Shortly after the return of Columbus from his first voyage, Pope Alexander VI, in response to a request by Ferdinand and Isabella, issued a bull granting these sovereigns exclusive rights over the newly discovered lands. In order that the Spanish possessions should be clearly marked off from the Portuguese, the pope laid down an imaginary line of demarcation in the Atlantic, three hundred miles west of the Azores. All new discoveries west of the line were to belong to Spain; all those east of it, to Portugal. [23] But this arrangement, which excluded France, England, and other European countries from the New World, could not be long maintained.
[Illustration: Map, PORTUGUESE AND SPANISH COLONIAL EMPIRES IN THE
SIXTEENTH CENTURY]
FERDINAND MAGELLAN, 1480(?)-1521 A.D.
The demarcation line had a good deal to do in bringing about the first voyage around the globe. So far no one had yet realized the dream of Columbus to reach the lands of spice and silk by sailing westward. Ferdinand Magellan, formerly one of Albuquerque's lieutenants but now in the service of Spain, believed that the Spice Islands lay within the Spanish sphere of influence and that an all-Spanish route, leading to them through some strait at the southern end of South America, could be discovered.
CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE, 1519-1522 A.D.
The Spanish ruler, Charles V, grandson of the Isabella who had supported Columbus, looked with favor upon Magellan's ideas and gave him a fleet of five vessels for the undertaking. After exploring the east coast of South America, Magellan came at length to the strait which bears his name. Through this channel he sailed boldly and found himself upon an ocean which he called the Pacific, because of its peaceful aspect. Magellan's sailors now begged him to return, for food was getting scarce, but the navigator replied that he would go on, "if he had to eat the leather off the rigging." He did go on, for ninety-eight days, until he reached the Ladrone Islands. [24] By a curious chance, in all this long trip across the Pacific, Magellan came upon only two islands, both of them uninhabited. He then proceeded to the Philippines, where he was killed in a fight with the natives. His men, however, managed to reach the Spice Islands, the goal of the journey. Afterwards a single ship, the Victoria, carried back to Spain the few sailors who had survived the hardships of a voyage lasting nearly three years.
[Illustration: FERDINAND MAGELLAN
From a portrait formerly in the Versailles Gallery, Paris.]
MEANING OF THE CIRCUMNAVIGATION Magellan's voyage forms a landmark in the history of geography. It proved that America, at least on the south, had no connection with Asia; it showed the enormous extent of the Pacific Ocean; and it led to the discovery of many large islands in the East Indies. Henceforth men knew of a certainty that the earth was round and in the distance covered by Magellan they had a rough estimate of its size. The circumnavigation of the globe ranks with the discovery of America among the most significant events in history. In the company of great explorers Magellan stands beside Columbus.