Over the Edge of the World

Dedication

In memory of my brother and father

Epigraph

How a Ship having passed the Line was driven by storms to the cold Country towards the South Pole; and how from thence she made her course to the tropical Latitude of the Great Pacific Ocean; and of the strange things that befell; and in what manner the Ancyent Marinere came back to his own Country.

—Samuel Taylor Coleridge,

“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Dedication

Epigraph

Principal Characters

A Note on Dates

Measurements

Introduction to the Quincentenary Edition

Prologue: A Ghostly Apparition

Book One: In Search of Empire

Chapter I: The Quest

Chapter II: The Man Without a Country

Chapter III: Neverlands

Chapter IV: “The Church of the Lawless”

Book Two: The Edge of the World

Chapter V: The Crucible of Leadership

Chapter VI: Castaways

Chapter VII: Dragon’s Tail

Chapter VIII: A Race Against Death

Chapter IX: A Vanished Empire

Chapter X: The Final Battle

Book Three: Back from the Dead

Chapter XI: Ship of Mutineers

Chapter XII: Survivors

Chapter XIII: Et in Arcadia Ego

Chapter XIV: Ghost Ship

Chapter XV: After Magellan

Acknowledgments

Bibliography

Notes on Sources

Index

Photo Section

P.S. Insights, Interviews & More . . .*

About the Author

About the Book

Read On

Also by Laurence Bergreen

Copyright

About the Publisher

Principal Characters

King Charles I (later Charles V, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire)

King Manuel (king of Portugal)

Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca (bishop of Burgos)

Cristóbal de Haro (financier)

Ruy Faleiro (cosmographer)

Beatriz Barbosa (Magellan’s wife)

Diogo Barbosa (Magellan’s father-in-law)

The Armada de Molucca

(at the time of departure from Seville)

Trinidad

Ferdinand Magellan (Captain General)

Estêvão Gomes (pilot major)

Gonzalo Gómez de Espinosa (alguacil, or master-at-arms)

Francisco Albo (pilot)

Pedro de Valderrama (chaplain)

Ginés de Mafra (seaman)

Enrique de Malacca (interpreter)

Duarte Barbosa (supernumerary)

Álvaro de Mesquita (Magellan’s relative, supernumerary)

Antonio Pigafetta (chronicler, supernumerary)

Cristóvão Rebêlo (Magellan’s illegitimate son, supernumerary)

San Antonio

Juan de Cartagena (captain and inspector general)

Antonio de Coca (fleet accountant)

Andrés de San Martín (astrologer and pilot)

Juan de Elorriaga (master)

Gerónimo Guerra (clerk)

Bernard de Calmette, also known as

Pero Sánchez de la Reina (chaplain)

Concepción

Gaspar de Quesada (captain)

João Lopes Carvalho (pilot)

Juan Sebastián Elcano (master)

Juan de Acurio (mate)

Hernando Bustamente (barber)

Joãozito Carvalho (cabin boy)

Martin de Magalhães (supernumerary)

Victoria

Luis de Mendoza (captain)

Vasco Gomes Gallego (pilot)

Antonio Salamón (master)

Miguel de Rodas (mate)

Santiago

Juan Rodríguez Serrano (captain)

Baltasar Palla (master)

Bartolomé Prieur (mate)

A Note on Dates

Dates are given in the Julian calendar, in effect since the time of Julius Caesar. With modifications, this calendar was adopted by Christian churches around the world, including those in Spain.

Sixty years after the completion of Magellan’s voyage, in 1582, Spain, France, and other European countries migrated to the Gregorian calendar, decreed by Pope Gregory XIII and designed to correct incremental errors in the Julian system. It took more than two centuries to complete the transition to the new calendar throughout Europe, since Protestant nations resisted the change. To correct for accumulated errors, ten days were omitted, so that October 5, 1582, in the Julian calendar suddenly became October 15, 1582, in the Gregorian.

In addition to this calendar shift, Magellan’s voyage had its own record-keeping issues. The dates of various events recorded by the two official chroniclers of the expedition, Antonio Pigafetta and Francisco Albo, occasionally diverge by one day. The discrepancy may be due to human error, and it may also have been caused by the way each diarist reckoned the day. Albo, a pilot, followed the custom of ships’ logs, which began the day at noon rather than at midnight. In contrast, Pigafetta used a nonnautical frame of reference in his diary. Thus, an event occurring on a given morning might have been put down a day apart in the records maintained by the two.

Finally, the international date line did not exist before Magellan’s voyage. (It now extends west from the island of Guam, in the Pacific Ocean.) As Albo and Pigafetta neared the completion of their circumnavigation, they were astonished to note that their calculations were off, and their voyage around the world actually took one day longer than they had thought.