Almost sixty years separate the ‘around the world’ voyages that Sir Francis Drake and Ferdinand Magellan each set forth upon. Each Captain set forth upon their respective journeys, each sailing under different motives, and each and for very different rulers. Magellan was the first to set, he began his trip on August 10, 1519 under a Catholic, Spanish King. Drake loosely followed in the footsteps of his predecessor and set forth on his journey on November 15, 1577, some sixty years after Magellan, in service to a Protestant, English Queen. While Magellan seemed to be more interested in the people he came in contact with, and even converting some to Christianity. Drake was more interested in pirating and taking over the Spanish ships he came in contact with along the way—in fact, that seemed to be one of Drake’s primary motives. Despite their differences in motivation, both ship captains managed to do what others before them had not—reach the Pacific Ocean via the Atlantic Ocean.
Magellan departed from Seville with five ships in service to the King of Spain. His goal, to find a way to the Pacific from the Atlantic, in order to find a better way to the East Indies and their Spice Islands. Likewise, Sir Francis Drake departed from Plymouth, England with five ships, but he was in service to her majesty, Queen Elisabeth. His goal, to circumnavigate the globe and find a way to the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic Ocean and to weaken the Spanish along the way. Drake set out for Cape Cantin, upon the coast of Barbary which is along the North African continent. From there he sailed along the coast to an island called Mogador, which is an island in modern day Morocco on the Northwestern coast of Africa. There he and his men found provisions from the villagers such as sheep, capons (a castrated rooster), and hens. In return he gave the villagers linen cloth, shoes, and a javelin. However, the next day the villagers were not as friendly. So, Drake and his crew hastily withdrew and sailed further down the coast to Cape Blanco, which is a forty-mile-long peninsula located off the Western ‘Horn of Africa’. Remaining at the cape only a few days before setting out further down the Western coast of Africa towards the islands of Cape Verde, across from Senegal, yet still located along the great ‘Horn of Africa’. They island hopped here for several months. They began their explorations, starting with the island of Mayo (Maio), and ending with the island of Brava.
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| Magellan and Drake's Routes |
Contrarily, Magellan and his crew never stopped along the Cape Verde islands. Instead Magellan set out rapidly towards the southwest and sailed straight through the Cape Verde islands, and made course nonstop for Brazil. He arrived in Rio de Janeiro on the day of St. Lucy (December 13th) 1519, and stayed until the first octave of Christmas (December 26th). Unlike Drake, Magellan had set forth to discover, not plunder. Furthermore, it was important that Magellan observed Christian holidays. Proof that his Christian faith heavily influenced him along his travels is the fact that most places Magellan named, were named after saints. Such as the Cape of St. Mary, Point St. Anthony, Cape St. Apelonia, and the island of St. Matthew, and many others.
Despite the strait path taken by his predecessor, Magellan, Drake and his crew explored the islands of Cape Verde. They discovered strange and new foods such as sweet grapes on the island of Mayo, which they were surprised to find growing, since it was January and would be incredibly cold in England at that time. They also found goats, hens, salt, and a new fruit tree called Cocos, which are known today as Coconuts. Further into the island of Mayo they found Cabritos, which are a type of goat that is used for roasting. On the largest island, Santiago, Drake and his crew were not met with friendliness, they were instead fired upon by the Moors, or Muslims. While leaving Santiago they spotted two ships, and proceeded to board and plunder them before sailing on to the island of Ilha do Fogo or the “burning island,” which is actually a volcano. Indeed, no ship they came across was safe from their plundering. The last island, Ilha Brava, which was full of greenery and fresh water but no place to anchor. From here they set forth on their three-week journey to the coast of Brazil, but not before being pummeled with massive sea storms. Luckily for them, the storms provided a large supply of fish, some which jumped up on the boats# as a result of the raging seas and howling winds.
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| Captain Drake Biography.com |
By bypassing, and missing out on all of the fruits of, the islands that Drake and his crews explored, Magellan’s straight path positioned him at the Port of St. Julian, also known as the Cape of Good Hope, in March, 1520. Here Magellan rested and remained for a little over five months. However, it was not necessarily a calm respite. When Magellan and his crew first arrived, three of his ships mutinied against him. Magellan delivered swift punishment for such mutiny without hesitation. He ordered one of the ships captains stabbed by the chief constable, and the other mutinous captain was quartered and decapitated.
Drake and his crew landed upon Cape Joy, also known as the River Plate or “Rio de la Plata” in April, 1578, after their three-week journey at sea. Here they found many seals, which they slaughtered for food, but they did not find fresh water. The inhabitants however, showed enthusiasm at Drake and his crew’s presence and leapt and danced about. They would accept trade fore items, but oddly insisted all items be placed on the ground and refused to accept trades from the hand. By June twentieth that same year they had sailed and docked in the Cape of Good Hope. called Port St. Julian by Magellan who had been there before in March of 1520. It was in this place that Magellan executed mutinous members of his crew. Oddly enough, Drake also executed members of his own crew after finding evidence of mutiny. Although Drake executed his own ship’s captain, Master Thomas Doughty, for mutiny. However, he did so in a more courteous manner that Magellan. Drake offered Thomas a priest, prayers, and holy communion before his execution#. Afterwards Drake made speeches of love, unity and obedience, and had his crew prepare for communion themselves the next Sunday. So, even though Christianity was not a main theme in Drake’s voyages, he was nonetheless a practicing Christian, like Magellan.
