Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/847

 MAGALHAENS Among his later works is Urania, a collection of love songs (Vienna, 1862). MAGALHAENS, or Magellan, Fernando, a Portu- guese navigator, believed to have been born in Oporto about 1470, killed at Mactan, one of the Philippine islands, April 27, 1521. En- tering the Portuguese navy at an early age, Tie served for five years in the East Indies under Albuquerque, and participated with distinction in the siege of Malacca in 1511. He withdrew about 1517 to Spain, where he persuaded Car- dinal Ximenes that the Moluccas, or Spice isl- ands, then a much coveted possession, might be reached by sailing westward, and thus be claimed by Spain in accordance with the com- pact between Spain and Portugal that all coun- tries discovered 180 west of the Azores should belong to Spain, while all that were discovered east of that line should be the property of Por- tugal. A fleet of five vessels of from 60 to 130 tons, manned by 236 persons, was accord- ingly equipped, and under the command of Magalhaens sailed from San Lucar, Sept. 20, 1519. Making the coast of Brazil, Jan. 12, 1520, he steered southward and entered the Plata river ; but finding that it was not a strait, he proceeded again to the southward as far as a harbor on the coast of Patagonia, lat. 49, which he called Port San Julian. While wintering here he repressed a conspiracy among the four other commanders of his squadron, who were Spaniards, and who hated him for being a Por- tuguese. Two of them were hanged, another was stabbed, and the fourth, with a priest, his accomplice, was turned out of the ship and abandoned to the mercies of the Patagonians. Magalhaens quitted Port San Julian in October, 1520, having first taken possession of the coun- try in the name of the king of Spain; and proceeding still southward, on Oct. 21, the day of St. Ursula, he entered the strait dividing the island of Tierra del Fuego from the con- tinent of America, which he called the strait of the Eleven Thousand Virgins, but which has ever since borne his name. On Nov. 28 the strait was cleared, and the fleet, now re- duced by the desertion of one ship and the loss of another to three vessels, put forth into the sea beyond, to which, on account of the smoothness of its waters, Magalhaens gave the name of Pacific. They sailed over this untrav- ersed ocean for three months and eight days, seeing no land but two sterile islands, and suf- fering from disease and want of food. On March 6, 1521, the fleet reached a group of islands, which, on account of the thievish pro- pensities of the natives, Magalhaens called the Ladrones, and on the 16th came in sight of Samar, one of the Philippine islands, which Magalhaens named the archipelago of San Lazaro. It is said that the natives of several islands were converted to Christianity by the efforts of Magalhaens. Wishing to extend the field of conversion and subjugation, he land- ed with 55 armed Spaniards upon the little island of Mactan, whose chieftain refused bap- MAGDALENA 841 tism. The islanders to the number of 1 500 opposed him with vigor, and Magalhaens, hav- ing exhausted his ammunition, commenced a retreat to his boats, in the course of which he was killed. The survivors gained the ships with difficulty, and the expedition, reduced to a single ship and 18 men, reached Spain (San Lucar) Sept. 6, 1522, under the guidance of Juan Sebastian Cano. This vessel, the Vito- ria, was the first to make the circuit of the globe. The voyage of Magalhaens from Spain to the Ladrones lasted 533 days ; and although he only made half the circuit of the earth, he had previously sailed from Europe to the east- ward as far as Malacca, and perhaps still fur- ther, and may be called the first circumnaviga- tor of the globe. See Burck's Magellan, oder die erste Seise um die Welt (Leipsic, 1844). MA6DALA. See ABYSSINIA. MAGDALEN ISLANDS (Fr. Isles de la Made- leine), a group in the gulf of St. Lawrence, be- longing to Gaspe co., Quebec, Canada; aggre- gate area, 86 sq. m. ; pop. in 1871, 3,172, of whom 2,833 were of French origin or descent. The principal islands are Coffin's (the largest), at the N. E. extremity of the group, 25 m. long and very narrow ; Grindstone and Allright, near the centre; and Amherst, at the S. W. extremity, 6 m. long and 3 m. wide. Gypsum, found on this island, is an important article of export. Though the soil of the islands is fer- tile and yields good returns, agriculture is neg- lected, and the fisheries are the chief depen- dence of the inhabitants. On Amherst island, which has the best harbor, there is a custom, house, and on its S. point (lat. 47 13' N., Ion. 61 58' W.) is a lighthouse, exhibiting a power- ful revolving light. About 20 schooners and 250 fishing boats belong to the islands. The value of the fisheries for the year ending June 30, 1872, was $126,541, the chief items of catch being 20,032 quintals of codfish, 1,172 barrels of mackerel, 2,956 of herring, 1,713 seals, 8,040 gallons of seal oil, 9,306 of cod oil, and 2,162 of whale oil. The value of imports was $10,830; of exports, $20,203; entrances, 25 ; clearances, 21. By grant from the British crown, the Magdalen islands are the property of a private individual. MAGDALENA, a maritime state of Colombia, bounded N. by the Caribbean sea, E. by Vene- zuela, S. by the state of Santander, and W. by Bolivar ; area, 26,950 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 85,- 255. The face of the country is pretty equally diversified with mountain and valley ; the E. chain of Colombia forms the boundary with Venezuela; and in the centre is the colossal Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, an insulated system visible from the sea, and commonly mistaken for the N. extremity of the Andes. The territory is watered by the Rio Magdalena and its tributaries, and the soil is fertile ; but the climate is so oppressively hot that the wa- ters of the rivers are continually lukewarm. Yellow fever is epidemic at most of the sea- ports, the principal of which is Santa Marta,