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Who was the first navigator to circumnavigate the world. Who completed the first circumnavigation of the world

We were taught at school that the Spanish captain Fernando Magellan (1480–1521) was the first to circumnavigate the world. This answer is incorrect. The fact is that Magellan was the admiral of the squadron of Spanish ships that left Spain and circled America in order to reach the Spice Islands. Now they are called the Moluccas. On this path, among other things, the Spaniards discovered the Philippine Islands, which they named after the Spanish king Philip II. It was here that the natives killed Fernando Magellan in 1521. So Magellan did not finish his round-the-world trip. But the sailors of that single ship from Magellan's squadron, which returned to Spain in 1522, having circumnavigated the globe and spent 3 years sailing, were also not the first people to circumnavigate the world. Then who was the first?

Most of us don't know his name. His name was Enrique de Malacca or Black Enrique. It was a black slave of Magellan, whom he bought at a slave market in the city of Malacca. It is located in the south of the Malay Peninsula. This is what is now Malaysia. Hence the nickname: "de Malacca", "from Malacca".

How did Fernando Magellan get to such a distance? And he got there in those years when he was still a subject of the Portuguese king and his name was Fernand de Magalhash. Fernand participated in the expedition of Admiral Afonso de Albuquerque (Afonso de Albuquerque) (1453-1515) to the Spice Islands. Because when the Portuguese, led by Vasco da Gamma, went around Africa and, having crossed the Indian Ocean, ended up in India, in the city of Goa, they discovered that not all the spices that they brought to Europe from India grow in India. Yes, black pepper was grown here, but other valuable spices, cloves and nutmeg, were brought here from afar by Chinese merchants. According to them, they bought spices very cheaply on the islands, which were far to the east. In 1511, the de Albuquerque squadron set out to search for these islands. On the way there, they stormed Malacca. Here Magillaish bought himself a slave, a dark-skinned boy, whom the merchants, who, as expected, did not disdain piracy, stole somewhere on the island of Sumatra.

Magillais christened the slave, gave him the name Enrique, and took him with him to Lisbon. When Magillais, who, in his opinion, was deprived of awards for the discovery of India, moved to neighboring Spain in 1517, Black Enrique naturally left with him. Having settled down in Spain, where he became Fernando Magellan, the adventurer offered the Spanish king to capture the Spice Islands. How to do it? Elementary! Magellan offered to get to the Moluccas from the side where the Portuguese "guests" did not expect, from the east, by circumnavigating the globe. True, for this it was necessary to go around America. The Spaniards have already successfully mastered this continent. However, they had no idea about its length to the north and south.

The king approved the plan, but did not indulge the expedition with finances. Only two years later, in September 1519. a squadron of five ships set sail, in fact, not even imagining that this voyage would continue for three years. Enrique de Malaca was on the flagship "Trinidad" with the owner.

Fernand de Magalhaish by this time in his homeland was declared a traitor. Any Portuguese captain who captured him was charged with the duty of hanging Magellan on a yardarm. Therefore, the squadron of F. Magellan far rounded the coast of Brazil, where the Portuguese were in charge.

Magellan was lucky three times, but once he was not lucky. The first luck - he did not get caught by the Portuguese. The second is that he was able to go around America, finding a strait connecting two oceans. And finally, he sailed for almost four months on a hitherto unknown ocean, and all this time he was accompanied by clear weather. But four months - it was at the limit of human strength and capabilities. Food and water were running out. Crews mowed down the disease.

Off the coast of the Philippines, the great captain died in a skirmish with the natives. According to his will, he freed Black Enrique after his death. But Juan Sebastian Elcano (1486–1526), ​​who became admiral of a fairly depleted squadron after the death of F. Magellan, began to slow down the release of Enrique. And then the former slave ran away. On one of the Philippine islands, Cebu, he heard the conversation of local residents. They spoke in a dialect familiar to Enrique from childhood. From the island of Cebu, Enrique returned to his native Sumatra. Thus, he made a round-the-world trip before the only ship from F. Magellan's flotilla, which survived three years of difficult adventures, returned to Seville.

During the 15th century, the Pyrenean powers - Spain and Portugal - embarked on the path of wide overseas expansion. In both countries, the peculiarities of their internal development and geographical location determined the need and possibility of searching for new lands and new sea routes. In the social battles of the XV century. both in Portugal and in Spain, the feudal nobility was defeated in the struggle against the royal power, which relied on cities. Both here and there, the processes of unification of the country took place under the conditions of the Reconquista - continuous external wars with the Moors, who, step by step, were forced to cede the lands of the Iberian Peninsula captured by them in the 8th century. In Portugal, these wars ended in the middle of the 13th century, in Spain - only at the end of the 15th century.

The Reconquista gave birth to chivalry, a class that lived and fed on the war and, as it ended, gradually lost its economic position.

When the last Moorish lands in the south of the peninsula were captured, the greedy and indefatigable in their desire for easy prey, the chivalry rushed in search of new sources of income. Both the young, not yet strong bourgeoisie, and the royal power were in dire need of them.

The situation that prevailed in the same XV century. in Western Asia and in the eastern part of the Mediterranean basin, prevented the establishment of direct ties between Western Europe and the richest countries of the Far and Middle East, to which the thoughts of profit seekers rushed. The Mongol Empire collapsed, and direct trade routes laid in the 13th century were closed. overland from Europe to China and Central Asia. The Turks established themselves on the Balkan Peninsula and in Asia Minor, who blocked the European merchants from the path leading through the main gate of the East - Byzantium. True, the southern road to India through Egypt and the Red Sea was still free, but all the transit trade that was conducted through Alexandria with South Asia was in the hands of the Venetians.

Finding new routes to the lands of the East - such was the task that was persistently sought to be solved in the 15th century. in all Western European countries, and primarily in Portugal and Spain, located on a peninsula that is far advanced into the waters of the Atlantic.

Random photos of nature
News of the voyages of Columbus, Cabot, Vespucci, and Gama set off a fever of discovery in Europe. Rumors of gold, slaves, spices, pearls, expensive and rare woods, fat and fertile lands, rich cities of the Eastern Indies and the still unexplored opportunities of the Western Indies excite and excite seekers of profit who rush across the ocean in the hope of quick and easy enrichment. .

Now it is difficult for us to imagine what importance the Europeans of the 15th century attached to. cloves, pepper, nutmeg. Until the appearance of the Portuguese in Southeast Asia, these now ordinary goods were delivered to Europe in an extremely complicated and long way: Arab merchants bought spices from small kings in the Moluccas, Celebes (Sulawesi), Timor, Java and resold their goods in Hormuz or Alexandria the Venetians. Then, already on Venetian ships, spices were delivered to Italy, France, Spain, and the Venetians, who themselves bought pepper or cloves from the Arabs at a price three times higher than regular prices in the markets of Southeast Asia, they received huge profits from the sale. After all, the monopoly of the spice trade belonged to them undividedly. The news of the penetration of the Portuguese to the very source of fabulous wealth - the shores of the Moluccas, which bore the tempting name of the Spice Islands, aroused the feverish activity of Spanish money-seekers. Spanish navigators believed that the Moluccas were located very close to Veragua. But the only way to reach the Spice Islands was to find a passage leading from the Atlantic Ocean to the South Sea.

The Spaniards had no doubt that this passage would soon be opened. And as soon as this happens, the Castilian flotillas, following the western, and, as it seemed then, the shortest way, will reach the Moluccas and drive out the zealous Portuguese competitors from there. Therefore, at that time, in the 10s of the 16th century, both the organizers of new overseas enterprises and the greedy gold-loving freemen, ready to go to the ends of the world in search of prey, faced a task that required a quick and effective solution. It was necessary at all costs to find a passage to the South Sea and, following them, get to the Spice Islands and drive out the Portuguese from there. However, the coveted Spice Islands were still out of reach for the Spaniards. The implementation of the plans of Vespucci, Solis and unknown Portuguese navigators fell to the lot of Ferdinand Magellan.

This small man with a stiff beard and cold, prickly eyes, dry, restrained and silent, personifies the harsh and stormy era of great overseas enterprises, the era when people crossed unknown seas in search of gold and spices and, risking their lives at every step, overcoming immense difficulties, conquered, dooming the lands they discover to famine and ruin.

Fernando Magellan

Fernando Magellan, or in Portuguese Fernand de Magalhos, was born in Portugal, in the small village of Saboroja, in the province of Trazos-Montes, around 1480. Magellan came from a noble family and, like all young hidalgos of that time, spent his youth at the court of King Manuel as a page. No information has been preserved about this period of Magellan's life, but one must think that Magellan's energetic and enterprising nature could not be satisfied with secular life at the royal court. Be that as it may, but Magellan left the court service at the age of twenty and entered as an officer in the detachment of Francisco Almeida, who went to India as governor. In 1505 he took part in the Portuguese expedition to East Africa.

It is not known how long Magellan spent in Africa, it is only known that in 1508 he was already in Portugal, where at that time an expedition was being equipped for new discoveries in the Malay Archipelago. The leadership of this expedition was entrusted to Diogo Lopis da Sequeira, who accepted Magellan as one of his companions. Together with Sequeira, Magellan visited the city of Malacca, which at that time was the center of international trade in the east. In this city, which lay on the very border of countries unknown to Europeans, from where expensive spices were brought, Magellan carefully tried to find out where cloves, nutmegs, camphor, pepper and cinnamon were brought from.

Almost being captured by the Malays, Magellan and da Sequeira were forced to hastily withdraw with their ships from Malacca to Kannanur, where the Portuguese already dominated. Here Magellan met Alphonse d'Albuquerque, Viceroy of India. Together with d'Albuquerque, Magellan participated in the conquest of the city of Goa, in the establishment of Portuguese rule on the Malabar coast, and in the expedition of d'Albuquerque to Malacca.

