PREVIEW： Epochs #224 ｜ Magellan - Part V
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Summary
In this episode of Epochs, I continue the story of the Great Mutiny at Port St. Julian, and look at the events leading up to it. I read from Lawrence Burgreen's Over the Edge of the World, a book about Magellan's first circumnavigation of the globe.
Transcript
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Hello and welcome back to another episode of Epochs, where I shall be continuing the story,
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the narrative all about Magellan's terrifying circumnavigation of the globe. If you remember
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last time we left off, I was just about to tell you the story of the great mutiny at Port St. Julian.
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Remember that? It was the winter in the Southern Hemisphere, so the summer months for us in the
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Northern Hemisphere, but it's actually winter down there because they're off to the coast of Argentina,
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essentially. So the weather's so bad, there's so many storms, terrible, terrible storms, that their
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tiny little wooden ships just will get battered to pieces eventually. So they have to winter,
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in inverted commas, in a safe harbour or a safe inlet. And Magellan, the scientists found one,
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they call it, Port St. Julian. And it's over those winter months that there is a mutiny, or the main
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big mutiny. And this is one of the set-piece moments in the three-year voyage, one of the really big
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events. If you have just a 10 or a 15-minute overview of Magellan's voyage, this will get
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mentioned. Okay, so it's a big thing. If you remember before, earlier in the voyage,
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there had been a type of aborted mutiny. Shortly after they left, some of the other captains,
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some of the Castilian, Spanish captains, were unhappy with Magellan, and they started being a
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bit insubordinate. But it never really turned into a full mutiny, and Magellan sort of quashed it.
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And yeah, it never became a full thing. But here, it does. So we'll get into that.
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Um, I'm going to be reading from, uh, Lawrence Burgreen's Over the Edge of the World, once again,
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because it is one of the very, very best books, and goes into loads of detail. So, um,
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and it's well written. So I like it. All right, let's pick up the, uh, let's pick up the narrative.
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Anticipating a long, drooling winter in Port St. Julian, Magellan placed his crew on short rations,
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i.e. giving them less food, which never goes down well. You know, they're living an extremely harsh
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life, as it is already. And the only thing they've really got to look forward to in any way is, is the
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crappy food they're given. So to even put them on short rations, to even ration that, that one thing,
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we're told again and again and again that that's what made, one of the main reasons that made the normal,
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average sailor, extremely unhappy. Uh, but Magellan wouldn't have done it for no reason. He obviously
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felt like he needed to. He's not like, he's not that cruel and unusual. He's not deliberately
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sadistic for no reason. He wouldn't, he wouldn't want to undermine his own authority like that for
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no reason. So he obviously felt he needed to do it. Nonetheless, it's extremely unpopular. Even
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though the ships groaned with the butchered meat of geese and, quote, sea wolves, you know,
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these geese, penguins, almost certainly penguins, we think, and the sea wolves,
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some type of walrus, it seems. So they had, they had geese and sea wolves and fish. Fish abounded
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in the harbour. Nonetheless, Magellan puts them on short rations. As I say, he must have felt he
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needed to do that. But the men aren't happy. We're told, after the unbroken succession of
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life-threatening ordeals they had faced over the previous seven weeks, the seamen expected to be
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rewarded for their courage and perseverance. Not punished. See, they saw it as a punishment.
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Outraged by the rationing, they turned insubordinate. Some insisted that they return
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to full rations, while others demanded that the fleet, or some part of it, sail back to Spain.
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So that's quite serious. If people are even murmuring that they should sail back to Spain,
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well, that's really bad. That can and did or could undermine the whole thing. Wouldn't talk like that.
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Nobody would talk like that if they were, you know, completely on board within their own minds,
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within their own soul. If they were on board with the project of getting to the Spice Islands,
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or at least rounding South America, or finding a strait through South America. It just seems it's
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sort of undeniable, isn't it? That some men, a fair few of the men, they're not up for this.
