The author was not above bending—and sometimes breaking—the truth to suit his purposes. On pp. 208-09 he has the following to say about Dr. Frederick Cook:

During the “Belgica” expedition, Cook stayed comfortably at Harburton [sic, Harberton] while the rest of the ship's company went south, picking him up on their return.

In fact, Cook went to Antarctica with the Belgica and was credited by Roald Amundsen and other crew members with saving their lives when the ship became trapped in the ice. He did indeed visit Harberton before and after Antarctica, but certainly did not stay there while the others went south. As a close friend of the Bridges family, Barclay presumably knew very well the actual facts of the matter. Cook's former friend and later rival the explorer Robert E. Peary, the New York Times and others launched a smear campaign against Cook, and it's tempting to surmise that Barclay lied about the facts as part of that campaign.

The author's Terceira Década da Ásia, dos feitos que os portugueses fizeram no descobrimento dos mares e terras do Oriente was the third of his four volumes, to which Diogo de Couto subsequently added nine more. When the set was reprinted (1778-1788), the title was revised to Da Ásia de João de Barros … Decada Terceira, Parte Primeira. This volume is included here because it contains Magellan's “Order of the Day.” An English translation is in Stanley: The First Voyage … .

Byron—dubbed “Foul-Weather Jack” because his voyages were so often marked by awful weather—was the grandfather of Lord George Anson Byron, the poet.

According to Wikipedia, Correa lived ca. 1496-1563, and was in India from about 1512 until 1529. His eight-part Lendas da India (“Legends of India”), containing accounts of various Portuguese explorers, was first published some three centuries after his death, probably from his ca. 1550-1562 manuscript. See Stanley below for the English translation.

Publication date and partial list of explorers for each part are given in the list below.

• 1858: Tomo I: Vàsco de Gama, Cabral, Albuquerque, …
• 1859: Tomo I, Parte II
• 1860: Tomo II: Albuquerque, Soares, de Sequeira, …
• 1861: Tomo II, Parte II: (with account of Magellan voyage)
• 1862: Tomo III: Mascarenhas, de Sampayo, da Conha, …
• 1863: Tomo III, Parte II
• 1864: Tomo IV: de Noronha, Estevaō da Gama, de Sousa, …
• 1866: Tomo IV, Parte II

How Correa came to know of the Magellan voyage, which he includes in Tomo II, Parte II, is unknown. He had known Magellan in India before the expedition, and after returning to Portugal in 1529 may have spoken to surviving crew members. However, this part of his work is thought to have been written in about 1562, some forty years after the survivors reached Lisbon. The accounts may therefore have passed through several persons before reaching him, which may account from some of his errors, as noted by footnotes in the text.

The author was Fiddler & Boy to Poop Cabin when the Beagle began its voyage, became Darwin's servant in May, 1833, and remained in his service after the voyage. In his Journal, “Appendix A” is a list of Beagle crew members. However, the list is not the work of Covington himself, but was added later on, perhaps by someone at the University of Melbourne.

As noted on the Place Names page, the 1769 Cruz Cano y Olmedilla map is based on various relations, especialmente de las de Sarmiento, which explains the appearance on the chart of “C. de la Virgen Maria,” instead of Magellan's original “Cape of the 11,000 Virgins” as reported by Antonio Pigafetta. Later on, other cartographers used the chart as a source for their own work, but changed the cape name as in these two examples:

• 1775: Sayer & Bennett: Cape Virgins
• 1787: Schraembl: Cape Virgins (v. der Jungfrau Maria)

Both examples restore Magellan's “Virgins” (note plural) but omit the number. Perhaps to be on the safe side, Schraembl adds a parenthetical reference to the Virgin Mary. He also mis-spells “Olmedilla.”

All three charts are sequentially displayed via the link from each chart name, and the cartographer's name appears briefly at top center. The charts are followed by detail views of the cape area plus NASA satellite image for comparison, and then by the actual chart titles.