After the capture of Malacca d'Albuquerque under the command of Antonio Dabreu, explore the islands of the Malay Archipelago. Some historians claim that Magellan also took part in this expedition. In 1512 Magellan returned to Portugal. For his service, he was elevated to the next degree of nobility and received a small monetary award. Magellan also took part in the Portuguese war in North Africa, but, having not received a promotion, he soon retired and settled in Lisbon. Here he became engaged in cosmography and marine sciences and wrote the essay "Description of the kingdoms, coasts, harbors and islands of India." In Lisbon, Magellan met the outstanding cosmographers of that time, and from conversations with them, from studying their writings, he learned valuable information about the size and extent of the oceans and the distribution of large continents.

Thanks to the study of geographical issues, Magellan had a plan to reach the rich islands of spices, following not the usual route, past Africa and India, but across the western Atlantic Ocean, bypassing the mainland of South America. Magellan, recognizing the sphericity of the earth, assumed that the western path would be straighter and, therefore, shorter than the eastern one. This idea of ​​a western route to the shores of Asia is known to have been the idea of ​​Columbus. Magellan spoke of his plan to the Lisbon cosmographer Rui Faleiro, who approved the plan and advised Magellan to approach King Manuel.

However, the king rejected Magellan's proposal. Then Magellan left Portugal and moved to Spain. On October 20, 1517, he arrived in Seville, where at that time his acquaintance, the Portuguese sailor Diogo Barbosa, lived. Soon, Barbosa filed a petition with the Spanish government to assist Magellan in the implementation of his plan. To this end, a special commission was established to review the Magellan project.

In the commission, Magellan proposed "to find a new way to India and to the islands of spices" and argued that the islands of spices - this pearl of India - are, according to the division of the world made by the pope between Spain and Portugal, within the Spanish possessions.

But the commission rejected Magellan's proposal and declared it unfeasible, so the members of the commission assumed that the American mainland, like a barrier, stretches from one pole to the other and therefore there is no passage from the Atlantic Ocean to the South Sea. Fortunately for Magellan, among the members of the commission was a certain Juan de Aranda, who alone appreciated the full significance of the Magellan project and became interested in it. Juan de Aranda got to know Magellan better and secured an audience with the king for him.

The king took Magellan's proposal seriously; Magellan's proposal was again discussed at the council of ministers, and the king agreed to help him; he demanded only that Magellan mark his path more precisely, since the Spaniards had already explored the coast of the mainland of South America at a great distance to the south and had not found a passage anywhere. Magellan replied that he was thinking of looking for a passage to the South Sea far from the equator.

During his voyages around Africa, Magellan drew attention to the fact that this mainland is somewhat pointed to the south; in the same way, the studies of the Spanish sailors on the coast of Brazil found that the coast of South America goes southwest beyond Cape Augustine. Comparing these two facts, Magellan came to the conclusion that the mainland of America, like Africa, ends in a wedge in the southern hemisphere and, therefore, in the south of America there is a passage to the South Sea. This assumption of Magellan is absolutely correct, but he, nevertheless, was not destined to go around the mainland of America, he did not reach the extreme tip of this mainland, and, although he entered the Great Ocean, it was not the way he expected.

Magellan's plan was accepted by the king, and Magellan was appointed admiral and commander of an expedition consisting of five ships and 265 crew members.

In July 1519, all preparations for the departure were completed. After a solemn ceremony of swearing allegiance to the Spanish king, Magellan received the royal standard, and on the morning of August 10, the expedition left Seville. Having replenished their supplies in the harbor of Sanlucar de Barrameda, on September 10, Magellan's squadron, with a favorable southeast wind, entered the open ocean. Magellan himself commanded the ship "Trinidad", the captain of the second ship "Santo Antonio" was Juan de Cartagena; these ships were followed by the caravels "Concepcion" with captain Gaspar de Quesada, "Victoria" under the command of the royal treasurer Luis de Mendoza and, finally, a small ship "Sant Yago" with helmsman João Serran. Among the companions on Magellan's ship were the Portuguese Duarte Barbosa and the Italian Antonio Pifaghetta, the future historian of this first round-the-world trip.

When the squadron passed the Canary Islands, Magellan, without consulting with his comrades, changed course somewhat; the captain of the ship "Santo Antonio" - Juan de Cartagena, considering himself equal in power to Magellan, protested against this and pointed out to Magellan that he was deviating from royal instructions. This was the beginning of disagreements between Magellan and Juan de Cartagena. Cartagena began to incite against Magellan and other officers; then Magellan, having invited Juan de Cartagena and other officers to his ship for a meeting, ordered the arrest of Juan de Cartagena and put him in chains. On November 29, the coast of South America appeared ahead of the coast of South America - Cape Augustine, and on December 13, following along the coast of Brazil, Magellan's squadron reached the bay of Rio de Janeiro. Soon, Magellan's ships entered areas completely unexplored until that time. Stopping sometimes near the coast, the Spaniards entered into trade relations with the natives and exchanged fruits and various food supplies with them for various trinkets and small things.

Describing the natives of Brazil, Pythaghetta says that “the Brazilians are not Christians, but they are not idolaters either, since they worship nothing; natural instinct is their only law. They go completely naked and sleep on cotton nets called hammocks and tied to two trees. They sometimes eat human flesh, killing only captives and people of a foreign tribe for this.

Soon Magellan reached the mouth of La Plata. At the sight of the Spanish ships, the natives quickly retreated inland. On the banks of this river, Juan Diaz de Solis was killed four years ago. Magellan's flotilla landed at the port of Desire, a little below the mouth of La Plata, which the Spaniards initially took for a large strait leading to the Great Ocean. After a brief halt, the flotilla proceeded further south and then landed in a beautiful bay called San Julian. Here Magellan decided to spend the winter.

The natives of this region were tall, broad-faced, red-skinned, with bleached hair, they were shod in wide fur boots, for which the Spaniards called them "Patagonians", that is, big-footed.

Anticipating that the wintering will be long, and taking into account that there are very few food supplies in the country of the Patagonians, Magellan ordered food to be given to the crew in portions. This measure increased the discontent among the sailors, and several officers who stood on the side of Juan de Cartagena decided to start a riot. They talked. That further sailing to the south is madness, since the strait from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great in all probability does not exist. But Magellan did not want to hear about returning back. Meanwhile, the unrest became more and more serious. The dissatisfied freed Juan de Cartagena and took possession of two ships; soon the captain of the third ship, the Victoria, joined the rebels. The rebels announced to Magellan that he should return to Spain, in case of refusal, they threatened to resort to arms.

Magellan decided to suppress the rebellion with harsh measures. He sent his devoted Genzalo Gomez Espinosa to the ship "Victoria" with orders to the captain to report immediately. The captain of the Victoria, Luis Mendoza, considering himself completely safe, listened to Magellan's order with a sneer and flatly refused to go to him. Then Espinosa suddenly drew a small dagger and struck Mendoza in the neck, another Spaniard, who arrived with Espinosa, struck a second blow to Mendoza, and Mendoza fell dead on the deck of the ship. A struggle ensued, but Magellan, who was following her from his ship, immediately sent boats with soldiers to the Victoria, and soon a signal flag raised on the mast of the Victoria informed Magellan of the victory.

Thus, the plans of the enemy were dealt a blow. Struck by the energy and determination of Magellan, Juan Cartagena and his comrades decided to secretly sail to Spain. But the next day, Magellan's ships, which took up position at the entrance to the harbor, cut off their path. An attempt to break through under the cover of night ended unsuccessfully, and soon the captains of both ships - Quesada and Cartagena - were already prisoners of Magellan. Magellan decided to severely punish the rebels. Court-martialed, they were sentenced to death. “The conspirators were the superintendent of the fleet Juan de Cartagena, the treasurer Luis de Mendoza, the accountant Antonio de Coca and Gaspar de Quesada. The plot was discovered, and the caretaker was quartered, and the treasurer died from dagger blows. A few days after this, Gaspar de Quesada, along with one clergyman, was exiled to Patagonia. The captain-general did not want to kill him, since the emperor don Karl himself appointed him captain.

In the harbor of San Julian, Magellan's squadron stood all winter. After waiting when the stormy time will pass and spring will come, Magellan set off further south. Magellan announced to his companions that he would sail south to 75 degrees south latitude, and only after making sure that the strait did not exist, he would turn back to the east. On October 21, Magellan's flotilla reached the cape, which was named Cape Virgenes, in honor of the corresponding holiday. catholic church coinciding with this day.

Having reached this point and seeing the bay jutting out into the mainland in front of him, Magellan had no idea that he was in front of the entrance to the desired strait. The next day he sent two ships to explore the bay, but the ships returned before reaching the end of the bay. Then Magellan decided that this was the strait he was looking for, and therefore gave the order to the entire squadron to go into the strait. The ships moved forward carefully, exploring the path through the labyrinth of side straits, bays and coves.

Both banks were deserted. At night, on the southern coast, in different places on the tops of the mountains, numerous lights were visible, which is why Magellan called this country - Tierra del Fuego.

Strait of Magellan and access to the Pacific Ocean

After a twenty-two-day voyage along the strait, sometimes expanding to four or more miles, sometimes narrowing to one mile, Magellan's flotilla safely got to the other end of the strait. While wandering the strait, one ship, the Santo Antonio, escaped and its captain returned to Spain. Magellan, after searching for this ship for several days, decided to continue his journey further and finally saw another boundless ocean in front of him.

