Magellan sailed from Spain in 1519, with five ships: he explored the river
Plate a considerable way, thinking at first it was the sea, and would lead
him to the west. He then continued his voyage to the south, and reached the
entrance of the straits which afterwards received his name, on the 21st
October, 1520, but, in consequence of storms, and the scarcity of
provisions, he did not clear them till the 28th of November. He now
directed his course to the north-west: for three months and twenty days he
saw no land. In 15 south, he discovered a small island; and another in 9
south. Continuing his course still in the same direction, he arrived at the
Ladrones, and soon afterwards at the Phillippines, where he lost his life
in a skirmish. His companions continued their voyage; and, on the
twenty-seventh month after their departure from Spain, arrived at one of
the Molucca islands. Here the Spaniards found plenty of spices, which they
obtained in exchange for the cloth, glass, beads, &c., which they had
brought with them for that purpose. From the Moluccas they returned home
round the Cape of Good Hope, and reached Seville in September, 1552. Only
one ship returned, and she was drawn up in Seville, and long preserved as a
monument of the first circumnavigation of the globe. The Spaniards were
surprised, on their return to their native country, to find that they had
gained a day in their reckoning--a proof of the scanty knowledge at that
time possessed, respecting one of the plainest and most obvious results of
the diurnal motion of the earth.
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