The author's “The Chart of Magellan” is a description of a ca. 1522 untitled chart of the Southern Hemisphere by Pedro Reinel, believed to be a copy of his earlier chart which Magellan may have taken on his voyage.

In an Imago Mundi reprint presented to naval historian Samuel Eliot Morison, Destombes has corrected the chart legend with two hand-written insertions, shown here in italics:

Chart of the Antarctic Attributed to Pedro Reinel and containing original record of the voyage of Magellan in the Atlantic. M. D.

Although the “… by Sir Francis Drake” on the title page may suggest that this is the name of the author, it is actually part of the title. Drakes's nephew, also named Francis, signed the book's brief dedication to Robert, Earl of Warwick, and may or may not have edited the text, which is mostly taken from the journal of the ship's chaplain, Francis Fletcher.

In 1831, The Royal Geographical Society published J. Gardner's engraved Chart in a paper by Phillip Parker King. In 1839, a slightly revised version was inserted between pages 462 & 463 in Volume 1 of FitzRoy et al; Narrative of the Surveying Voyages … . Darwin's hand-colored copy is from the 1831 edition.

The Detail view shows a significant error introduced in the 1839 edition. Note that San Sebastián bay has—for reasons unknown—been shifted southward about 25 miles, and its inner shore deleted. Less serious, a simple compass rose appears on the 1831 chart, but not on the 1839 chart. The legend at the bottom of each chart is as follows:

   1831: Published for the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society by John Murray, Albemarle Street, London, September 1831.
   1839: Published by Henry Colburn, Great Marlborough Street, 1839.

Regarding the misplaced position noted above, one possible clue is a notation seen just to the right of the bay: “No opening was seen here by Capt. Fitzroy …” The notation first appears on the 1831 chart, thus suggesting that FitzRoy's observation was made on the first Beagle survey. Yet the opening is clearly seen on the chart itself, and in fact FitzRoy gives convincing evidence that he did indeed see the bay: His Table of Latitudes … gives coordinates for locations on either side of the bay (see Cape San Sebastián). Surely he could not have plotted these and missed the 10-mile wide mouth of the bay separating them.

From this evidence, it seems possible that the “no opening was seen …” notation was the work of someone other than FitzRoy, and when the chart was prepared for the 1839 edition, yet another person read the notation and accordingly deleted the bay to agree with the text. This leaves unanswered the question of who re-did the bay to the south of its actual position, and why?

On another Gardner chart—The Strait of Magalhaens—included in the 1839 edition only, Sebastián Bay is correcly placed and the notation is lacking, thus adding to the puzzle over the 1839 error on the other chart.

The work is included here because it includes “The Famous Voyage of Sir Francis Drake into the South Sea …” which in turn includes a description of Drake's arrival at San Julián, and attributes that name to Magellan. The “Famous Voyage” is printed on six unpaginated leaves, inserted between pages 643 and 644 of the book. See the San Julián entry on the Placenames page for more details.

Byron's “Journal” was heavily edited by Sir John Hawkesworth when he compiled several voyage accounts in his An Account of the Voyages … in 1773.

Henslow's “Description…” is included here because one of his illustrations is the source for the opuntia sketch in the 1890 illustrated edition of Darwin's Journal of Researches.

For reasons unknown, translator Michael Kerney is identified on the title page only by his initials.

Philip Gidley King, the father of HMS Adventure's captain, Phillip Parker King, named his son in honor of the first governor of New South Wales, Arthur Phillip. The captain subsequently named his own son Philip, in honor of the captain's father. Hence the different spellings of the first name of the three generations.

In his introduction to the Hakluyt Society's Early Voyages …, editor Clements Markham notes (pp. 14-15) that after the return of Magellan's Victoria, the uncertainty about the fate of the Trinidad and the crewmen left at Tidore, “It was finally resolved to send another expedition to the Spice Islands, by way of the new strait.”

The account of this expedition contains 53 numbered “Instructions to the Comendador Loaysa” (pp. 31-38), two of which are reproduced here:

VI. The Captain General is not to adopt a course, or to take a new direction without first calling a Council meeting consisting of all the captains, pilots and masters of the fleet.

