the Indians threw themselves upon him with iron-pointed bamboo 

 spears, scimitars, and every weapon they had, and ran him through 

 — our mirror, our light, our comforter, our true guide — until they 

 killed him." 



In confusion the Spaniards returned to Cebu, the legend of their 

 invincibility gone. It was not long before the rajah turned against 

 them and then fled — after massacring twenty-seven of the company 

 that had been his ally. Since there were now too few to man the 

 ships, the Concepcion, least seaworthy of the three, was scuttled. 

 During the following months the Trinidad and Victoria wandered 

 through the archipelago almost as if they had lost their sense of 

 purpose and direction; with Magellan's death the expedition had 

 fallen to pieces. On November 8, 1521, the two ships entered 

 Tidore, center of the Moluccas and Magellan's goal. (As an inter- 

 esting footnote, on touching land, Magellan's Moluccan slave be- 

 came the first man to sail around the world.) Six weeks of trading 

 filled the ship's holds and the Victoria finally reached Seville in 

 September 1522 with a crew of only forty-seven Europeans and a 

 few natives; strangely, she was commanded by Sebastian del Cano, 

 who had mutinied when the ships were at St. Julian. Because the 

 Trinidad had sprung a leak she had to be left behind and return to 

 Spain when she was able, but her ending was a grim one. After 

 attempting to return home by sailing east across the Pacific, she 

 was forced to sail back to the Moluccas and was captured by the 

 Portuguese. Only a handful of her company eventually straggled 

 home, many years later and after many privations. 



It is ironic that the first ship to circumnavigate the globe was 

 brought home not by the man who had organized and inspired the 

 expedition, but by a group of mutineers. Charles V heaped Del Cano 

 with honors, while Magellan was at that point all but forgotten. It 

 is also ironic that the Moluccas went to Portugal, not to Spain. 



To the end, Magellan had one loyal supporter — Pigafetta. Had it 

 not been for this adventurous man, about whom we know sur- 

 prisingly little, our knowledge of Magellan would be the poorer. 

 "At sea," wrote Pigafetta, "he endured hunger better than we. 

 Greatly learned in nautical charts, he knew more of the true art of 

 navigation than any other person, in sure proof whereof is the 

 wisdom and intrepidity with which, no example having been offered 

 him, he attempted and almost completed the circumnavigation of 

 the globe." 



6y the time of Magellan, the early sixteenth 

 century, Portuguese ships were trading around 

 the shores of the Indian Ocean. Here, 

 traders offer some oriental prince bronze 

 cannons in return for spices. 



•-"-> V\\V-. ■-. Insvla tVIathan . ■;_ <. ■ 



This 1603 engraving shows Magellan being 

 trilled by natives on the island of Mactan. 

 The Victoria and Trinidad stand by. 



55 



