Magellan and Elcano: The First Circumnavigation

The five ships left Seville on 10 August 1519 and dropped down the Guadalquivir to its mouth at Sanlúcar, where they waited more than five weeks. They finally sailed on 20 September, about 270 men bound for the Spice Islands by a western route. In September 1522, almost exactly three years later, the one ship that made it back would anchor here again. Today Sanlúcar is better known for manzanilla sherry and prawns.

Location precision: The fleet waited in the river mouth; the pin marks the town of Sanlúcar.

Visitor guidance: Sanlúcar is a summer tourist destination, famous for manzanilla sherry and prawns.

On 26 September the fleet stopped on Tenerife to take on supplies. Here Magellan received a secret message from his brother-in-law, Diogo Barbosa: some of the Castilian captains were planning a mutiny, and the King of Portugal had sent two fleets of caravels to arrest him. A crew member's account places the stop at the harbour of Santa Cruz. On 3 October the ships departed, sailing south along the coast of Africa.

Location precision: A crew account names the harbour of Santa Cruz; the pin marks today's city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

The fleet reached Rio de Janeiro on 13 December 1519 and spent 13 days repairing ships and stocking up on water and food. Pigafetta noted that it had not rained for two months before they came, and he found the pineapples "sweet, of singular goodness". For one king from a pack of playing cards he received five fowls, and the locals thought they had cheated him.

Location precision: The sources name Rio de Janeiro but not the anchorage; the pin marks Guanabara Bay.

Magellan arrived on 31 March 1520 and wintered five months in this harbour. Pigafetta writes that the masters of the other ships plotted treason against the captain-general. Cartagena and Quesada led thirty armed men, faces blackened with charcoal, aboard the San Antonio; the plot failed, Cartagena and a priest were marooned, and more than forty conspirators, Elcano among them, spent most of the winter in chains. The Santiago was lost scouting the coast.

Location precision: The sources give the harbour, not a landing spot; the pin marks the town of Puerto San Julián.

On 21 October 1520, the feast day of Saint Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins, Magellan reached this cape and named it in their honour. Behind it lay the strait that now bears his name; Pigafetta says they found it "by a miracle". The San Antonio failed to rejoin the fleet there, and Magellan wept tears of joy at the news that the passage led on. On 28 November the ships came out into the Pacific. An Argentine lighthouse has stood on the cape since 1904.

After the long Pacific crossing the ships dropped anchor off Guam on 6 March 1521. Chamorro people came out in proas, outrigger canoes the Europeans had never seen, and Pigafetta says they stole the skiff from the flagship's stern. Magellan named the place Isla de los Ladrones, the Island of Thieves. A raiding party then burned forty or fifty houses and killed seven men. Tradition places the landing in Umatac Bay.

Location precision: Umatac Bay is traditionally cited as the landing place, but the sources don't fix the anchorage.

Visitor guidance: Humåtak (Umatac) holds a Discovery Day festival every year.

On Sunday 7 April 1521 the fleet entered the port of Cebu. Seven days later, on a scaffold hung with tapestry and palm branches in an open space, the king, Humabon, and his family were baptised and given an image of the Holy Child, later known as Santo Niño de Cebu. Pigafetta counts eight hundred people baptised that day. In Cebu City a pavilion beside the Basilica del Santo Niño now houses a cross planted by the expedition.

Location precision: Pigafetta places the ceremony in an open space in the town without naming it; the pin marks Magellan's Cross pavilion.

Visitor guidance: The pavilion stands on Plaza Sugbo, beside the Basilica del Santo Niño.

On Saturday 27 April 1521 Magellan took 49 men ashore on Mactan, leaving 11 with the boats. Shallow water and rocks kept the boats far from the beach, and Pigafetta counted fifteen hundred defenders in three squadrons. A poisoned arrow struck Magellan in the leg, and he died in the battle. Pigafetta lists eight of the fleet's men lost beside him. Mactan Shrine now holds monuments to both Magellan and Lapu-Lapu.

Location precision: The shrine is believed to mark the approximate location of the battle.

Visitor guidance: Mactan Shrine in Lapu-Lapu City has a Magellan Monument and a bronze statue of Lapu-Lapu.

At last, on Friday 8 November 1521, the ships anchored off Tidore, which Pigafetta spells Tadore. The king declared that his island should be called Castile from then on, in proof of his love for the Spanish king. The crew bought great quantities of cloves for cloth, knives and glassware. But the Trinidad was taking on water; when the king asked who would carry news to Spain, the Victoria answered, and sailed on 21 December under Elcano.

Location precision: Pigafetta names only a port of the island; the pin marks Tidore.

The Victoria lay off the cape nine weeks with her sails struck against western and north-western gales. Pigafetta dates the passage to 6 May 1522, within only five leagues of the cape. Some men wanted to land at Portuguese Mozambique, but most, prizing honour more than life, Pigafetta says, chose to press on to Spain. The ship carried only rice for rations, and in the two months after the cape twenty-one men died. The cape lies within Table Mountain National Park.

Location precision: The ship passed the cape at sea, within five leagues by Pigafetta's account; the pin marks the Cape of Good Hope itself.

Visitor guidance: The Cape of Good Hope is a section of Table Mountain National Park.

Needing provisions, the Victoria touched at Santiago on Wednesday 9 July 1522, in the port of Rio Grande, today's Cidade Velha. The crew told the Portuguese they had sprung their foremast under the equinoctial line. Ashore they learned it was Thursday, though their own count said Wednesday: sailing west, Pigafetta explains, they had gained twenty-four hours. A boat sent back for rice was detained with thirteen men, and the ship sailed at once.

Visitor guidance: Cidade Velha, once called Ribeira Grande, has the oldest colonial church in the world, Nossa Senhora do Rosário, built in 1495.

On Saturday 6 September 1522 the Victoria entered the bay of Sanlúcar: of sixty men who left the Moluccas, only eighteen were left, most of them sick. On Monday they dropped anchor by the mole of Seville and discharged all their artillery. Next day the crew walked barefoot in their shirts, tapers in hand, to the shrine of St. Mary of Victory. The ship brought home 26 tons of spices after about 60,440 km.

Location precision: Pigafetta says only "the mole of Seville"; the pin marks the Torre del Oro on the Guadalquivir riverfront.

Visitor guidance: The Torre del Oro's museum has shown old navigational instruments, models and nautical charts.