Their conversations turned to religion, and Pigafetta persuaded the prisoner to convert to Christianity. He was baptized, and the giant, whose original name Pigafetta never mentioned, became known as Paul. He died shortly thereafter, a Patagonian Christian who met a unique and tragic fate. Pigafetta did not record what kind of funeral rites Father Valderrama accorded Paul, but presumably he was given a proper burial at sea.

The best record of what befell the explorers comes from the pen of Peter Martyr

because the water was deep and blue and chilly. The men of the fleet might have seen whales because this was the principal breeding site

Once the horror of the inquisitional catharsis subsided, Mesquita (with Magellan's blessing)

Schöner's globe depicted a strait cutting through the American continent in the approximate location

permission to hire only a dozen Portuguese; in reality, he was taking nearly forty with him.

inhabitants burst forth upon them, and slue them every man with clubbes

principal breeding site of the Southern Right Whale.