Magellan, FERDINAND (Portuguese Magalhães or Magalhaens), a famous navigator, was born about 1470, most probably at Villa de Sabroza, near Villa Real in Traz os Montes. He served with distinction in the East Indies, particularly at Malacca, and was famed for life in action in Morocco. Finding his sufferings rewarded with contempt by King Manuel he formally renounced his nationality, and together with his countryman, Ruy Faleiro, a geographer and astronomer, offered his services to Spain. They laid before Charles V. a scheme for reaching the Moluccas by the west, which was well received; and Magellan sailed from San Lucar, 10th August 1519, with five ships of from 130 to 60 tons, and about two hundred and fifty men. Sailing to the mouth of the La Plata and along the shores of Patagonia, he threaded the strait which bears his name (21st October—28th November 1520), and entered on that vast ocean which he named the Pacific from the fine weather which he experienced there. He had already been troubled by mutiny, which he had crushed by swift vengeance upon the ringleaders, and after reaching the Philippine Isles he fell in an expedition against the natives of Matan (27th April 1521). His ship, the Victoria, was safely navigated by Sebastian del Cano home to Spain, and thus completed, on 6th September 1522, the first voyage ever made round the world.
The best contemporary account of Magellan's famous voyage is that by Antonio Pigafetta, a volunteer in the fleet. An English version of this and five minor narratives is Lord Stanley of Alderley's First Voyage round the World by Magellan (Hakluyt Society, 1874). See Guillebard, Magellan and the Pacific (1891).