FERDINAND MAGELLAN AUTOBIOGRAPHY

•Ferdinand Magellan was born in 1480 in Portugal, in the city of Sabrosa.

•As a boy, he studied mapmaking and navigation.

•His parents were members of the Portuguese nobility and died when Magellan was
ten years old.

•He studied at Queen Leonora's School of Pages in Lisbon.

• When he was twenty years old, he sailed in large fleets and

engaged in combat.

• In 1519, with the support of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.

Magellan set out to find a better route to the Spice Islands.

• When he was twenty-five years old, he was part of the expedition

to India, commanded by Francisco de Almeida.

• On his next trip, this time to Morocco and under the orders of the
Duke of Braganza.

•The monarch Manuel I of Portugal, who had an unfavorable report

about the conduct of Magellan in this last mission, twice rejected a
project of the sailor to explore new routes to the East, so Magellan
decided to try his luck in Spain.

• In 1517 he married Beatriz Barbosa, daughter of an important Sevillian

officer.

• Magellan was convinced that there should be a passage south of the

South American coast to reach India from the west, a step that Juan Diaz
de Solis that had already sought, unfortunately, he had not found.

•The possibility of finding an alternative route to reach the East through the Atlantic Ocean was of
vital interest to the Spanish monarchy, since the African coast was under the control of its main rival
in the spice trade, Portugal.
 • After renouncing Portuguese nationality, and with the
support of the Portuguese astronomer Ruy de Faleiro and
Bishop Fonseca, he managed to interest the Spanish monarch
Carlos I, who put at his disposal five ships.

• The fleet sailed from Seville in September 1519, after a failed

Portuguese attempt to sabotage the trip.

•The contingent passed through the archipelago of the Canaries, continued its trip to the coast of
Brazil and then turned south, where it explored the estuary of the Plata.

•In the bay of San Julian, Patagonia, the expedition was established to winter, period in which two
ships were lost, one by accident and the other by desertion.

• Finally, on October 21, 1520, they entered the strait that bears his name today "Strait of All Saints".

•They continued north, first skirting the coast of Chile to then turn
northwest towards what are now known as Mariana Islands (which they
named the Thieves' Islands).

•The arrival to those islands allowed them to resupply and continue

exploring other islands that made up the archipelago that is now known as
the Philippines.

• Magellan died in 1521, on Mactan Island, Philippines.

MAGELLAN’S ARRIVAL IN HOMONHON ISLAND

March 16, 1521 - When Samar Island was seen.

March 17, 1521 - The Spanish expedition led by Ferdinand Magellan

landed in the island of Homonhon, which they first sighted the previous
day.

March 18, 1521 - They met the locals from Suluan Island and exchange
gifts with them.