XIV. If unable to double the Cape of Good Hope (Que no pudiendo doblar el cabo de Buena Esperança … in original), or, having doubled it, the bad weather prevents a continuance of the voyage, so as to make it advisable to find a port for winter, a Council shall be summoned to select the safest harbour.

In the original Spanish (Herrera, Década Tercera, p. 275), the instructions are un-numbered and contained within a single paragraph. And in context, it would appear that the fleet was expected to sail eastward to Maluca, not westward through the Strait of Magellan as stated in Markham's introduction. The Spanish excerpt in parentheses shows that “Cape of Good Hope” was not an error introduced in translation. However, the accounts of de Urdaneta and de Uriarte make it clear that the fleet sailed westward through the Strait of Magellan, and that there was no Council meeting to discuss a change of direction. Markham offers no explanation for this apparent change of plans.

In his “Author's Foreword,” Mitchell comments on his subject's last name:

Over the correct form of Elcano's name, “de Elcano,” or “del cano” (sometimes “delcano”), controversy has been long and even impassioned. Those writers who adopt the latter form do so on the grounds that it is the one used by Juan Sebastian in signing both his will and his letter to the Emperor. [But] In 1873 the Geographical Society of Madrid stated that this form [“Elcano”] was the correct one.

Keeping in mind the above sample of Juan Sebastián's signature, and that Navarette also refers to him as “Del Cano,” this form of his name is followed here.

The de Nodal brothers were the first to report the existence of the San Sebastián Channel, connecting the modern Bahías Inutil and San Sebastián. The first edition is dated 1721, and the second is undated. Although the Hakluyt edition inserts the year 1766 on the translated title page, “Año đ 1769” is in the lower right-hand corner of the map inserted between pages 72 & 73 of the latter edition, and that date is used here as the publication date. Map engravers are:
1721: I (Jean) de Courbes
1769: Manuel de Rueda

Note: “Viaje” in 1721, “Viage” in 1769 titles.

The four known versions of Pigafetta's manuscript are summarized below, followed by a listing of a few printed editions.

Pigafetta Manuscripts
Number	Location	Language
24224 §	Paris: Bibliothèque Impérial	French
5,650
	New Haven, CT: Beinecke Library, Yale University
L. 103 Sup.	Milan: Ambrosian Library (popularly called the “Ambrosian” ms.)	Italian
§ The Hakluyt editor's Introduction assigns the number 68 to this ms.

Pigafetta Printed Editions
Year	Publisher	Title	Language
undated	Jacques Fabre	Le Voyage et Navigation, faict par les Espaignolz …	French
1536	unknown	(unknown title; translation of Fabre edition)	Italian
1625	Richard Wren	(unknown title)	English
1800	Amoretti	Primo viaggio intorno al globo terracqueo … dal caualiere Antonio Pigafetta.	Italian
1801	H. J. Jansen	(unknown title; translation of Amoretti edition)	French
1906	Arthur H. Clark	Magellan's Voyage Around the World	English & Italian
1969	Yale Univ. Press	Magellan's Voyage	English & French

James Burney printed a segment of Pigafetta's account of the San Julián incident, but does not identify his source, which was the Ambrosian ms. (see above manuscript table). The English translation of that segment (below) in the Clark 1905 edition is identical to Burney's, which suggests the former was copied from the latter.

Those conspirators consisted of the overseer of the fleet, one Johan de Cartagena, the treasurer, Alouise de Mendosa, the accountant, Anthonio Cocha, and Gaspar de Cazada. The overseer of the men having been quartered, the treasurer was killed by dagger blows, for the treason was discovered. Some days after that, Gaspar de Casada, was banished with a priest in that land of Patagonia. The captain-general did not wish to have him killed, because the emperor, Don Carlo, had appointed him captain.

Burney adds a footnote to his version of the above:

What is said by Pigafetta of Gaspard de Casada, should have been related of Juan de Cartagena.

