The Voyage of Magellan - The Atlantic 3

When Magellan sought for King Charles' support for his mission, he had one proposal to present: Finding a passage to Molucca through a westward voyage from Europe. Up until that time, a journey to the East was made by sailing along the coast of Africa straight down to the Cape of Good Hope, the southern tip of the African continent; sailing up and passing Madagascar to the right, all the way up to the eastern tip of Africa or to the southern coastal line of the Arabian peninsula; then crossing the Indian Ocean to reach the west coast of India, where there were early port stations in such places as Goa and Calicut; passing the southern tip of the Indian continent and passing Ceylon to the right, finally arriving at Molucca. Voyage following this route was undoubtedly long and costly. Magellan thought that there was a passage to the Orient by taking a westerly journey. But this was based on a wrong idea about the Pacific Ocean. He thought, just like any other Europeans at that time, it was a small sea, perhaps little bigger than the Mediterranean.

Once the ships left Rio de Janairo, they made a southerly journey, looking for a passage toward the west, constantly entering and exiting wide river estuaries or bays. The season advanced rapidly from summer to fall. Pamperos, the violent winds crossing across the Pampas from the southwest, brought cold blasts, giving the crew the first taste of a subantarctic winter. Gail storms frequented the fleet with violent gusts that snapped the anchor cables and ripped the sails apart. Sometimes such violent tempests lasted for a full day. Terrified crews made pledges for pilgrimages to famous temples or churches and prayed fervently for deliverance from the fury of the storms. By March 31, 1520, the ships were well below the latitude of the Cape of Good Hope, but Magellan still pressed southward.

During the journey along the coast of Patagonia, located in the southern part of Argentina, a mutiny erupted. Captain Quesada on the Concepcion, Captain Mendoza of the Victoria, and some other officers from both ships secretly met to plan a revolt against Magellan. They took the San Antonio by surprise at night, taking three ships under their control. The three ships the mutineers seized had superior fire power by two to one than Magellan's Trinidad and the Santiago. But they were up against a veteran of naval campaigns in Africa, India and Malaya. Magellan's reaction was swift, decisive, and ruthless. Within two days, he subdued the mutiny with shrewd tactics and bold attacks. April 7, the mutineers were brought to a court martial, and 40 of them were sentenced to death. But for fear of losing able seamen, except for the two leading mutineers - Mendoza and Quesada - the death sentences of the rest were commuted. The two got their heads chopped off. The loss of the seamen were not just two by then. Two others had fallen to the water and drowned during the struggles with the tempests. Earlier at Rio de Janeiro, Antonio Salamon, a 45-year-old master of the Victoria, was condemned to death for the sodomy he had committed with a young apprentice seaman in the ship during the sailing across the Atlantic. He was executed on the same day in a full view of the natives, which for them may have been the first exposure to the dark side of the Europeans.