The first cape, which ended the strait, Magellan called Cape Deseado (desirable), "because - says Pigafetta - we have long sought to see it." November 27 "Victoria", walking ahead of other ships, the first reached the exit to the open ocean, where the coast of the American mainland turned sharply to the north. The cape, which ended the strait, the Spaniards named after their ship "Victoria".

One can imagine the general joy when the sailors saw a new ocean before them. From now on new road to the Far East was discovered and Magellan's assumptions were confirmed. The strait, through which Magellan first passed, received the name from the Spaniards of the Strait of All Saints, since on this day the ships of Magellan entered this strait for the first time; subsequent generations, however, did not recognize this name and gave it the name of Magellan, by which it is known today.

Driven by a fair wind, Magellan's ships headed north along the western coast of South America. Magellan wanted to rise to warmer latitudes, in order to then head west again. On January 27, Magellan reached 16 degrees south latitude and turned west here. Soon the coast of the American mainland disappeared from sight, and the ships found themselves in the middle of a completely unknown boundless water desert of the ocean. Magellan gave the name to this new Pacific Ocean, since, compared with the Atlantic, here Magellan met less storms.

The ocean voyage lasted for four whole months and was accompanied by incredible hardships. There were almost no food supplies, fresh water was all spoiled and the sailors were forced to eat rotten crackers and rats. Pigafetta, describing the misfortunes of his comrades, says: “For three months and twenty days we were completely deprived of fresh food. We ate rusks, but they were no longer rusks, but rusk dust mixed with worms that ate the best rusks. She smelled strongly of rat urine. We drank yellow water that had been rotting for days. We also ate the cowhide that covered the grey, so that the shrouds would not fray; from the action of the sun, rain and wind, it became incredibly hard. We soaked it in sea water for four or five days, after which we put it on hot coals for several minutes and ate it. We often ate sawdust. Rats were sold for half a ducat a piece, but even at that price they were impossible to get.

However, worse than all these troubles was this one. Some of the crew had their upper and lower gums swollen to such an extent that they were unable to take any food, and as a result they died. Nineteen people died from this disease, including a giant, as well as an Indian from the Verzin country. Of the thirty crew members, twenty-five fell ill, some with their feet, some with their hands, some who experienced pain in other places, very few remained healthy. I, thank the Lord, have not experienced any ailment.”

In the midst of such disasters and hardships, sailors sailed to no one knows where, and this killed their energy even more. During the three months of sailing in the Pacific, 19 people died and about 13 were sick. Everyone considered themselves doomed to death. Between there in the ocean there was not a single island. Only in one place in the ocean did the sailors see two islands, but they did not find anything on them that could support their forces. Magellan called these islands Unfortunate.

Finally, on March 9, 1521, a group of islands appeared on the horizon. Approaching these islands, the Spaniards saw that the islands were inhabited. Soon, numerous boats with natives began to swim up to Magellan's ships, who fearlessly moored to the ships and even climbed onto the deck. Magellan made a supply of fresh water on these islands and exchanged some food supplies for trinkets. After that, he hastened to leave the islands, since the natives literally did not leave the Spanish ships alone for a minute and unceremoniously stole everything that came to their hand. Magellan called these islands for the propensity of their inhabitants to theft - Thieves, or Landrones.

On March 16, west of the Thieves' Islands, Magellan discovered another new island, covered with luxurious tropical vegetation. Here Magellan decided to rest his exhausted crew and set up two tents for the sick on the shore. Soon the natives came ashore, bringing with them bananas, palm wine, coconuts and fish. The Spaniards traded all these products for mirrors, scallops, rattles and other small things. This island, named by Magellan Samar, was one of the many islands that form an entire archipelago. Magellan called this archipelago the San Lazaro Archipelago, but later this group of islands became known as the Philippine Islands, in honor of King Philip II of Spain.

A favorable reception from the natives, gold and other valuables found on the islands by the Spaniards - all this taken together distracted Magellan for a while from his original goal - reaching the Moluccas. Magellan set about exploring these islands and on the night of March 27, approaching one island, he met a Malay on a boat. The Malay translator who was with Magellan learned that on some islands the inhabitants speak the Malay dialect.

The Malay promised Magellan to bring the raja of this island to the ships, and, indeed, the next day he appeared to Magellan, accompanied by eight close raja Massawa. He brought gifts to Magellan, instead of which he received a caftan made of red cloth, tailored in an oriental way, a cap of bright red color; knives and mirrors were distributed to his associates. Magellan showed the Raja firearms and cannons, the shots from which greatly frightened him.

“Then the captain-general ordered one of ours to put on full armor, and three others, armed with swords and daggers, to strike him all over the body. The ruler was utterly amazed by this spectacle. At the same time, the captain-general told him through a slave that one man armed in this way could fight against a hundred of his own people. To which the ruler replied that he was convinced of this with his own eyes. The captain-general stated that each of the ships had two hundred men armed in the same way. He showed him cuirasses, swords, shields, and how to use them, ”writes Pigafetta.

At parting, the rajah asked Magellan to send several people with him to see the treasures of the rajah and his dwelling. Magellan released Pigafetta with the Raja, who was given a very good reception. The Raja told him that he found on his island pieces of gold the size of a nut or even an egg; all bowls and some household utensils of the Raja were made of gold. He was dressed, according to the custom of the country, very neatly and had a handsome appearance. His black hair fell over his shoulders; the silk coverlet descended in beautiful folds; he was perfumed with styrax and aloes; in his ears he had large gold earrings, and his face and hands were painted with different colors.

On the first day of the Easter holiday, the fleet set sail and sailed for the island of Cebu, where, as the natives reported, food supplies could be found in abundance. Together with Magellan, he expressed a desire to visit Cebu and Raja Massawa, who was ready to serve Magellan as an interpreter.

When the flotilla arrived on the island of Cebu, Magellan sent one of his officers to the local rajah. The envoy of Magellan, when asked by the Raja what kind of people they were, said: “We are in the service of the greatest king on earth, and this king sent us to the Moluccas to establish trade relations.”

The Raja received the officer amiably, but told him that if they intended to trade on his island, they must first pay the duties to which all ships that come to Cebu are subject.

The Spaniard objected that his master was too great a monarch to submit to such requirements; the officer added that they came here with peaceful intentions, but if they want to make war with them, then they will talk differently.

A Moorish merchant who was at the court of the Raja confirmed the words of the officer about the power of the Spanish king, and after negotiations, the Raja gave the Spaniards the exclusive right to trade on the island, and he himself went to Magellan on the shore.

After this meeting, the natives began to bring food to the Spaniards in abundance, and relations between the natives and the Spaniards became extremely friendly. The Raja and many of the natives even converted to Christianity.

Not far from the island of Cebu was another island, Mactan, whose raja, who had previously recognized the supremacy of the raja of Cebu, for some time did not want to pay tribute to him. When the Raja of the island of Cebu told Magellan about this, Magellan decided to render a service to the new vassal of Spain and at the same time show the natives the superiority of the weapons and military art of Europeans. He invited the Raja to go to Mactan and punish the indignant Raja. On April 26, three boats, on which 60 soldiers fit, and about thirty native boats, on which were the Raja of Cebu, his nephew and many soldiers, set off for the island of Mactan.

Speaking about this campaign, Pigafetta writes: “Then the captain formed us into two detachments, and the battle began. Musketeers and archers fired from a distance for about half an hour, but to no avail, since bullets and arrows pierced only their shields, made of thin wooden planks, and their arms. The captain shouted: “Stop firing! Stop shooting!" - but no one paid attention to his cries. When the natives were convinced that our shooting was not reaching the target, they began to shout that they would hold on steadfastly, and resumed shouting with even greater force. During our shooting, the natives did not stay in one place, but ran here and there, hiding behind their shields. They showered us with so many arrows and hurled so many spears towards the captain (some of the spears were iron-tipped), and fire-hardened stakes, and stones and earth, that we were hardly able to defend ourselves. Seeing this, the captain sent out several men with orders to burn down their houses in order to act on them with fear. The sight of the houses being burned infuriated them even more. Two of ours were killed near the houses, while we burned twenty to thirty houses. We were attacked by such a number of natives that they managed to wound the captain in the leg with a poisoned arrow. As a result, he gave the order to slowly retreat, but ours, with the exception of six or eight people who remained with the captain, immediately turned to flight. The natives only shot at our feet because we were not shod. And so great was the number of spears and stones they threw at us that we were unable to resist. The guns from our ships could not help us, as they were too far away. We continued to retreat and, being at a distance of a shot from the shore, continued to fight, standing knee-deep in the water. The natives continued the pursuit, and, picking up four or six times the same spear from the ground, they threw them at us again and again. Recognizing the captain, so many people attacked him that twice his helmet was knocked off his head, but still he continued to stand firm, as befits a glorious knight, along with others standing next to him. So we fought for more than an hour, refusing to retreat any further. One Indian threw a bamboo spear right into the captain's face, but the latter immediately killed him with his spear stuck in the Indian's body. Then, trying to draw his sword, he drew it only halfway, as he was wounded in the arm by a bamboo spear. Seeing this, all the natives attacked him. One of them wounded him in left leg a large cleaver, similar to a Turkish broadsword, but even wider. The captain fell face down, and immediately they threw iron and bamboo spears at him and began to strike with cleavers until they destroyed our mirror, our light, our joy and our true leader. He kept looking back to see if we all had time to get on the boats.”

Magellan was killed on April 27, 1521 at the age of 41. Although he never reached the goal of his journey - the Moluccas - he went through the most difficult part of the journey, opened the strait at the southern tip of America and was the first to cross the greatest ocean of the globe.

