Quotes from Laurence Bergreen

A round-trip to the far side of the world lasted seven years or longer

the largest city in Andalusia, in southwestern Spain. Ruy Faleiro, and possibly Francisco, joined him

Magellan had every intention of visiting Serrão in the island paradise

One by one, her crew of thirty-seven crawled to the end of the jib boom and jumped to a rocky beach.

European traders wishing to reach the Spice Islands previously had traveled east rather than west

Depois de todos os hábitos de acasalamento e comportamentos que (Marco Polo) presenciara na Ásia, a ideia de monogamia conjugal talvez não fosse de todo bem-vinda.

God willing, I will soon be seeing you, whether by way of Portugal or Castile

Vespucci's Indians were most likely representatives of the vast network of Guaraní tribes.

As soon as they had abandoned ship, Santiago broke up, and the storm carried away all her life-sustaining provisions

O mundo que Marco Polo explorou está perdido para a História de muitas maneiras, mas alguns aspectos importantes do retrato que ele traça são surpreendentemente contemporâneos. Como mercador, compreendeu que o comércio era a essência das relações internacionais e que ele se sobrepunha aos sistemas políticos e às crenças religiosas, que são autolimitadores

And when Magellan

This was not a job designed to endear him to the other crew members, and the alguacil stood apart from the rest of the crew.

wine, hardtack, and water, to say nothing of the freshly caught sea elephants.

Magellan hoped that by going west, in the opposite direction, over water

made a promise, he did everything in his power to keep it.

The men wore a simple G-string and occasionally a headpiece made of feathers; the women were fully clothed.

The sea wolves of these two islands are of various colors and of the size and thickness of a calf

all the men aboard ship survived, but once they had given thanks to the Lord

San Antonio, and all her crew, had vanished.

he would complete the trip in a year or less and return with fresher, more potent spices.

longer was he Fernão de Magalhães; in Spain, he became known as Hernando de Magallanes.

By "sea wolves" Pigafetta meant the sub-Antarctic sea lion or the sea elephant

sparing their lives, they grasped the desperate situation they now faced.

Magellan believed that he could do what the Genoese navigator had claimed to do but had never actually accomplished: