Magellan

ma-jel'an (1470-1521), a noted Portuguese navigator. He was of good family and spent his boyhood in the household of John II. He saw service in the East Indies and in Morocco. He took offense at a slight put upon him by King John. With a friend, an eminent astronomer and general, he repaired to the Spanish court with a proposition to open up a route to the Spice Islands of the East by sailing westward. King John, hearing of the proposition, now came forward with alluring offers, but Magellan had early completed arrangements with Charles of Spain. September 20, 1519, he set sail, going by way of South America. November 28, 1520, he passed between Tierra del Fuego and the mainland through the strait to which his name has since been given. April 27, 1521, he fell in conflict with the natives of one of the Philippine Islands. One of his ships, the Victoria, proceeded to the Spice Islands, and returned home by way of the beaten route around the Cape of Good Hope. It brought twenty-six tons of cloves. Although Magellan did not live to complete the circuit, he is spoken of usually as the first commander to circumnavigate the globe. His explorations resulted in the Spanish acquisition of the Ladrones and of the Philippine Islands. An account of the voyage, less complete than might be desired, was written by a volunteer member of his fleet. A monument in Magellan's honor has been erected in the city of Manila. See Spice

Magellan persuaded the Spanish government that the Spice Islands could be reached by sailing to the west, the Portuguese having previously reached them by sailing to the east, and, if this were accomplished, Spain would have as good a title to them, under the bull of Alexander VI, as Portugal. Five ships, carrying 237 men, were accordingly equipped, and on August 10, 1519. Magellan sailed from Seville. The Trinitie was the admiral's ship, but the San Vittoria was destined for immortality. He struck boldly for the southwest, not crossing the trough of the Atlantic as Columbus had done, but passing down the length of it, his aim being to find some cleft or passage in the American continent through which he might sail into the Great South Sea.

A voyage to the south is even more full of portents than one to the west. The accustomed heavens seem to sink away, and new stars are nightly approached. . . . For seventy days he was becalmed under the line. He then lost sight of the north star, but courageously held on toward the "pole antartike." He nearly foundered in a storm, "which did not abate till the three fires called St. Helen, St. Nicholas, and St. Clare appeared playing in the rigging of the ships." In a new land, to which he gave the name of Patagoni, he found giants "of good corporature" clad in skins; one of them, a very pleasant and tractable giant, was terrified at his own visage in a looking-glass. Among the sailors, alarmed at the distance they had come, mutiny broke out, requiring the most unflinching resolution in the commander for its suppression. In spite of his watchfulness, one ship deserted him and stole back to Spain. His perseverance and resolution were at last rewarded by the discovery of the strait named by him San Vittoria in affectionate honor of his ship, but which, with a worthy sentiment, other sailors soon changed to "the Strait of Magellan." On November 28, 1520, after a year and a quarter of struggling, he issued forth from its western portals and entered the Great South Sea, shedding tears of joy, as Pigafetti, an eye-witness, relates, when he recognized its infinite expense--tears of stern joy that it had pleased God to bring him at length where he might grapple with its unknown dangers. Admiring its illimitable but placid surface, and exulting in the meditation of its secret perils soon to be tried, he courteously imposed on it the name it is forever to bear, "the Pacific Ocean." While baffling for an entry into it, he observed with surprise that in the month of October the nights are only four hours long, and "considered, in this his navigation, that the pole antartike hath no notable star like the pole artike, but that there be two clouds of little stars somewhat dark in the middest, also a cross of fine clear stars, but that here the needle becomes so sluggish that it needs must be moved with a bit of loadstone before it will rightly point."

And now the great sailor, having burst through the barrier of the American continent, steered for the northwest, attempting to regain the equator. For three months and twenty days he sailed on the Pacific, and never saw inhabited land. He was compelled by famine to strip off the pieces of skin and leather wherewith his rigging was here and there bound, to soak them in the sea and then soften them with warm water, so as to make a wretched food; to eat the sweepings of the ship and other loathsome matter; to drink water gone putrid by keeping; and yet he resolutely held on his course, though his men were dying daily. As is quaintly observed, their gums grew over their teeth, and so they could not eat. He estimated that he sailed over this unfathomable sea not less than 12,000 miles.

His unparalleled resolution met its reward at last. Magellan reached a group of islands north of the equator-the Ladrones. In a few days more he became aware that his labors had been successful: he met with adventurers from Sumatra.

In the whole history of human undertakings there is nothing that exceeds, if indeed there is any thing that equals, this voyage of Magellan. That of Columbus dwindles away in comparison. It is a display of superhuman courage, superhuman perseverance-a display of resolution not to be diverted from its purpose by any motive or any suffering, but inflexibly persisting to its end. Well might his despairing sailors come to the conclusion that they had entered on a trackless waste of waters, endless before them and hopeless in a return. "But, though the Church hath evermore from Holy Writ affirmed that the earth should be a wide-spread plain bordered by the waters, yet he comforted himself when he considered that in the eclipses of the moon the shadow cast of the earth is round; and as is the shadow, such, in like manner, is the substance." It was a stout heart-a heart of triple brass-which could thus, against such authority, extract unyielding faith from a shadow.-Draper, Intellectual Development of Europe.

Magi, The, ma'ji, a name given to the learned and priestly class of ancient Media and Persia. Originally, the Magi worshiped Ahriman, the god of evil, as well as Ormazd, the god of good. Zoroaster forbade devil worship, and the magi became priests of the reformed faith. They were teachers and philosophers as well as priests. The Wise Men from the East, who are described in the New Testament as guided by a star to the stable where the infant Jesus was born, were Magi. It is popularly supposed that there were three of these "Wise Men," although the number is not mentioned in the Biblical narrative. It was claimed during the Middle Ages that their bones were preserved in the Cologne Cathedral and they became celebrated as the "Three Kings of Cologne." Their names were said to be Gaspar, Melchior, and Baltasar. Gradually in Media and Persia, the Magi, from being the highest caste, degenerated to the rank of jugglers, fortune tellers, and quacks. The English word magic is derived from the word Magi.