The Voyage of Magellan - The Pacific 3

The Trinidad and the Victoria sailed into the harbor of Tidore, a small island off the coast of the Moluccas' bigger island, Gilolo (Halmahera). By then, of the 265 men who had started the journey from San Lucar, Spain, only 107 men survived. The next day, they were greeted by the rajah of the island and his entourage. After friendly exchange of gifts and well wishes, they made a treaty and set up a trading post in the island. The next visitor to the ships was the elderly rajah of Gilolo, a friend and ally of the rajah of Tidore. Within a month, a similar treaty was signed. After that, many bales of cloves were loaded up in the ships. After navigating a half way around the world and with the sacrifice of more than a half of the original sailors, the Spaniards finally got what they had wanted.

But while staying in the island, the Spaniards learned that the Portuguese had been eagerly searching for them. When King Manuel of Portugal learned of the departure of Magellan's fleet from Spain, he dispatched two warships to intercept him; one to the Cape Good Hope, and the other to the Cape Santa Maria at the mouth of the La Plata estuary at the border of today's Uruguay and Argentina. When failing to discover the fleet, the king ordered the commander of Portuguese naval force in the Indian Ocean to take on the mission. The commander put an alert to all Portuguese naval forces and traders for intelligence.

When their holds were crammed with cloves, and the ships were filled with enough supplies, the Spaniards wanted to sail back home. On December 21, 1521, the Victoria departed the harbor of Tidore with forty-seven Europeans and thirteen Moluccans on board. Unfortunately, the Trinidad had to stay behind as it needed extensive repair. With much tear and sadness, they bid farewell to each other, not knowing when they could meet again. The Victoria sailed straight down to the south to Timor, then veered southwest to the Indian Ocean. The repair work of the Trinidad took nearly four months, and nearly five months after arriving at Tidore, the Trinidad was finally ready to sail. With fifty-four men and about fifty tons of cloves on board, it set out to a new journey on April 20. But the captain and the pilots decided to sail north rather than following the direction the Victoria had taken, because they found that the northwest monsoon set in, blocking access to the Indian Ocean and the route to the Cape of Good Hope. When they decided to take the northern course, they thought the Asia was connected to the American landmass, and up north, they would encounter westerly winds like those in the North Atlantic, which would carry them to the eastern shore of America. Not only was their cartographic knowledge wrong, but they knew nothing about the northeast monsoon.

A few days after they departed Tidore, they met the monsoon. Struggling with the wind, they continued their northerly course, but were pushed far off the coast of Japan. Off the coast of Hokkaido, the Trinidad was struck by a severe storm, perhaps a typoon that blew for five days. The wind was so fierce, it carried away both the fore and after castles, broke the mainmast into two places, and ripped the sails to tatters. The captain and the pilots finally saw the futility of continuing the sail to northeast, and turned the ship down toward the south to return to Gilolo. In October, after nearly six months, they returned to the island. Among the fifty-four crew members, thirty three perished. But the tragedy did not end there. A few days after their arrival, A Portuguese fleet arrived at the island. Apparently, they got the wind of the two Spanish ships trading with the natives in the Spice Islands. The Portuguese arrested the feable and sick Spaniards, confiscating the commodities in the ship and the trading post. Then they put the Spaniards to labor of constructing fortifications. The Trinidad eventually grounded by a storm and broke up. Of the twenty-one survivors in the Trinidad, only four would ever return to Spain.