Quotes About Exploration

Fernão de Magalhães, or Ferdinand Magellan. According to most accounts, he was born in 1480, in the remote mountain parish of Sabrosa, the seat of the family homestead. He spent his childhood in northwestern Portugal, within sight of the pounding surf of the Atlantic.

the Armada de Molucca put to sea.

The strait still eluded them but, God willing, they would find it, and reach the Spice Islands

the armada sailed into the open waters of the Atlantic, the abandoned conspirators

By May 18, they went ashore again, in a different bay, where they waited fifteen days for the missing ships.

With their maneuverable sails and impressive seaworthiness, caravels became the vessels of choice for exploration.

Mendoza returned to Victoria, where he and the other captains resumed plotting against Magellan

The gallows that Magellan had erected still cast a shadow over a hill

Preparations for the voyage continued, but the flag incident served as a warning to Magellan that his men

mass, only Magellan's cousin, Álvaro de Mesquita, the recently appointed captain of San Antonio, came aboard Trinidad

especially the Spaniards, posed a danger as great as the sea itself.

Magellan realized that the empty chairs made for an ominous sign.

Magellan capitalized on a piece of luck. The longboat belonging to Concepción's captain, Gaspar de Quesada

under the command of the two Portuguese commanders.

In pursuit of his goal, he attracted navigators, shipwrights, astronomers, pilots, cosmographers, and cartographers

equipped with crew, food, and artillery, to wit that the said ships are to go supplied for two years

Yet his salary was considerably more than Magellan's, the highest of any in the fleet:

Sailing into these shallow, sediment-rich waters, Magellan thought he might have been entering the waterway leading

The fleet would be called the Armada de Molucca, after the Indonesian name for the Spice Islands. The ships were mostly black—pitch black.

Asia, but the weather frustrated his efforts at reconnaissance.

where they cooperated in the enterprise of exploring the world, under Henry's direction.

The fleet would be called the Armada de Molucca, after the Indonesian name for the Spice Islands. The ships were mostly black—pitch black. They derived their blackness, and their ominous aura, from the tar covering the hull

They designed a new type of ship, the small, maneuverable caravel

and it was probably a robust sudestada that caused Magellan to turn back and seek shelter.