Ferdinand Magellan

Ferdinand Magellan (c. 1480–1521) was a Portuguese navigator who led the Spanish expedition that made the first circumnavigation. After service in India and Malacca, a 1513 wound at Azemmour left him lame, and a false trade charge cost him royal favour. When Manuel rejected his westward Spice Islands route, he won Charles I's backing in 1517.

As admiral he sailed in September 1519 with five ships and 270 men amid storms and mutinies. In November 1520 the fleet entered the strait that bears his name, christening the ocean beyond it the Mar Pacifico; the crossing took 98 days. In the Philippines he converted Humabon of Cebu, then attacked Lapulapu of Mactan on 27 April 1521 after he refused to convert.

He was killed in the fighting; Lapulapu refused to return his body. Only the Victoria, under Juan Sebastián Elcano, reached Spain in 1522 with some forty men, completing it.