t he was convinced that a strait existed which would lead into
the Indian Ocean, past the New World of Amerigo, and that the Spice
Islands were beyond the line of demarcation and within the Spanish
sphere of influence. There is some evidence that Spanish merchant
vessels, trading secretly to obtain Brazil wood, had already caught
sight of the strait afterwards named after Magelhaens, and certainly
such a strait is represented upon Schoner's globes dated 1515 and
1520--earlier than Magelhaens' discovery. The Portuguese were fully
aware of the dangers threatened to their monopoly of the spice
trade--which by this time had been firmly established--owing to the
presence of Serrao in Ternate, and did all in their power to dissuade
Charles from sending out the threatened expedition, pointing out
that they would consider it an unfriendly act if such an expedition
were permitted to start. Notwithstanding this the Emperor persisted
in the project, and on Tuesday, 20th September 1519, a fleet of five
vessels, the _Trinidad, St. Antonio, Concepcion, Victoria_, and _St.
Jago_, manned by a heterogeneous collection of Spaniards, Portuguese,
Basques, Genoese, Sicilians, French, Flemings, Germans, Greeks,
Neapolitans, Corfiotes, Negroes, Malays, and a single Englishman
(Master Andrew of Bristol), started from Seville upon perhaps the
most important voyage of discovery ever made. So great was the
antipathy between Spanish and Portuguese that disaffection broke
out almost from the start, and after the mouth of the La Plata
had been carefully explored, to ascertain whether this was not
really the beginning of a passage through the New World, a mutiny
broke out on the 2nd April 1520, in Port St. Julian, where it had
been determined to winter; for of course by this time the sailors
had become aware that the time of the seasons was reversed in the
Southern Hemisphere. Magelhaens showed great firmness and skill in
dealing with the mutiny; its chief leaders were either executed or
marooned, and on the 18th October he resumed his voyage. Meanwhile
the habits and customs of the natives had been observed--their
huge height and uncouth foot-coverings, for which Magelhaens gave
them the name of Patagonians. Within three days they had arrived
at the entrance of the passage which still bears Magelhaens' name.
By this time one of the ships, the _St Jago_, had been lost, and it
was with only four of his vessels--the _Trinidad_, the _Victoria_,
the _Con