Arrival in Brazil had claimed Brazil for Portugal in 1500, 20 years before Magellan's voyage. This 1922 painting depicts his arrival in
Porto Seguro and first encounter with the
natives. On 29 November, the fleet reached the approximate latitude of
Cape Saint Augustine. The coastline of Brazil (which Pigafetta refers to as
Verzin in his diary, after the Italian term for
brazilwood) had been known to the Spanish and Portuguese since about 1500, and in the intervening decades, European powers (particularly Portugal) had been sending ships to Brazil to collect valuable brazilwood. The Armada carried a map of the Brazilian coastline, the
Livro da Marinharia (the "Book of Seamanship"), and also had a crew member, the
Concepción's pilot, João Lopes Carvalho, who had previously visited
Rio de Janeiro. Carvalho was enlisted to lead the fleet's navigation down the Brazilian coastline to Rio, aboard the
Trinidad, and also helped communicate with the locals, as he had some rudimentary knowledge of their
Guarani language. On 13 December, the fleet reached Rio de Janeiro. Though nominally Portuguese territory, they maintained no permanent settlement there at the time. Seeing no Portuguese ships in the harbour, Magellan knew it would be safe to stop. Pigafetta wrote of a coincidence of weather that caused the armada to be warmly received by the indigenous people: It is to be known that it happened that it had not rained for two months before we came there, and the day that we arrived it began to rain, on which account the people of the said place said that we came from heaven, and had brought the rain with us, which was great simplicity, and these people were easily converted to the Christian faith.
Search for strait On 3 February, the fleet continued south along the South American coast. Magellan believed they would find a strait (or the southern terminus of the continent) within a short distance. In fact, the fleet would sail south for another eight weeks without finding passage, before stopping to overwinter at
St. Julian. Not wanting to miss the strait, the fleet sailed as close to the coast as feasible, heightening the danger of running aground on
shoals. The ships sailed only during the day, with lookouts carefully watching the coast for signs of a passage. In addition to the hazards of shallow waters, the fleet encountered
squalls, storms, and dropping temperatures as they continued south and winter set in.
Overwintering By the third week of March, weather conditions had become so desperate that Magellan decided they should find a safe harbour in which to wait out the winter before resuming the search for a passage in spring. On 31 March 1520, a break in the coast was spotted. There, the fleet found a natural harbour which they called
Port St. Julian. The men remained at St. Julian for five months, before resuming their search for the strait.
Easter mutiny , one of the architects of the attempted mutiny at Saint Julian. Within a day of landing at St. Julian, there was another mutiny attempt. Like the one during the Atlantic crossing, it was led by
Juan de Cartagena (former captain of the
San Antonio), aided by
Gaspar de Quesada and
Luis Mendoza, captains of the
Concepción and
Victoria, respectively. As before, the Castilian captains questioned Magellan's leadership and accused him of recklessly endangering the fleet's crew and ships. The mutiny at St. Julian was more calculated than the
fracas that had followed the sodomy trial during the Atlantic crossing. Around midnight of Easter Sunday, 1 April, Cartagena and Quesada covertly led thirty armed men, their faces covered with
charcoal, aboard the
San Antonio, where they ambushed Álvaro de Mezquita, the recently named captain of the ship. Mezquita was Magellan's cousin and sympathetic to the captain general. Juan de Elorriaga, the ship's master, resisted the mutineers and attempted to alert the other ships. For this reason, Quesada stabbed him repeatedly (he would die from his wounds months later). With the
San Antonio subdued, the mutineers controlled three of the fleet's five ships. Only the
Santiago (commanded by
Juan Serrano) remained loyal to Magellan, along with the flag ship, the
Trinidad, which Magellan commanded. The mutineers aimed the
San Antonio's cannon at the
Trinidad but made no further overtures during the night. The following morning (2 April), while the mutineers attempted to consolidate their forces aboard the
San Antonio and the
Victoria, a longboat of sailors drifted off course into the vicinity of the
Trinidad. The men were brought aboard and persuaded to divulge the details of the mutineers' plans to Magellan. Magellan subsequently launched a counteroffensive against the mutineers aboard the
Victoria. He had some marines from the
Trinidad switch clothing with the stray sailors and approach the
Victoria in their longboat. His
alguacil, Gonzalo de Espinosa, also approached the
Victoria in a
skiff and announced that he had a message for the captain, Luis Mendoza. Espinosa was allowed aboard, and into the captain's chambers, based on his claim that he had a confidential letter. There, Espinosa stabbed Mendoza in the throat with his
poignard, killing him instantly. At the same time, the disguised marines came aboard the
Victoria to support the
alguacil. With the
Victoria lost and Mendoza dead, the remaining mutineers realised they were outmanoeuvred. Quesada attempted to flee but was prevented from doing so – sailors loyal to Magellan had cut the
Concepción's cables, causing it to drift toward the
Trinidad, and Quesada was captured. Cartagena conceded and begged Magellan for mercy.