Further journey of the expedition after the death of Magellan

Having recovered from the defeat, the Spaniards made an attempt to get the body of Magellan from the natives for a large ransom, but the natives refused. They wanted to have the trophy of their victory. After this ill-fated expedition, the surviving Spaniards returned to the island of Cebu, but here, too, the mood of the previously friendly Indians changed dramatically. A Malay, Magellan's slave, who served as his translator, considering himself free after Magellan's death, fled from the ship and told the Raja of Cebu that the Spaniards had plotted against the Raja. The Raja believed him, and invited Duarte Barbosa and Juan Serrano, who, after the death of Magellan, became the heads of the expedition. Suspecting nothing, the Spaniards, including 26 people, went ashore and arrived at the Raja's court. But as soon as they entered the premises of the raja, they were surrounded by a detachment of armed Indians and attacked them. Any resistance was useless. All Spaniards except Juan Serrano were killed. When the ships learned the sad news that had befallen their comrades, they immediately approached the shore and opened heavy fire from cannons at the village. In vain, the wounded Serrano, whom the natives brought to the shore, begged to stop firing and ransom him from the enemies. The Portuguese Carvalho, who took command of the expedition, did not dare to risk other people and hurried away from the island, since it could be expected that the Indians would sail in their canoes to the ships and could harm the flotilla. The unfortunate Serrano was left to fend for himself in the hands of the Indians, who probably killed him.

Carvalho, meanwhile, sent his ships to the neighboring island of Bohol. Here the Spaniards were convinced that the total number of participants in the expedition was not enough to manage three ships, as a result of which it was decided to burn one ship, the oldest Concepcion, to burn everything of value from it. On the neighboring islands, the Spaniards found guides who promised to lead them to the Moluccas. Indeed, after a short voyage on November 6, the Spaniards saw 4 islands on the horizon. The Indian guide announced that this was the Moluccas. “We,” Pigafetta writes, “as a sign of our joy, fired a volley from all the cannons. Our joy at the sight of these islands will not seem surprising to anyone, for for almost 26 months we have sailed the oceans, visited many islands, constantly looking for the Moluccas.

Soon the ships landed on an island, where the Spaniards found spices in abundance. Having loaded the ships with spices and stocked up on food supplies, the Spaniards stood for some time, and then headed for the island of Borneo, which at that time was the center of the Malay civilization. The Raja of Borneo gave the Spaniards a magnificent reception: he sent two richly decorated elephants and a guard of honor for the officers. The Spaniards, arriving at the palace, were greeted very cordially by the Raja himself, who inquired about the purpose of their journey. The Raja promised to help the Spaniards and provide them with provisions. He released the Spaniards to the ships, assuring them of his friendship. However, on July 29, more than a hundred pirogues surrounded both Spanish ships, apparently intending to attack them. Fearing an attack, the Spaniards decided to warn him and fired a volley from all the artillery at the pirogues, on which many people were killed. The Raja then sent his apology to the Spaniards, explaining that the pirogues did not come out against the Spaniards at all, but against the pagans with whom the Muslims were at war.

Leaving Borneo, the Spaniards landed on another island, more deserted. Here they decided to repair their ships, which were in need of repair. The Spaniards spent more than forty days repairing the ships. Pigafetta at that time was studying the vegetation of the island. On this island, in addition to the usual southern trees, Pigafetta was struck by extraordinary trees from which "animate leaves" fall. “We also found trees, the leaves of which, falling, come to life, even move. They look like mulberry leaves, but not as long. On both sides of the short and pointed petiole they have two legs. They have no blood, but one has only to touch them, as they immediately slip away. One of them I kept for nine days in a box. When I opened it, the sheet moved inside the box. I believe that these leaves live on air alone.

Having repaired their ships, the Spaniards moved on. They passed the Sulu archipelago, a hangout for Malay pirates, then visited the island of Mindanao. From here they decided to continue their journey across the ocean in order to return to their homeland as soon as possible, since the ships, despite the extensive repairs made, were destroyed more and more every day. As soon as the flotilla passed Mindanao and headed west, a leak formed on the Trinidad ship, and further navigation on it became impossible. As a result, the squadron landed on one island, where it was decided to make repairs. It was the island of Timor. Here the Spaniards were hospitably greeted by Raja Mansor, who, after repeated conversations with the Spaniards, expressed his desire to be under the patronage of the Spanish king.

The Raja's possessions consisted of several islands that were part of the Moluccan archipelago group. Pigafetta, describing these islands, admired the valuable plants that grow in abundance on these islands. The sago tree, mulberry, clove, nutmeg tree, pepper, camphor tree and other spice trees grow here. There are also whole forests of valuable ebony here.

Arriving at Timor, Carvalho convened a council at which it was decided to leave the Trinidad on Timor to be repaired, and the Victoria, with a cargo of spices under the command of Juan Sebastian de Elcano, immediately send to Spain. 53 Spaniards and 30 Indians went to the Victoria, and 54 Spaniards remained on the Trinidad. Then "Victoria" went to the southwest, to the island of Soude, or Xule. 10 miles away, the Victoria landed on the island of Buru, where she stocked up on provisions. Then, the Victoria landed at the island of Solora, whose inhabitants carried on a large trade in white sandalwood. Here the ship stood for 15 days and the ship was repaired, and Juan Sebastian de Elcano also exchanged a lot of wax and pepper. After that, visiting Timor again, he headed to the island of Java.

After leaving Java, the Victoria rounded the Malay Peninsula, carefully avoiding the Portuguese ships. On May 6, the Victoria rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and travelers could hope for a successful outcome of the journey. However, the sailors still had to endure many misfortunes. Food supplies were practically exhausted, all the crew's food consisted only of rice and water.

On July 9, the Victoria reached the Cape Verde Islands, the crew was literally dying of hunger, and de Elcano decided to land near the island of Boavista. Speaking of his arrival at Boavista, Pigafetta cites the following fact in his diary: “Wanting to know whether our diary was regularly kept, I ordered to ask on the shore what day of the week it was. They replied Thursday. This surprised me, because according to my notes, we only had Wednesday. It seemed impossible to us that we were all wrong for one day. I was surprised by this more than others, since I always kept my journal very regularly and noted, without missing, all the days of the week and the day of the month. Subsequently, we learned that there was no mistake in our account: sailing constantly to the west, we followed the movement of the sun, and, returning to the same place, we had to gain 24 hours compared to those who remained in place.

On September 6, 1522, the Victoria entered the harbor of Sanlúcar de Barrameda safely. Of the 265 people who went to sea on September 20, 1519, only 18 people returned to the Victoria, but they were all sick and exhausted. Two days later, the Victoria arrived in Seville.

Conclusion

In the three years that have passed since Magellan's expedition set sail, much has changed in Spain. Mexico was discovered and conquered, and new sources of profit were thus found in that part of the world where the Spaniards had no need to fear Portuguese competition. changed significantly and foreign policy Spain. Charles V was guided in his policy by great-power imperial interests to a much greater extent than by the interests of Spain. A series of bloody and exhausting wars for hegemony in Europe began, and Spain was drawn into these wars. Nobility and chivalry were enriched in the military enterprises of Charles V; at the same time, booty was obtained not by robbing distant and inaccessible lands, but by ruining neighboring countries - Italy and Flanders, on the fields of which there was a continuous war with the French.

Finally, significant events occurred in the internal life of Spain. In 1521 - 1522 an uprising of urban communities (comuneros) was suppressed, and on the ashes of urban freedoms, the nobility celebrated a bloody feast. The victory over the cities heralded the advent of the era of feudal reaction and dealt a crushing blow to the not yet strong bourgeois class, which was being formed in the depths of the Spanish city.

Therefore, the news of the opening of the strait leading to the South Sea, and the news that the Spanish ships reached the Spice Islands, did not arouse the interest of either the king's advisers or all kinds of money-seekers.

From a geographical point of view, the significance of this first round-the-world trip was enormous. It was a turning point that separates the ancient period in the field of geography from the new era. Before Magellan, the sphericity of the Earth, although theoretically, though recognized by scientists, but still the doctrine of the sphericity of the Earth was just a mental construction. The return of the ship "Victoria", which set off to the west, from the east was the strongest argument in the system of evidence that the Earth is a large ball. The journey of Magellan and de Elcano thus contributed to the spread and strengthening in the minds of people of a somewhat strange idea for the human mind about the sphericity of the Earth. No preconceived opinion could resist the convincing force of the fact, and the voyage of the Victoria dealt another powerful blow to the old cosmographic ideas.

The fact that the Earth is a huge ball, freely hanging in space, had a huge impact on all human thinking, immense horizons immediately opened before the human mind, and a new question involuntarily arose before man: if our Earth is a ball, and, therefore, is the same celestial body as the Sun and the Moon, then maybe it does not stand still, but revolves around the Sun along with other planets? This idea was tried to substantiate and prove by the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, who published his famous book on the circulation of the Earth in 1548, that is, twenty-one years after the return of Juan Sebastian de Elcano from around the world.

The crews included: 1) commanders, 2) crown officials and priests, 3) junior commanders, which included ship's carpenters, boatswains, caulkers, coopers and scorers, 4) sailors marineros-sailors of the first article and grametes-deck sailors and cabin boys, 5) supernumerary-sobresalientes-people who did not have certain duties on ships, and soldiers (Antonio Pigafetta is also among the spares), 6) servants of commanders and officials.

In my own way national composition the crew was very colorful. It consisted of: 37 Portuguese, 30 or more Italians, 19 French, not counting the Spaniards, Flemings, Germans, Sicilians, English, Malays, Negroes, Moors, natives of Madeira, Azores and Canary Islands.