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They're not truly, truly up for it. Which is a worry, isn't it? Green continues saying,
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they did not believe the strait existed. They had tried again and again to find it, risking death,
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while coming up against one dead end after another. If they kept going, they argued,
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they would eventually perish in one of the cataclysmic storms afflicting the region,
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or simply fall off the edge of the world when the coastline finally ended. Surely King Charles did
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not mean for them all to die in the attempt to find a water route to the Spice Islands. Surely human
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life had some value. Magellan obstinately reminded them that they must obey their royal commission,
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and follow the coastline wherever it led. The king had ordered this voyage, and Magellan would
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persist until he reached land's end, or find the strait. How astounded he was to see bold Spaniards
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so faint-hearted, or so he said. As far as their provisions were concerned, they had plenty of wood
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here in Port St. Julian, abundant fish, fresh water and fowl. Their ships still had adequate stores of
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biscuit and wine, if they observed rationing. Consider the Portuguese navigators, he exulted them,
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who had passed 12 degrees beyond the Tropic of Capricorn without any difficulty, and here they
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were, two full degrees above it. What kind of sailors were they? Magellan insisted he would
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rather die than return to Spain in shame, and he urged them to wait patiently until winter was over.
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Yeah, Magellan couldn't really return without having done a lot more than what he's done so far.
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The idea that he would get, you know, a bit of the way down the Argentinian coastline,
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and then turn back, it's sort of not good enough. He would certainly be in trouble if he did that.
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There would be some sort of investigation or inquiry, some sort of commission to find out,
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and everyone questioned, to find out exactly what was done. And if during that investigation it was
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found that Magellan had got this far, and then there was a few murmurings from the men,
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so he just turned around and left, that wouldn't be good enough. He'd be failing in his orders if he did
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that. So for Magellan, there's just no question. And as we go further in the story, we'll see that
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Magellan's will to carry on is, you know, basically cast iron. In much, much more hazardous, much,
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much more perilous straits than this, he still refuses to turn around and go back. So the idea
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that he might turn around and go back at this stage, no, no, no, no, that would be humiliating and
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perhaps even dangerous for him. You know, goes back to Spain, he might get tortured for that,
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or even perhaps executed. Certainly his entire reputation would be ruined. Certainly he would
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never get to be the captain of an armada or a ship ever again, you would think. So it's a no
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from Magellan. The more they suffered, the greater reward they might expect from King Childs,
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Magellan argued. They should not question the king, he advised, but discover a world not yet known,
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filled with gold and spices to enrich them all. This eloquent speech to the vacillating crew members
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brought Magellan a few days' respite, but only a few. His stern words had confirmed their worst fears
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about his behaviour and his do-or-die fanaticism. See, some see it as not just following your orders,
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but you're being fanatical about it. That's what a lot of the guys on the voyage that survived said
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of him, that he was a fanatic. You can make up your own mind on that once you've heard the whole
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story, but I don't think you... Certainly at this stage, this decision-making tree at this point,
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it's not fanatical. It's just having the courage of your convictions. It's just, you know, not giving
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up needlessly. It would be sort of giving up almost needlessly if they did turn around at this stage.
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Okay. Bergerine says, on the most basic level, they believed he considered their lives expendable.
