INTRODUCTION.
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Cardinal Ximenes, who at that time governed Spain in the absence of Charles V., at the outset received Magellan very well, and Charles V. himself afterwards entrusted him with the command of a squadron of five vessels, which, as we know, sailed from San Lucar on the 20th of September, 1519, on a western passage in search of the Spice Islands or Moluccas. Two of the vessels of this fleet arrived on the 8th of November, 1521, at the island of Tidore, after having passed through the straits since called the Straits of Magellan. That navigator was now no more; he had been killed in one of the islands of the archipelago of St. Lazaro, since called the Philippines, and nearly all his squadron having been destroyed, one vessel only, named the Victoria, returned to Europe, with eighteen persons, all very sick, under the guidance of Sebastian del Cano, who landed on the 6th of September, 1522, at the same port of San Lucar de Barrameda, from which the fleet had set sail three years before.
Whether it was from policy, or because the currents which