“Fernando Magellan sought to ensure that other rulers, the neighbors of this one, obeyed this ruler, who became a Christian, but they refused to obey him. In view of this, Fernando Magellan set out one night in his boats and set fire to the settlements of those who refused to submit. 10-12 days after that, he ordered the settlement, located at a distance of half a league from the settlement he burned and called Mactan, also located on the island, to send him three goats, three pigs, three measures of rice and three measures of millet. In response, they declared that instead of the three pieces of each item he demanded, they were ready to give him two and that if he agreed to this, they would immediately fulfill everything, but if not, then as he pleased, they would give nothing more. . In view of the fact that they refused to give him what he demanded of them, Fernando Magellan gave the order to equip three boats with a crew of 50-60 people and marched against this village on April 28 in the morning. They were met by many people, about three or four thousand people, who fought with such tenacity that Fernando Magellan and six people who were with him were killed in 1521.

Weekly tour, one-day hiking trips and excursions combined with comfort (trekking) in the mountain resort of Khadzhokh (Adygea, Krasnodar Territory). Tourists live at the camp site and visit numerous natural monuments. Rufabgo Waterfalls, Lago-Naki Plateau, Meshoko Gorge, Big Azish Cave, Belaya River Canyon, Guam Gorge.

AMUNDSEN Rual
(1872-1928)

Travel routes

1903-1906 - Arctic expedition on the ship "Yoa". R. Amundsen was the first to cross the Northwest Passage from Greenland to Alaska and determined the exact position of the North Magnetic Pole at that time.
1910-1912 - Antarctic expedition on the ship "Fram".
On December 14, 1911, a Norwegian traveler with four comrades on a dog sled reached the South Pole of the earth, ahead of the expedition of the Englishman Robert Scott by a month.
1918-1920 - on the ship "Maud" R. Amundsen passed through the Arctic Ocean along the coast of Eurasia.
1926 - together with the American Lincoln Ellsworth and the Italian Umberto Nobile R. Amundsen made a flight on the airship "Norway" along the route Svalbard - North Pole - Alaska.
1928 - during the search for the missing expedition in the Barents Sea, U. Nobile Amundsen died.

Name on a geographical map

The name of the Norwegian traveler is given to a sea in the Pacific Ocean, a mountain in East Antarctica, a bay near the coast of Canada and a basin in the North Arctic Ocean.
The US Antarctic Research Station is named after the pioneers: Amundsen-Scott Pole.

Bellingshausen Faddey Faddeevich
(1778-1852)

Travel routes

1803-1806 - F.F. Bellingshausen took part in the first Russian circumnavigation under the command of I.F. Kruzenshtern on the ship "Nadezhda". All the maps that were subsequently included in the "Atlas of Captain Kruzenshtern's trip around the world" were compiled by him.
1819-1821 - F.F. Bellingshausen led a round-the-world expedition to the South Pole.
On January 28, 1820, on the sloops Vostok (under the command of F.F. Bellingshausen) and Mirny (under the command of M.P. Lazarev), Russian sailors were the first to reach the shores of Antarctica.

Name on a geographical map

A sea in the Pacific Ocean, a cape in South Sakhalin, an island in the Tuamotu archipelago, an ice shelf and a basin in Antarctica are named after F.F. Bellingshausen.
The name of the Russian navigator is the Russian Antarctic research station.

BERING Vitus Jonassen
(1681-1741)
Danish navigator and explorer in Russian service

Travel routes

1725-1730 - V. Bering led the 1st Kamchatka expedition, the purpose of which was to search for a land isthmus between Asia and America (there was no exact information about the voyage of S. Dezhnev and F. Popov, who actually discovered the strait between the continents in 1648). The expedition on the ship "Saint Gabriel" rounded the shores of Kamchatka and Chukotka, discovered the island of St. Lawrence and the strait (now Bering).
1733-1741 - 2nd Kamchatka, or the Great Northern Expedition. On the ship "Saint Peter" Bering crossed the Pacific Ocean, reached Alaska, explored and mapped its shores. On the way back during wintering on one of the islands (now Commander Islands), Bering, like many members of his team, died.

Name on a geographical map

In addition to the strait between Eurasia and North America, islands, a sea in the Pacific Ocean, a cape on the coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and one of the largest glaciers in southern Alaska bear the name of Vitus Bering.

VAMBERI Arminius (German)
(1832-1913)
Hungarian orientalist

Travel routes

1863 - A. Vamberi's journey under the guise of a dervish through Central Asia from Tehran through the Turkmen desert along the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea to Khiva, Mashhad, Herat, Samarkand and Bukhara.

VANCOUVER George
(1757-1798)
English navigator

Travel routes

1772-1775, 1776-1780 - J. Vancouver as a cabin boy and midshipman participated in the second and third round-the-world voyages of J. Cook.
1790-1795 - A round-the-world expedition under the command of J. Vancouver explored the northwestern coast of North America. It was determined that the proposed waterway connecting the Pacific Ocean and Hudson Bay did not exist.

Name on a geographical map

In honor of J. Vancouver, several hundred geographical objects are named, including an island, a bay, a city, a river, a ridge (Canada), a lake, a cape, a mountain, a city (USA), a bay (New Zealand).

GAMA Vasco yes
(1469-1524)
Portuguese navigator

Travel routes

1497-1499 - Vasco da Gama led an expedition that opened for Europeans a sea route to India around the African continent.
1502 - second expedition to India.
1524 - the third expedition of Vasco da Gama, already as Viceroy of India. Died during the expedition.

GOLOVNIN Vasily Mikhailovich
(1776-1831)
Russian navigator

Travel routes

1807-1811 - V.M. Golovnin leads the round-the-world voyage on the sloop "Diana".
1811 - V.M. Golovnin conducts research on the Kuril and Shantar Islands, the Tatar Strait.
1817-1819 - circumnavigation on the sloop "Kamchatka", during which a description was made of part of the Aleutian ridge and the Commander Islands.

Name on a geographical map

Several bays, a strait and a seamount, as well as a city in Alaska and a volcano on Kunashir Island are named after the Russian navigator.

HUMBOLDT Alexander, background
(1769-1859)
German naturalist, geographer, traveler

Travel routes

1799-1804 - Expedition to Central and South America.
1829 - a journey through Russia: the Urals, Altai, the Caspian Sea.

Name on a geographical map

Ranges in Central Asia and North America, a mountain on the island of New Caledonia, a glacier in Greenland, a cold current in the Pacific Ocean, a river, a lake and a series of settlements in USA.

A number of plants, minerals, and even a crater on the moon are named after the German scientist.
The university in Berlin bears the name of the brothers Alexander and Wilhelm Humboldt.

DEZHNEV Semyon Ivanovich
(c. 1605-1673)
Russian explorer, navigator

Travel routes

1638-1648 - S.I. Dezhnev took part in river and land campaigns in the area of ​​the Yana River, on Oymyakon and Kolyma.
1648 - a fishing expedition led by S.I. Dezhnev and F.A. Popov rounded the Chukotka Peninsula and reached the Gulf of Anadyr. Thus, the strait between the two continents was opened, which was later named Bering.

Name on a geographical map

A cape on the northeastern tip of Asia, a ridge in Chukotka and a bay in the Bering Strait are named after Dezhnev.

DRAKE Francis
(1540-1596)
English navigator and pirate

Travel routes

1567 - F. Drake took part in the expedition of J. Gaukins to the West Indies.
Since 1570 - annual pirate raids in the Caribbean.
1577-1580 - F. Drake led the second round-the-world voyage of Europeans after Magellan.

Name on a geographical map

The name of the brave navigator is the widest strait on the globe, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

DUMONT-DURVILLE Jules Sebastien Cesar
(1790-1842)
French navigator and oceanographer

Travel routes

1826-1828 - circumnavigation on the ship "Astrolabe", as a result of which part of the coast of New Zealand and New Guinea was mapped, island groups in the Pacific Ocean were examined. On the island of Vanikoro, Dumont-D'Urville discovered traces of the lost expedition of J. Laperouse.
1837-1840 - Antarctic expedition.

Name on a geographical map

The sea in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Antarctica is named after the navigator.
The French scientific Antarctic station bears the name of Dumont-D'Urville.

IBN BATTUTA Abu Abdallah Muhammad
Ibn al-Lawati at-Tanji
(1304-1377)
Arab traveler, itinerant merchant

Travel routes

1325-1349 - Departing from Morocco on a hajj (pilgrimage), Ibn Battuta traveled to Egypt, Arabia, Iran, Syria, Crimea, reached the Volga and lived for some time in the Golden Horde. Then through Central Asia and Afghanistan he arrived in India, visited Indonesia and China.
1349-1352 - travel to Muslim Spain.
1352-1353 - a trip to Western and Central Sudan.

At the request of the ruler of Morocco, Ibn Battuta, together with a scholar named Juzay, wrote the book "Rikhla", where he summarized the information about the Muslim world that he had collected during his travels.

Columbus Christopher
(1451-1506)
Portuguese and Spanish navigator

Travel routes

1492-1493 - H. Columbus led the Spanish expedition, the purpose of which was to find the shortest sea route from Europe to India. During the voyage on three caravels "Santa Maria", "Pinta" and "Nina" the Sargasso Sea, the Bahamas, Cuba and Haiti were discovered.
October 12, 1492, when Columbus reached the island of Samana, is recognized as the official day of the discovery of America by Europeans.
During three subsequent expeditions across the Atlantic (1493-1496, 1498-1500, 1502-1504), Columbus discovered the Greater Antilles, part of the Lesser Antilles, the coasts of South and Central America and the Caribbean Sea.
Until the end of his life, Columbus was sure that he had reached India.