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In the following days, the men began to bicker. National prejudices suddenly flashed like well-oiled
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swords drawn from scabbards to cut and slash, usually at Magellan himself. Once again, the Castilians
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argued that Magellan's insistence that he intended to find the straight or die was proof that he
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intended to subvert the entire expedition and get them all killed in the process. All this talk of
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glorifying King Charles, they felt, was merely a stratagem to trick them into going along with
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Magellan's suicidal scheme. Anyone doubting Magellan's intention to subvert the expedition had only to
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examine the course they had been following. Southward, ever southward, into the eternal cold,
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whereas the Spice Islands and the Indies lay to the west. It was warm and sunny and where luxury
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surely abounded. In the midst of this turmoil, the officers and crew observed the holiest day of
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the year, Easter Sunday, April the 1st. Yeah, one thing to mention, if people might not know,
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in the medieval world, the late antiquity, Easter is much more important, much more religious than
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Christmas. You know, in our day and age, or certainly in England, where I was raised,
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Christmas is much more important. If anyone who doesn't particularly go to church, if you're ever
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likely to go to church, you'll be much more likely for a Christmas mass than Easter. But, you know,
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for those that are religious will already know this. Those people will know that Easter is much more
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important. Obviously, the resurrection of Christ rather than his birth. And this was certainly the
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case in the 17th century. If you're Castilian or Portuguese or European at all, Easter is the big one.
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Easter, not Christmas. At this moment, Magellan had one paramount concern. Who was loyal to him
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and who was not? With a sufficient number of loyal crew members, he would be able to withstand this
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latest and most serious challenge to his authority. Without them, he might be imprisoned, impaled on a
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halbard, or even hanged from a yard arm by hell-bent mutineers. To assess the extent of danger he faced,
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he carefully interviewed each member of the crew. With sweet words and big promises, Jean de Maffra recalled,
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Magellan told them the other captains were plotting against him and he asked them to advise him what
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to do. So he's got his one, he's got his ship, the Trinidad. There's four other ships. Some seems like
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they might be loyal to him, some seem like they might not. So Magellan's making sure that all the
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men aboard his ship, the flagship Trinidad, are completely loyal first and foremost, right? Because
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if he hasn't got their backing, then it's probably all over already. So where these sweet words and big
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promises, that was to his own crew, a bull Trinidad, right? And he's telling them that he's got,
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he's heard that some of the other ships, a captain by Spaniards or Castilians anyway, that they might
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not be loyal and have they got his back. They replied that their only advice was that they were
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willing to do as he commanded. Magellan openly told the crew that the conspirators had resolved to kill
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him on Easter day while he attended mass ashore, but that he would feign ignorance and go to mass all
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the same. This he did and secretly armed, went to a small sandy islet where a small house had been
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built to accommodate the ceremony. So quite brave of Magellan to sort of do that, sort of deliberately
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put himself in danger, effectively. Bergreen now. Magellan expected to see all four captains at Easter
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mass, but only one, Louis de Mendoza of Victoria, arrived. The air crackled with tension. Both conversed,
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Demafra says, concealing their emotions under blank countenances, and attended mass together.
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At the end of the ceremony, Magellan pointedly asked Mendoza why the other captains had defied
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his orders and failed to attend. Mendoza replied, lamely, that perhaps the others were ill. Still
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feigning bon ami, you know, that he's happy. Magellan invited Mendoza to dine at the Captain General's
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table, a gesture that would force him to proclaim his loyalty to Magellan. But Mendoza coolly declined the
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request. Magellan appeared unfazed by Mendoza's insubordination, but the Captain General now knew
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that Mendoza was a conspirator. Mendoza returned to Victoria, where he and the other captains
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resumed plotting against Magellan, sending messages by longboat from one ship to another. So, you know,
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straight away, this is quite serious, this mutiny. You know, it doesn't sort of, seems like anyway,
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from the accounts we've got, a few accounts, it didn't sort of build up slowly, although you can
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imagine that the reality of it sort of did over weeks. By the time they're at St. Julian and the
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rations are cut, it seems like it's in full swing sort of right away. Again, the real, real reality is
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that these things would ramp up over many days or weeks. But by this stage, it's sort of, it's in
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full swing, basically, isn't it? After mass, only Magellan's cousin, Alvaro de Masquita, the recently
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appointed captain of San Antonio, came aboard Trinidad to dine at the Captain General's table.
