This sixteenth-century engraving shows the 

 astrolabe being used to measure ttie height 

 of the sun above the horizon. Used also to 

 take altitude readings of the stars, the 

 instrument had been an important aid to 

 navigation since about 150 B.C. 



Although we know little about the ships beyond their names 

 and tonnage — Sanfo Antonio, 120 tons; Trinidad, no tons (the flag- 

 ship); Concepcion, 90 tons; Victoria, 85 tons; and Santiago, 75 tons — 

 we do have detailed lists of the instruments, stores, armament, and 

 trade goods they carried. There were twenty-four parchment charts, 

 six pairs of compasses, twenty-one wooden quadrants, seven 

 astrolabes, thirty-five compass needles, eighteen hour glasses, and 

 Faleiro's invaluable treatises on latitude. The main items among 

 the ships' stores were biscuits, wine, olive oil, anchovies, dried 

 pork, cheeses, sugar, and a surprisingly large variety of medicines. 

 There was also a plentiful supply of fighting equipment, among 

 which were a thousand lances, boarding pikes, ten dozen javelins, 

 95 dozen darts, 60 crossbows, and 360 dozen arrows and sundry 

 swords. The list of trade goods was as modern as those carried in 

 the nineteenth century, except perhaps for "20,000 small bells of 

 three kinds." There were cloths, caps and kerchiefs, combs, mirror 

 glasses, brass basins, knives, scissors, fishhooks, and 500 pounds of 

 crystals, "which are diamonds of all colours." 



It was easier to outfit the ships than to find men to sail them. 

 The final complement of about 268 men included Spaniards, Bas- 

 ques, Genoese, Corfiotes, Negroes, Malayans, Englishmen, Sicilians, 

 and thirty-seven Portuguese, among whom were all the pilots and 

 Magellan's brother-in-law and cousin. There were four captains in 

 addition to Magellan himself. The most graphic account of the epic 

 voyage comes from the pen of a young Italian, Antonio Pigafetta, 

 who went on the expedition "desirous of seeing the wonderful 

 things of the ocean." From him, and from a few histories based on 

 information collected first-hand from the survivors, we have a 

 remarkably full story of what happened. 



On Tuesday, September 20, 15 19, the five ships got under way 

 and shaped their course for the Canaries. By then Magellan had 

 done all the careful planning he could to assure the success of his 

 great venture. He was already recognized by Pigafetta as "a discreet 

 and virtuous man careful of his honour." On September 26 the 

 five ships arrived at Tenerife, where they remained for a few days 

 to take on wood, water, and pitch. It was well that they did delay for 

 they were overtaken by a caravel from Spain bearing a secret mes- 

 sage to Magellan from his father-in-law. The Captain General, 

 warned Diogo Barbosa, should keep a close watch on his captains, 

 since they had told their friends and relations that if they had any 

 trouble with Magellan they would kill him. The ringleader appar- 

 ently was Juan de Cartagena, captain of the Santo Antonio. 



After leaving Tenerife the fleet sailed down the African coast 

 with fair winds as far as Cape Verde. Then came twenty days of 

 calms and baffling winds as they sailed on to Sierre Leone, followed 

 by a full month of head winds and storms. "In these tempests," 

 Pigafetta wrote, "the corpo santo, or Saint Elmo's fire, often appeared, 

 and in one which we experienced on a certain very dark night it 

 showed itself at the summit of the mainmast with such brightness 

 that it seemed like a burning torch, remaining there for the space of 

 more than two hours . . . ." 



For nearly sixty days they sailed through torrential rains along 

 the Equator, "... a thing very strange ... to be seen," wrote Piga- 

 fetta, "large fishes with terrible teeth and a bird that makes no 

 nests because it has no feet, and the hen lays her eggs on the back 



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