Name on a geographical map

The name of Christopher Columbus is given to a state in South America, mountains and plateaus in North America, a glacier in Alaska, a river in Canada, and several cities in the United States.

In the United States of America there is Columbia University.

Krasheninnikov Stepan Petrovich
(1711-1755)
Russian naturalist, the first explorer of Kamchatka

Travel routes

1733-1743 - S.P. Krasheninnikov took part in the 2nd Kamchatka expedition. First, under the guidance of academicians G.F. Miller and I.G. Gmelin, he studied Altai and Transbaikalia. In October 1737, Krasheninnikov went to Kamchatka on his own, where until June 1741 he carried out research, on the basis of which he subsequently compiled the first Description of the Land of Kamchatka (vols. 1-2, ed. 1756).

Name on a geographical map

An island near Kamchatka, a cape on Karaginsky Island and a mountain near Lake Kronotskoe are named after S.P. Krasheninnikov.

KRUZENSHTERN Ivan Fyodorovich
(1770-1846)
Russian navigator, admiral

Travel routes

1803-1806 - I.F. Kruzenshtern led the first Russian round-the-world expedition on the ships "Nadezhda" and "Neva". I.F. Kruzenshtern - author of the "Atlas of the South Sea" (vols. 1-2, 1823-1826)

Name on a geographical map

The name of I.F. Kruzenshtern bears the strait in the northern part of the Kuril Islands, two atolls in the Pacific Ocean and the southeastern passage of the Korea Strait.

COOK James
(1728-1779)
English navigator

Travel routes

1768-1771 - round-the-world expedition on the frigate "Endeavor" under the command of J. Cook. The insular position of New Zealand has been determined, the Great Barrier Reef and the east coast of Australia have been discovered.
1772-1775 - the goal of the second expedition led by Cook on the ship "Resolution" (to find and map the southern mainland) was not achieved. As a result of the search, the South Sandwich Islands, New Caledonia, Norfolk, South Georgia were discovered.
1776-1779 - Cook's third round-the-world expedition on the ships "Resolution" and "Discovery" aimed to find the Northwest Passage connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The passage was not found, but the Hawaiian Islands and part of the coast of Alaska were discovered. On the way back J.Cook was killed on one of the islands by natives.

Name on a geographical map

The highest mountain in New Zealand, a bay in the Pacific Ocean, islands in Polynesia and the strait between the North and South Islands of New Zealand are named after the English navigator.

LAZAREV Mikhail Petrovich
(1788-1851)
Russian naval commander and navigator

Travel routes

1813-1816 - circumnavigation on the ship "Suvorov" from Kronstadt to the coast of Alaska and back.
1819-1821 - commanding the Mirny sloop, M.P. Lazarev participated in a round-the-world expedition led by F.F. Bellingshausen.
1822-1824 - MP Lazarev led a round-the-world expedition on the frigate "Cruiser".

Name on a geographical map

A sea in the Atlantic Ocean, an ice shelf and an underwater trench in East Antarctica, a village on the Black Sea coast are named after M.P. Lazarev.
The Russian Antarctic Research Station also bears the name of MP Lazarev.

LIVINGSTON David
(1813-1873)
English explorer of Africa

Travel routes

Since 1841 - numerous trips to the interior regions of South and Central Africa.
1849-1851 - Research of the area of ​​Lake Ngami.
1851-1856 - Research of the Zambezi River. D. Livingston discovered the Victoria Falls and was the first European to cross the African continent.
1858-1864 - Exploration of the Zambezi River, Lakes Chilwa and Nyasa.
1866-1873 - several expeditions in search of the sources of the Nile.

Name on a geographical map

The waterfalls on the Congo River and the city on the Zambezi River are named after the English traveler.

MAGELLAN Fernand
(c. 1480-1521)
Portuguese navigator

Travel routes

1519-1521 - F. Magellan led the first round-the-world voyage in the history of mankind. Magellan's expedition discovered the coast of South America south of La Plata, circled the continent, crossed the strait, later named after the navigator, then crossed the Pacific Ocean and reached the Philippine Islands. On one of them Magellan was killed. After his death, the expedition was led by J.S. Elcano, thanks to which the only one of the ships ("Victoria") and the last eighteen sailors (out of two hundred and sixty-five crew members) were able to reach the coast of Spain.

Name on a geographical map

The Strait of Magellan is located between the mainland of South America and the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Miklukho-Maclay Nikolay Nikolaevich
(1846-1888)
Russian scientist, explorer of Oceania and New Guinea

Travel routes

1866-1867 - travel to the Canary Islands and Morocco.
1871-1886 - the study of the indigenous people of Southeast Asia, Australia and Oceania, including the Papuans of the Northeast coast of New Guinea.

Name on a geographical map

The Miklouho-Maclay Coast is located in New Guinea.

The Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences also bears the name of Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklukho-Maclay.

NANSEN Fridtjof
(1861-1930)
Norwegian polar explorer

Travel routes

1888 - F. Nansen made the first ever ski crossing through Greenland.
1893-1896 - Nansen on the Fram ship drifted across the Arctic Ocean from the New Siberian Islands to the Svalbard archipelago. As a result of the expedition, extensive oceanographic and meteorological material was collected, but Nansen failed to reach the North Pole.
1900 - expedition to study the currents of the Arctic Ocean.

Name on a geographical map

An underwater basin and an underwater ridge in the Arctic Ocean, as well as a number of geographical objects in the Arctic and Antarctic, are named after Nansen.

NIKITIN Afanasy
(? - 1472 or 1473)
Russian merchant, traveler in Asia

Travel routes

1466-1472 - A. Nikitin's journey through the countries of the Middle East and India. On the way back, stopping at the Cafe (Feodosia), Afanasy Nikitin wrote a description of his travels and adventures - "Journey beyond the three seas."

PIRI Robert Edwin
(1856-1920)
American polar explorer

Travel routes

1892 and 1895 - two trips through Greenland.
From 1902 to 1905 - several unsuccessful attempts to conquer the North Pole.
Finally, R. Piri announced that he had reached the North Pole on April 6, 1909. However, seventy years after the traveler's death, when, according to his will, the diaries of the expedition were declassified, it turned out that Piri could not actually reach the pole, he stopped at 89˚55΄ N.

Name on a geographical map

The peninsula in the far north of Greenland is called Piri Land.

The first trip around the world, or rather, swimming, was made by the expedition of the Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan in the period from 1519 to 1522. During the expedition, he died and one of the captains of Magellan's squadron named Juan Sebastian de Elcano completed the voyage.

During the first trip around the world, the spherical shape of the Earth was proved in practice. Magellan discovered the eastern coast of South America, the strait connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, as well as the island of Guam and the Philippine archipelago.

The second voyage around the world (and the first English voyage around the world) was made in 1577-1580 by Admiral Francis Drake. He discovered the strait between South America and Antarctica and explored West Coast South America.

The third and fourth voyages around the world were made in 1586-1588 and 1598-1601 by Thomas Cavendish and Olivier de Noort, respectively. They did not make serious geographical discoveries.

The first round-the-world trip made by the French took place in 1766-1769. An expedition led by Louis Antoine de Bougainville discovered islands in the Tuamotu and Louisiade archipelagos.

Three round-the-world voyages of James Cook, made by him in 1768-1771, 1772-1775 and 1776-1779, opened for Europeans the island status of New Zealand, the existence of the Great Barrier Reef, the mainland of Australia, the Hawaiian Islands and Alaska.

The first Russian round-the-world trip was made by an expedition under the command of Ivan Krusenstern in 1803-1806.

The second Russian circumnavigation of the world was made in 1815-1818 by an expedition under the command of Otto Evstafievich Kotzebue. The expedition discovered a number of unknown Pacific islands and explored the North coast of Alaska.

During the Russian round-the-world trip of 1819-1821, the expedition under the command of Thaddeus Bellingshausen discovered Antarctica and several islands in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

Another Russian circumnavigation under the leadership of Otto Kotzebue was made in 1823-1826. This time, islands were discovered in South Polynesia, Micronesia and other areas of the Pacific Ocean.

The round-the-world expedition of the Englishman Robert Fitzroy, made in 1831-1836, is famous for taking part in it and collecting data for the future theory of evolution. organic world Charles Darwin.

The first solo trip around the world dates back to 1895-1898. For 3 years 2 months and 2 days circumnavigation on sailing yacht by Joshua Slocum.

The first round-the-world trip by air, on an airship, was made in 1929 by the German aeronaut Hugo Eckener.
The first non-stop flight around the world was made in 1957 by three US Air Force B-52 aircraft.

1961 - Yuri Gagarin's flight around the Earth in a spaceship.

The first round-the-world trip under water in an autonomous mode without ascents for the entire time of the voyage was made in 1966 by a detachment of nuclear submarines of the USSR Navy under the command of Rear Admiral A. Sorokin.

The first autonomous circumnavigation of the world on a sailing yacht without calling at ports and any outside support was made in 1968-69 in 313 days by Robert Knox-Johnston.

June 26th, 2015

It was a time when ships were built of wood,
and the people who controlled them were forged from steel

Ask anyone, and he will tell you that the first person to circumnavigate the world was the Portuguese navigator and explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who died on Mactan Island (Philippines) during an armed clash with the natives (1521). The same is written in history books. Actually, this is a myth. After all, it turns out that one excludes the other. Magellan managed to go only half way.

Primus circumdedisti me (you were the first to bypass me)- reads the Latin inscription on the emblem of Juan Sebastian Elcano crowned with a globe. Indeed, Elcano was the first person to commit circumnavigation.

Let's find out more about how it happened...

