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.
The voyage of Magellan occupied 1124 days: Sir Francis Drake, who sailed
round the world about half a century afterwards, accomplished the passage
in 1051 days: the next circumnavigator sailed round the globe in 769 days;
and the first navigators who passed to the south of Terra del Fuego,
accomplished the voyage in 749 days. In the middle of the eighteenth
century, a Scotch privateer sailed round the world in 240 days.
In the meantime, several voyages had been performed to the east coast of
North America. The first voyages to this part of the new world were
undertaken by the English: there is some doubt and uncertainty respecting
the period when these were performed. The following seems the most probable
account.
At the time when Columbus discovered America, there lived in London a
Venetian merchant, John Cabot, who had three sons. The father was a man of
science, and had paid particular attention to the doctrine of the spheres:
his studies, as well as his business as a merchant, induced him to feel
much interest in the discoveries which were at that period making. He seems
to have applied to Henry VII.; who accordingly empowered him to sail from
England under the royal flag, to make discoveries in the east, the west,
and the north, and to take possession of countries inhabited by Pagans, and
not previously discovered by other European nations. The king gave him two
ships, and the merchants of Bristol three or four small vessels, loaded
with coarse cloth, caps, and other small goods. The doubt respecting the
precise date of this voyage seems to receive the most satisfactory solution
from the following contemporary testimony of Alderman Fabian, who says, in
his _Chronicle of England and France_, that Cabot sailed in the
beginning of May, in the mayoralty of John Tate, that is, in 1497, and
returned in the subsequent mayoralty of William Purchase, bringing with him
three _sauvages_ from Newfoundland. This fixes the date of this
voyage: the course he steered, and the limits of his voyage, are however
liable to uncertainty. He himself informs us, that he reached only 56 deg.
north latitude, and that the coast of America, at that part, winded to the
east: but there is no coast of North America that answers to this
description. According to other accounts, he reached 67-1/2 deg. north
latitude; but this is the coast of Greenland, and not the coast of
Labrador, as these accounts call it. It is most probable that he did not
reach farther than Newfoundland, which he certainly discovered. To this
island he at first gave the names of Prima Vista and Baccaloas; and it is
worthy of notice, that a cape of Newfoundland still retains the name of
Bona Vista, and there is a small island still called Bacalao, not far from
hence.
From this land he sailed to the south-west till he reached the latitude of
Gibraltar, and the longitude of Cuba; if these circumstances be correct, he
must have sailed nearly as far as Chesapeak Bay: want of provisions now
obliged him to return to England.
Portugal, jealous of the discoveries which Spain had made in the new world,
resolved to undertake similar enterprizes, with the double hope of
discovering some new part of America, and a new route to India. Influenced
by these motives, Certireal, a man of birth and family, sailed from Lisbon
in 1500 or 1501: he arrived at Conception Bay, in Newfoundland, explored
the east coast of that island, and afterwards discovered the river St.
Lawrence. To the next country which he discovered, he gave the name of
Labrador, because, from its latitude and appearance, it seemed to him
better fitted for culture than his other discoveries in this part of
America. This country he coasted till he came to a strait, which he called
the Strait of Anian. Through this strait he imagined a passage would be
found to India, but not being able to explore it himself, he returned to
Portugal, to communicate the important and interesting information. He soon
afterwards went out on a second voyage, to prosecute his discoveries in
this strait; but in this he perished. The same voyage was undertaken by
another brother, but he also perished. As the situation of the Strait of
Anian was very imperfectly described, it was long sought for in vain on
both sides of America; it is now generally supposed to have been Hudson's
Strait, at the entrance of Hudson's Bay.
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