In other words, de Casada was executed, while Cartagena was banished with the priest, as correctly stated in the three French mss. The error rules out the possibility that the Milan ms. is the work of Pigafetta himself, who surely would not have made such a blunder when writing in his own native language. It would therefore seem to have been written by someone who got the facts mixed up. The Hakluyt editor (Stanley of Alderly) makes no mention of this error, although—given his numerous footnotes referring to variations found within the Milan ms.—he was presumably quite familiar with it.

Nor does he reveal which of the three French mss. he used for his translation.

In Popper's lecture at the Argentine Geographical Institute, he spoke of the former existence of the San Sebastián Channel. See In Search of San Sebastián for an excerpt from his presentation.

In Ramusio's three-volume Delle Navigationi et Viaggi, only the recto pages are numbered; in vol. I, pp. 1-394. The modern recto page is therefore twice the printed number minus 1, or minus 2 for the facing verso page.

Publication dates are:

vol. I: 1550
vol. II: 1559
vol. III: 1556

Ramusio's work is often referred to as the “Ramusio Collection” or “Ramusio's collection of voyages” (or similar) and its actual title is not given.

The editor of Monumenta Cartographica (Dr. Frederik Caspar Wieder, Librarian of the University of Leiden) has interpreted a “PERISCH” legend on one of the globe gores as follows:

“If this word is divided into three parts, we get the meaning of it: PER I SCH, the I indicating Joannes, the SCH Schöner, i. e. per I. Schöner— by Johannes Schöner.”

However, the legend is in fact “PERISCII”—a word to describe “Those who live within a polar circle, whose shadows, during some summer days, will move entirely round, falling toward every point of the compass.” (Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary). The word appears directly below the Antarctic circle on the globe gore. In The Mapping of the World, editor R. A. Skelton writes:

“The craftsman-artist could well be from the school of Schöner, … The gores are tentatively dated c. 1535; they could be earlier but are unlikely to be as early as 1523-24 as stated by Wieder.”

The Wonderful Voyage is an English translation by “W. P.” (William Philip) of the original Dutch Journal ofte Beschryvinghe …. The identity of the actual author is unknown, but in referring to the passage named (at Le Maire's suggestion) as the Strait of Le Maire, the author wrote (p. 25) that “ … by good right it should rather have been called William Schouten's Strait.” In a pamphlet accompanying the facsimile edition, A. L. Rousen concludes (p. 20) that the book “… was evidently written by one on the side of Schouten.”

The author states the latitude but makes no attempt to estimate the longitude in many of the ship positions. Accordingly, in preparing the ship route in Google Earth, a straight line was drawn from one known location to the next such location (Tenerife to Cape Verde, for example). Then, the longitude of any point, or points, between these locations (in this example, the Tropic of Cancer) was noted in Google Earth and used to place an icon at that position.

In Titulo XXXI, Seixas describes la Canal de San Sebastian and states (folio 63) that “Desta Canal, aunque la hemos visto, no hemos estado en ella, y hemos sabido comunicando con algunos que la han Navegado en parte, que es fondable para embarcaciones de poco porte.” (“Of this canal, although we have seen it, we have not been in it, and we have reliable communications from others who have navigated it in part that it is fit for anchorage by vessels of small portage.”)

The First Voyage Round the World Introduction states that “This volume contains six contemporary accounts of Magellan's voyage … ” but gives only the vaguest references to his sources. The quotations which follow are taken from Stanley's Introduction. Additional details will be added as soon as possible.

