What will readers find in this book about Magellan’s voyage that they might not find elsewhere?
It seems to me that the real story of this expedition has never been fully told until now. Interweaving a variety of candid, first-person accounts (some of them specially translated for this book), I take readers into the ships beside Magellan and his crew as they explore, navigate, mutiny, suffer, and die during this epic journey. We meet his loyal young aide Antonio Pigafetta, whose shockingly graphic and candid diary serves as our best record of the voyage. Pigafetta’s detailed descriptions of the sexual behavior of the crew and of the
exotic sexual customs among the tribes they visited are vivid, X-rated, and, until recently, they have been censored. And we get to know the wily Juan Sebastián Elcano, who, at the journey’s end, claimed all the honors that should have gone to Magellan. Through the eyes of these and other participants, readers see the exotic lands and feel the conflicting passions that drove these men as they explored the entire world for the first time. These first-person accounts humanize the ancient mariners and turn them into recognizable people driven by greed, passion, and even, at times, a sense of honor. As I write in this book, this was not only an expedition to the ends of the earth; it was also a voyage into the darkest recesses of the human soul.
Can you tell us more about your visit to the Strait of Magellan?
In January 2002, as part of the research for this book, I retraced the highlight of Magellan’s voyage, his first-ever navigation of the strait that bears his name. The Strait of Magellan, in Patagonia, not far from Antarctica, passes through some of the wildest and most picturesque landscapes on the planet. Glaciers, seals, and penguins mingle with lush green plains and gloomy swamps. Mountains loom over the twists and turns of the strait, and williwaws—sudden, violent storms—emerge from nowhere with destructive force and subside as quickly as they came. In the course of retracing Magellan’s route, I could only marvel at how he and his crew managed to thread their way through 320 miles of nautical hell—false channels, dead ends, shallows, and unpredictable weather.
This voyage took place five centuries ago. What sources did you use?
As it turned out there was a tremendous amount, and one could re-create the voyage from them on a nearly day-by-day basis. I relied especially on royal documents, sailors’ diaries, and contemporaneous accounts. They often tell a tragic story of mutinies, cruelty, and shipwrecks. Keep in mind that 260 men set out from Seville in five ships, yet only one ship bearing eighteen men returned to that city after circling the globe, and demonstrating for once and all that it was round. But it was also a voyage of heroism, courage, and an extraordinary battle against the elements to survive. Magellan’s voyage, the first circumnavigation of the globe, is considered the greatest ocean voyage in history. 
Author Biography
LAURENCE BERGREEN is a prize-winning biographer and journalist. His previous books include Voyage to Mars: NASA’s Search for Life Beyond Earth, a narrative of NASA’s exploration of Mars and the search for extraterrestrial life, published in November 2000 by Penguin Putnam; it is also available on tape from HighBridge Audio. In 1997, Bantam Doubleday Dell published Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life, a comprehensive biography drawing on unpublished manuscripts and exclusive interviews with Armstrong’s colleagues and friends. It appeared on many Best Books of 1997 lists, including those of the San Francisco Chronicle, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and Publishers Weekly, and has been published in Germany, Finland, and Great Britain. In 1994, Simon & Schuster published his Capone: The Man and the Era. A Book-of-the-Month Club selection, it has been published in numerous foreign languages and was optioned by Miramax and was a New York Times Notable Book.
His groundbreaking biography, As Thousands Cheer: The Life of Irving Berlin, appeared in 1990. This book won the Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Award and the ASCAP–Deems Taylor Award; it was also a New York Times Notable Book for 1990. His previous biography, James Agee: A Life, was also critically acclaimed and was a New York Times Notable Book for 1984. His first book was Look Now, Pay Later: The Rise of Network Broadcasting. He has written for many national publications, including Esquire, Newsweek, TV Guide, Details, Prologue, and Military History Quarterly. He has taught at the New School for Social Research and served as assistant to the president of the Museum of Television and Radio in New York. In 1995, he served as a nonfiction judge for the National Book Award and in 1991 as a judge for the PEN/Albrand Nonfiction Award. He also serves as a featured historian for the History Channel.
Mr. Bergreen graduated from Harvard University in 1972. He is a member of PEN American Center, the Explorers Club, and the Authors Guild. He lives in New York.
For more information, visit the author on the web at www.LaurenceBergreen.com.
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About the Book Another Account of Magellan’s Death
Among the most interesting counterpoints to Antonio Pigafetta’s official record of Magellan’s circumnavigation was this “Relation” or account of the voyage dictated by Ginés de Mafra, an experienced seaman and pilot who set out from Seville aboard Trinidad, the flagship. Whereas Pigafetta, inexperienced in nautical matters, left a multifaceted record tending to exalt Magellan’s deeds, de Mafra, reminiscing after the fact, delivers opinions worthy of a skeptical old salt, often second-guessing the Captain General in critical matters.
This excerpt tells of Magellan’s violent death in the Philippines from a far less sentimental perspective than Pigafetta’s famous account. It has been translated specially for this book by Victor Úbeda and is taken from the original manuscript in the National Library of Madrid, and from Descripción de los reinos, costas, puertos e islas que hay desde el Cabo de Buena Esperanza hasta los Leyquios, por Fernando de Magallanes; Libro que trata del descubrimiento y principio del Estrecho que se llama de Magallanes, por Ginés de Mafra; y Descripción de parte del Japón, edited by Antonio Blázquez and Delgado Aguilera (Madrid: Publicaciones de la Real Sociedad Geográfica, 1920).
NEAR THIS ISLAND OF CEBU there lies a smaller one to the north, named Mactan, in which there was at that time an arrogant chief. He had been called for by Magellan, who felt insulted and publicly said that he must avenge that offence, even though the chief of Cebu kept telling him that he need not grieve about it because that rebel would eventually calm down, and he would personally see to it as he was married to his sister. Magellan, it was said, had been promised as his reward perpetual possession of some islands, among which, it can be conjectured, he wanted to win Cebu, for he had said so on many occasions, and that he wished to rule over many subjects. So for this reason, he determined to go to Mactan. The lord of Cebu, upon learning his decision, told him that, since such was his will, he would help him with his people, but he loved Magellan as his friend more than he loved the other as his relative.
Magellan, who must have been more spirited than is advisable, thanked him for his willingness and his offer and refused his help, saying that he wanted him to see how the Spanish lions fought; and in this he certainly was wrong, for a man who carried on his shoulders so momentous a business had no need to test his strength, because from victory he would benefit little; and from the opposite, his armada, which was much more important, would be set at risk.