The San Telmo Museum in San Sebastian houses Salaverria's painting "The Return of the Victoria". Eighteen emaciated people in white shrouds, with lighted candles in their hands, staggering down the ladder from the ship to the embankment of Seville. These are sailors from the only ship that returned to Spain from the entire flotilla of Magellan. In front is their captain, Juan Sebastian Elcano.

Much in the biography of Elcano has not yet been clarified. Oddly enough, the man who circumnavigated the globe for the first time did not attract the attention of artists and historians of his time. There is not even a reliable portrait of him, and of the documents written by him, only letters to the king, petitions and a will have survived.

Juan Sebastian Elcano was born in 1486 in Getaria, a small port town in the Basque Country, not far from San Sebastian. He early linked his own fate with the sea, making a “career” that was not uncommon for an enterprising person of that time - first changing his job as a fisherman to a smuggler, and later enrolling in the navy to avoid punishment for his too free attitude to laws and trade duties. Elcano took part in the Italian Wars and the Spanish military campaign in Algeria in 1509. Bask had mastered maritime business quite well in practice when he was a smuggler, but it was in the navy that Elcano received the “correct” education in the field of navigation and astronomy.

In 1510, Elcano, the owner and captain of a ship, took part in the siege of Tripoli. But the Spanish Treasury refused to pay Elcano the amount due for settlements with the crew. leaving military service, who never seriously tempted the young adventurer with low wages and the need to maintain discipline, Elcano decides to start new life in Seville. It seems to Basque that a bright future awaits him - in a new city for him, no one knows about his not entirely impeccable past, the navigator atoned for his guilt before the law in battles with the enemies of Spain, he has official papers that allow him to work as a captain on a merchant ship … But the trade enterprises, in which Elcano becomes a participant, turn out to be unprofitable as one.

In 1517, in payment of debts, he sold the ship under his command to the Genoese bankers - and this trading operation determined his entire fate. The fact is that the owner of the sold ship was not Elcano himself, but the Spanish crown, and the Basque is expected to again have difficulties with the law, this time threatening him with the death penalty. At that time it was considered a serious crime. Knowing that the court would not take into account any excuses, Elcano fled to Seville, where it was easy to get lost, and then take refuge on any ship: in those days, the captains were least interested in the biographies of their people. In addition, there were many Elcano fellow countrymen in Seville, and one of them, Ibarolla, was well acquainted with Magellan. He helped Elcano to enlist in Magellan's flotilla. Having passed the exams and received beans as a sign of a good grade (those who did not pass received peas from the examination board), Elcano became helmsman on the third largest ship in the flotilla, the Concepcione.

Ships of Magellan's flotilla

On September 20, 1519, Magellan's flotilla left the mouth of the Guadalquivir and headed for the coast of Brazil. In April 1520, when the ships settled down for the winter in the frosty and deserted bay of San Julian, the captains, dissatisfied with Magellan, mutinied. Elcano was drawn into it, not daring to disobey his commander, the captain of the Concepción Quesada.

Magellan energetically and brutally suppressed the rebellion: Quesada and another of the leaders of the conspiracy were cut off their heads, the corpses were quartered and the mutilated remains were stumbled on poles. Captain Cartagena and one priest, also the instigator of the rebellion, Magellan ordered to be landed on the deserted shore of the bay, where they subsequently died. The remaining forty rebels, including Elcano, Magellan spared.

1. The first ever circumnavigation of the world

On November 28, 1520, the remaining three ships left the strait and in March 1521, after an unprecedentedly difficult passage through the Pacific Ocean, they approached the islands, which later became known as the Marianas. In the same month, Magellan discovered the Philippine Islands, and on April 27, 1521, he died in a skirmish with local residents on the island of Matan. Elcano, stricken with scurvy, did not participate in this skirmish. After the death of Magellan, Duarte Barbosa and Juan Serrano were elected captains of the flotilla. At the head of a small detachment, they went ashore to the Raja of Cebu and were treacherously killed. Fate again - for the umpteenth time - spared Elcano. Karvalyo became the head of the flotilla. But there were only 115 men left on the three ships; many of them are sick. Therefore, the Concepcion was burned in the strait between the islands of Cebu and Bohol; and his team moved to the other two ships - "Victoria" and "Trinidad". Both ships wandered between the islands for a long time, until, finally, on November 8, 1521, they anchored off the island of Tidore, one of the "Spice Islands" - the Moluccas. Then, in general, it was decided to continue sailing on one ship - the Victoria, whose captain shortly before that was Elcano, and leave the Trinidad on the Moluccas. And Elcano managed to navigate his worm-eaten ship with a starving crew through the Indian Ocean and along the coast of Africa. A third of the team died, about a third was detained by the Portuguese, but still, on September 8, 1522, the Victoria entered the mouth of the Guadalquivir.

It was an unprecedented, unheard-of passage in the history of navigation. Contemporaries wrote that Elcano surpassed King Solomon, the Argonauts and the cunning Odysseus. The first ever circumnavigation of the world has been completed! The king granted the navigator an annual pension of 500 gold ducats and knighted Elcano. The coat of arms assigned to Elcano (since then del Cano) commemorated his voyage. The coat of arms depicted two cinnamon sticks framed with nutmeg and cloves, a golden padlock surmounted by a helmet. Above the helmet is a globe with a Latin inscription: "You were the first to circle me." And finally, by special decree, the king announced forgiveness to Elcano for selling the ship to a foreigner. But if it was quite simple to reward and forgive the brave captain, then it turned out to be more difficult to resolve all the controversial issues related to the fate of the Moluccas. The Spanish-Portuguese congress sat for a long time, but could not "divide" the islands located on the other side of the "earthly apple" between the two powerful powers. And the Spanish government decided not to delay sending a second expedition to the Moluccas.

2. Goodbye A Coruña

A Coruna was considered the safest port in Spain, which "could accommodate all the fleets of the world." The importance of the city increased even more when the Chamber of Indies was temporarily transferred here from Seville. This chamber developed plans for a new expedition to the Moluccas in order to finally establish Spanish domination on these islands. Elcano arrived in A Coruña full of bright hopes - he already saw himself as an admiral of the armada - and set about equipping the flotilla. However, Charles I did not appoint Elcano as commander, but a certain Jofre de Loais, a participant in many naval battles, but completely unfamiliar with navigation. Elcano's pride was deeply wounded. In addition, the “highest refusal” came from the royal office to Elcano’s petition for the payment of an annual pension granted to him of 500 gold ducats: the king ordered that this amount be paid only after returning from the expedition. So Elcano experienced the traditional ingratitude of the Spanish crown to the famous navigators.

Before sailing, Elcano visited his native Getaria, where he, an illustrious sailor, easily managed to recruit many volunteers to his ships: with a man who has bypassed the “apple of the earth”, you will not be lost even in the jaws of the devil, the port brethren argued. At the beginning of the summer of 1525, Elcano brought his four ships to A Coruña and was appointed helmsman and deputy commander of the flotilla. In total, the flotilla consisted of seven ships and 450 crew members. There were no Portuguese on this expedition. The last night before the sailing of the flotilla in A Coruña was very lively and solemn. At midnight on Mount Hercules, on the site of the ruins of a Roman lighthouse, a huge fire was lit. The city said goodbye to the sailors. The cries of the townspeople, who treated the sailors with wine from leather bottles, the sobs of women and the hymns of pilgrims mixed with the sounds merry dance"La Muneira". The sailors of the flotilla remembered this night for a long time. They went to another hemisphere, and now they faced a life full of dangers and hardships. For the last time, Elcano walked under the narrow archway of Puerto de San Miguel and descended the sixteen pink steps to the beach. These steps, already completely worn out, have survived to this day.

Death of Magellan

3. Misfortunes of the chief helmsman

The powerful, well-armed flotilla of Loaysa put to sea on July 24, 1525. According to the royal instructions, and Loaisa had fifty-three in total, the flotilla was to follow the path of Magellan, but avoid his mistakes. But neither Elcano, the king's chief adviser, nor the king himself foresaw that this would be the last expedition sent through the Strait of Magellan. It was the Loaisa expedition that was destined to prove that this was not the most profitable way. And all subsequent expeditions to Asia departed from the Pacific ports of New Spain (Mexico).

July 26 vessels rounded Cape Finisterre. On August 18, the ships were caught in a severe storm. On the admiral's ship, the mainmast was broken, but two carpenters sent by Elcano, risking their lives, nevertheless got there in a small boat. While the mast was being repaired, the flagship collided with the Parral, breaking its mizzen mast. Swimming was very difficult. There was a lack of fresh water and provisions. Who knows what the fate of the expedition would have been if on October 20 the lookout had not seen the island of Annobón in the Gulf of Guinea on the horizon. The island was deserted - only a few skeletons lay under a tree on which a strange inscription was carved: "Here lies the unfortunate Juan Ruiz, killed because he deserved it." Superstitious sailors saw this as a formidable omen. The ships hastily filled with water, stocked up with provisions. On this occasion, the captains and officers of the flotilla were summoned to a festive dinner with the admiral, which almost ended tragically.

A huge fish of an unknown breed was served on the table. According to Urdaneta, Elcano's page and chronicler of the expedition, some sailors, "who tasted the meat of this fish, which had teeth like a big dog, had such stomach pains that they thought they would not survive." Soon the whole flotilla left the shores of the inhospitable Annobon. From here, Loaysa decided to sail to the coast of Brazil. And from that moment on, the Sancti Espiritus, Elcano's ship, began a streak of misfortune. Without having time to set the sails, the Sancti Espiritus almost collided with the admiral's ship, and then generally lagged behind the flotilla for some time. At latitude 31º, after a strong storm, the admiral's ship disappeared from sight. Elcano assumed command of the remaining vessels. Then the San Gabriel separated from the flotilla. The remaining five ships searched for the admiral's ship for three days. The search was unsuccessful, and Elcano ordered to move on to the Strait of Magellan.