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Magellan realised that the empty chairs made for an ominous sign. At the moment, Magellan capitalised
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on a piece of luck. The longboat belonging to Concepcion's captain, Gaspar de Cuesada,
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lost its way in the strong current while ferrying conspiratorial messages between the rebel ships and,
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to the dismay of the men aboard, found itself drifting helplessly towards the flagship and Magellan
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himself, the one individual they did not want to encounter at that moment. To their surprise,
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the crew of Trinidad, at Magellan's direction, rescued them from the runaway longboat. Even
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more amazing, Magellan welcomed them aboard the flagship and provided them with a lavish
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meal, which included plenty of wine. At dinner, the band of would-be mutineers drank a great
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deal and decided that they had nothing to fear from the Captain General after all. They even
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revealed the existence of the plot to Magellan. They confided that if the plot succeeded, he
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would be captured and killed that very night. That's an odd thing, isn't it, that these
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men decided to do that. Perhaps their heart wasn't particularly in the mutiny either. People
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have poured over this mutiny, exactly what was going on. A lot of the men's hearts obviously
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weren't in the mission to begin with, otherwise there wouldn't have been any sort of mutiny.
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But then it seems like the mutineers, a lot of them, their heart wasn't in that either.
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Because if you're going to do something like this, it's got to be all or nothing. It's got
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to be a hundred percent if you're going to pull off a successful mutiny. So it seems
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like at least that one rescued longboat of sailors from Concepcion, it seems like they
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weren't necessarily a hundred percent on board with the mutiny. It is odd to see what's going
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on, the way this mutiny plays out and it ebbs and flows.
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Hearing this, Magellan lost all interest in his visitors and busied himself readying the
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flagship against attack. Once again, he questioned his crew to see who was loyal to him and who was
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not, and satisfied that Trinidad's men would take his side when the mutiny inevitably erupted,
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awaited the inevitable assault. So he's waiting to be attacked by his own men. It's very serious
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very quickly, it's seen, isn't it? That's the impression we get, whether that was how it really,
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really played out in reality. We don't know. Pigafetta, the main chronicler, says very little
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about all of this because he's an extremely pro-Magellan man, extremely, a hundred percent
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loyalist to Magellan. And this whole episode doesn't make Magellan look good. One, that there
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would be a mutiny in the first place. That speaks volumes about your leadership. If you were a good,
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solid, strong, loved, adored leader, there would never, ever be a mutiny. Then, as you'll find out,
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the way Magellan ultimately deals with it all also doesn't make Magellan put him in the best
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possible light, shall we say. So Pigafetta decides to say very, very, very little about it all. So we
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have to get the details from some of the other sources, a few of the other men that survived,
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and what they said about it. Berggren continues,
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Late that night, Conception stirred with wrath. The captain, Cuesada, lowered himself into a long
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boat and quietly made his way to San Antonio. He was joined there in the dark water lapping at the
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ship's hole by Juan de Cartagena, former captain, bishop's unacknowledged son and frustrated mutineer.
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Juan Sebastian Elcano, a veteran Basque mariner who served as Conception's master and a corps of 30
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armed seamen. So just to say, during this episode, there'll be a fair few names. I introduced you to
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a few of them in, I think, episode one or two. So I hope you can sort of keep in mind who's who.
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Usually we're reminded if someone's a captain or something. One person there, or two people,
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actually, that we must mention, there's a Carter Jenner, Juan de Cartagena. He was the one that sort
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of thought that his authority was sort of above Magellan's in some way, that he was the Cassa's
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man on the voyage and thus his authority was in some senses above Magellan's. So, and he's already
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been demoted. So he's extremely unhappy. And the other one to mention is Elcano, Juan Sebastian Elcano.
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So just to cut to the end, I think you already know this. He is the one, one of the main men that
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survives. When that one ship turns up back in Seville three years later, with only about 18
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men aboard, he's the most senior person. He's basically the captain. It's Elcano. You know,
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some people call it the Magellan Elcano expedition. So he's an important character who will crop up in
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the story from time to time. Anyway, at this stage, he's part of the mutiny. Okay, the story goes on.