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| Magellan History.com |
After departing from Port St. Julian, and following the footsteps more closely of his predecessor, Magellan, who discovered the strait some sixty years before on August 20, 1578, Drake and his crew found and went through the Strait of Magellan. Drake sailed through the strait, towards the Pacific Ocean. He and his crew sailed through freezing waters that were wedged in between huge mountains that were covered in snow. The only places within the strait that allowed for an anchor were located in narrow river corners that were subject to ship smashing winds. While sailing through the straights, Drake found many herbs and even foul that were as big as geese but that could not fly; Penguins. Magellan made no note of finding such herbs or creatures in his travels through the strait.
After making his way through the southernmost straight, Drake sailed up the coast of South America to Chili. By the end of November 1578, they had sailed to an island off the western coast of South America called La Mocha. Here they met inhabitants who had claimed to have had violent dealings with the Spaniard. It is unclear whether these violent dealings with Spaniards were in fact, Magellan and his crew. However, Magellan did document having violent dealings with the people of Thieves’ Island—after the islanders stole his skiff, Magellan burned their entire village and killed eight people. Yet, the people at La Mocha met Drake and his crew with potatoes, roots, and sheep. Unfortunately, proving to be fickle people, the very next day, the islands inhabitants killed some of Drakes men as they went to fetch fresh water, causing Drake and his crew to leave rather quickly.
After Magellan’s violent run-in with the inhabitants of Thieves Island, he set a course to sail directly towards the East Indies. Bypassing the rest of the South American coast that Drake and his crew plundered, and bypassing the coast of the western North American continent and lands that Drake would later discover and claim for England. But before reaching his West Indies destination, Magellan landed in the Philippines. He observed the beauty of the Philippine islands as well as meeting local inhabitants who brought them fowl and cocoa nuts. Sailing further south Magellan found another Philippine island named Macangor; they placed a cross upon the island for Christianity. Sailing even further south Magellan landed upon another Philippine island, Cabo, where he converted eight hundred people to Christianity in a single day. After the mass conversion Magellan became convinced that everyone on the islands should convert to Christianity. Those that were not obedient to his demands and refused conversion had their villages burned. Magellan then demanded three each of goats, pigs, rice and millet be sent to him for provisions; however, the villagers did not give it to him. This sudden conversionary violence ensured that Magellan would never reach is destination of the Spice Islands. On April 28th 1521, the villagers met Magellan for battle after refusing his demands, and was killed in battle.
Although Magellan himself was deceased, his crew, what was left of them, and their sole remaining ship, completed the voyage to the East Indies. Their interpreter had also been killed during the skirmish on the Philippine islands, so the crew had to land upon multiple coasts trying to locate provisions, and a safe place to land. They encountered friendly and not so friendly Moorish (Muslim) Kings and others along their way back home to Spain. Eventually after enduring several additional hardships, Magellan’s crew made it back. Eighteen men and a single ship is all that was left of the fleet of five ships and the vast number of sailors that had left out a little over three years prior. Despite losing ships, crew, and the death of Magellan, the crew returned with valuable information about the world, and perhaps most importantly the discovery of the Strait of Magellan.
However, unlike Magellan, Drake did manage to reach his destination. And unlike Magellan, who left Port St. Julian and sailed straight for the West Indies, Drake had other plans to carry out before heading West. He first wanted to weaken the Spanish ships who occupied the waters and controlled the ocean trade routes. Never one to miss an opportunity to plunder, especially if it was the Spanish, Drake found Spanish ships further up the coast in Santiago. Drake and his crew managed to plunder everything on the ships without a fight#. From this point Drake and his crew more boldly plundered Spanish ports all along the coast of South America. They even plundered a small town and took all of their wine. They were sneaky enough to steal thirteen bars of silver from a sleeping Spaniard, however they let him live. In February they plundered twelve ships in Lima, Peru, then traveled up the coast continuing to plunder any Spanish ship they found; taking silks, linens, gold, golden crucifixes with emeralds, bowls of silver, china, a golden falcon, and more. As a result, Drake become much more of a pirate than explorer. However, all of this plundering came at a cost, by the time he was finished, he had only one ship left. So Drake decided that the treasure he had amassed from plundering would please the Queen, and set sail away from the coast of South America.
Again, instead of taking a straight west path towards the West Indies, Drake sailed a bit farther north. Because of this, in June, Drake and his crew had stumbled upon a beautiful bay area, with a group of kind and gracious people, who would become known as Indians, that thought Drake and his crew were Gods. This location would later be known as San Francisco Bay, and at the time was undiscovered by the Spanish. Yet, it still displayed the massive fog drifts that San Francisco is known for today. Drake and his crew accepted gifts of feathers and tobacco, and even accepted the crown of the King of the people at their behest. The people of the bay area bequeathed upon Drake their province and kingdom, to which Drake accepted and returned with in order to give the crown of this newly discovered country to his Queen. And before departing he set up a plate engraved with Queen Elisabeth’s name, the day and year of their arrival, and the fact that these people had freely given themselves and their land to her Majesty. Making sure to avoid the Philippine islands where Magellan had been murdered, Drake set sail back to England with haste.
Both Magellan and Drake proved to be skilled and competent sailors and they each made remarkable discoveries along the way. Each man discovered different people and treasures because of their particular sailing motivations. Drake capturing more treasures and lands for the Queen of England because of his plundering’s, and Magellan capturing more converts to Christianity which would later prove to be very beneficial to the King of Spain. However, had it not been for Magellan paving the way, Drake would have never discovered the ‘bay’ of what would become known as San Francisco.
Works Cited
"Ferdinand Magellan's Voyage Round the World, 1519-1522 CE". Internet History Sourcebook. N.p., 2017. Web. 18 Feb. 2017. < http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1519magellan.asp>
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