ON FERDINAND MAGELLEN, or MAGALHAENS, the first circumnavigator, was a Portuguese gentleman of good family, who from his youth evinced a strong partiality for sea affairs, and acquired great skill in the theory and practice of navigation. Nature seemed to have destined him for no ordinary fortune, and had gifted him with the qualities which raise men above their fellows. He had all that undaunted courage, lofty patience, and inflexible resolution which are essential to those placed in commanding positions, and that generosity of temper and calm self-control which secure both the attachment and the implicit confidence of subordinates. He had, moreover, that gift of eloquence which in the modern world, as in the ancient, has always been a power; and whatever the career he had chosen for himself, it is certain that he would have attained in it to a remarkable success. As it was, he selected one in which he achieved little for himself but an immortal name; but then he opened up to his fellows the secrets of a mighty ocean, and showed the enterprise of Western Europe a new highway to the golden East.

Under the celebrated Albuquerque he doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and served on the shores of India with distinction. Obtaining no recognition of his toil, he associated himself with some other Portuguese gentlemen who had equal cause to complain of unmerited neglect, and particularly with Ruy Falero, the astronomer, whom he accompanied to the Spanish Court, to lay before the prime minister, the famous Cardinal Ximenes, a project of fresh discovery in the still unknown regions of the South. In spite of the obstacles thrown in his way by the Portuguese ambassador, Magellan was admitted to the confidence of Ximenes, whom he convinced of the feasibility of his proposals. He was made a knight of the great order of St. Iago, and put at the head of an expedition of five ships, which were supplied with provisions for two years. These ships were the Trinidada, in which Magellan hoisted his flag as admiral; the Santa Vitoria, commanded by Don Luis de Mendoza; the San Antonio, Don Juan de Carthagena; the St. Iago, Don Juan Serrano; and the Concepcion, Don Gaspar de Quixada. Their crews numbered in all 250 or 237 men. The object of this new armada of discovery was to complete, as it were, the enterprise of Columbus, to reach the East Indies by sailing westward, and, as a preliminary, to discover what Magellan firmly believed to exist, a passage from the Atlantic into the newly-discovered South Sea; for once that sea was gained, there could be no difficulty in reaching across the ocean-waters to the Molucca Islands, and thence returning to Europe by the Cape of Good Hope. This object, however, Magellan carefully kept concealed, allowing his followers to believe that he was about to lead them to new lands of gold, where they might become rich without the irksomeness of labour.