Chapter 5

While Juan de Elorriaga and I were busy attempting to assemble crews we could rely on, we were also in competition with the maestres of the other three naos who had the same task of signing crews for their naos. These maestres were Juan Bautista de Punzurol of the Trinidad, Antonio Salamon of the Victoria, and Baltasar Genovés of the Santiago. Elorriaga and I had one advantage over the other maestres and that is that we were natives of Gipuzkoa and they were from Italy. In fact, they had to abandon the task of attempting to find crews in Sevilla and contracted with sailors from Genoa and other regions of Italy as well as delegating the task of recruitment in Sevilla to Gonzalo Gómez de Espinosa who later served as chief of the men-at-arms and administrator of the fleet. Magellan tried to insist that most of the crew should be Portuguese because they had the most experience of sailing to the Spice Islands, but he was overruled by the King and Bishop Fonseca, so in the end, the crews of the five naos were principally Spanish, with Portuguese next in number. I was interested to see that there were several other nationalities on board. For example, there were pilots from Rhodes, and sailors from Ireland, Germany, Flanders, England, Norway and Italy. Although Magellan was the Captain-General of the fleet, Bishop Fonseca had appointed Juan de Cartagena as Inspector General of the fleet with the power to “ensure that the captains and officers observe our instructions and other matters of service.” His salary was also higher than that to be paid to Magellan. The reason for such favouritism by Bishop Fonseca was plain to see; according to local gossip, Juan de Cartagena was his illegitimate son. Bishop Fonseca also appointed two priests loyal to him to serve the spiritual needs of the fleet. Pedro Sánchez de la Reina from Spain served the Trinidad, while Bernard Calmette from France joined the San Antonio. In order to act as counterbalance to this act of nepotism, among the Portuguese who joined the fleet, Magellan managed to appoint his brother-in-law, Duarte Barbosa; his family member, Álvaro de Mesquita; and Cristóvão Rebêlo who, it was said, was Magellan’s illegitimate son. The chief pilot and first deputy pilot were also from Portugal. This should have ensured their loyalty to Magellan as their fellow countryman, but only João Lopes Carvalho, who shared a cabin with me on the Concepción did not take part in confrontations with Magellan later in our voyage. In contrast, Estevão Gomes, the chief pilot based on the Trinidad felt resentment towards Magellan because he had previously proposed sailing west to reach the Spice Islands, but had failed to find anyone who was prepared to fund his proposal. He believed that he should have been appointed as captain of one of the ships and that being forced to accept the position of pilot was an insult to his honour. I heard all about these intrigues and resentments towards Magellan from Duarte Barbosa who I had become friendly with previously.