1. The Genoese Pilot's Account of Magellan's Voyage
   • “Of this account, three manuscripts exist. From two of these MSS, a printed edition [title not given] was published in the Noticias Ultramarinas, No. II, by the Academy of History in Lisbon.”
   • The source for Stanley's claim that this is thought to be the account of the Genoese pilot Juan Bautista is unknown. The “Magellan Fleet Timeline page on this website shows that, according to Navarette, Bautista was the master, not the pilot, of the Trinidad. (See footnote at end of table for details.)
2. Narrative of the Anonymous Portuguese
   • This account is “taken from Ramusio.” In Ramusio's Delle Navigationi et Viaggi (“Navigations and Travels”), vol I, p. 370.
3. Pigafetta's Account of Magellan's Voyage
   • See Pigafetta: Magellan's Voyage for one of the three French manuscripts known to exist.
4. Magellan's Order of the Day in the Straits
   • The title page states “taken from Barros, Decade III, liv. v, Cap. 19 [sic, IX, pp. 640-642].” See Barros for details about the title. Probably not counted as one the “six contemporary accounts” by Stanley.
5. Letter of Maximilian, the Transylvan
   • “This has been translated from the Latin… .” A Spanish version, Relacion escrita por Maximiliano Transilvano… is in Navarette, vol. 4, pp. 249-284.
6. Log-Book of Francisco Alvo or Alvaro
   • “This log-book has been printed, in Navarette's collection, apparently from the British Museum MS.” The ms. is not identified, and the printed version is presumably that in Navarette, vol. 4, pp. 209-247.
7. Account of the Mutiny in Port St. Julian, and Gaspar Correa's Account of the Voyage
   • The Account of the Mutiny is in Navarette, vol. 3, Appendix XX, pp. 189-201.
   • The Hakluyt edition states that Correa's account is in his Lendas de India, tome [sic, tomo] II, cap. XIV. It is actually in Tomo II, Parte II, cap. XIV, pp. 625-634. See Correa for additional details about this work.
   • See also the notes at the top of the Correa page for details about the Hakluyt Society edition.

de la Torre's “Derrotero del viage …” comprises Appendix XIV in Navarrete: Coleccion de los Viages y Descubrimientos …, volume 5. A footnote on the first page (p. 241) of the Appendix states:

“In this relation is found a derrotero of the complete voyage from la Coruña to the isles of Maluco, with a very particular description of the Strait of Magellan and of the same the Isles of Maluco, written by the pilot Martin de Uriarte.”

The map by an unknown cartographer is popularly known as the “Turin Map” after its location in the Royal Library of Turin, Italy (Biblioteca Reale di Torino). Among other place names, the map detail view shows:

• Rio de Santiago: This was (re-)named Rio Santa Cruz on the Magellan expedition, and so presumably pre-dates that expedition. It also suggests the Magellan crew were unaware of the earlier name.
• Baya de San Giuli_: Despite the unclear and missing letters, the first five letters are enough to indicate the name is Guilian (or Guiliano). See the San Julián page for more details about this name.

The expedition to Maluco, 1525-1536, is generally known as the “Loaysa Expedition” after Garcia Jofre de Loaysa, the commander of the expedition. The ships were: Anunciada, Pataje, San Gabriel, San Lesmes, Santa Maria de la Victoria, Santa Maria del Parrel and Santi Spiritus. Martin de Uriarte, the pilot of one of the ships, provided a fairly detailed description of the passage through the Strait of Magellan, as part of Hernando de la Torre's “Derrotero …” (see de la Torre, above). Neither he nor the Hakluyt Society editor name the ship but since he subsequently witnessed the last will of Sebastián del Cano onboard the Victoria, presumably he was pilot of that ship.

van Walbeek's map shows “Windhonds Bay,” named after the Dutch Nassau Fleet ship Windhond [Dutch; Wind hond = greyhound] which visited the area during the first quarter of the 17th century. See “On the Locations ...” for details about Windhonds Bay on the southern coast of Tierra del Fuego.

Note: For reasons unknown, the bay's name is given in English instead of Dutch (“Wind Hond Baai”), and the English “Bay” appears at other locations on the map. Also, “Hoorn” is mis-spelled (“C. de Horen”), and the Spanish “Isla” rather than the Dutch “Eylandt” is abbreviated at “I. de Diego Ramires” [sic, Ramirez].

Waldseemüller's map seems to favor Portugal over Spain. As noted by Peter Dickson (p. 28), “… there is no sign of the demarcation line established by the Treaty of Tordesillas … [and] … the placement of that little Portuguese flag near the southern end of what we know today as Argentina was quite brazen in legal terms.”