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Under cover of darkness, they boarded San Antonio and rushed to the captain's cabin,
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entering with a flourish of steel, rousting the hapless Mosquita out of his bunk, who's loyal to
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Magellan. This had once been Cartagena's ship, and in his mind, it still was. Mosquita offered little
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resistance as the party of mutineers clapped him into irons and led him to the cabin of Geronimo
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Guerrera, where he was placed under guard. By this time, word of the uprising had spread throughout the
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ship and the crew sprang to life. Juan de Eloriega, the ship's master and a Basque, valiantly tried to
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dismiss Casada from San Antonio before any blood was shed, but Casada refused to stand down,
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whereupon Eloriega returned to his bosun, Diego Hernandez, to order the crew to constrain Casada
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and quash the mutiny. We cannot be foiled in our work by this fall, Casada shouted, knowing that
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there could be no turning back, and he ran Eloriega through with a dagger again and again, four times in
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all, until Eloriega, bleeding profusely, collapsed. Casada assumed Eloriega was dead,
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but the loyal master was still alive, though perhaps he would have been better off if he
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had died on the spot. Instead, he lingered for three and a half months until he finally died from the
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wounds he received that night at Casada's hands. As the two struggled, Casada's guard took Hernandez
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hostage, and suddenly the ship was without officers. The bewildered crew, without anyone to give them
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orders and fearing for their lives, gave up their arms to the mutineers. Remember, these mutineers have
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got 30 armed men with them, so a ship not prepared for something like that. Yeah, they're outgunned.
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One of their number, Antonio de Cocca, the fleet's accountant, actually joined the insurgents,
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who stored the confiscated weapons in his cabin. The first phase of the mutiny had gone off as planned.
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Pigafetta, normally a thorough chronicler of the voyage, offers little guidance to the mutiny.
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In this case, he was close, too close, to Magellan to be helpful. As a Magellan loyalist, he resisted
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the temptation to hear or repeat any ill concerning his beloved captain. He eloquently presented the
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Magellanic myth of the Great and Wise Explorer, but at the same time, he turned a blind eye to the
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scandals and mutinies surrounding Magellan throughout the voyage. In his one cursory mention of the drama
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at Port St. Julian, Pigafetta even confuses the names of the principal actors, the chronicler who
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could be extremely precise when he wished. He likely got around to mentioning the mutiny only after the
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voyage, when he felt safe enough to discuss the bloody deeds happening all around him.
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The mutineers, in control of San Antonio, swiftly converted her into a battleship. Elcano, the Basque
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mariner, took command and immediately ordered the imprisonment of two Portuguese who appeared loyal to
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Magellan, Antonio Fernandez and Goncalo Rodriguez, as well as a Castilian, Diego Diaz. Casada's servant
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raided the ship's doors, filling their hungry bellies with bread and wine. Remember, they'd been on short
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rations, so they're quite literally hungry. Anything that they could lay their hands on, and they
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endeared themselves to their followers by allowing them to partake of the forbidden food. Father
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Valderrama, preoccupied with administering last riots to El Oriega, watched all and vowed to report the
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evil deeds to Magellan if he ever got the chance. Meanwhile, Elcano ordered firearms to be prepared,
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the aquabuses and crossbows, powerful state-of-the-art weapons, were broken out. Anyone attempting to
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approach the renegade ship would face a barrage of lethal arrows and muzzles belching fire. Within
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hours, the mutiny spread like a contagion to two other ships. Victoria, whose captain, Luis de Mendoza,
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had resented Magellan from the day they left San Luca de Barrameda, i.e. Spain, i.e. from the beginning.
