The Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan is often credited as being

the first person to have circumnavigated the globe, but the reality of his
journey is a bit more complicated. Magellan first set sail in September
1519 as part of an epic attempt to find a western route to the spice-rich
East Indies in modern-day Indonesia. While he successfully led his
crew across the Atlantic, through a strait in southern South America
and over the vast expanse of the Pacific, he was killed only halfway
through the circuit in a skirmish with natives on the Philippine island of
Mactan. Magellan’s death meant that he personally failed to circle the
world, but his expedition continued on without him. In September 1522,
one of his ships arrived safely back in Spain having completed a
successful circumnavigation of the globe. Of the mission’s 260 original
crewmen, only 18 had survived the perilous three-year journey.
If Magellan wasn’t the first person to circle the globe, then who was?
The most obvious candidate is Juan Sebastian Elcano, a Basque
mariner who took control of the expedition after Magellan’s death in
1521 and captained its lone surviving vessel, the “Victoria,” on its
journey back to Spain. Elcano and his sailors stand as the first people
to have successfully voyaged around the world as part of a single
journey, but they might not be the first humans to have
circumnavigated the globe over the course of a lifetime. Opinions
differ, but many historians give the honor to Magellan’s Malay slave,
Enrique. Magellan had seized Enrique from Malacca during an earlier
1511 voyage to the East Indies, and the Malay later served as the
round-the-world expedition’s interpreter in the Pacific islands. Enrique
had previously traveled west with Magellan from Asia to Europe before
joining in the voyage across the Atlantic and Pacific, so by the time the
mission reached Southeast Asia, he had very nearly circled the globe
and returned to his homeland—albeit over the course of several years
and multiple voyages. Enrique abandoned the expedition and
disappeared shortly after Magellan’s death in the Philippines. By then,
he was only a few hundred miles short of his point of origin in Malacca.
If he ever returned to his homeland, then Enrique may deserve the true
credit for being the first person to circumnavigate globe.