Chap. IX.] MAGALHAENS' VOYAGE ROUND THE GLOBE. 207
to maintain that, in this instance, as in many others, the pope had ignorantly ad. lass. and arrogantly made free with a property which did not belong to him. The time for such a solution of the difficulty was rai>idly approaching, but it had not yet arrived ; and Magalhaens undertook to rid Charles of his scruples by proving that the Moluccas were not in the Portuguese but in the Spanish half He was wronir in fact, but correct according to the idea then entertained of the dimensions of the globe. It is probable, however, that the emperor was not difficult to .satisfy, as he afterwards showed, on many occjisions, how easily he could dispose of Papal claims when they interfered with any of his favourite political objects. Be this as it may, Magalhaens obtained his wish.
On the 20th of September, 1.519, he sailed from Sanlucar in command of Maguiiiaeiw'
^ circumiiavi-
five ships and 236 men. On the 12tli of January, 1520, he reached the mouth gationof
. ^'1*6 globe.
of the La Plata, where he was detained for some time by a mutiny of his men, who deemed it degradation to obey one whom they stigmatized as a renegade Poituguese. By ])ru<lence and resolution he regained his ascendency; and towards the end of October began to enter the strait which has since borne his name. On the 27th of November he obtained his first view of the Pacific, and, steering directly across it, missed all the islands by which it is studded, and again saw land for the first time on the 6th of March, 1521, when he came in view of the islands which, from the thievish practices of the inhabitants, were named the Ladrones. Continuing onwards, he arrived at the archipelago of St. Lazarus, afterwards called the Philippines, in honour of Philip IL While here, he induced the chief of the island of Zebu to make a i)rofe.ssion of Christianity, and become tributary to the King of Spain, on condition of being assisted in his war with the chief of the island of Matan. In fulfilling this condition, Magal- liaens unfortunately lost his life on the 26th of April, 1521. The circumnaviga- tion which he had so ftir successfully accomplished, was completed by Sebastian del Cano, who succeeded him in the command, and arrived at Saiducar on the 22d of September, 1522, by doubling the Cape of Good Hope from the eastward.
Magalhaens' voyage gave proof of two important facts — first, that there was its resnita. no physical impo.ssibility of reaching the East Indies by sailing we.st; and, secondly, that, mider ordinary circumstances, this route never could become the ocean thoroughfare from Europe. It might be used for special purposes, but being far more circuitous, was also necessarily both more tedioas and more expensive. Further notice of it would hence l>e unneces.sary, were it not that an adventitious interest has been given to it as the route which first led the British to the East, and fm-nished the information which determined them not to rest satisfied till they had obtained a direct share in its traffic. Two of the voyages are, on this account, well entitled to special mention — the one by Sir Francis Drake, and the other by Mr. Tliomas Cavendish.
After the acces.sion of Queen Elizabeth, in 1 558, and the decided refusal of her hand when impertinently Jisked by Philip II , the frientlly relations between
