over the edge of the world

Right now, I’m reading Laurence Bergreen’s Over the Edge of the World about Magellan’s circumnavigation of the globe. I bought this book because, well, I know basically nothing about it or him and I just thought I ‘d change that.

Here’s just a bit of what he was up against before he even set sail:

Magellan was Portuguese, of course, but when Portugal’s King Manuel wouldn’t authorize such a massive expedition, Magellan left his home country to plead his case to Spain, Portugal’s bitter rival for control of the seas and trading routes. There, he received royal approval for his voyage — which was good — BUT he was hated by the Spaniards because he was Portuguese — which was bad. Once the King of Portugal heard of the impending journey, Magellan was deemed a traitor. To make his humiliation public, vandals were sent to his estate where they tore down gates and covered the Magellan coat of arms in excrement. Even very distant family members were objects of scorn, sometimes beaten, sometimes stoned. Many others, fearing for their lives, were forced to flee the country.

Just weeks before departure, the head of the Spanish House of Commerce removed Magellan’s Portuguese partner from his position citing “unstable condition” and replaced him with with one of his own inspectors general. The replacement — a man with no seafaring experience whatsoever — was given status virtually equal to Magellan’s, thereby stifling his full authority while simultaneously enabling the Spanish government to keep a watchful eye on this navigator from the hated Portugal.

Oh, and did I mention that the remainder of his crew consisted of Spanish and Castilian and Portuguese sailors — men whose animosities were long-standing and deep? I mean, nothing says “communal bliss” better than close quarters and white hot hate.

And did I mention that just he was loading the final provisions for his ships, Magellan received a secret communique that his Castilian captains were planning to mutiny at the very first opportunity? Even to kill Magellan?

AND that just as the ships set sail, the King of Portugal sent two fleets of ships in pursuit of Magellan — to arrest him?

To top that off, Magellan was deliberately sailing into the unknown, away from a society rife with superstitions about the world at large, all for the pursuit of the truth. This was a radical notion for the time, this empirical approach to discovery. The myths that circulated about what was “out there” were beloved, believed, sacred even, and yet in the face of that, Magellan’s stubborn stubborn vision was I will go see for myself.

Here’s a passage where Bergreen uses quotes from Pliny the Elder’s influential, encyclopedic tome Natural History to illustrate the kinds of things people believed in Magellan’s day:

He (Pliny) wrote of a tribe known as the Arimaspi, “a people known for having one eye in the middle of the forehead.” Herodotus related tales of a “continual battle between the Arimaspi and the griffins in the vicinity of the latter’s mines. The griffin is a type of wild beast with wings, as is commonly reported, which digs gold out of the tunnels. The griffins guard the gold and the Arimaspi try to seize it, each with remarkable greed.” …… Pliny also included curious descriptions of “forest dwellers who have their feet turned back behind their leg; they run with extraordinary speed and wander far and wide with the animals.” India offered particularly fertile ground for extraordinary creatures. Pliny evoked “men with dog’s heads who are covered with wild beasts’ skins; they bark instead of speaking and live by hunting and fowling, for which they use their nails.”

Pliny assured his readers that wonders never ceased in the natural world; the result of his labors was a Ripley’s Believe-It-or-Not catalog tinged with classics. “That women have changed into men is not a myth,” he wrote. “We find in historical records that a girl at Casinum became a boy before her parents’ very eyes.” He claimed that people in Eastern Europe had two sets of eyes, backward-facing heads, or no heads at all. In Africa, Pliny wrote, lived people who combined both sexes in one body, yet managed to reproduce; people who survived without eating; people with ears large enough to blanket their entire bodies; and people with equine feet. In India, he said, there were people with six hands. These marvelous accounts were later retold by various respected chroniclers and widely credited up through Magellan’s time.

I’m not that far into it, but LAWDY, Magellan! I’m astonished already!

(More Magellan updates to come ….)