Ferdinand Magellan was certainly a courageous individual and an exceptional navigator, having crossed the Atlantic, maneuvered through a dangerous, unmapped strait and rallied his crew as they spent months on an unknown ocean (the Pacific), dying off from malnutrition and scurvy. Then again, he took on slaves, ordered the slaughter of many native villagers and left two mutineers on a small, uninhabited island.
And just as his goal was about to be realized, having received a warm welcome from natives in the Philippines, he attacks a king and his tribe who refused to convert to Catholicism; Magellan was killed in that battle and his remains were never recovered. In more stark terms, Magellan survived nineteen months at sea, often under trying conditions and in uncharted waters, to die on a beach in the Philippines during a battle of his own making.
Of course, Magellan's journey began not long after the Spanish Inquisition, when religious fervor was at a peak. But here was a man who undertook a treacherous circumnavigation of our planet based on the leading scientific assessments of his day only to succumb to religious mysticism. On both counts he taught humanity a great deal.
See the previous three posts for details, all taken from Over the Edge of the World, by Laurence Bergreen
And just as his goal was about to be realized, having received a warm welcome from natives in the Philippines, he attacks a king and his tribe who refused to convert to Catholicism; Magellan was killed in that battle and his remains were never recovered. In more stark terms, Magellan survived nineteen months at sea, often under trying conditions and in uncharted waters, to die on a beach in the Philippines during a battle of his own making.
Of course, Magellan's journey began not long after the Spanish Inquisition, when religious fervor was at a peak. But here was a man who undertook a treacherous circumnavigation of our planet based on the leading scientific assessments of his day only to succumb to religious mysticism. On both counts he taught humanity a great deal.
See the previous three posts for details, all taken from Over the Edge of the World, by Laurence Bergreen