Mutiny trial The trial of the mutineers was headed by Magellan's cousin Álvaro de Mezquita and lasted five days. On 7 April, Quesada was beheaded by his foster-brother and secretary, Luis Molina, who acted as executioner in exchange for clemency. The bodies of Quesada and Mendoza were
drawn and quartered and displayed on
gibbets for the following three months. San Martín, suspected of involvement in the conspiracy, was tortured by
strappado, but afterwards was allowed to continue his service as cosmographer. Cartagena, along with a priest, Pedro Sanchez de Reina, were sentenced to be
marooned. On 11 August, two weeks before the fleet left St. Julian, the two were taken to a small nearby island and left to die. Days later, the pilot of the ship San Antonio, Esteban Gómez, shot down its captain, Álvaro de Mezquita, Magellan's cousin, abandoning Magellan's expedition to return to Spain. He returned for Juan de Cartagena and Pedro Sánchez de la Reina, but found no trace of them. More than forty other conspirators, including Juan Sebastián Elcano, were put in chains for much of the winter and made to perform the hard work of
careening the ships, repairing their structure and scrubbing the
bilge.
Loss of Santiago In late April, Magellan dispatched the
Santiago, captained by
Juan Serrano, from St. Julian to scout to the south for a strait. On 3 May, they reached the estuary of a river which Serrano named the
Santa Cruz. The estuary provided shelter and was well situated with natural resources including fish, penguins, and wood. After more than a week exploring Santa Cruz, Serrano set out to return to St. Julian on 22 May, but was caught in a sudden storm while leaving the harbour. The
Santiago was tossed about by strong winds and currents before
running aground on a sandbar. All (or nearly all) of the crew were able to clamber ashore before the ship
capsized. Two men volunteered to set off on foot for St. Julian to get help. After 11 days of hard trekking, the men arrived at St. Julian, exhausted and emaciated. Magellan sent a rescue party of 24 men over land to Santa Cruz. The other 35 survivors from the
Santiago remained at Santa Cruz for two weeks. They were unable to retrieve any supplies from the wreck of the
Santiago, but managed to build huts and fire, and subsist on a diet of shellfish and local vegetation. The rescue party found them all alive but exhausted, and they returned to St. Julian safely.
Move to Santa Cruz After learning of the favourable conditions that Serrano found at Santa Cruz, Magellan decided to move the fleet there for the rest of the austral winter. After almost five months at St. Julian, the fleet left for Santa Cruz around 24 August. They spent six weeks at Santa Cruz before resuming their search for the strait.
Strait of Magellan cuts through the southern tip of South America connecting the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean. . On 18 October, the fleet left Santa Cruz heading south, resuming their search for a passage. Soon after, on 21 October 1520, they spotted a headland at 52°S latitude which they named
Cape Virgenes. Past the cape, they found a large bay. While they were exploring the bay, a storm erupted. The
Trinidad and
Victoria made it out to open seas, but the
Concepción and
San Antonio were driven deeper into the bay, toward a
promontory. Three days later, the fleet was reunited, and the
Concepción and
San Antonio reported that the storm drew them through a narrow passage, not visible from sea, which continued for some distance. Hoping they had finally found their sought-after strait, the fleet retraced the path taken by the
Concepción and
San Antonio. Unlike at Río de la Plata earlier, the water did not lose its salinity as they progressed, and soundings indicated that the waters were consistently deep. This was the passage they sought, which would come to be known as the
Strait of Magellan. At the time, Magellan referred to it as the ("All Saints' Channel") because the fleet travelled through it on 1 November or
All Saints' Day. On 28 October, the fleet reached an island in the strait (likely
Isabel Island or
Dawson Island), which could be passed in one of two directions. Magellan directed the fleet to split up to explore the respective paths. They were meant to regroup within a few days, but the
San Antonio would never rejoin the fleet. While the rest of the fleet waited for the return of the
San Antonio, Gonzalo de Espinosa led a small ship to explore the further reaches of the strait. After three days of sailing, they reached the end of the strait and the mouth of the Pacific Ocean. After another three days, Espinosa returned. Pigafetta writes that, on hearing the news of Espinosa's discovery, Magellan wept tears of joy. The fleet's remaining three ships completed the journey to the Pacific by 28 November after weeks of fruitlessly searching for the
San Antonio. Magellan named the waters the
Mar Pacifico, or Pacific Ocean, because of how still and peaceful the sea was, especially compared with the straits.) May 1521, with 55 survivors. There ensued a trial of the ship's men which lasted six months. With Mezquita being the only one loyal to Magellan, the majority of testimony produced a villainous and distorted picture of Magellan's actions. In particular, in justifying the mutiny at St. Julian, the men claimed that Magellan had tortured Spanish seamen (during the return journey across the Atlantic, Mezquita was tortured into signing a statement to this effect) and claimed that they were merely trying to make Magellan follow the king's orders. Ultimately, none of the mutineers faced charges in Spain. Magellan's reputation suffered as a result, as did his friends and family. Mezquita was kept in jail for a year following the trial, and Magellan's wife, Beatriz, had her financial resources cut off and was placed under house arrest along with their son. ==Pacific crossing==