Elcano and the First Circumnavigation of the World Book 2
Copyright© 2026 by Mark West
Chapter 17
The chief pilot of our much smaller fleet was now Joao Carvalho who had less experience than Gomes who had been transferred from the Trinidad to the San Antonio. But Carvalho had the charts and calculations that had been made by Gomes, so he knew that the Spice Islands lay on the equator. His plan was to continue up the coast of South America until we reached a latitude of 32 degrees south. Then we should sail north-west until we arrived at the Spice Islands. Magellan and Serrano agreed that this was the best course to follow, and both concluded that in a few weeks at most we should reach the islands where the spices we sought grew in abundance. Magellan was in such haste that he forewent the opportunity to put ashore at any point on the west coast of the New World to replenish our supplies of food and water. From my own experience of maritime ventures, a captain should always try to look for food and water when the opportunity arose. Even Magellan had called at the Canary Islands to buy more food and water although we had barely begun our voyage. However, I was not the Captain-General nor a captain of a nao, so I kept my counsel to myself and hoped that Magellan had made the right choice.
We had fair winds to speed us towards our destination, but as days became weeks, and weeks became months, it was obvious that Magellan and Carvalho had badly miscalculated the distance to the Spice Islands. On February 15th, 1521 we crossed the equator, but we found no island where we could land to hunt or gather food and fill our water barrels again. Instead, we ate hard tack that had been infested with worms and gnawed at by rats. Rats became a much sought after delicacy, and even the worms in the hard tack were a welcome addition to our diet. The water in the barrels was yellow and foul smelling, but we had no choice but to drink it. Any rain that fell was gratefully collected in buckets and barrels, but it was not enough to replenish the putrid water we carried in our barrels. Soon, we were forced to steep the leather coverings of the ropes and canvas in the ocean for several days to soften them and then roast them over a fire. We even ate sawdust. The result was food that did not assuage hunger nor produce the energy that would be required by the crew to keep the fleet on a steady course if we met with adverse weather. On February 24th, Magellan gave the order to change course to due west in hope of making landfall on some coast of Asia.
This was a fortunate decision because on March 6th as the sun rose, we heard the cry of “land, land.” We were within sight of land, but 19 men had died of scurvy or from drinking sea water, or simply from hunger. This was a high price to pay for the mistake of not pausing to search for food and water before we struck out across this vast ocean. We who survived knew we were lucky, but we were even more lucky not to have been assailed by storms or other adverse weather. The hours before we drew close to this land seemed to be interminable, but slowly we were able to discern that we were sailing towards two islands. The largest of these had sandy beaches where we could safely land in search of food and water, so this was where Magellan set our course.
But before we could make landfall, we were surprised to see people emerge from the jungle that fringed the shore and take to the sea in small canoes lashed together with vines and with a lateen sail. The people who manned these boats were clearly at home on the water as they stood upright on their small craft, and were able to manoeuvre skilfully using the sail. As they approached our naos, I could see that they were tall and muscular, with black hair and brown skin, and like the natives of Rio de Janeiro they were completely naked apart from a cap fashioned from some green leaves.
After their small craft had darted around and between our larger ships, one man suddenly leapt from his boat and swiftly climbed aboard the Trinidad pulling himself up by one of the ropes that hung from the sides. He waved to his companions and soon all three of our naos were swarming with these fearless visitors. I watched in horror as they ignored us poor starving sailors and concentrated on making off with any metal or glass object that was not secured in place. They even rifled the pockets of sailors who were too weak to protest as they took possession of metal spoons, and any tools they could find. As they were naked and did not even wear a bag or other receptacle with which to carry off their booty, they simply tucked it into their hair. Serrano and I looked towards the Trinidad to see how Magellan would respond to this mass robbery, and we were not surprised to observe that he had ordered men-at-arms to prime their arquebuses.
However, before he gave the order to fire, a new group of men arrived from the shore, but this time they brought gifts that were more welcome to our eyes than any gold; they brought mangoes and other unknown fruit, fish, and coconuts. Like starving wolves, we all set about devouring this gift of sustenance while the natives looked on in amusement at how we gorged ourselves. Then, as swiftly as they had boarded our naos, they jumped into the sea and swam back to their boats. I watched as they raced back towards the shore, but suddenly I saw that they had also taken the longboat which was tied behind the Trinidad.