8 responses so far ↓

• 1 Kirsty Wilson // Jan 25, 2007 at 10:20 am

  The Magellan Straits a?!

• 2 Andrew // Jan 25, 2007 at 1:12 pm

  Follow the link to wikipedia :- P

• 3 Andrew // Jan 25, 2007 at 3:01 pm

  My friend Dan said this in and email to me and I wanted to share 😀

  When I was in Japan I read an amazing book about Magellan and it made
  me really want to go to the Philippines. When they got past the
  straits they thought that Japan was just a few days voyage away! The
  bit where they get to the Philippines is fascinating. Magellan had a
  malaysian servant with him as you know, he overheard a slave speaking
  a similiar malayan language and asked him how he got to the
  Philippines. When Magellan found out that he was next door to
  Malaysia, though he had arrived from the opposite direction, he
  realised that the earth was round.

  Now this, mixed with the euphoria of escaping death on the sea after
  months of being lost, was just too much for his mind and he lost it
  completely. He decided that God was commanding him to accomplish such
  feats so that he might spread christianity to the heathens. He got
  into a fight with the inhabitants of a neighbouring island because
  they refused to convert but because he was so loopy his men had no
  confidence in his plans. They said “we’d love to join you in your
  mini crusade but after being lost and starving for 7 months we’d
  rather get off with all of the skinny brown women walking around naked
  and gorge ourselves on tropical fruit and wild boar.” Or something to
  that effect. So he set off with cabin boys, cooks, whoever he could
  find, got his ship stuck in a reef upon approaching the offending
  island and then decided that everyone would walk to the island in full
  metal armour whilst the natives took turns throwing spears at them
  from the beach. Not surprisingly they lost and he was killed.

  But, despite this, his legacy was already established. The
  Philippines (after king philip of spain) became a spanish colony and
  the only christian country in asia. It still is. When I went there,
  most people were devout catholics and they had great names like
  Antonio Rameros. It’s like an asian country mixed with the U.S and
  latin america. For ages it was ruled from Mexico City. You should go
  there at some point. I found it just as interesting as Malaysia, a
  bit rough and dangerous in parts, but definitely a fascinating place.

• 4 Chake // Sep 28, 2009 at 6:59 pm

  yes he died so i think he didnt make it. there is webs where they say he didnt make it. so there is no proof that he got there. he did not start in philipines he started somewhere farther away so therefore he should not be given credit. atleast technically

• 5 Athena // Sep 10, 2011 at 6:25 am

  It’s not Magellan! He died in the Philippines before he finished his trip! So just be quiet saying that it is Magellan.

• 6 Andrew // Oct 11, 2011 at 9:43 pm

  @Athena, @Shake

  …so I guess the post title is a little misleading….I agree that Magellan didn’t complete a circumnavigation, but his boat (and the remainder of the crew) did. There’s a great account of the voyage in the last section of the book ‘A World Lit Only by Fire’ by William Manchester, that I can thoughly recommend if you are interested in that period of time (this is the book I mentioned in an earlier comment).

• 7 Kenrick // Oct 19, 2011 at 2:21 pm

  You may think that I am crazy, but actually, the first fleet to sail around the world was not a Portugese fleet, but a Chinese fleet in 1421, on Admiral Zheng He during his sixth voyage to ‘the west ocean’ during the Ming dynasty(1368 to 1644). Emperor Zhu Di sent Zheng He to sail the unknown world to search for new lands. Zheng He was a eunuch, and eunuchs had played important roles in Chinese history for over 2500 years. Due to China’s wealth during that period, Zheng He created a fleet of over 200 treasure ships, and each of them measured more than 100 metres, dwarfing Magellan’s ships! However, when he returned from his voyage, Zhu Di had died and China started its long self-imposed isolation and all records of Zheng He’s voyages were destroyed. What a pity!

• 8 Bakri // Sep 27, 2012 at 9:35 am

  the man to go around the world is henry the black or enrique of malaysia