User talk:Vicente C. de Jesus
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Magellan’s Circumnavigation
The notion Magellan was first to circumnavigate the globe stems from the argument that when in 1521 he reached Mactan in the Philippines at longitude 124°E he had overlapped by at least 6 degrees longitude his earlier visit to Banda in 1511 at 130°E.
The flaw in this assertion is that there is no evidence Magellan ever reached Banda. No firsthand account mentions Magellan having reached Banda or Ambon, at longitude 124°E, as member of the expedition under Antonio d’Abreu. In The Suma Oriental of Tomé Pires (2 vols., London, Hakluyt Society, 1955), his name is not mentioned as having been with Abreu who commanded Santa Catarina and Francisco Serrão, captain of Sabaia.
Samuel Eliot Morison states Magellan commanded the third ship, a caravel(The European Discovery of America, The Southern Voyages 1492-1616, New York, Oxford University Press, 1974, p. 317). He cites no authority. A note in F.H.H. Guillemard's biography of Magellan, page 67, Damião de Góes and Gaspar Corrêa states the third vessel in the Abreu expedition was commanded by Simão Afonso Besagudo. The farthest this notion, that Magellan commanded the third ship, can be traced is to Bartolome Juan de Leonardo y Argensola, a 17th century Spanish historian who asserts the notion on his own authority.
This myth has acquired the patina of truth through countless repetition without regard as to sources and its veracity.