At length, when all the preparations were completed, on the 10th of August, 1519, six ships, no one of which exceeded 130 tons, and some of them being less than half that size, sailed from the port of San Lucan de Barrameda on this bold and perilous enterprise.
In the prosecution of their voyage, many obstacles were encountered; but everything disappeared before the ardour of their chief, who, discovering, passed through the Straits of Magellan, which alone immortalize his name, and spreading his sails to the gale, stood boldly with his squadron, now reduced to three crazy vessels, into the unknown and vast ocean which lay open before him, with all the hardihood characteristic of his time, traversing in its utmost breadth the Pacific, without, however, chancing to meet with any of the numerous islands now scattered throughout its extent. At last, the Mariana or Ladrone Islands were descried on the 16th of August, 1521, and a few days afterwards a cape on the east coast of Mindanao was seen.
Coasting along the shores of Caraga, the ships anchored off Limasna, where Magallanes was well received by the natives of the place; from thence steering towards Cebu, he managed to establish a good understanding with the country people, although upwards of two thousand of them had assembled, armed with spears and javelins, to oppose his landing.
Having constructed a house at this place, in order that mass might be decently said, he landed to hear it, accompanied by his crews.
The royal family of Cebu, curious to observe the manners of their strange visitors, attended its celebration, and, as the story goes, were so much edified by the sight, that they were baptized Christians, and an oath of allegiance and vassalage to the King of Spain administered to them; and their example being followed to a great extent by the nobles and people of Cebu, the Christian forms of faith and the symbolic cross were planted by the Spaniards in the country of the antipodes.
Some time afterwards, Magallanes met the end which best becomes a brave and good soldier, by dying in the battle-field in the cause of his new friends and allies.
But without his master-mind to direct them, things no longer went on so smoothly between the Spaniards and the natives; and under his successor, the hostile feelings then given birth to, soon found a tragical vent, which resulted in a number of the white men being cruelly massacred by their Indian hosts, and in the flight of their companions, who, fearful of their own safety, made all sail on their ships, and bore away, leaving their unfortunate countrymen to their fate, without attempting and even refusing to ransom such of them whose lives were spared, from having been less obnoxious to the Indians than the others. This fatal accident left the surviving crews so much weakened in numerical strength, that not having men enough left to work all the ships, the "Concepcion" was set fire to, and the survivors steered towards the Moluccas.