Year 1520 - Discover Chile, through the Strait of Magellan
- Pedro Moreno Mella
- Feb 3, 2025
- 5 min read
The history of Chile begins in the far south. Searching for the route to the Indies by the western route, through the South Sea, which was first seen by Vasco Núñez de Balboa, the Portuguese Hernando de Magallanes reached the strait that today bears his name. He thus discovered the first Chilean lands, present-day Cape Dungenes and Tierra del Fuego.
King Charles V of Spain was determined to reach the spice islands before anyone else in search of wealth, when he came across the Portuguese navigator Hernando de Magallanes to offer his services. The King gave him command of a fleet of five ships, which were called “Trinidad”, “San Antonio”, “Concepción”, “Victoria” and the “Santiago”.
The ships reached the Atlantic coast and bad weather forced them to spend the winter in San Julián (Argentina). A mutiny broke out in this bay. Magellan punished the ringleaders and continued south. The "Santiago" was shipwrecked in front of the Santa Cruz River (Argentina).
*** INFORMATION. Check the program for the trip to the Strait
*** Here is the next YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQxNHIpice4&t=492s
Article: Mutiny against Magellan in San Julian (Argentina)
According to Pigafetta (a clerk on board the ship Victoria): "We arrived (31.03.1520) at 49½ degrees south latitude, where we found a good harbour, and as winter was approaching, we thought it best to spend the bad season there." Faced with extreme cold and a shortage of provisions after six months of voyage, Magellan decided at the end of March to reduce the food rations for the crew and to build warehouses on land for provisions. By fishing and hunting in the coastal area he hoped to obtain enough food to return soon.
Once anchored in San Julián, several officers and representatives of the King demanded that their captain cease his advance, considering the expedition to be a failure and that it was impossible to find a passage to the South Sea under these conditions. This group of opponents included Gaspar de Quesada , captain of the ship Concepción, Luis de Mendoza , captain of the ship Victoria, Antonio de Coca , the fleet's accountant, and Juan de Cartagena , an inspector whom the King had placed at the same level of command as Magellan, as well as Juan Sebastián Elcano , a complete unknown who, during the subsequent mutiny, took over the captaincy of the ship San Antonio.
Magellan invited all the captains, officers and pilots to attend mass at an improvised altar on land and then to eat. None of the royal officers were present. Magellan turned a deaf ear to the complaints of this group who had complained since leaving Spain about the hermeticism and lack of dialogue of the naturalized Castilian captain. They complained, among other things, that Magellan had failed to comply with Article 3 of the Instruction received from the Emperor and had neither given his subordinates the letters prepared for the voyage nor shown them the route to follow.
On Palm Sunday, April 1, 1520, Magellan invited all the captains, officers, and pilots to hear mass at an improvised altar on land and then to eat. Only the accountant Antonio de Coca and Álvaro de la Mezquita , Magellan's nephew and captain of the San Antonio, attended the liturgical celebration. The rest of the officers were too busy finalizing a mutiny.
An unequal war
Juan de Cartagena did not attend the celebrations and in the early hours of the following morning the mutineers broke out. Under cover of darkness, Cartagena and Quesada sailed with thirty men from the Concepción to the San Antonio to arrest Mezquita. Juan de Elorriaga, the ship's master, received four stab wounds in the arm and died as he came to the defence of his captain. The mutineers took control of three of the five ships and sent a message to Magellan to demand that he comply with the King's provisions.
Antonio de Coca seized the weapons of Magellan's supporters on the San Antonio and gave command of the ship to the unknown Juan Sebastián Elcano. Despite the seriousness of his situation, Magellan managed to remain calm. Taking advantage of the fact that his enemies could not go out to sea and seeing that he only had the Trinidad, where he was embarked, and the Santiago, he sent a skiff with five armed men to deliver a supposed letter of surrender to Mendoza.
The Victoria, captained by Mendoza, was anchored in the innermost part of the bay. This gave Magellan a golden opportunity. While Mendoza was reading the letter, the messengers on the skiff stabbed the Castilian and helped another boat to attack the ship. The Concepción, of Gaspar de Quesada, fell into the trap of following the course of the Victoria, not knowing that Mendoza was dead. Too late, it realized that it was in the middle of a three-on-two battle.
Quesada advanced against the three ships loyal to Magellan, anchored downriver from his position, and was suddenly met with all their artillery fire. Although his men swore to resist "until death", the Concepción was easily taken and the San Antonio later surrendered, finding itself outnumbered.
A repression incompatible with adventure
Magellan's revenge was disproportionate and compromised the future of an expedition that was already quite decimated: 40 men were sentenced to death without any trial (of course, if there was one, there is no documentary evidence) and a large part of the main commanders were replaced by Portuguese and Magellan's relatives. Nevertheless, the sentence was pardoned, including that imposed on Sebastian Elcano , except in the case of the ringleaders.
Luis de Mendoza and Gaspar de Quesada were beheaded and quartered. Their bodies were put on a gallows to rot for five months in southern Argentina, waiting for the southern winter to pass, as a constant reminder that no one could challenge Magellan. The fact that they were officers appointed directly by the King raises the question that, had he survived the epic, Magellan would probably have faced an investigation in Spain.
The cleric Pedro Sánchez de la Reina and Juan de Cartagena were condemned to exile on April 7, 1520, and abandoned on the coast of Patagonia . His status as a grandee of Spain saved Cartagena from execution, although he was abandoned on an islet "with two bags of biscuits and two bottles of wine," which was equivalent to a sentence of slow and merciless death.
The sentence was pardoned, including the one against Elcano, except in the case of the ringleaders.
Despite the bad weather, Magellan decided to stay in Puerto de San Julián for 147 days. During this period, the loss of the ship Santiago occurred, which had been sent to explore further south while the others remained in Puerto de San Julián. Two survivors of the stranded ship made a difficult journey from Puerto de Santa Cruz, where the Santiago sank, to Puerto Español, so that at least the belongings and most of the crew saved their lives.
Once the crew was saved, they continued their journey and on November 1st they discovered the Strait of Magellan. Another ship, the "San Antonio", deserted and returned to Spain, and the Portuguese navigator continued his journey until he reached the South Sea, which he named the Pacific Ocean .
On October 20, 1520, Magellan discovered the eastern entrance to the strait from the Atlantic Ocean and sent a reconnaissance ship to verify that it was really a sea entrance and not a river as had happened with the Rio de la Plata, further north in Argentina. On November 1, he entered the strait and named it the Strait of All Saints, later renamed the Strait of Magellan.
It took him several weeks to find his way out to the Pacific Ocean, but he managed to do so at the end of November...
**** INFORMATION. Check out the program on the formation of the strait at the following YouTube link: https://youtu.be/tcSlei6F6wE
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