Magellan's Voyage: Part 4 - Giants and Virgins

After the mutiny the voyagers found themselves in a difficult predicament. Mainly, they had no idea how to get across to the Pacific. At the moment, they were near the southern tip of South America, waiting out the winter until they could get back to sailing again. For a long stretch they didn't see anyone. Close to two months went by without another soul from outside the people they came with.

A depiction of the Patagonian giants and
a European. The Patagonians were immediately
drafted into the NBA upon discovery.

That's one of the forgotten, pushed-aside parts of these incredible adventures; at the core, what they deal the most with is boredom. Two months of sitting around, waiting for the cold to pass.

Until they found a giant, that is. Towards the end of the winter they stumbled upon a very large native dancing nearby. Naturally, the immediate response was to go to him and start an impromptu dance party, and the Europeans and the dancing giant quickly became friends. While the size of these people (later figured to be the Tehuelche tribe in Patagonia) was greatly exaggerated by Magellan and his team, they certainly were huge by any standard. Six-foot tall and augmented by clothing and footwear that made them appear larger, they towered over the Europeans.

This giant man got along with Magellan's for a while. They gave him plenty of gifts, and when he returned a few days later they baptized him. They named him John. John, the Patagonian giant. Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse after a while. The Europeans stumbled upon a few caches of weapons stored nearby and they assumed the worst, the giant being perhaps not of the gentle or the jolly variety. This group likely had met Europeans before and, while John was certainly treated well until now, perhaps they didn't have all that great of a run in with a prior bunch. As a precaution the sailors captured a few of them and brought them back to the boats, but one managed to get away and return to

Meanwhile, this is how I picture Cartagena
and the priest, still on the island.

 his people. The next day, the natives jumped out from behind trees and fired a volley of arrows at the Europeans, killing one. They didn't see the Patagonians ever again. And it all started so well...

But that was all forgotten once the winter passed as they could set sail again. Life was cheap back then and dwelling on the dead seemed like it never was in style. Late August rolled around and they were off, searching amongst a series of small rivers that encompass much of the landscape of the southern part of present day Argentina and Chile. It would take them months but they finally found a way through, a river path that looked at the very least quite promising on October 21st. To navigate it properly they would send boats periodically further ahead and scout the rivers, and in the process in doing it they sent one in too shallow of water. The resulting risk cost them a ship, bringing them down to four. Fortunately, they managed to get the men back to the boats after eleven days of separation.

The risks were clear. To push through the strait would mean a very real possibility of being lost, stranded, or shipwrecked, and the thought of packing up and going home was front row centre in the minds of many of the crew. One such man, Estevao Gomes, was at the forefront of that argument.

The Strait of Magellan was originally called
the Cape of Eleven Thousand Virgins.
They changed the name to The Straight
of Magellan was the original was a bit
of a misnomer. Ten thousand, max. Even
with rounding.

Once they found the strait he thought they could mark where it was, return to Spain, and eventually make a return trip. It's important to note that Gomes was actually slated for captainship of the voyage, but Magellan stepped in with better connections last second and took the prize from him. Surely, there was a little bad blood between the two to make things a little nastier.

Regardless of the dissension in the ranks, Magellan pushed forward. In a truly incredible feat of navigation, they managed to find their way through the twisting paths of rivers (and even tributaries!) and emerged on the other side. In the process, Gomes' boat got separated. Seeing his chance, he got all the men wishing to leave (must not have been too hard to convince them) and overpowered the loyalists, deciding to sail back home through the path they came. So off they went, with one of the boats, a bunch of the crew, and the information that Magellan abandoned Cartagena on an island somewhere with a priest, killed a bunch of the crew, tortured others, and sent the rest of the men on a doomed voyage west. At least that's how they'd sell it... but they're also the ones telling the story first.

On Magellan's end, it was a mixed bag once they got through to the Pacific. Finding their way through was an incredible task he completed through no lack of talent. That's the good news. The bad was a little heavier. They stood at 200 of the original 260 men and were down to three of the five original vessels. The food supply was dwindling, the morale of the crew was spotty at best, they had already survived a run of mutinies, albeit barely...

Oh, and they were looking out at the largest body of water in the world.