Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe

by Laurence Bergreen

Something was so compelling about the misery the sailors had endured, the bizarre places they had visited, and their encounters with uncanny flora and fauna. Their sagas outdid fiction.

The faint smudge he observed in the night sky was actually a pair of dwarf galaxies attached to the Milky Way, all of it visible to the naked eye, at least in the southern hemisphere.

Ptolemy’s omissions inadvertently encouraged exploration because he made the world seem smaller and more navigable than it really was. If he had correctly estimated the size of the world, the Age of Discovery might never have occurred.

Eventually, Magellan gave the Indians a name—Pathagoni, a neologism suggesting the Spanish word patacones, or dogs with great paws, by which he meant to call attention to their big feet, made even larger by the rough-hewn boots they wore. So these were the Bigfeet Indians, according to Magellan, who later gave the name to the whole region, known ever since as Patagonia.

The ships turned west, braved the swirling tides, and entered the inland waterway. The first thing the pilots noticed was the extreme depth of the strait. “In this place it was not possible to anchor,” Pigafetta observed, “because no bottom was found. Wherefore it was necessary to put cables ashore of twenty-five or thirty cubits in length.”

“One seems to be entering a completely new and strange world, a veritable Never-Never Land,” he remarked. “The Strait never freezes except along its edges, and the evergreen Antarctic beech, with its tiny matted leaves, grows thickly along the lower mountain slopes. The middle slopes support a coarse grass which turns bronze in the setting sun; and above, the high peaks are snow-covered the year round; when it rains in the Strait, it snows at 6000 feet.”

The strait’s thick vegetation gave the air an intoxicating fragrance and buoyancy. The breezes were scented with a damp mossy odor lightened by the scent of wildflowers, freshened by the cool glaciers, and faintly tangy with the salt from the sea. Like everything else in this region, the very air was alive with mystery and promise. The strait seemed to be a giant natural monastery in which the crew sought refuge, a place of quiet contemplation of the paradoxes of nature on a scale capable of inducing profound humility.

These Fuegians in the canoe were quite naked, and even one full-grown woman was absolutely so. It was raining heavily, and the fresh water, together with the spray, trickled down her body. In another harbour not far distant, a woman, who was suckling a recently-born child, came one day alongside the vessel, and remained there whilst the sleet fell and thawed on her naked bosom, and on the skin of her naked

child. These

poor wretches were stunted in their growth, their hideous faces bedaubed with white paint, their skins filthy and greasy, their hair entangled, their voices discordant, their gestures violent and without dignity. Viewing such men, one can hardly make oneself believe they are fellow-creatures, and inhabitants of the same world.” Clinching his disgust for the Fuegians, Darwin observed, “Nor are they exempt from famine, and, as a conse...

All things considered, Pigafetta judged, “I believe there is not a more beautiful or better strait than this one.”

Without realizing it, Pigafetta had just recorded an observation of great consequence. These “clouds” are in fact two irregular dwarf galaxies orbiting our own galaxy and containing billions of stars enveloped in a gaseous blanket; they are known today as the Magellanic Clouds. The larger one, Nubecula Major, is about 150,000 light-years away, the smaller, Nubecula Minor, even farther, about 200,000 light-years. To the naked eye, they resemble pieces of the Milky Way torn off and flung across the heavens. Until 1994, they were considered the galaxies nearest to ours. The larger of the two covers an area in the night sky about two hundred times greater than that covered by the moon, while the smaller covers an area fifty times larger.

Not until 1580, fifty-eight years after Victoria returned to Seville, did another explorer, Sir Francis Drake, complete a circumnavigation. His voyage took him through the Strait of Magellan. To accomplish the feat, Drake relied on the knowledge so painfully and heroically acquired by the Captain General and his crew.