put in the van of the new movement.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: Ferdinand Magellan enters the Spanish service.] Commercial
rivalry had thus passed from Venice and Genoa to Spain and Portugal. The
circumnavigation of the earth originated in a dispute between these
kingdoms respecting the Molucca Islands, from which nutmegs, cloves, and
mace were obtained. Ferdinand Magellan had been in the service of the
King of Portugal; but an application he had made for an increase of half
a ducat a month in his stipend having been refused, he passed into the
service of the King of Spain along with one Ruy Falero, a friend of his,
who, among the vulgar, bore the reputation of a conjurer or magician,
but who really possessed considerable astronomical attainments, devoting
himself to the discovery of improved means for finding the place of a
ship at sea. 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. [Sidenote: His great voyage commenced.]
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 south-west, 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. 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.
[Sidenote: He penetrates the American continent.] 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