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They'd hated Magellan from the beginning. And the Concepción. It was only a matter of time until
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Cartagena, Quesada, and the supporters came after Magellan himself. Only Santiago, under the command
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of Juan Serrano, a Castilian, remained neutral. Quesada, for the moment, decided to leave Santiago
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alone. It was a decision that would later haunt the mutineers. So already, within a few hours,
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it seems, that the entire armada is completely split, or if anything, slightly more of them have
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joined this mutiny, whether against their will or not. Like, three of the five ships are against
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Magellan, and one is, we're told, neutral. So not even completely on Magellan's side. And the
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mutineers are arming themselves. They are getting ready to attack Trinidad, take it by force, by main
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force, and, you know, kill Magellan if they can. It's, yeah, it's full, full bore, Bergring continues.
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The sun rose over Port St. Julian on the 2nd of April to reveal a scene of deceptive calm. The
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five ships of the Armada de Moluca rode quietly at anchor, their crew members sleeping off the
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previous night's excesses. So we've had a whole bunch of wine. For the moment, the Captain General
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remained secure in his stronghold, Trinidad. As a test of loyalty, he dispatched a longboat to San
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Antonio, where Quesada and Elcano held sway, to bring soldiers ashore to fetch fresh water. As
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Trinidad's longboat approached, the mutineers waved the sailors away and declared that San
00:22:06.040
Antonio was no longer under the command of Mosquita or Magellan. She now belonged to the
00:22:10.900
mutineer, Gaspar Quesada. When the longboat brought this disturbing news back to Magellan,
00:22:16.160
he realized he faced a grave problem. But he remained oblivious to the full extent of the
00:22:20.180
mutiny. He believed he had to contend with only one rebellious ship, not three, until he sent the
00:22:25.760
longboat to pole the other ships and determine their loyalty. From his stronghold aboard San Antonio,
00:22:30.980
Quesada replied, for the king and for myself. And Victoria and Concepcion followed suit.
00:22:36.960
So a mutiny can't get much more serious than this. It really is life and death for both parties,
00:22:43.220
both factions. To make his point, Quesada audaciously sent a list of demands by longboat
00:22:48.180
to the flagship. Quesada believed, with good reason, that he had Magellan boxed in and he tried
00:22:53.500
to force the Captain General to yield to the mutineers. In writing, Quesada declared that he was now in
00:22:58.900
charge of the fleet, and he intended to end the harsh treatment Magellan had inflicted on the officers
00:23:04.200
and crew. He would feed them better, he would not endanger their lives needlessly, and he would
00:23:09.040
return to Spain. If Magellan acceded to these demands, said Quesada, the mutineers would yield
00:23:14.260
control of the armada to him. To Magellan, these demands were outrageous. To comply meant ignominy in
00:23:20.340
Spain, disgrace in Portugal, years in a prison cell, and even death. Under these circumstances,
00:23:25.900
he might have been expected to launch a full-scale attack on San Antonio, but for once, Magellan
00:23:30.940
restrained his need to assert his authority, because everything's so in the balance. You know,
00:23:36.200
usually Magellan's the type that would sort of go berserk at that and just start firing cannons
00:23:40.900
and stuff, but he realises that he's in a, he is a bit boxed, he is boxed in, right? It's three ships
00:23:46.520
against one. They've got more men, and even though Trinidad is the biggest ship, most powerful, still,
00:23:51.280
three against one, he would probably lose if it came to an all-out, you know, naval engagement,
00:23:57.100
essentially. He would probably lose, so he can't do that, or he feels he can't do that. He sent back
00:24:02.360
word that he would be pleased to hear them out, aboard the flagship, of course. The mutineers were
