In the sixteenth century, an age of great marine and terrestrial exploration, Ferdinand Magellan
led the first expedition to sail around the world. As a young Portuguese noble, he served the king
of Portugal, but he became involved in the quagmire of political intrigue at court and lost the
king's favor. After he was dismissed from service to the king of Portugal, he offered to serve the
future Emperor Charles V of Spain.
A papal decree of 1493 had assigned all land in the New World west of 50 degrees W longitude
to Spain and all the land east of that line to Portugal. Magellan offered to prove that the East
Indies fell under Spanish authority. On September 20, 1519, Magellan set sail from Spain with
five ships. More than a year later, one of these ships was exploring the topography of South
America in search of a water route across the continent. This ship sank, but the remaining four
ships searched along the southern peninsula of South America. Finally they found the passage
they sought near a latitude of 50 degrees S. Magellan named this passage the Strait of All Saints,
but today we know it as the Strait of Magellan.
One ship deserted while in this passage and returned to Spain, so fewer sailors were privileged to
gaze at that first panorama of the Pacific Ocean. Those who remained crossed the meridian we
now call the International Date Line in the early spring of 1521 after ninety-eight days on the
Pacific Ocean. During those long days at sea, many of Magellan's men died of starvation and
disease.
Later Magellan became involved in an insular conflict in the Philippines and was killed in a
tribal battle. Only one ship and seventeen sailors under the command of the Basque navigator
Elcano survived to complete the westward journey to Spain and thus prove once and for all that
the world is round, with no precipice at the edge.
One of Magellan's ships explored the ___ of South America for a passage across the continent.