Ferdinand Magellan Quotes
Explorer
Ferdinand Magellan was explorer from PT
“The church says the earth is flat, but I have seen its shadow on the moon, and I have more faith in a shadow than in the church.”— Ferdinand Magellan
This quote is widely attributed to Magellan though scholars debate its exact origin. It reflects his defiance of accepted wisdom and his trust in direct observation over authority. Magellan staked his career, his citizenship, and his life on the belief that a westward route to Asia existed, against the advice of nearly everyone around him.
The Story of Ferdinand
He died before he finished but the world changed anyway
Magellan reached the Philippines in March 1521. He converted the ruler of Cebu to Christianity and got involved in a local conflict. On April 27, 1521, he led a small force against the warriors of Mactan and was killed on the beach. He was 41 years old. He never completed the circumnavigation. But his crew did. Juan Sebastian Elcano took command of the last surviving ship, the Victoria, and sailed west across the Indian Ocean, around Africa, and back to Spain. Of the roughly 270 men who left in 1519, only 18 returned in September 1522. They had completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth. Magellan had proven that the world was round and connected by a single ocean. The voyage changed geography, trade, and how humans understood the size of the planet they lived on.
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