00:24:07.040
hesitant to leave their base. Who knew what awaited them aboard Trinidad? They replied that they would
00:24:11.980
meet him only aboard San Antonio. To their astonishment, Magellan agreed. Having lulled Quesada and his
00:24:17.940
followers into a sense of full security, Magellan quietly went on the offensive. By any objective
00:24:23.300
measure, he operated at an enormous disadvantage. The mutineers controlled three out of the fleet's
00:24:28.820
five ships and most of the captains and the crews. They had popular sentiment on their side and weapons
00:24:34.060
to back up their demands. In his diminished position, Magellan did not attempt to meet force
00:24:38.740
with force. Instead, he sought to dismantle their revolt piece by piece without placing himself in
00:24:43.920
more peril than he already was. He began his attempt to recover his fleet by claiming the
00:24:48.560
longboat carrying Quesada's communique. With this equipment in hand, he turned his attention to
00:24:53.760
recapturing at least one ship and then he would go after the others. He decided not to attempt to
00:24:59.080
reclaim San Antonio, where the mutineers were deeply entrenched, but Victoria, where support for
00:25:04.500
the rebels might be softer and where he would be most likely to summon support. Victoria became the
00:25:09.620
key to the whole plan. And to get her back, he resorted to a ruse. He filled the captured longboat
00:25:14.900
with five carefully selected sailors and instructed them to appear sympathetic to the mutineers,
00:25:20.480
at least at a distance. But beneath their loose clothing, they carried weapons, which they intended
00:25:25.300
to use. Their ranks included Gonzalo Gomez de Espinoza, the captain at arms. So, you know, a badass,
00:25:32.400
a man whose whole job it was to be like a policeman or a marine, right, an actual soldier. His job is to
00:25:40.180
be an enforcer or a killer, even. So, Espinoza was with them, the master at arms, which automatically
00:25:45.540
lent authority to their mission. Magellan gave the men a letter addressed to Louis de Mendoza,
00:25:51.100
Victoria's captain, ordering him to surrender immediately aboard the flagship. If Mendoza resisted,
00:25:56.480
they were to kill him. As soon as the longboat moved out of sight to begin its mission,
00:26:00.180
the captain general sent a second skiff into the water, filled with fifteen loyal members of the
00:26:05.080
flagship's crew, under the command of Durante Barbosa, Magellan's brother-in-law. So, a total
00:26:11.040
loyalist. When the first longboat pulled up to Victoria, Mendoza allowed the party to board his
00:26:16.040
ship. De Maffra, the best eyewitness to the unfolding mutiny, relates. Mendoza, a daring man when
00:26:21.480
it came to the evil deeds, but too rash to take advice, told them to come aboard and give him the
00:26:26.720
letter, which he set about reading in a careless manner, and not as befits a man involved in such
00:26:32.380
a serious business. According to other witnesses, Mendoza responded to the letter with mockery and
00:26:37.840
laughter, crumpled the orders into a ball, and carelessly tossed it overboard. At that, Espinoza,
00:26:43.560
the military officer, grabbed Mendoza by the beard, violently shook his head, and plunged a dagger into
00:26:49.140
his throat, as another soldier stabbed him in the head. Spurting blood, Victoria's captain slumped to
00:26:54.580
the deck, lifeless. So they just, they just murdered him right there and then. With Mendoza dead, Magellan
00:26:59.800
held the advantage in the life and death contest. No sooner had the captain breathed his last, than the
00:27:05.340
second longboat rode into position beside Victoria, discharging its complement of loyalists, who stormed the
00:27:11.340
ship. Still, only fifteen men, but, you know, the element of surprise. And perhaps the crew were, you know,
00:27:17.140
their hearts might not have been in the mutiny in the first place. So, there you have it. As Magellan
00:27:21.760
had calculated, his guard met with little or no opposition. Stunned by the death of their captain,
00:27:27.480
the crew meekly submitted to Magellan's men. As if the sight of the dead officer was not insult
00:27:31.780
enough to the other Castilians, Magellan later paid off Espinoza and his henchmen for this bloody deed,
00:27:38.160
in plain view of everyone. For this action, the captain general gave twelve ducats to Espinoza,
00:27:42.880
were called Sebastian Elcano, one of the mutineers. And to the other six, ducats each for Mendoza's
00:27:48.540
and Corsada's savings. Was this the price of their lives? The Castilians asked themselves,
00:27:53.540
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