The Longest Voyage: The Return

Pilot charts (derroteros) are documents that gather the observations of boat pilots with all the useful navigational elements of the routes they followed: dominant winds, currents, descriptions of the coasts and ports, locations of sandbanks and reefs, etc. This one is attributed to Francisco Albo, the last pilot of the Victoria.

South American historiography experienced a boom in the 16th and 17th centuries, driven by printing as a means of transmitting knowledge against the humanistic backdrop of the Renaissance. The desire to tell the story of the new geographical discoveries was overwhelming, the appearance of wide-reaching economic possibilities alongside the existence of a whole universe of new mindsets reflected by the native inhabitants of America. Against this backdrop, the spaniard Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo wrote his extensive History of the Indies (Historia de las Indias).

Between 1596 and 1615, Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas researched and wrote one of his most interesting works, General History of the Deeds of the Castilians on the Islands and Mainland of the Ocean Sea (La Historia General de los Hechos Castellanos en las Islas i Tierra Firme del Mar Océano), as chief chronicler of the Americas and on behalf of the Council of the Indies.

Herrera, who had great knowledge of the existing documentation relating to the affairs of the Indies, brought together an exhaustive volume of information and drafted his work based on primary document sources, on the testimonies made, and on previous chroniclers.

In this letter, written on his arrival in Sanlucar with the other 17 survivors, Juan Sebastián Elcano gives an account of the hardships suffered and milestones achieved during the expedition to the Spice Islands, above all, the achievement of circumnavigating the globe and returning via the African route.


“Your majesty will know that what we most esteem is what we have discovered, and that we traveled around the world, going from the west and coming from the east.”

The arrival of the Victoria at Sanlúcar de Barrameda, on 6th September 1522, was huge news, but with it came the need for some costly activities. It was not only necessary to arrange for the valuable cargo of spices in the hull of the boat to be unloaded but the depleted crew also needed urgent help, arriving as they did in an extreme state of exhaustion and malnutrition.

Although the other four boats were lost, the voyage had still been worthwhile from an economic point of view, which was surprising given the high human cost of the first circumnavigation. This manuscript lists chronologically 103 individuals who died a violent or natural death, deserted, or did not return for other reasons.

Christopher de Haro invested in Magellan's fleet, motivated not just by the potential returns but mostly —according to him—, by the advantageous conditions from which he would benefit in the future by trading with the Spice Islands. In 1529 Emperor Charles V received 350,000 ducats from John III of Portugal, by virtue of the Treaty of Zaragoza, to secure rights over the Molucca Islands, frustrating Haro's ambitions and he complained by legal means, of the damage inflicted by such a geopolitical change.

Gómez de Espinosa, described the terrible suffering of his men as they tried to reach Panama via the North Pacific with eloquent brevity. For five months they “ploughed the sea”: struggling against unfavorable winds, storms, hunger and illness. Despite reaching 42 or 43 degrees north, they were unable to find the Kuroshio Current and the westerly winds that would have taken them to America.

So they decided to return to Tidore. They were unaware that, in the meantime, their enemies the Portuguese had arrived on the neighboring island of Ternate where they had built a fort. At the port of Benaconora, the Portuguese boarded the boat, capturing the 21 survivors on board the Trinidad,holding them captive for a long time. Only five would manage to return to Europe. On their return to Spain, the authorities took statements from them to find out all the details of their adventure.