On January 12, the ships stopped at the mouth of the Santa Cruz River, and since neither the admiral's ship nor the San Gabriel came here, Elcano convened a council. Knowing from the experience of the previous voyage that this was an excellent anchorage, he suggested waiting for both ships, as was the instructions. However, the officers, who were eager to enter the strait as soon as possible, advised leaving only the Santiago pinnace at the mouth of the river, burying in a jar under a cross on an island a message that the ships were heading for the Strait of Magellan. On the morning of January 14, the flotilla weighed anchor. But what Elcano took for a strait turned out to be the mouth of the Gallegos River, five or six miles from the strait. Urdaneta, who despite his admiration for Elcano. retained the ability to be critical of his decisions, writes that such a mistake by Elcano struck him very much. On the same day they approached the real entrance to the strait and anchored at the Cape of the Eleven Thousand Holy Virgins.

An exact copy of the ship "Victoria"

At night, a terrible storm hit the flotilla. Raging waves flooded the ship to the middle of the masts, and it barely kept on four anchors. Elcano realized that all was lost. His only thought now was to save the team. He ordered the ship to be grounded. Panic broke out on the Sancti Espiritus. Several soldiers and sailors rushed into the water in horror; all drowned except one who managed to make it to shore. Then the rest crossed to the shore. Managed to save some of the provisions. However, at night the storm broke out with the same force and finally smashed the Sancti Espiritus. For Elcano - the captain, the first circumnavigator and the main helmsman of the expedition - the crash, especially through his fault, was a big blow. Never before has Elcano been in such a difficult position. When the storm finally subsided, the captains of other ships sent a boat for Elcano, offering him to lead them through the Strait of Magellan, since he had been here before. Elcano agreed, but took only Urdaneta with him. He left the rest of the sailors on the shore ...

But failures did not leave the exhausted flotilla. From the very beginning, one of the ships almost ran into the rocks, and only the determination of Elcano saved the ship. After some time, Elcano sent Urdaneta with a group of sailors for the sailors left on the shore. Soon, Urdaneta's group ran out of provisions. It was very cold at night, and people were forced to burrow up to their necks in the sand, which also did not warm much. On the fourth day, Urdaneta and his companions approached the sailors dying on the shore from hunger and cold, and on the same day, the Loaysa ship, the San Gabriel, and the Santiago pinnass entered the mouth of the strait. On January 20, they joined the rest of the ships of the flotilla.

JUAN SEBASTIAN ELCANO

On February 5, a severe storm broke out again. The Elcano ship took refuge in the strait, and the San Lesmes was driven further south by the storm, to 54 ° 50 ′ south latitude, that is, it approached the very tip of Tierra del Fuego. Not a single ship went south in those days. A little more, and the expedition would be able to open the way around Cape Horn. After the storm, it turned out that the admiral's ship was aground, and Loaysa and the crew left the ship. Elcano immediately sent a group of the best sailors to help the admiral. On the same day, the Anunsiada deserted. The captain of the ship de Vera decided to independently get to the Moluccas past the Cape of Good Hope. The Anunciad has gone missing. A few days later, the San Gabriel also deserted. The remaining ships returned to the mouth of the Santa Cruz River, where the sailors began to repair the admiral's ship, which was badly battered by storms. Under other conditions, it would have had to be abandoned altogether, but now that the flotilla had lost three of its largest ships, this could no longer be afforded. Elcano, who, on his return to Spain, criticized Magellan for having lingered at the mouth of this river for seven weeks, now he himself was forced to spend five weeks here. At the end of March, somehow patched up ships again headed for the Strait of Magellan. The expedition now included only the admiral's ship, two caravels and a pinnace.

On April 5, the ships entered the Strait of Magellan. Between the islands of Santa Maria and Santa Magdalena, another misfortune befell the admiral's ship. A cauldron of boiling tar caught fire, a fire broke out on the ship.

Panic broke out, many sailors rushed to the boat, ignoring Loaysa, who showered them with curses. The fire was still put out. The flotilla moved on through the strait, along the banks of which high mountain peaks, "so high that they seemed to stretch to the very sky," lay eternal bluish snow. At night, the fires of the Patagonians burned on both sides of the strait. Elcano already knew these lights from the first voyage. On April 25, the ships weighed anchor from the San Jorge anchorage, where they replenished their water and firewood supplies, and again set off on a difficult voyage.

And where the waves of both oceans meet with a deafening roar, the storm again hit Loaisa's flotilla. The ships anchored in the bay of San Juan de Portalina. Mountains several thousand feet high rose on the shore of the bay. It was terribly cold, and “no clothes could warm us,” writes Urdaneta. Elcano was on the flagship all the time: Loaysa, having no relevant experience, completely relied on Elcano. The passage through the strait lasted forty-eight days - ten days more than Magellan's. On May 31, a strong northeast wind blew. The whole sky was covered with clouds. On the night of June 1-2, a storm broke out, the most terrible of the former so far, scattering all ships. Although the weather later improved, they were never to meet again. Elcano, with most of the crew of the Sancti Espiritus, was now on the admiral's ship, which had one hundred and twenty men. Two pumps did not have time to pump out water, they feared that the ship could sink at any moment. In general, the ocean was Great, but by no means Pacific.

4 Pilot Dies Admiral

The ship was sailing alone, neither sail nor island could be seen on the vast horizon. “Every day,” writes Urdaneta, “we waited for the end. Due to the fact that people from the wrecked ship moved to us, we are forced to reduce rations. We worked hard and ate little. We had to endure great hardships and some of us died.” On July 30, Loaysa died. According to one of the expedition members, the cause of his death was a breakdown in spirit; he was so upset by the loss of the rest of the ships that he "became weaker and died." Loays did not forget to mention in the will of his chief helmsman: “I ask that Elcano be returned four barrels of white wine, which I owe him. The biscuits and other provisions that lie on my ship, the Santa Maria de la Victoria, shall be given to my nephew Alvaro de Loays, who is to share them with Elcano.” They say that by this time only rats remained on the ship. On the ship, many were ill with scurvy. Everywhere Elcano looked, everywhere he saw swollen pale faces and heard the groans of sailors.

Thirty people have died from scurvy since they left the channel. “They all died,” writes Urdaneta, “due to the fact that their gums were swollen and they could not eat anything. I saw a man whose gums were so swollen that he tore off pieces of meat as thick as a finger. The sailors had one hope - Elcano. They, in spite of everything, believed in his lucky star, although he was so ill that four days before the death of Loaysa he himself made a will. In honor of Elcano's assumption of the position of admiral - a position which he unsuccessfully sought two years ago - a cannon salute was given. But Elcano's strength was drying up. The day came when the admiral could no longer get up from his bunk. His relatives and faithful Urdaneta gathered in the cabin. By the flickering light of the candle, one could see how thin they were and how much they had suffered. Urdaneta kneels and touches the body of her dying master with one hand. The priest watches him closely. Finally, he raises his hand, and everyone present slowly falls to their knees. Elcano's wanderings are over...

“Monday, 6 August. The valiant lord Juan Sebastian de Elcano has died." So Urdaneta noted in his diary the death of the great navigator.

Four people lift the body of Juan Sebastian, wrapped in a shroud and tied to a plank. At a sign from the new admiral, they throw him into the sea. There was a splash, drowning out the priest's prayers.

MONUMENT IN HONOR OF ELCANO IN GETARIA

Epilogue

Eaten by worms, tormented by storms and storms, the lone ship continued on its way. The team, according to Urdaneta, “was terribly exhausted and exhausted. Not a day went by that one of us didn't die.

Therefore, we decided that the best thing for us is to go to the Moluccas.” Thus, they abandoned the bold plan of Elcano, who was going to fulfill the dream of Columbus - to reach the east coast of Asia, following the shortest route from the west. “I am sure that if Elcano had not died, we would not have reached the Ladrone (Marian) Islands so soon, because his constant intention was to search for Chipansu (Japan),” writes Urdaneta. He clearly considered Elcano's plan too risky. But the man who for the first time circumnavigated the "earthly apple" did not know what fear was. But he also did not know that in three years Charles I would cede his “rights” to the Moluccas to Portugal for 350 thousand gold ducats. Of the entire Loaysa expedition, only two ships survived: the San Gabriel, which reached Spain after a two-year voyage, and the Santiago pinasse under the command of Guevara, which passed along the Pacific coast of South America to Mexico. Although Guevara saw only once the coast of South America, his voyage proved that the coast does not protrude far to the west anywhere and that South America has the shape of a triangle. This was the most important geographical discovery expeditions of Loaysa.

Getaria, in the homeland of Elcano, at the entrance to the church there is a stone slab, a half-erased inscription on which reads: “... the glorious captain Juan Sebastian del Cano, a native and resident of the noble and faithful city of Getaria, the first to circumnavigate the globe on the ship Victoria. In memory of the hero, this slab was erected in 1661 by Don Pedro de Etave y Asi, Knight of the Order of Calatrava. Pray for the repose of the soul of the one who first traveled around the world. And on the globe in the San Telmo Museum, the place where Elcano died is indicated - 157 degrees west and 9 degrees north latitude.

In the history books, Juan Sebastian Elcano undeservedly found himself in the shadow of the glory of Fernand Magellan, but he is remembered and revered in his homeland. The name Elcano is a training sailboat in the Spanish Navy. In the wheelhouse of the ship, you can see the coat of arms of Elcano, and the sailboat itself has already managed to carry out a dozen round-the-world expeditions.

The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy is made -