Chapter summary:
Magellan’s expedition was well provisioned and fitted out (equipped with Portuguese maps) when he sailed from San Lucar de Barrameda on the estuary of the Guadalquivir on 20 September 1519. By the time he and his crew reached the coast of Patagonia, in South America, they had finished their hard tack (biscuits) and were reduced to eating rats. Magellan was in desperate trouble. He was halfway through the straits surrounded by mountains with no sign of the Pacific. A mutiny broke out and Esteban Gomez seized control of one of Magellan’s five ships, the San Antonio. Pigafetta, the historian aboard Magellan’s flagship, tells us what happened next:
“… We all believed that it [the Strait] was a cul de sac; but the captain knew that he had to navigate through a very well concealed strait, having seen it in a chart preserved in the treasury of the King of Portugal, and made by Martin of Bohemia, a man of great parts….”
Because Martin of Bohemia’s chart has never been found, some have assumed that Magellan was bluffing, pretending he knew where he was so as to quash a mutiny. However, there are four pieces of convincing corroborative evidence that Magellan did have a chart that not only showed the strait, but also the way across the Pacific.
• First, Magellan showed the King of Limasava in the Philippines a map that, Magellan said, showed how he had reached the Philippines across the Pacific.
• The second is the account of the Portuguese historian, Antonio Galvao who wrote that the King of Portugal had a map showing the Straits of Magellan.
• Third, the strait was mentioned during the examination of Magellan by King Charles V’s Ministers before Magellan set sail. A globe was produced in which the strait was highlighted and Magellan stressed it was a secret strait.
• Finally, the capitulacion, the contract between the King of Spain and Magellan signed on 22 March 1518 uses the phrase, “para buscar el estrecho de aquellas mares” – to go in search of the Strait.
Such a map would have been published before Magellan set sail but still have depicted the strait. One European map published before Magellan set sail which does show a strait leading from the Atlantic to the Pacific is Johannes Schoener’s 1515 globe. This was published before Magellan’s examination by Charles V’s ministers and before the capitulation between Magellan and the King of Spain. The authenticity of Schoener’s globes has never been challenged. Schoener published a second copy of a globe in 1520, before Magellan’s expedition returned, which shows a similar strait.
If we assume for the moment that Schoener’s 1515 globe was the same as that which Toscanelli sent to Columbus, we face two questions: First, what would Columbus’s reaction have been? Second, is there a similar map which can be positively identified as having been received and acted upon by Columbus? Columbus knew the Portuguese were pushing down the coast of Africa to exploit the eastern route. It seems clear from Toscanelli’s letter to Columbus that Columbus was interested in finding a western route to China. Columbus then received the map from Toscanelli which indeed shows the way westwards to China as Toscanelli described it. However, it also shows an unknown continent (America) in between Portugal and China. Columbus himself acknowledged in his logs that he had seen Caribbean islands on a world map. He was also contracted to become Viceroy of land across the ocean. This hypothesis is further supported by Schoener’s 1515 copy of a globe, which shows the Americas, and accords precisely with Toscanelli’s description.
Further reading:
Behaim, Martellus and Columbus, by Arthur Davies:
http://www.jstor.org/pss/634713
Prince Henry the Navigator:
http://www.1902encyclopedia.com/G/GEO/geography-13.html
http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/eurvoya/henry1.html
Some interesting research on Columbus:
http://www.cristobalcolondeibiza.com/eng/eng04.htm
Warping Waldseemuller: Computer Modeling and the Quest to Understand the 1507 and 1516 World Maps by John Hessler: http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=4019
The map that named America by John Hébert:
http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0309/maps.html
The First Map Containing the Name America, by Basil H. Soulsby
http://www.jstor.org/pss/1775385
On the naming of America, by Joy Rea
http://www.jstor.org/pss/453925
Marco Polo’s New World Maps: Does Evidence of Magnetic Variation Support Claims of Early Chinese Expeditions? by Gunnar Thompson
http://www.marcopolovoyages.com/Articles/MPoloNewWorldMaps.html
